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Half-Life: Alyx

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Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#141

Post by pmichaud »

cmcd wrote: post #110
Nexxxeh wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Workshop was huge, albeit late, addition for the community, even without a map editor. But even Blizz couldn't reliably make maps using their internal tools that kept Reaper where he was supposed to be.

Was definitely a step in the right direction, they like to say their map making tools are too complex to release which is almost offensive. If employees can learn them then surely dedicated community members can figure out enough to get by. Community maps are never expected to be perfect and if one was ever picked up for the official rotation they could clean it up as needed.

I only do hobby gamedev, so I don't know what I'm talking about, but when I think of a tool that's "too complex" to release, I imagine not just a conceptually difficult thing, but a dangerous thing. For example, the editor lets you shoot yourself in the foot with a bunch of a esoteric considerations that don't really make sense, but the internal people know how to work around them more or less, like making sure that there's a dummy Bar for every Foo on the map, and that they are named in some crazy way, and that the name doesn't contain the "%" symbol, and you have to do that all manually and if you don't the host computer hard locks. Internally they solve this by hard-won intution about how to use the tool, plus a huge and thorough testing scheme.

I think that's the key -- if the tool allows you to harm the user's computer in some way, then it's not a tool you can really release without polishing a lot more, to prevent the failure modes. And it's particularly bad if it's hard not to mess up.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#143

Post by fhood »

jimmaswell wrote: post #107
fhood wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

400 for an oculus, plus around 1000 for a competent pc? You could probably do less for the PC but at that point you are making compromises that I wouldn't personally make.

If you're going for something like the Rift S which is 2560×1440@80Hz you'd probably want to go up some from that to not compromise on the graphics. The lower resolutions on the other headsets would be less demanding.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/HpDVcq

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#144

Post by dvtrn »

catalogia wrote: post #101
vorpalhex wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can. And if you're the victim of violence, that may be desirable. Likewise, if you have a fear of spiders bad enough that it interferes with your quality of life, you likely want to be desensitized to spiders.

I wonder how far that could go. If you had people play as spiders could you get people to actually sympathize with spiders?

If it were part of a designed and controlled therapeutic program maybe.

But a regular and 'by design' aspect of a game, presumably online?

Dunno if I, as an arachnophobe who plays plenty of games online-trust griefers not to ....well grief with that kind of power, heh.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#145

Post by grawprog »

cmcd wrote: post #40
rocky1138 wrote: post #13

A criminally overlooked feature of this game is the release of the dev tools used to make maps and mods. Giving the tools away for such a powerful base game is what gave HL1 and HL2 it's incredible staying power.

I remember everyone saying Blizzard would release map making tools for Overwatch like they did for Starcraft and Valve did for TF2/CSGO. Seems like a great way to add longevity to the game and the community content can even help fund the game.

The StarCraft map making tools were probably my first experience using triggers and and events to make things happen. It was such a cool feeling to be able to make things happen and just mess around with everything. It helped get me into stuff like rpgmaker and flash and learning how to program in general. I miss the days of modding tools. The neverwinter nights one was also pretty amazing. I spent a lot of time playing around with that one too.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#146

Post by jessaustin »

Sebguer wrote: post #66
whatshisface wrote: post #51

This game is a lot more cartoony and blue/orange than Half-Life 2, which had a very distinctive low-saturation photorealistic style. However, it's less cartoony than half-life 1. It's fitting that a game set between them chronologically would mix their art styles.

The requirements to double-render also force a cartoony style in a game at this scale.

Can the double-render be turned off for better performance? I only have one eye... b^)

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#147

Post by sleepybrett »

moksly wrote: post #39
neals wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They'd block 20% of your view and you would block the part where you would want 'put' your hand ( like a button to press) and since there is no tactile response, it would be impossile to do so. Also, the IK-system would not be able to mimic the exact movement of your own arms, making them feel foreign and weird.

Why are your hands displayed as hands if you’re holding “game-pads”? Or are there actual gloves?

The controllers used for this video are probably the index 'knuckles' controllers that have some finger tracking ability. Therefore good replicas of your hand can be generated given the data passed about the location and rotation of the controller and the general position of each finger. Arms are quite a bit harder as the shoulder joint and wrist joint are both muliaxis (while the elbow is fairly fixed). While the location of the shoulder can be inferred based on the location of the visor and the relative location of the controller the full IK chain can solve a number of ways (With your hands on the keyboard notice that you can change the position of your elbow without much effecting your hand or shoulder position.) because of this an improper solve can throw off immersion, better and easier just to have 'phantom hands'.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#148

Post by neals »

duncancarroll wrote: post #85
neals wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They'd block 20% of your view and you would block the part where you would want 'put' your hand ( like a button to press) and since there is no tactile response, it would be impossile to do so. Also, the IK-system would not be able to mimic the exact movement of your own arms, making them feel foreign and weird.

It's probably just that they would get in the way. IK works brilliantly in VR for arm simulation, see: Echo VR.

Yes, it does work great in general, not just in VR. It just that IK can't know if you have your elbow to the left or right, which would be confusing.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#149

Post by fhood »

thatguyagain wrote: post #131
s9w wrote: post #109

As much as a Half-Life fan I am, VR is a gimmick. It's expensive and will not be a "thing" in the foreseeable future. This is such a wasted opportunity. A normal Half-Life 3 would have brought back a lot of goodwill for Valve.

Nope. It is not a gimmick and will definitely be a "thing" in the foreseeable future. So we have different ideas of the foreseeable future, interesting.

Nobody is going to play games that make them sick. Ever. It will not happen. This is not a solved problem, and VR will never be anything but a niche technology until you can walk in a video game without needing to throw up.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#150

Post by outworlder »

I just want to know one thing: what happened to Half-Life 2 Episode III ? As it is, I'll wait for people to play this and tell me if it ends in a cliffhanger too.
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