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Half-Life: Alyx

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Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#431

Post by e12e »

Jarwain wrote: post #363
e12e wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha, yes, pretty much. Although I found for trading/freight play (ie: not pvp combat) the dynamic hud (hud/menus light up based on where you look) worked very well with a gamepad. Retracting gear becomes: look down to the right, select option from menu. Etc.

It's been a dream of mine to play Elite Dangerous with a VR head set, a HOTAS, and voice commands set up

HOTAS really adds to the immersion, as the game animates controller actions like throttle change - so even though you see your rendered avatar, the "hands" match your own.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#432

Post by martin1b »

hyko wrote: post #152

Why does this need to be VR?

Valve's games generally push the envelope WHEN they write games. They don't do what a lot of game developers do, which is, make games, improve gfx, rinse and repeat. Valve likes to walk in the room with something ground breaking and will knock your socks off. VR is the next logical step and it needed a nudge. I think Alyx is that nudge.

Although I won't be able to buy it for a while due to hardware expenses, I really applaud them in going the VR route. Personally wouldn't have done a prequel. This would have been a perfect HL3 fit. I'd love to hear why they chose a prequel to HL3. Buuuut, what's done is done and I'm sure they did a great job.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#433

Post by thanatos_dem »

jorams wrote: post #417
thanatos_dem wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not new tho, Chelle in portal was a female protagonist, and that game has been VR’d to hell and back. I think Alyx makes sense as a protagonist given how prominent of a character she was in HL2, regardless of gender.

> that game has been VR’d to hell and back. What do you mean by this? As far as I can see there is no actual VR port of Portal. You can play it through something like VorpX, which gets you 3D display through a headset, but that can hardly be called "VR'd to hell and back".

Yeah, maybe “to hell and back” was strong, but it was used as the setting for “The Lab”, one of Valve’s first VR demos, and there’s a mod called “Portal Stories VR” which is one of the most developed and popular VR mods currently.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#434

Post by leetcrew »

on_and_off wrote: post #410
leetcrew wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

to be fair, I haven't actually played the game in a while, but I think you are reading a lot into alyx that isn't really there. I don't remember having the impression that alyx was in love with Gordon or really picking up on any sexual tension at all.

It must have been a while :-) , because it was there. one quote I do remember is her dad telling Gordon and Alyx to start working on giving him grandchildren now that the neuteuring field is off. here are 2 articles with more details on Alyx in case you are curious. https://electriccartilage.wordpress.com/2014/08/21/alyx-vanc... https://onemorecontinue.com/alyx-vance-half-life-2/ (tbh I only skimmed them right now ..…

I read the first article you linked. I guess I was really oblivious as a teenager; I just thought of alyx as a more convincing friend than most video game sidekicks. as an aside, I don't think all the screenshots with 3rd party alyx models were necessary to make the point.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#435

Post by bloody-crow »

Ajedi32 wrote: post #346
bloody-crow wrote: post #333

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 do…

Have you tried it? You absolutely can do all those things you just described in VR. I understand why you might think it wouldn't feel realistic, because yes, the technology for realistic full-body tactile feedback isn't there yet. But I can assure you from personal experience; audio/visual feedback is more than enough to immerse you in the game even when the haptics don't precisely match what you'd feel doing the sam…

> You absolutely can do all those things you just described in VR

I haven't seen a single VR game that allows you to do things a typical competitive FPS shooter character does or games like Dark Souls/Sekiro.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#436

Post by bloody-crow »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #391
erikbye wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So... have you tried VR?

Of course they haven't. The people that are the most vocal against VR, calling it a gimmick and all, typically haven't tried it, or they're just simply not interested in video games to begin with. That's not to say that there are gamers that have tried VR and were unimpressed, but they're exceptionally rare.

True, I haven't tried it, but not because I'm against it. I haven't tried it because I haven't seen a single VR title that'd look even remotely interesting and worth spending time on for me.

> they're just simply not interested in video games to begin with

This is blatantly untrue. I'm admittedly too interested in video games for my own good. I used to play competitively in my teens and spend too much time playing now in my 30s.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#437

Post by viklove »

koonsolo wrote: post #335
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.

There are plenty of games with female protagonists though, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Mirror's Edge, Portal, Last of Us 2 (just to name a few).

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#438

Post by taurath »

erk__ wrote: post #418
taurath wrote: post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was made by the third (3rd) maintainer of Dota Allstars, the warcraft 3 mod. Eul was first, Guinsoo was #2. It had quite a large community attached. Valve hired Icefrog. Icefrog did not invent MOST of the characters, IP, nor mechanics, nor design the map. He DID balance a lot of the characters and interactions. I was an admin for Team Dota Allstars at the time and helped run the semiprivate leagues on battlenet an…

Both Eul and Icefrog assigned their copyright of to valve while getting employed at them, Guinsoo assinged them to Riot who then transferred the rights to Blizzard. And as far as I know Valve have only only done any kind of claim jointly with Blizzard as they are not the sole owners of the copyright. They are though owner of the Dota 2 trademark. Also a nitpick there have been more maintainers than those three they w…

I didn't know Eul was involved with Valve, interesting.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#439

Post by stubish »

stubish wrote: post #398
mmanfrin wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you underestimate how popular Half-Life was. The #1 game played on steam right now is a former HL mod, Counter Strike. I don't think the market for HL is small at all. VR, though, is a different story. That absolutely limits the market. That being said, I'd wager that a majority of people who play VR games on PC will likely buy this game, as it's probably the first true AAA title developed specifically for VR…

There seem to be a couple of AAA titles developed specifically for VR. 'Westworld Awakening' and 'Terminator: Resistance' are big franchise names that probably count (AAA is a bit of a vague category). Personally, being the frugal sort, I'll wait until it is on special. By which time I'll have upgraded my headset to one I can wear for more than 30 mins without it becoming an irritation. I do wonder if the demographic…

(Whoops... not Terminator)

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#440

Post by wayoutthere »

MaximumMadness wrote: post #359
wayoutthere wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given the accuracy (or lack of it) of individual finger movements on the Valve Index controller, it's not going to be anything more than a gimmick. The tech looks impressive in a demo, but our hands are used to manipulating things with a much finer touch than the Index controller allows so it doesn't translate very well to games.

I can't help but disagree here. Hand movements and interactions with the world of VR today are like having cinderblocks for hands. The nuanced control that this is going give will be huge IMO

I agree that fine motor control would be awesome, but the Valve Index controllers do not measure finger movement with the degree of control that would keep it from frustrating the hell out of people.

The tracking is basically "finger open or closed" and even then it's not terribly accurate. It frequently won't pick up fingers next to each other correctly -- if I point at something with my index finger, it picks out the middle finger as extending as well (even if it didn't). The way they track the thumb movement in particular does not feel remotely natural; it feels like you have to press an awkwardly-placed "close thumb" button rather than just making a fist.

The Valve Index's finger tracking is a gimmick in its current implementation. I really don't think we'll be able to get accurate motor control without a glove.

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