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Half-Life: Alyx

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Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#151

Post by dntrkv »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #138

On Tuesday I said: >Due to some of the technical limitations with people (motion sickness does not make a popular game) I don't think this is not going to be an open spaces and free-movement heavy game like HL2. Not having some really good expansive panorama scenes would be a disservice to the VR tech but don't expect to be able to drive a go-kart around in them. I'm expecting a lot of semi stationary scenes where th…

https://half-life.com/en/alyx/vr

This is interesting to me, though I haven't played many VR games. Is this common with other games?

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#153

Post by cmcd »

pmichaud wrote: post #141
cmcd wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I would be very surprised to hear Blizzard has an internal tool with issues of that magnitude.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#154

Post by fhood »

yboris wrote: post #69
davnicwil wrote: post #59

Assuming I'm starting from scratch, what's the minimum cost these days to get the hardware that'll play this?

I'd say $400 for a great VR set (including hand controllers), and under $600 if you build a PC from scratch. Cheaper if you reuse some parts, cheaper if you buy any parts used. My 3-year old video card (bought for $300 then) is still kicking butt in any VR title I throw at it.

Under 600 is not going to get you a pc that will work 2 years from now. If you have extreme budget concerns sure, but VR is a luxury item so if you are willing to shell out for the equipment, spend a little more to build a PC that will last.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#155

Post by outworlder »

fhood wrote: post #80
AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not pleased that Valve has shifted its focus from developing great games to being a digital platform rent-extractor I actually kinda am. Because they created a really great platform that has helped the market thrive even for tiny nobody indie devs. They've set a seriously high bar for digital store fronts and distribution services. I think I've got a lot more enjoyment from the games Steam has enabled to exist…

> They've set a seriously high bar for digital store fronts I agree with your general point, but no. No they have not. The Steam client is terrible. Unresponsive, un-intuitive, and surprisingly bad for searching in as well.

> The Steam client is terrible. Unresponsive, un-intuitive, and surprisingly bad for searching in as well.

I can only agree with the last one. It works fine for, you know, downloading and playing games. It rarely ever has issues.

The store could use some work, but it does a better job than, say, Apple App Store – the discovery queue has shown me titles I would have never seen before, as did the curators.

Have you tried the competition?

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#156

Post by jonas21 »

s9w wrote: post #133
outworlder wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not a gimmick. It seems that you have not yet tried it. There are a few improvements required, such as resolution and the freedom of movement. Note that I did not mention price. It will come down – even more, that is. Also, they need Half Life 2 Episode III. The series ended in a cliffhanger.

No one tried it because it's expensive AF. And you need space. And there are so many of them. And the storefronts don't match. And there are no games. And you sweat. And they're heavy. And you need a monster PC. And it doesn't work. And and and. It's a gimmick. Alyx is a $2000 game for a normal gamer, counting an index and a sizeable PC upgrade.

Those are all engineering and logistical challenges, and there's no reason to believe that they won't be overcome eventually.

A gimmick is something that, even in its best form, is not compelling in the long run. VR sounds like the opposite - it's not compelling to that many people yet because it has known issues, but fix those issues, and it would be.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#157

Post by capableweb »

ninkendo wrote: post #100
strangecasts wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "compatible VR" page lists multiple options for movement: https://www.half-life.com/en/alyx/vr

I wonder how good an FPS game can really be with teleportation-based movement. (Edit for clarity: “Because, for each of the non-teleportation motion schemes...”:) Any VR game I've played where the camera moves while I'm standing still, I want to vomit almost immediately. I'm usually sick for the rest of the day. (I think it was a roller coaster simulation I tried, I didn't even make it up the first hill, I had to thr…

"where the camera moves while I'm standing still" and "was a roller coaster simulation I tried" doesn't even match. Of course you're gonna be sitting still while the camera moves in 3d space in the game if you're playing roller coaster. Seems the motion sickness was from something else in the VR than the teleportation-based movement, as a roller coaster would probably not have that.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#158

Post by bluthru »

aresant wrote: post #54

I think a fascinating part of Alyx is Valve choosing a female protagonist. 85%+ of VR users are male, compared to say 70/30 male/female balance of say Fornite. (1/2) Any way you carve it the audience for Alyx is going to weight heavily male. And research suggests that gender-swapping in VR is a profound psychological experience: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8260949 (1) https://www.rakutenintelligence.com/blog…

Gordon was famously mute and his hands and forearms were hidden. This allowed anyone to easily immerse themselves. (Same for Portal.)

Unlike a third person game where you're controlling a character, I could see how having a different voice and hands in VR would be odd. I bet Valve realized that a mute protagonist no longer works in a story-driven environment.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#159

Post by mikl »

Hope they’ll make a non-VR version at some point. Much as I enjoyed previous Half-Life games, I don’t want to buy a VR-rig. They’re obviously hoping that a Half-Life game will be enough to get gamers to adopt VR, but I don’t see a lot of people willing to remodel their living room to make space for a VR setup, at least over here in Europe, where people have fairly small homes in comparison to the U.S.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#160

Post by s9w »

penagwin wrote: post #111
s9w wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a valve flagship game. It's made for the index, which is a $1000 piece of hardware

Yes but it doesn't require the index, it can use any steam vr compatible headset.

That was not the goalpost here. The goalpost was that a "great" VR hardware costs $400, which is not true. Same for a $600 PC for high-end VR and as a bonus: the claim that a 3yo GPU is "kicking butt". All of these are false
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