I mean... Robot Repair runs on Source 2 and dropped in 2016. I think it still looks really good today so I don't see any reason to worry about the visuals
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Half-Life: Alyx Announced
- Thread starter Nzyme32
- Start date
It'll look good, especially art direction with my boy Olly Moss on the case, but it definitely won't reach RDR2 levels because it needs to run at such a crazy frame rate.
Then again Valve has never exactly been at the bleeding edge of graphics. Portal 2, hell even HL2, was not as pretty as its contemporaries, but Valve always has great art design and they know where to allocate resources (animation!) to make games feel good.
same. i don't mind it looking bad if they're doing more interesting stuff with VR as a medium
if it was a standard FPS then, yeah, graphics would matter more. but this seems beyond that in a way
It needs to render two points of view at high res and high framerate. It will look nice but not 'impressive'.
I've been in this thread for a while and had a pretty productive conversation with Krejlooc that was pretty interesting. I'm not trolling or shitposting; I am just skeptical. I remain unconvinced of VR's revolutionary status and still think it's reasonable for people to hope for a non-VR version or mod, even if that turns out to be an unrealistic wish. Obviously Valve wants this to be the big thing that convinces people, so we'll see how that goes! But for now I don't think it's ridiculous for the many HL fans out there without access to or desire for VR to be lukewarm on the prospect of a VR-only prequel.
I think a lot of VR diehards, for all their insistence that non-VR players or skeptics lack perspective, sometimes have a hard time grasping why people are skeptical or reluctant to make the big investment. If that bothers you, sorry about it.
Well you do need the PC to drive the games plus a 5ghz router (I'm not sure about the speed requirements I can look into that), though some people have been using a service called Shadow PC which is a subscription service where they put together a PC just for you that is used to stream games (or VR games). IIRC it's around $20 a month but for those without the budget or a gaming PC it seems to work pretty well from what I've read on reddit for Quest owners.
edit: To clarify you need the Virtual Desktop app through the Oculus Quest store, and then need to sideload an update off your PC to the Quest that enables the PCVR streaming capability (Oculus had them remove this feature from the store version). This can be done using the PC app Sidequest that has a whole slew of apps that you can sideload. It's still Virtual Desktop in name on there fyi.
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I remember HL2 being very impressive at the time. Eyeball tracking and facial animations were on another level. Lighting was also very cool.
Tech demos were shown to media outlets and they talked in length about all the new and impressive visual features. It was a very impressive game, on every level.
Yes, a lot of VR games focusing on how the player interacts with the environment (Boneworks) has me very excited. So many games these days treat the environment like static set dressing and it feels terrible. BOTW was a good exception and there's an even greater pressure with VR.
The player being able to interact and use almost every object in the environment is going to be the mark of next gen for me, fancy graphics are nothing compared to that.
I really hope that's going to be the case next Gen too. Especially as consoles are finally getting descent CPUs.
HL2 started to experiment with game physics and most modern games are even more limited than that.
Imagine a modern VR shenmue-like with the same attention to detail I and II had.
Absolutely.
Jumping up to a ledge, holding on with your left hand, and using your right hand to knock something off of it. Giving someone someone a thumbs up. Pointing to something with your index finger. Putting your shoulders around an NPC to hold them while you punch with your left hand. Taking a spear and being able to do everything imaginable with it -- thrust in any direction, turn it on its side and block, throw it, flip it and hit someone with the blunt end. All of these things just come naturally in a physically-accurate VR game.
I mean Valve making a Half Life VR game has been circulating for months if not years. If you actually think it is not at least PC based, safe to say you ain't a fan at all. What Half Life fan demand a new game but doesn't have a decent PC of at least a GTX 980? Were they expecting a new AAA Half Life to run on a 15 years old PC game?
Depends what you mean by "tethered". If you mean it requires a PC, then no. If you mean without an actual wire running to the PC, that's how I plan on playing it. Quest using Virtual Desktop 1.8 will be my preferred method for roomscale games with lots of movement. Would I play racing/pinball games this way? No. The Link is wizadry in what it's done with the latency. But unless a game is super twitchy (which I don't expect HL to be), I'll take the wireless method of Virtual Desktop.
Yep, there is still a ton of serious talent working at valve, if they do right by this it could be pretty special.
Watching that Boneworks footage - this tech in a Half-Life game would be pretty great, not gonna lie.
Yeah, it's seemingly regressed in most AAA titles. Indie games are pushing that stuff better than they are. I have next to no interest in most AAA games because of the complete lack of interactivity.
Would much rather see focus get poured into environmental interactions and non-scripted AI, but that's more so a design decision for developers. One that doesn't seem to interest many of them.
I haven't played any of the Shenmue titles, but I do know they're well-known for the absolutely insane attention to detail. More of that is going to be necessary for VR development as those things will stick out and damage any sort of immersion to a greater degree (at least to me).
That is really cool tho, I had no idea
Nope, but do we really care? Its a new installment in the Half-life series.
True! I just didn't know because I don't follow the series. I thought the excitement was because it was the one everyone memes about.
EGS is barely one year old. This has been in the works for 4+ years.
I'm sure they started working on it early but they always have projects going on at Valve. Different matter entirely what gets picked up for larger scale development and actually ends up seeing the light of day.
I think Epic has had a lot to do with many of Valves moves this year.
But I dont think Epic has then sweating THAT hard.
In reality Valve has been working on various games for years that can get years into development before they are killed for "reasons"
I think eventually a internal project at Valve was bound to get through the gauntlet and be released. It being a Half Life game is probably just dumb luck.
Again it's been in development along with VR for 4+ years. Also why would a VR exclusive game be an answer to EGS? That'd be a boneheaded decision.
So like is this going to be a streamed reveal? That would be amazing.
It would be pretty underwhelming if they only post an article with a video.
It would be pretty underwhelming if they only post an article with a video.
Right, I mean they also could've called it Half-Life 3 if they REALLY wanted to make a splash that would amount to something big. This seems like them playing it a bit safe regarding expectations.
Valve aren't assholes intent on damaging the PC community like Epic, so I can't imagine it being so!
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Why would it be? Valve developed SteamVR to be open to any hardware.
Yeah, I remember watching this at my friend's house. Completely blew me away.
If they can have even a fraction of that feeling for Alyx, I'll be happy.
Crazy to think that this is the same age (or close) as a lot of posters here on Era, so for them they will fail to grasp just how impressive this was.
For those in their late 20's and over, and a love for video games, I'm sure you remember watching this for the first time.
OP
OP
Well Valve didn't come up with the idea or retro fit it in the space of 1 year.
This has been in dev for at least 4 years, alongside Index dev.
Also - this is the least likely product to be significantly "profitable". It's aiming to expand and push forward nascent medium, that they've been working on since 2011, and reorganised the company around in 2012/13.
Zero to do with Epic.
As above - doubtful, since a bunch of these things have been going on for multiple years.
EA and MS coming on board might be the only ones you could justify that for - and Valve's increased comms, to repost and create summary blogs of everything they do - specifically for the people saying they never do anything.
Valve's comms being more repetitive is the best thing to come out of EGS
This game has been in development since like 2015. There were rumors and leaks of it releasing late 2019 since 2 years ago. It only recently got delayed to 2020.
I remember downloading this demo when it leaked on IRC. Can't even begin to explain how mind blowing this was at the time.
I was twelve at the time, so I was just starting to grasp the development side of games and beginning to be interested in the technology behind everything. I remember this and Halo 2's first showcase being the first things where the tech of a game made me excited to find out as much BTS stuff as possible.