Half Life 3 is here bois

[Rufus]

Some screens:
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2019/11/21/half-life-alyx-4k-screenshots/

[Don Rumata]

I get ton of motion sickness with FPS games, had to fight through it to beat Half Life 2 and its episodes, ironically.

Anyway, the trailer has me hyped as shit, i think it looks great.

[ZombieSupaStar]

I wonder how VR works if you get vertigo easily. Everything I’ve read is “seated with teleporting is ok, fast moving probably not”, I’m guessing valve would have a plethora of options since it’s the “flagship vr title”

Yup

Yeah I’m probably just gonna get an index eventually. But first I’m holding out until the new amd cpus and nvidia cards in 2020. I have a budget of $2500 for the pc alone (less is obv better, just wanted some wiggle room dpending on how much fuckery nvidia pulls). And man it’s gonna be hard waiting till next summer/fall watching everyone else enjoy their PC RDR2s, cyberpunk, and now this.

 

[Rufus]

I wonder how VR works if you get vertigo easily. Everything I’ve read is “seated with teleporting is ok, fast moving probably not”, I’m guessing valve would have a plethora of options since it’s the “flagship vr title”

Yup

Halfway down the page they show all the ways you can play.
https://half-life.com/en/alyx/vr

[Don Rumata]

God, some of the reactions to this are ... 

"VR needs a killer app!"
*announces AAA Half Life game*
"Why is this game VR?!"

[nachobro]

Ya I think it'll be Oculus for me. I'm into this but not $1000 into this, also I don't want to re-arrange my whole house for roomscale

[ZombieSupaStar]

Truth be told I’m just valve content starved since 2011. And that’s why I’m interested. The idea of VR to me is eh whatever. Call me when we jack into full body matrix like simulations. At the end of the day this is still just 2 lcd screen in front of your eyes, but now with better fidelity.

[Joe Molotov]

Get a Big Black Cockulus Rift

[Don Rumata]

Truth be told I’m just valve content starved since 2011. And that’s why I’m interested. The idea of VR to me is eh whatever. Call me when we jack into full body matrix like simulations. At the end of the day this is still just 2 lcd screen in front of your eyes, but now with better fidelity.

If you play something like Subnautica on a monitor and then in VR (as unoptimized for VR as that game is) the difference in experience is pretty apparent.
It's basically a different medium, which is one of the reasons why it has so many growing pains, with people constantly trying to transpose 2d screen gaming mechanics developed over the last 30 years,  into it.

[Mr Gilhaney]

Looks good, fucking hyped.

[ZombieSupaStar]

Truth be told I’m just valve content starved since 2011. And that’s why I’m interested. The idea of VR to me is eh whatever. Call me when we jack into full body matrix like simulations. At the end of the day this is still just 2 lcd screen in front of your eyes, but now with better fidelity.

If you play something like Subnautica on a monitor and then in VR (as unoptimized for VR as that game is) the difference in experience is pretty apparent.
It's basically a different medium, which is one of the reasons why it has so many growing pains, with people constantly trying to transpose 2d screen gaming mechanics developed over the last 30 years,  into it.

I’ll have to see, if my vertigo kicks then in it won’t really matter how great the vr experience can be. 

[Don Rumata]

Truth be told I’m just valve content starved since 2011. And that’s why I’m interested. The idea of VR to me is eh whatever. Call me when we jack into full body matrix like simulations. At the end of the day this is still just 2 lcd screen in front of your eyes, but now with better fidelity.

If you play something like Subnautica on a monitor and then in VR (as unoptimized for VR as that game is) the difference in experience is pretty apparent.
It's basically a different medium, which is one of the reasons why it has so many growing pains, with people constantly trying to transpose 2d screen gaming mechanics developed over the last 30 years,  into it.

I’ll have to see, if my vertigo kicks then in it won’t really matter how great the vr experience can be. 

That's a really issue, i won't lie, as i said i get really motion sick from regular FPSs, and VR gets to me too.
The difference is that with VR, they at least try to develop games AROUND that issue (so they can be played in short bursts, they have comfort options etc).

---

Something that gets me excited is also this part:

A set of Source 2 tools for building new levels will be available for the game, enabling any player to build and contribute new environments for the community to enjoy. Hammer, Valve’s level authoring tool, has been updated with all of the game's virtual reality gameplay tools and components.

If the modding support is even a fraction of what Half Life got...

[nachobro]

Damn, open box Vives (non pro) are selling for around the cost of a Rift Might have to redo the office if I get one though.

[benjipwns]

updated Source tools that aren't garbage was a meme before Half-Life 3 was

spoiler (click to show/hide)

One of the claims about the transition to Source 2 was that it was needed to get away from the dependencies of Source that caused this problem.

[close]

[ZombieSupaStar]

That's a really issue, i won't lie, as i said i get really motion sick from regular FPSs, and VR gets to me too.
The difference is that with VR, they at least try to develop games AROUND that issue (so they can be played in short bursts, they have comfort options etc).

---

Something that gets me excited is also this part:
(Image removed from quote.)

A set of Source 2 tools for building new levels will be available for the game, enabling any player to build and contribute new environments for the community to enjoy. Hammer, Valve’s level authoring tool, has been updated with all of the game's virtual reality gameplay tools and components.

If the modding support is even a fraction of what Half Life got...

I googled a bit and people with vertigo have been able to play games, depends on the person, game, and locomotion methods obviously. I guess in my case it would be start small, seated obviously, with teleporting (I guess?), and go for more walking simulators first. Not “run across the room to throw stuff off a bookshelf looking for ammo to load in a few seconds before you have to 180 spin and take cover from the incoming combine soldiers. “

[TVC15]

Teleporting works fine for most people that get VR sickness. It’s how I got used to it. I could do full nausea-inducing analog control at this point, though with some games I still have to use snap turns. Seems to vary game to game.

[nachobro]

alyx seems that it'll support a bunch of different setups and movement options, so that's nice

[ZombieSupaStar]

alyx seems that it'll support a bunch of different setups and movement options, so that's nice

(Image removed from quote.)

How would walking down a hall even work using room scale? the game would have to “realign” so you don’t go slamming into walls so it can’t be 1:1 can it?

[Don Rumata]

alyx seems that it'll support a bunch of different setups and movement options, so that's nice

(Image removed from quote.)

How would walking down a hall even work using room scale? the game would have to “realign” so you don’t go slamming into walls so it can’t be 1:1 can it?

When you set up your "room scale" you set up boundaries for your space, and then it has a virtual grid in game, when you get close to the edge.
both Oculus and Vive have this, i think the new models even have cameras to show you video feed from your headset.

They don't expect you to replicate the in game space IRL, it's just about having some level of freedom to moving around (room scale) vs just your chair and some space to move your arms (sitting down one).
but in both case you'd still need to supplement that movement with the digital movement (teleporting, moving the analog stick, etc).

[Great Rumbler]

Something that gets me excited is also this part:
(Image removed from quote.)

A set of Source 2 tools for building new levels will be available for the game, enabling any player to build and contribute new environments for the community to enjoy. Hammer, Valve’s level authoring tool, has been updated with all of the game's virtual reality gameplay tools and components.

If the modding support is even a fraction of what Half Life got...

Garry's Mod 2.0

[benjipwns]

Garry's Mod just had a huge update that I read nothing about but kept seeing the message for in my new wonderful Steam Library that crashed the other day and could not be recovered until I restarted Steam like four times.

[chronovore]

If it’s a fucking prequel I will fucking die

https://www.polygon.com/2019/11/21/20975860/valve-half-life-alyx-release-date-vr-announcement-first-screens-trailer

[nachobro]

it can't be a sequel cause eli is alive, looks like it takes place between HL1 and 2 so i guess not a real "prequel" either the rogue one of half lives

e: also i didn't realize "roomscale" just means 1x1 meter. that's a lot easier. i thought i needed an actual entire room dedicated to vr lol

[Tasty]

Half-Life has messed with time distortion before, who's to say G-Man won't Q Alyx to post-Episode 2 for a scene?

When you have am omniscient god character you can pretty much do anything narratively

[naff]

Valve's approach to VR development is pretty amazing internally;  they focus on each individual concept and get loads of feedback from their employees.  They've been thoroughly testing just about every VR concept for years. 

I have pretty high confidence HLA is going to be evolutionary if not revolutionary for VR based on what I've heard.

Out of curiosity, I looked up how much Valve's own VR headset with controllers and base stations costs. I'd assume Half Life Assyx would work best with what Valve most likely used to develop the game.

A thousand fucking dollars. There are definitely much more affordable VR headsets out there, but fuck Valve for going in this direction to begin with.

I don't get this.

Valve are the ones pushing for open VR, so they're the only ones (of the major 3 players in the space) actively supporting people getting whatever the fuck headset they want to play anything.
Sony requires you to have a PS4 and play in their space, and Oculus is easy to crack, but still theoretically requires you to have a Rift to use their games.
HL:A will be playable therefore, with as many devices it's reasonably and physically possible to do so.

Beyond that, VR requires you buy new (relatively expensive) hardware because of physical limitations, not some arbitrary gate-keeping; if they want to develop the game in VR, there is literally nothing else they can do about it, short of giving you hardware for free. 
And of course if they DO want to make a proper VR game, they can't just make a "desktop version" like many are asking.
They could develop some cheaper hardware VR option, but those options are already out there, and them being Open VR, means they don't need to supply you the HW themselves.

it's also never going to get cheaper if it doesn't become popular with devs supporting it and popular software. VR headsets will be a popular accessory for Scarlett and PS5. im guessing HL: Alyx will be one of the only AAA cross platform titles on launch too. this is a bet on the future as much as anything.

it's not like HL hasn't been expensive to run initially in the past at peak settings. who had SLI Voodoo 3dfx glide cards in their pc in the 90s? for less than a grand you could get a Win ML headset and VR ready pc. this is classic high end PC stuff. don't get it on launch, entry cost will be a lot lower in the future.

[nachobro]

Buying an 8800GT for HL2

[benjipwns]

are you sure you don't mean like 6600 GT? A 8800GT seems massive overkill for HL2, it came out like three years later.

[nachobro]

oops yeah that was it. got it for doom 3 and hl2. before that the best computer i had was a plastic macbook for school

[benjipwns]

6800GT was originally the "official" card for Doom 3 according to Carmack. Then nVidia went and made the 6600GT which was the first of that run of epic price/performance cards they had where revisions always wound up with more RAM and thus "better" than the flagships. 8800GT was the next one. Although that one turned out to even kill off the flagship GTS because of the process drop.

More proof of nVidia's blatant use of illegal numbers of transistors.

[nachobro]

i used student loan money to get that card

[Great Rumbler]

i used student loan money to get that card

I used pell grant money to buy my first PC. 

[toku]

the real half-life 3 was all the friends and memories we made along the way

[Sho Nuff]

I'll be buying a new GPU for this, buddy gave me his old Vive (he upgraded to an Index) but it chugs pretty bad with my 970

[benjipwns]

They could both be constructing OR re-constructing the Citadel in that image.

[Svejk]

No PSVR, No Deal. 

[ZombieSupaStar]

(Image removed from quote.)



(Image removed from quote.)



(Image removed from quote.)

OT: It’s funny if you put up the half life 1 gman, and then noted it was 4 years from 1 to 2 and 12 years from 2 to (not) 3. It’s kind of an example of how much diminishing returns have kicked in. Don’t get me wrong it looks good but I guess going from nes to ps3 era. PS3 era to now isn’t as impressive. Leather looks more like leather and hair looks more like sorta hair rather than hagridps1.jpg

On topic: it’s funny seeing RE hate on the VR or hope the next valve games aren’t vr. I just learned to assume the worst and see how it is. I’ll try VR and if it’s ok and I can tolerate it then great. And then worse case scenario it’s what “everything becomes VR” I can deal with it. Same as I did with streaming. Sure local is better quality, control, and moddable. But if convenience demands streaming be the only way now, then I have already tried it and it’ll be “playable” for the games I like to play in the future. But don’t think I won’t bitch when that negative latency guesses wrong and I am old man yelling at cloud (literally)

[BikeJesus]

Just impulse purchased Valve Index package for almost 1500 Canadian after duty fees. I barely meet the minimum requirements, but fuck it.

Glad I worked 70 hour weeks all summer. Now to eat mac and cheese from costco for a couple months. Oh, and find a way to tell my gf 😅

[Tasty]

Just impulse purchased Valve Index package for almost 1500 Canadian after duty fees. I barely meet the minimum requirements, but fuck it.

Glad I worked 70 hour weeks all summer. Now to eat mac and cheese from costco for a couple months. Oh, and find a way to tell my gf 😅

And I thought I was bad with money...

[BikeJesus]

In march of this year, I had 0 dollars to my name. Starting working a new job and got my first check the day before rent was due. Before purchasing the index, I had nearly 10G in the bank. I worked really hard, and this is how I'm rewarding myself. I have no debt.

Also, it's fucking Half Life!

[ZombieSupaStar]

Why impulse buy the index now? I mean it’s your money go for it. But personally I’m building a new rig before I’m dropping a grand for a headset.

Edit: I guess that make sense, it’s nice to treat yourself. I’d still have gone for the rig upgrade first tho. Then again I’m running a i5 2500k and a 970 that is finally starting to feel like a potato. But man did that 2500k last me a long time.... probably best bang for my buck I’ll ever have for gaming.

[BikeJesus]

Worried about it selling out. Can't even get a Steam Controller in Canada for less than 140 bucks off amazon. Really don't want to miss out. And in the meantime, I have lots of VR supported games.

I have an i7 7700k and a gtx1060. Will upgrade if half life plays like shit. Window is on a 256gb SSD and I got a 1TB SSD for programs last black Friday for a hundred bucks.

[nachobro]

 

[Tasty]

In march of this year, I had 0 dollars to my name. Starting working a new job and got my first check the day before rent was due. Before purchasing the index, I had nearly 10G in the bank. I worked really hard, and this is how I'm rewarding myself. I have no debt.

Also, it's fucking Half Life!

Providing this context in your original post would have preempted my reply. With that said, it's never a good situation fearing your girlfriend's reaction to a large purchase.

[BikeJesus]

In march of this year, I had 0 dollars to my name. Starting working a new job and got my first check the day before rent was due. Before purchasing the index, I had nearly 10G in the bank. I worked really hard, and this is how I'm rewarding myself. I have no debt.

Also, it's fucking Half Life!

Providing this context in your original post would have preempted my reply. With that said, it's never a good situation fearing your girlfriend's reaction to a large purchase.

Ha, no worries. I definitely hovered over the 'purchase' button for a minute. Telling gf shouldn't bea huge deal. She probably will just be confused why it interests me. That said, she spends 600 bucks on frames for her glasses, which I can't comprehend.

I also severely reduced my alcohol consumption in the last few months. Used to spend over 500 a month on booze and I'm now down to around 50. Now I have even more reason to cut it out completely.

My previous job that I lost due to a fire is also coming back in January, so I'll have tons of work through the winter which is usually a slow season for me. Just gotta keep slaving away.

[nachobro]

Love my occulus quest.

PokerStars Vr is the shit.

Nice, I'm pretty excited. Got the reddit recommended USB setup for linking to my PC as well, but I dunno how much I'll use Link before Half-Life. Probably more than I expect once I get into it.

At the very least I'll get the required VR games, Superhot and Beat Saber, on the Quest store. Plus it comes with the Darth Vader game. I imagine my Steam library already has VR supported games too, plus their free "tech demo" The Lab is supposed to be real solid.

[TVC15]

Check out Asgard’s Wrath when you get a chance. Or at least watch some vids and read some reviews. It’s pretty cool from what I played and it’s also a pretty big budget full-on game.

[Chooky]

can't even remember the last time i saw a bunch of pc gamers rushing out to buy the latest tech just for that one cool new game. kinda wild

[nachobro]

Check out Asgard’s Wrath when you get a chance. Or at least watch some vids and read some reviews. It’s pretty cool from what I played and it’s also a pretty big budget full-on game.

that definitely looks neat. i've been checking out other vr game trailers and lone echo kinds sticks out as something cool looking. any experience with that one?

[TVC15]

No, but I was curious about it. I’ll see if I can load it up tonight and give it a spin.

If you do get a Quest for Link, the Quest version of Superhot VR is the one to get. The Rift version is fine, but wireless is such a big add for that particular game and the graphics really don’t take much of a hit due to the style.

[TVC15]

You all inspired me to go into VR and make the WHITE POWER hand gesture at a dude from the Empire in Star Wars. It’s like we’re VR bros. But not real life bros. That would be bad.

[TEEEPO]

 

fucking valve

[Don Rumata]

Subnautica is THE game to try in VR, as unpolished as it is... just absolutely terrifying.

[TVC15]

Lone Echo seems pretty cool after two hours. Moving yourself around in zero gravity just be grabbing stuff and propelling yourself and using brief thruster bursts is a lot fun. Looks really nice for a 2+ year old game. Seems to have enough going for it for some decent environmental puzzlin’ and physics stuff. The controls for moving around work really well and feel natural. You’re going to want a nice clear radius around you though because you’re going to be grabbing around for stuff really quickly to change momentum and keep moving fast.

[bluemax]

Insomniac's big VR game just came out as well.

[TVC15]

Not a big trips game, but another cool recent one is Pistol Whip. It's kinda like a Time Crisis rail shooter/rhythm game inspired by John Wick and Superhot. It's arcadey and fun and pretty replayable. Also very easy for newbs to pick up without pyooking. This is on like every platform there is.

(check the 7-8 minute mark for a good taste)

[nachobro]

yeah i think stuff like superhot, beat saber, and pistol whip i'll get on the quest store so i can run those right off the headset. when i can i'll try to get steam store games for all the other non-exclusive so i can still play them if i upgrade to index or whatever.

i do find it funny that the two most popular games (superhot and beat saber) also just happen to not be cross-buy between quest and rift stores. pistol whip is though.

[Nintex]

https://twitter.com/finalhours/status/1198430602841640960

This is really cool 

[Sho Nuff]

One of our guys at work got a Oculus link spec-approved cable and tried it with the Quest. It basically works perfectly, I'm blown away. Nobody should buy a Rift S at this point.

Note that you should get a REALLY LONG cable tho, you won't be plugging this into a hub.

[nachobro]

Youtube and Reddit are saying this active extender is pretty good and is 16ft, so I grabbed that and a small USB-C to A cable.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0179MXKU8/

Also for anyone else just getting VR, you can buy any game on the Green Man Gaming store with a +5 on it and get 5 free VR games

Rock Band VR (Oculus Store)
Arizona Sunshine
Killing Floor Incursion
Sprint Vector
Star Trek Bridge Crew

[Don Rumata]

One of our guys at work got a Oculus link spec-approved cable and tried it with the Quest. It basically works perfectly, I'm blown away. Nobody should buy a Rift S at this point.

Note that you should get a REALLY LONG cable tho, you won't be plugging this into a hub.

WTF, the Quest even has better screens (higher res OLEDs) and the only downside seems to be 75hz instead of 80hz refresh rate (which is still lower than the 90hz of the original rift)?