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Half-Life: Alyx

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Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#331

Post by SimonPStevens »

ChicagoBoy11 wrote: post #300
SimonPStevens wrote: post #222

"Play on any SteamVR system. If you have VR hardware that works with a computer, then it works with SteamVR." Bravo Valve. This is why anyone interested in this should get a Vive and stay well clear of Oculus/Facebook's headsets. They are busy trying to capture the VR market by setting up exclusivity arrangements with studios to lock games to their platform to cut others out which just divides up the already small ma…

Although I suspect they have carefully made it so that the game has quite a few mechanics that would benefit greatly from the finger-tracking mechanics available only on the.... Valve Index. To be clear, your point is absolutely correct, but I'd be shellshocked if the experience isn't geared heavily to take the most advantage out of their own headset.

Yeah, sure. But I'm all in favour of that. I want to see systems compete on their comparative merits. That hopefully drives innovation. I just dislike the way Oculus are preferring to compete by locking up the market with exclusives. It only hurts gamers by reducing choice.

I thought Oculus touch did support finger tracking. Wikipedia describes it as a "system for detecting finger gestures which perhaps is different. I've only ever used a Vive, so I'm not sure.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#332

Post by on_and_off »

badloginagain wrote: post #15
on_and_off wrote: post #6

Call me salty but I am not sure I am super interested in half life 1.5 while half life 2 episode 2 has ended on a cliffhanger more than ten years ago. I am still curious to see how they will handle the character of Alyx, she was little more than an admiration delivery device in half life 2. They will have to do a lot more now that she is the center of the game.

> little more than an admiration delivery device Actually if anything she was the primary driver of the plot. Freeman, being a passive mute, follows what Alyx and co are doing for the majority of the plot(s).

What does she like ?

Why does she fall in love with the mute player character at first sight ? Don't she already have relationships ?

What exactly does she find attractive in that mute guy that appears and disappear ?

She is here to as a reward/carrot for teenage boys, not as a full fledged character with her own wants and needs :/

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#333

Post by bloody-crow »

I've never understood the appeal of the VR.

I play games that benefit from low reaction time and precision and my body is the main source of latency and mistakes. When I watch recordings of my own gameplay, I notice how my brain usually operates a few hundred milliseconds ahead of what my hands controlling mouse & keyboard are capable of executing. Throwing your untrained and sometimes unhealthy body into this mix doesn't seem like a beneficial strategy.

Also, characters in the games I play do things that are completely impossible for a regular human body to accomplish. They're running faster, jumping higher, aim and swing swords better than I or any real human even could. Why would you want your character to be a mirror of your real-world tired and untrained self?

They say that the biggest sell of VR is immersion. How can something be immersive when it has no capability to provide any kind of feedback besides audio/visual? You can't swing swords in VR cause it has no capability to communicate weight of the thing you're holding back to you. A light sword feels exactly the same as a huge two-handed sword because all you're actually carrying in a lightweight plastic controller. You can't punch a wall because there's nothing in reality to stop your hand from going through. You can't hide behind cover because the object you're trying to lean on doesn't exist in real life. You can't feel an impact of receiving a fatal blow or taking a rocket in your face, cause there's nothing to actually push you in real life.

I think VR is dumb and I haven't seen any games yet that would want me to spend money on it. I was a huge fan of HL back in the day, but I guess I'm going to skip this one.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#335

Post by koonsolo »

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…

From a business perspective it makes total sense. I saw a GDC talk where they laid out the statistics:

- Most men don't mind playing a female character (think Lara Croft).

- Most women prefer to play a female character.

So the real question is why there aren't more game studios using female protagonists.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#336

Post by nottorp »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #310
nottorp wrote: post #306

Have they solved motion sickness yet? I borrowed a playstation VR once but got nauseous after half an hour, no matter which game i tried. Are the newer things getting better?

Unfortunately there's a chance it's biological. No matter how high the FPS is or how responsive the screen is, if you're "walking" in VR, your body isn't walking in real life. That's what your brain is probably reacting to.

Yeah, sadly I think it's the body not walking for me. Guess I should try a wheelchair simulator :)

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#337

Post by acid__ »

OnlineGladiator wrote: post #202
skyyler wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

24 year old here. I played video games in my teens, including the HL series. I stopped playing video games roughly five years ago. I will be building a computer to play this game. Peers my age are also very excited for this. Not just because it's a new Half Life game, but because it's the VR game we have been waiting for since the VR craze started.

But how many people are going to spend $2000+ to play this? You're building a new gaming PC and possibly buying a new VR headset just for this game?

I'm also 24, and I can tell you I will absolutely be spending $1000 for the Valve VR headset (I've not previously owned VR) and any other PC upgrades to be able to play this game.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#339

Post by whatshisface »

bhhaskin wrote: post #134
whatshisface wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The graphics on the promo website are a lot higher resolution than Half-Life 2's graphics. HL2 was photorealistic not by having a high polygon count, but by having desaturated textures that approached the things you would find in a picture of a city. HL2 came out a long time ago.

HL2 wasn't photorealistic by any stretch of the word. Sure it looked great for the time, but go back and play it now.

HL2 wasn't photorealistic, it was made in a photorealistic style.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#340

Post by Ajedi32 »

neals wrote: post #148
duncancarroll wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Have you actually tried any of the many VR games which use IK, or is this just speculation? Because I have tried it, and it's not really confusing at all. True it's not perfect, but it's accurate enough that I'd say it's far less confusing than just not having arms at all.
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