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Half-Life: Alyx |OT| Three's Company

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
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Half-Life: Alyx is the latest game from Valve Software, and is essentially Half-Life 3 released as a Steam PC VR exclusive. It works on the Valve Index, HTC Vive, and Oculus Rift headsets, and is widely heralded as a significant leap forward for VR gaming.

System Requirements:

  • MINIMUM:
    • OS: Windows 10
    • Processor: Core i5-7500 / Ryzen 5 1600
    • Memory: 12 GB RAM
    • Graphics: GTX 1060 / RX 580 - 6GB VRAM
    • VR Headset: Valve Index / HTC Vive / Oculus Rift


Trailers:






Screenshots:

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Review Aggregate:

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Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
Hmm i might have to uninstall reinstall oculus getting severe stutters with a 1060 6gb

All installed on ssd
 
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I can't find a stream where the host isn't insufferable. Too much emphasis from them on "OH MY GODD" and picking up useless things. Kind of hoping Coh Carnage is good but he got delayed after his decryption fucked with a 2 hour wait time.
 

Flintty

Member
I’m one of a couple of people who never played HL 1&2. I guess I’ll need to in order to have a clue as to what the hell is going on in Alyx?
 

bee

Member
omfg it's glorious, from the first 10 seconds of crushing cans to the holy shit strider moment

no performance issues with 1.5 ss, ultra settings on a 2080ti with a vive (gear vr lens mod) and index controllers
 

Stitch

Gold Member
had to stop at the part where I get the gravity gloves. game started to stutter like crazy. must be some kind of bug because even setting everything to low didn't make it better. even the steam vr menu started to lag. ugh, now that's going to cause lots of motion sickness :messenger_grinning_squinting:

at first performance was great and everything looks awesome. threw a bottle at a combine but he didn't care lol
 
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Golgo 13

The Man With The Golden Dong
I won’t be able to play this game (No gaming PC currently), but god damn I’m looking forward to hearing some impressions from you guys!

EviLore EviLore You gonna set aside a few hours today to play? I’m sure you’re a busy man but THIS IS HALF LIFE! 😂
 
I played up to the gun tutorial bit on my Rift, seems to work fine so far. Put it on ultra and didn't have any performance issues so far with a 7700K/2070S. Not that it probably matters that much since the og Rift is blurry anyways. This game makes me wish I had a proper space with Index.

Is Alyx's voice supposed to sound like it's just echoing in the room like she's talking somewhere behind me? I'm not sure if it's intended that way or if my SBZ surround is messing with the audio. It just didn't necessarily feel optimal, but I haven't played enough VR games where I'm playing a character with dialogue. It just didn't feel like my character was talking. I might try my headphones at some point too, since the left side of my Rift headphones is rattling a bit with bass.
 
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Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Played about 30 minutes (Oculus Rift original retail unit) and can't wait to get back in, but can't be in VR at the moment.

Holy shit, man... this is transformative and I don't use that lightly. It feels like the first truly well thought out full VR game (that I've played at least). Not gimmicky in the slightest and everything just works so damn well.

Half-Life is back, baby.
 

Solomeena

Banned
I am stunned by just the opening scene watching over City 17 and messing around. I have had a huge smile on my face and laughing at watching the people below on the streets. Oh and i was trying for the longest time to throw objects at the Combine soldier below on the streets. I am so so over the moon right now and i have only dicked around 20 minutes in vr.
 

Thaedolus

Member
No stuttering or performance issues at all on my end, did you all update to game ready drivers? Nvidia put some out today. Everything looks and feels great. I've got work to do but I can't wait to jump back in.
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Well, I know I wont be playing this, 2 of the three guys I´m watching on twitch already complained of sickness:



Have you tried any VR? If yes, have you gotten sick? If you haven't tried it, or haven't felt sick before, I wouldn't rely on anyone else's input on the matter. It changes dramatically between people. I have friends that can sit in VR for hours and friends that can't stomach 5 minutes.
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
No stuttering or performance issues at all on my end, did you all update to game ready drivers? Nvidia put some out today. Everything looks and feels great. I've got work to do but I can't wait to jump back in.

Running great on my i7 6700k and GTX 1080 on the "High" preset. I haven't updated my drivers yet, so I'll go ahead and do that.
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
I am stunned by just the opening scene watching over City 17 and messing around. I have had a huge smile on my face and laughing at watching the people below on the streets. Oh and i was trying for the longest time to throw objects at the Combine soldier below on the streets. I am so so over the moon right now and i have only dicked around 20 minutes in vr.

The sense of presence in this game is off the charts. I think the graphical fidelity combined with most objects reacting how you would expect really come together to make this happen. Movement feels better than in any other VR game I've played, too.

The dicking around is just so much fun. Oh, I gotta run? Wait a second, let me see if I can find a way to pop the hood on this truck and poke around inside...

Also, the shooting mechanics feel great. I actually just shot a handgun for the first time in my life yesterday at a beginner's gun safety class and it's crazy how close this feels to what I just did yesterday (other than holding the gun with just one hand).
 

lukilladog

Member
Have you tried any VR? If yes, have you gotten sick? If you haven't tried it, or haven't felt sick before, I wouldn't rely on anyone else's input on the matter. It changes dramatically between people. I have friends that can sit in VR for hours and friends that can't stomach 5 minutes.

Hl2, LFD, LFD2, and Black Mesa recently hurt my stomach really bad, like all day. But most shooters I can play perfectly fine, there is something wrong with this engine.
 

Shai-Tan

Banned
thoughts so far:

-it looks amazing
-continuous movement sucks. immediate acceleration. worse than every other game I tried with stick so far. would really like an option to slow it down and make it more natural
- object interaction/physics is really glitchy, especially if you lose tracking
-finger tracking is pretty much irrelevant - it's grip or not grip so far
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Hl2, LFD, LFD2, and Black Mesa recently hurt my stomach really bad, like all day. But most shooters I can play perfectly fine, there is something wrong with this engine.

That's really weird. Not saying it isn't true, just can't understand it. But fair enough. Probably avoid this :messenger_tears_of_joy:
 

Romulus

Member
This is fucking amazing. The initial loading scene crashed and pissed me off. But since then its smooth sailing.

Firstly. A GIANT fuck off to videos of this game. It's soooo many magnitudes more impressive in VR it's not even close. Even more so than other VR games.

Only got to play 40min but my god the visuals, atmosphere, and controls are superb. It has that polish that only a single game per generation pulls off. The shooting feels god damn amazing. I went in expecting magic and got the supernatural.
 
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D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
thoughts so far:

-it looks amazing
-continuous movement sucks. immediate acceleration. worse than every other game I tried with stick so far. would really like an option to slow it down and make it more natural
- object interaction/physics is really glitchy, especially if you lose tracking
-finger tracking is pretty much irrelevant - it's grip or not grip so far

Really? Man, the direct analog movement feels great to me compared to other experiences (Asgard's Wrath, Skyrim VR, etc.). I also love how they still let you teleport by flicking back the right stick even in direct control mode.

Glad to hear that I'm not missing much when it comes to finger tracking. The Oculus controllers seem to work great so far.
 

Shai-Tan

Banned
Really? Man, the direct analog movement feels great to me compared to other experiences (Asgard's Wrath, Skyrim VR, etc.). I also love how they still let you teleport by flicking back the right stick even in direct control mode.

Glad to hear that I'm not missing much when it comes to finger tracking. The Oculus controllers seem to work great so far.

maybe it's just that stick. it's like there's only two speeds that it jerks between. finger tracking it's just like you can crush cans but I don't know if there's a way to do that with other controllers

physics also seems slightly lagged but maybe that's a consequence of running on maxed graphics options (not having fps problems so maybe not)
 

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
i uninstalled oculus

then tried again seems to run a lot better now.

still janky at times. I guess imma sit this one out.
also standing in vr is still weird as heck and i prefer seated.. No i am not a fucking fat whale.
 
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rofif

Banned
I am absolutely fucking blown away. Been playing for past 3 hours straight. It is incredible. It's doing almost as much for vr as hl2 did for fps and valve makes it look easy. Boneworks is clunky trash in conparison
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
I get the occasional relatively frequent, almost like loading based hitching/stutter at ~medium/high settings with a 3770K and GTX1080, I'm not even sure if they make a big enough difference to not increase them further just yet. It's fine the majority of the time.

I've played for ~2 hours and I have to say I do have a few minor complaints compared to other VR games I enjoyed.

It kind of shows that the game and/or its technology have been in development for a long time as some design decisions have that "early VR" feel. They've done a good job adapting the systems to contemporary VR methods but there are still traces of how it wasn't originally meant to be that intense/free in locomotion options and what not. There are for example a couple instances per level so far where even though you're using free locomotion pressing forward will just teleport you through the obstacle/situation with a fade out/fade in and accompanying sound effect of the action you didn't really do/see. That only happens rarely and in all other cases they've adapted the game to free locomotion very well, you can vault over stuff, crouch under obstacles and drop off ledges seamlessly.

Then the guns and tools are attached to your hand rather than physically held so that they drop if you let go like other objects. It's a pure old school inventory system where you hold a button to bring up the wheel with the guns/tools then hover your hand over the one you want and release the button to have it attached to your hand. A quick press will toggle between a free hand and the last thing you were holding a la MGS. That's contrary to most other modern VR FPS where you can conveniently attach things to your body (even if it's invisible in some of them, or optional) and your guns behave just like other objects, being able to let go or toss them or whatever which makes it feel more immersing and physical. The backpack for storing stuff and grabbing ammo to reload with works very nicely though.

Edit: the above also means you can't switch hands on the fly or anything, you have to choose the dominant hand that will be handling the tool/guns from the settings menu/when first starting the game, something like that. Also the vaulting over is very gamey, you just press the right stick forward to match your left stick while walking against the object you want to climb, not physically do anything as in other games. All the actual interactions with stuff/puzzles/objects are fairly well done however.

And finally, this is Oculus (and similarly non-Index) specific but once again the default hand pose is a very flat open palm hand, so at your normal resting position where you have your fingers around the controller and your index finger resting on (but not pressing in) the index trigger, it gets a very unnatural default pose where your last 3 fingers are open/flat, your thumb is appropriately tracked by which input it's resting on (or thumbs up if it's on nothing) and the index finger is constantly curled in way too much because the trigger it's resting on is touch sensitive. That just looks off and like your resting pose is almost a constant "ok" signal or something. You get over it and personally I try to not touch the index finger trigger at all when not actually using it but yeah, it could be handled better so it only bends the index finger if you're actually pressing it in and maybe have all the fingers a little bit bent in more naturally as the default. For an Index-first game with all its finger tracking making the pose reflect your actions decently, it's okay and it doesn't negatively affect playability.

Other than that it certainly seems to be the most polished single player FPS adventure yet and just like you'd expect a Half-Life game to be in VR with all that entails like amazing vistas, cool scripted sequences NPCs and interactions, great atmosphere and intense combat scenarios (and loading screens). But if it could get the basics more like Onward that would make it perfect. The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners gets very close to being this but maintains some Boneworks-like jank (not nearly as much, it's awesome) and doesn't have the high production values Valve could afford here.
 
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rofif

Banned
BTW playing on 3700x and 2070 with ultra settings. No stutters. Absolutely smooth and looks like real life on rift cv1. Maaaan
 

Shai-Tan

Banned
I'm currently playing at 200% SS at 90hz, seems ok but may turn it down if reprojection goes more than 1%.. fpsVR says the gpu (2080ti) is only at 70% utilization.

other thoughts:

-the lack of "physics 2.0" after Boneworks etc really sticks out, especially with the ultra detailed objects you can pick up that are basically just props
-it's also lacking what the Idle Thumbs guys who worked on the game have called "asshole physics". Like cmon I want to throw shit at people and have them react to it
-don't know if it's because I'm wearing a hooded sweatshirt but I don't know how many times I put something in my backpack and it didn't actually go inside. may just be user or tracking error?
-this is a problem of index controller but the way they designed it you're constantly registering object grip even when hands aren't using pressure. I don't know why they don't make yo use pressure to grip and only use the touch for finger tracking. half the time I approach objects I have to keep my hands unnaturally open in case I rando grip something

anyhow, as a shooter it's great so far, just not a total game changer in the gameplay department
 

Thaedolus

Member
BTW playing on 3700x and 2070 with ultra settings. No stutters. Absolutely smooth and looks like real life on rift cv1. Maaaan

I'm on a i7 7700k and a 1080ti, for some reason the game defaulted to low for me. I bumped it up to high and it was still staying above 120hz (Index native res, 100% scaling). I'll have to try Ultra when I can get back in but I'm worried there wasn't enough headroom to where it own't start reprojecting. Maybe drop it down to 90hz and see how that goes...
 

Thaedolus

Member
-this is a problem of index controller but the way they designed it you're constantly registering object grip even when hands aren't using pressure. I don't know why they don't make yo use pressure to grip and only use the touch for finger tracking. half the time I approach objects I have to keep my hands unnaturally open in case I rando grip something

Have you tried adjusting the top part of the straps that slides around the controller? If you push it in you can move it along where the dots are on top of the controller...I found fucking with that and how tight I was pulling the straps let me have a more natural open hand feeling instead of constantly gripping the controller and making the in-game hands stay closed.
 

magnumpy

Member
such intense emotions about half-life and VR. now this release coincides with the covid19 outbreak. CONSPIRACY!!1 D:

where is gordon freeman in these trying times :messenger_hushed:
 

Shai-Tan

Banned
Have you tried adjusting the top part of the straps that slides around the controller? If you push it in you can move it along where the dots are on top of the controller...I found fucking with that and how tight I was pulling the straps let me have a more natural open hand feeling instead of constantly gripping the controller and making the in-game hands stay closed.

thanks, will mess with that now
 

Romulus

Member
I have to go over and help my friend set up his Samsung headset for this. He's completely new to VR other than his experience on my Rift S. I don't mind but it pulls me away from the game. And, Coronavirus. Anyone could be sick at this point. At least he lives alone and has quarantined himself with no symptoms. I'm actually going in the back door and setting it up with him staying in another room, just to be safe, then wiping everything down.
 

Shai-Tan

Banned
hand based continuous motion seems like the better one if you've got a decent sized play space. you can turn and physically walk slightly at the same time and also look around without it jumping in that direction. feels almost like skiing when you get used to making gradual turns
 
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Karak

Member
I'm currently playing at 200% SS at 90hz, seems ok but may turn it down if reprojection goes more than 1%.. fpsVR says the gpu (2080ti) is only at 70% utilization.

other thoughts:

-the lack of "physics 2.0" after Boneworks etc really sticks out, especially with the ultra detailed objects you can pick up that are basically just props
-it's also lacking what the Idle Thumbs guys who worked on the game have called "asshole physics". Like cmon I want to throw shit at people and have them react to it
-don't know if it's because I'm wearing a hooded sweatshirt but I don't know how many times I put something in my backpack and it didn't actually go inside. may just be user or tracking error?
-this is a problem of index controller but the way they designed it you're constantly registering object grip even when hands aren't using pressure. I don't know why they don't make yo use pressure to grip and only use the touch for finger tracking. half the time I approach objects I have to keep my hands unnaturally open in case I rando grip something

anyhow, as a shooter it's great so far, just not a total game changer in the gameplay department
Wait what? Did they remove people responding to shit? I have like 10 minutes of footage just for the first NPC I threw shit at.
 
This is only somewhat related but apparently Valve and HP just teased a new VR headset in collaboration with MS...


Seems like a solid kick to the pants to everyone that just dropped 1k on the Vive to play Alyx.
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
This is only somewhat related but apparently Valve and HP just teased a new VR headset in collaboration with MS...


Seems like a solid kick to the pants to everyone that just dropped 1k on the Vive to play Alyx.
Working with Microsoft could be a bad thing, if it's just another WMR set without tracking improvements as hinted by the kit's front (WMR has been stuck with the same old 2 camera system and Rift S/Quest vastly outperform tracking performance, though with HTC fucking up the Cosmos WMR is a good low-price choice for getting in VR if you can get the better models like Samsung's for considerably less than the S/Quest). We'll see what it's like when they actually show it, for now your implications about Index are dumb. Maybe it's like a WMR set with better controllers or something, but if it differs so much then how much software support will it get since meaningful features have to be programmed for rather than just adapted (see my previous post about the Oculus specific default hand pose issues), unless the controllers somehow match Index 1:1 and it automatically handles that, but with WMR based lesser overall tracking it might still be a hard choice and we have no idea how deep HP is going in with this to ensure it remains supported and what not like standard WMR sets get by with SteamVR compatibility. If it's not WMR I don't get the MS collaboration.
 
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Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Serious question here.
Can anyone please tell me if it's possible to play this game 1 handed?
There's an one handed accessibility mode in the settings but I'm not sure what it entails, Valve has discussed it and I thought it's cool as a concept but didn't pay much attention given it doesn't apply to me. Hope it works for you.
 
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Bootzilla

Banned
Hmm i might have to uninstall reinstall oculus getting severe stutters with a 1060 6gb

All installed on ssd
Yeah I have a 1060 and it's pretty smooth. The part where Russell was showing me stuff on the holomap went a little choppy but other than that it's been silky.

The game is incredible. It definitely feels both built around VR and like a true continuation of Half Life. HL3 in all but name.
 

sol_bad

Member
There's an one handed accessibility mode in the settings but I'm not sure what it entails, Valve has discussed it and I thought it's cool as a concept but didn't pay much attention given it doesn't apply to me. Hope it works for you.

I'll check it out and see what it is. Thanks.
^_^
 

cyberheater

PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 Xbone PS4 PS4
I’m downloading now.

Core i5 3750k overclock with 16Gb mem and overclocked GTX 970.

I’m probably below minimum spec but my fingers are crossed.
 
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