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Half-Life Alyx |OT| The right woman in the right place
- Thread starter MRORANGE
- Start date
Are they not listed in the client? There's a "Screenshots" section on the right-hand side. You may have to scroll down a bit to see it.
Edit: If they're not there, find out where they're saved to, move them to Steam\userdata\[account ID]\760\remote\546560\screenshots, then restart Steam:
It's weird when I first played I had gotten it to take screenshots even though they didn't show up in steam (I'm not sure if Windows Mixed Reality can do it's own screenshots separate from Steam) and now I can't get it to work at all. Seems like people are saying for WMR it's pull a trigger and click the stick but that wasn't working for me. I'm not even sure where it shows the screenshot button in the Steam VR settings, I've looked for it but can't find it.
Sorry, seems like I took the wrong conclusions from reading the thread!
Next question then if you will: do you have any recommandation for a good headset?
I see Samsung Odyssey Plus, but I don't think it's officially distributed in Japan so the prices are pretty bad.
What specs should I look for?
I've played 2 hours, and this game is the Mario64 of VR. And this makes me so very happy and also a bit sad.
It's beautiful, and the third VR game that makes me feel: "yup that's it, this justifies the existance of VR for gamers", after Beat Saber and Astrobot.
I'm delighted to think this will be the first VR game for a lot of gamers, where they will get used to the medium, and the base on which VR developers will have to study going forward, like MArio64 and Zelda:oot were for 3D gaming.
It's also the most intimate, most polished Half Life game I've ever played. Half Life: Alyx gives to the player the emotions and experiences that HL1 and HL2 asked the player to pretend to have. HL1 and HL2 pretended to have a ruined cityscape, pretended to give you a gun to shoot zombies, but in Alyx, it all feels real. As I struggle to reload a pistol in time to kill a headcrab I'm in gaming nirvana: this is what that experience should feel. I'm baffled that Edge couldn't give it a 10 because this is the type of trasformative experience I expect from a 10-level game.
And for the sad part: I'm a bit sad that I got spoiled to most of those mechanics by countless bargain bin asset flips that tried to do what Alyx does but couldn't because they had no money or no decent tech to back them up. This is the Mario64 or VR ans should have been everybody's first introduction to the medium, the quintessential "bundled with the system" game. I hope this is the squished grub directly injected in VR's arm the medium so desperately needs.
As somebody who is immune to motion sickness, I was worried this game would be aimed at newcomers to the point of feeling bland and toned down, and while I do resent a bit the lack of a jumping button and, of course, the lack of smooth turning (obviously a bug), the game does a great job at catering to my "privileged" group too: which is really damn cool. I just wish the walking speed could be toned a tad up in options, but it hasn't been a problem in gameplay until now.
It's beautiful, and the third VR game that makes me feel: "yup that's it, this justifies the existance of VR for gamers", after Beat Saber and Astrobot.
I'm delighted to think this will be the first VR game for a lot of gamers, where they will get used to the medium, and the base on which VR developers will have to study going forward, like MArio64 and Zelda:oot were for 3D gaming.
It's also the most intimate, most polished Half Life game I've ever played. Half Life: Alyx gives to the player the emotions and experiences that HL1 and HL2 asked the player to pretend to have. HL1 and HL2 pretended to have a ruined cityscape, pretended to give you a gun to shoot zombies, but in Alyx, it all feels real. As I struggle to reload a pistol in time to kill a headcrab I'm in gaming nirvana: this is what that experience should feel. I'm baffled that Edge couldn't give it a 10 because this is the type of trasformative experience I expect from a 10-level game.
And for the sad part: I'm a bit sad that I got spoiled to most of those mechanics by countless bargain bin asset flips that tried to do what Alyx does but couldn't because they had no money or no decent tech to back them up. This is the Mario64 or VR ans should have been everybody's first introduction to the medium, the quintessential "bundled with the system" game. I hope this is the squished grub directly injected in VR's arm the medium so desperately needs.
As somebody who is immune to motion sickness, I was worried this game would be aimed at newcomers to the point of feeling bland and toned down, and while I do resent a bit the lack of a jumping button and, of course, the lack of smooth turning (obviously a bug), the game does a great job at catering to my "privileged" group too: which is really damn cool. I just wish the walking speed could be toned a tad up in options, but it hasn't been a problem in gameplay until now.
What an incredible game so far. Settled on shift movement so far, feels comfortable. Being in city 17 is incredible and the quality of the animation is so good.
The most impressive thing to me is that everything just feels so natural, interacting with the world feels natural, even movement feels natural even on shift.
Just need more time to play......
The most impressive thing to me is that everything just feels so natural, interacting with the world feels natural, even movement feels natural even on shift.
Just need more time to play......
That's a pretty insulting way to talk about those games, imo. They aren't bargain bin asset flips, they were highly experimental, cutting edge trailblazers. Let's get one thing straight: Valve did not invent the mechanics that Half Life Alyx uses. Half Life Alyx was not willed into the ether from the depths of valve. Half Life Alyx exists because of several years of unbridled creativity and experimentation from passionate people that valve freely (with blessings!) learned from.
The term "asset flip" is used as a short hand for lazy, uninspired, quick cash grabs. The exact opposite of the type of game being described. Those small passion projects are about as far as you can get from asset flip as can possibly be. When people talk about "asset flips" they talk about people taking already completed chunks of a game and just throwing them together with minimal work. The games that inspired Half Life Alyx were the exact opposite of an asset flip, they are some of the only games to come out in the last decades that were truly, wholey original without any template to crib from.
I realize you might not have meant your comment to come out that harshly, but I felt the need to stick up for the indie VR scene. Not everybody can get together a cherry-picked 80 man team of the top engineers in the industry with an unlimited budget. Those that make due with more limited scope don't deserve to be called "Asset flips."
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Thanks for the reply!
Might actually try setting everything up and giving it a shot.
just got done playing for another 45 minutes or so, nearing the end of chapter 3. holy fucking shit. this game is SCARY. Never felt like this in a game really, the intensity is there, the atmosphere, immersion. only issues I'm having is with my oculus, re-setup the tracking and it's much more optimized, but i'm getting jitters every now and again that makes it hard to reload or even see (head goes wonky). wondering if it's the trackers themselves or maybe something to do with their USB power since I heard that can be an issue?
Don't have the money for an Index nor are they available but WOW I can just imagine this game with a better headset. I can't wait until we have the screen door effect gone, a much wider field of view, and eye tracking for being able to focus on things. It sucks that I can never read anything close to me because all the focus is on middle ground objects. If they could solve that it would change the VR experience right there. I'm already excited about replaying the game years later and having it be a different/better experience because the fidelity will improve with new hardware. but I digress.
this game is basically another Mario 64 moment, as far as game-feel and tech go. I've played a good share of VR titles but this is quite literally the killer app it needed and deserved. Can't wait to play more!
Don't have the money for an Index nor are they available but WOW I can just imagine this game with a better headset. I can't wait until we have the screen door effect gone, a much wider field of view, and eye tracking for being able to focus on things. It sucks that I can never read anything close to me because all the focus is on middle ground objects. If they could solve that it would change the VR experience right there. I'm already excited about replaying the game years later and having it be a different/better experience because the fidelity will improve with new hardware. but I digress.
this game is basically another Mario 64 moment, as far as game-feel and tech go. I've played a good share of VR titles but this is quite literally the killer app it needed and deserved. Can't wait to play more!
Well said. Indies pave the way for AAA to borrow from, peoples disrespect for them is incredibly disappointing.
4 hours in, game is fucking awesome.
It's really a shame that there is such a shortage of pretty much all headsets right now....they would be selling like hotcakes.
One minor gripe I have: I like the smooth locomotion but I wish it was just a hair faster. In a way walking around at a regular pace makes it all the more immersive, but in combat it feels a little slow to me.
Oh, also, the angle of the pistol isn't quite accurate (on the rift). It aims a few degrees too high and makes you bend your wrist a little. Not terrible, but noticable. Not a huge fan of the red dot either, besides the fact that it highlights weak points. I think a lit crosshair with a small gap in the middle would be ideal.
It's really a shame that there is such a shortage of pretty much all headsets right now....they would be selling like hotcakes.
One minor gripe I have: I like the smooth locomotion but I wish it was just a hair faster. In a way walking around at a regular pace makes it all the more immersive, but in combat it feels a little slow to me.
Oh, also, the angle of the pistol isn't quite accurate (on the rift). It aims a few degrees too high and makes you bend your wrist a little. Not terrible, but noticable. Not a huge fan of the red dot either, besides the fact that it highlights weak points. I think a lit crosshair with a small gap in the middle would be ideal.
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sigh, i immediately bought the wireless adapter for vive because imagining playing this wireless sounds too good to be true. just got to chapter 3 and i'm actually dreading it after reading the impressions here. sounds like a hell of an anxiety rush for me, but i'm here for it. i hope to god i don't break something in my room. this game keeps giving me full body chills at how god damned good it is.
I absolutely didn't want to sound insulting to those projects: I have zero doubts that if they had the economical means they would have gladly uses custom assets, afforded more polish in mechanics, and proper art direction. "Asset flip" indeed has a different connotation for scammy projects, and those projects were definitely not money grabs. In fact, an argument could be made that for too long they were left alone in building a toolbox of VR tropes that now other companies can use, Valve included, leaving to them to take in all the risk of sustaining an unproven market.
Apologies to all who I may have offended.
I get the same warning with 2080 Ti. Probably just buggy code.
I had some Oculus Store apology credit left over, so I decided to buy Virtual Desktop and give it a whirl. There's a little bit of lag, which would probably go away if I lowered the bandwidth setting from Insane to High, but I think I'll just stick with the Link cable until I trip over it mid-game.
Edit: Just realised I forgot to set the 5GHz channel width on my router to 80MHz. That might do the trick... and explains why I was limited to 400Mbps.
Edit: Just realised I forgot to set the 5GHz channel width on my router to 80MHz. That might do the trick... and explains why I was limited to 400Mbps.
Playing on hard, but I feel some of the enemies took too many hits.
Is there a way to kill headcrabs besides shooting them?
Is there a way to kill headcrabs besides shooting them?
i have issues with wmr odissey. this headset is strange. when it works well, its awesome, but somethime i lost one controller or all of my room moves with my hadset so if i go down my ground goes down, etc. if you have some kind of advise to not let this happen, please tell me!
Wireless is pretty good, but in the same way that its pretty good with most VR games. Even with a bunch of physics stuff and big explosions going on at one time, I'm at 90fps 98% of the time on my 4770k. Only get compression artifacts/stuttering during end of chapter loading screens. The game is actually pretty gpu intensive, but I am running max settings at 250% SS. 1080 Ti.
This game's campaign is much easier to run with wireless than Boneworks, just putting that out there.
putting aside Half Life Alyx entirely, going wireless was the single biggest addition to VR to me since room scale positional tracking. Going all the way back to the DK1, I absolutely hated wires. When I got my DK1, it had no positional tracking at all, but we could fake it using razor hydras like this:
The hydras were wired to a base station and so you'd have one wire running to your hand holding one hydra, then another wire running to the hydra on your head, which ran to a base station that had two wires, one USB to the PC, and the other to the power adapter. Then the DK1 had a wire running to a breakout box, which had three wires running to the PC - USB, DVI, and a power brick. This made for a rats nest of wires and you could only lean around, not walk more than maybe a step in each direction.
With the DK2, I went to pretty extreme lengths to try and mitigate the wire. I have a virtuix omni:
And I'd run the wire down from above using a boom mic stand. But it was still there. People say they got used to the huge wire running down their back with the original Vive and oculus rift, but I never could get over it. It always bugged me. I actually jumped on the very first wireless kits available, before the HTC Vive kit. I have TP Casts for both my original HTC Vive, and for the Oculus Rift (which they don't even sell anymore). Fully wireless PCVR is my absolute baseline. I'm content with sticking with the two poorest resolution VR headsets for the time being until the newer headsets offer a wireless solution, because, to me, the lack of wire is worth more than the bump in image quality.
Even beyond the freedom to spin around endlessly and crouch and crawl into corners, I find that having the wireless adapter flat out makes getting in and out of games quicker, which meant it was easier for me to use VR more regularly. I'm already an edge case user, so that might not be true of everyone, but being able to slip on and off the headset without having to get out a long cable and plug it in is huge. I have 3 batteries for my TP Cast kits, so I can keep playing while the others charge, for endless play sessions.
Get hyped about your wireless kit, if you really like VR, it's a pretty awesome upgrade.
EDIT: For those who are unfamiliar with the wireless VR kits, they use custom transmitters that operate at 60 ghz, not the normal 5ghz of conventional wireless routers. They are essentially imperceptible from using a normal cable, which is why they also usually cost about as much as the headset itself.
The wireless kits, both the one from HTC and the one from TP Cast, are entirely external and don't use any additional system resources. As far as your system knows, you're connect to a normal cable.
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I gotta say I was also pretty nervous about the horror side of the game, though I havent really played any VR horror stuff. What I have done in the first 2 hours (talking flashlight sections mainly) hasn't bothered me in the least, headcrabs jumping at your face hasn't really made me jump like I thought. Very happy with that.
One bit that did make me go "oh shit!" though, when you get the shotgun...
One bit that did make me go "oh shit!" though, when you get the shotgun...
I was stood with my back to the middle wall, didn't even acknowledge it I just saw the other 2 being smacked, when all the debris came flying past my head that got me a bit, great set piece
Ha, the same exact thing happened to me.
Also, I dropped my shotgun shells mid fight and had to pick them up off the ground during reload. I was out of handgun ammo at that point so those shotgun shells were my only way to fight back.
It's crazy how tense the game can be.
putting aside Half Life Alyx entirely, going wireless was the single biggest addition to VR to me since room scale positional tracking. Going all the way back to the DK1, I absolutely hated wires. When I got my DK1, it had no positional tracking at all, but we could fake it using razor hydras like this:
The hydras were wired to a base station and so you'd have one wire running to your hand holding one hydra, then another wire running to the hydra on your head, which ran to a base station that had two wires, one USB to the PC, and the other to the power adapter. Then the DK1 had a wire running to a breakout box, which had three wires running to the PC - USB, DVI, and a power brick. This made for a rats nest of wires and you could only lean around, not walk more than maybe a step in each direction.
With the DK2, I went to pretty extreme lengths to try and mitigate the wire. I have a virtuix omni:
And I'd run the wire down from above using a boom mic stand. But it was still there. People say they got used to the huge wire running down their back with the original Vive and oculus rift, but I never could get over it. It always bugged me. I actually jumped on the very first wireless kits available, before the HTC Vive kit. I have TP Casts for both my original HTC Vive, and for the Oculus Rift (which they don't even sell anymore). Fully wireless PCVR is my absolute baseline. I'm content with sticking with the two poorest resolution VR headsets for the time being until the newer headsets offer a wireless solution, because, to me, the lack of wire is worth more than the bump in image quality.
Even beyond the freedom to spin around endlessly and crouch and crawl into corners, I find that having the wireless adapter flat out makes getting in and out of games quicker, which meant it was easier for me to use VR more regularly. I'm already an edge case user, so that might not be true of everyone, but being able to slip on and off the headset without having to get out a long cable and plug it in is huge. I have 3 batteries for my TP Cast kits, so I can keep playing while the others charge, for endless play sessions.
Get hyped about your wireless kit, if you really like VR, it's a pretty awesome upgrade.
EDIT: For those who are unfamiliar with the wireless VR kits, they use custom transmitters that operate at 60 ghz, not the normal 5ghz of conventional wireless routers. They are essentially imperceptible from using a normal cable, which is why they also usually cost about as much as the headset itself.
The wireless kits, both the one from HTC and the one from TP Cast, are entirely external and don't use any additional system resources. As far as your system knows, you're connect to a normal cable.
i was an early adopter of the vive when it came out and the heavy wires running down my back were always my complaint while playing anything so it was only a matter of time before i picked up the wireless adapter. i was planning on getting it during the holiday season last year when it was $50 off but i slept on it and missed out. now that HL:Alyx is finally out, imagining playing without those damned cords fiddling around me sounds like bliss. i am extremely hyped!
at one point, I even went as far as to have a retractable cable in my ceiling, I know your pain, haha.
EDIT: One thing I'll say about the PCVR market right now is that I love that there are options. Lots and lots of options. You can go high end in multiple ways. You could buy a Valve Index headset if you value comfort, or your could buy a pimax headset if you value FOV, or you could upgrade an original headset if you value wireless. Or, on the opposite end of the spectrum, I love that there are so many entry level VR headsets that aren't absolute garbage. The difference in utility from a low end and high end headset is really small, IMO, and can be tolerated enough that you don't need a super expensive headset to play VR games well today.
Heck, one of my friends is playing on a dell Windows VR headset I gave him, that I got for free through a black friday deal way back in 2017. And it is absolutely fine at it's job. And the core of all this is the open and interoperable nature of the market. We should all be very happy that Oculus' early attempt to wall off a section of the VR market behind a proprietary driver failed. I know a lot of people are upset that the latest half life game requires more hardware than they likely have to play, but had things rolled a little differently, it could have really sucked a lot more. It's a legitimately great thing that there are no games exclusive to any PCVR headset.
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Exact same thing....dropped the gun, then all the shells trying to load it. My reaction pretty much:
I'm out of the hotel and I no longer feel horrible for having to kill one of the specific enemies in there.
Didn't Kojima get an Index way back in October?
Didn't Kojima get an Index way back in October?
I would assume any decently large studio these days would have multiple VR headsets. I'm a small one and I have almost a dozen.
Oh sure, I just would've assumed he'd play on an Index if he's got one.
Well he's got one kicking around somewhere.
putting aside Half Life Alyx entirely, going wireless was the single biggest addition to VR to me since room scale positional tracking. Going all the way back to the DK1, I absolutely hated wires. When I got my DK1, it had no positional tracking at all, but we could fake it using razor hydras like this:
The hydras were wired to a base station and so you'd have one wire running to your hand holding one hydra, then another wire running to the hydra on your head, which ran to a base station that had two wires, one USB to the PC, and the other to the power adapter. Then the DK1 had a wire running to a breakout box, which had three wires running to the PC - USB, DVI, and a power brick. This made for a rats nest of wires and you could only lean around, not walk more than maybe a step in each direction.
With the DK2, I went to pretty extreme lengths to try and mitigate the wire. I have a virtuix omni:
And I'd run the wire down from above using a boom mic stand. But it was still there. People say they got used to the huge wire running down their back with the original Vive and oculus rift, but I never could get over it. It always bugged me. I actually jumped on the very first wireless kits available, before the HTC Vive kit. I have TP Casts for both my original HTC Vive, and for the Oculus Rift (which they don't even sell anymore). Fully wireless PCVR is my absolute baseline. I'm content with sticking with the two poorest resolution VR headsets for the time being until the newer headsets offer a wireless solution, because, to me, the lack of wire is worth more than the bump in image quality.
Even beyond the freedom to spin around endlessly and crouch and crawl into corners, I find that having the wireless adapter flat out makes getting in and out of games quicker, which meant it was easier for me to use VR more regularly. I'm already an edge case user, so that might not be true of everyone, but being able to slip on and off the headset without having to get out a long cable and plug it in is huge. I have 3 batteries for my TP Cast kits, so I can keep playing while the others charge, for endless play sessions.
Get hyped about your wireless kit, if you really like VR, it's a pretty awesome upgrade.
EDIT: For those who are unfamiliar with the wireless VR kits, they use custom transmitters that operate at 60 ghz, not the normal 5ghz of conventional wireless routers. They are essentially imperceptible from using a normal cable, which is why they also usually cost about as much as the headset itself.
The wireless kits, both the one from HTC and the one from TP Cast, are entirely external and don't use any additional system resources. As far as your system knows, you're connect to a normal cable.
I never get tired of reading your post - just wanted to say that. Owning an omni goes above and beyond the Call of Development. It must be like having a 2000's Trocadero in your house.
Played up to getting the gloves with my laptop and quest link.
It looks lovely, I was playing seated so it took me a while to work out the stand thing but I'm getting there. I can only play for 30min bursts tho.
It looks lovely, I was playing seated so it took me a while to work out the stand thing but I'm getting there. I can only play for 30min bursts tho.
When they start limping and whimpering Great Wolf Sif style...
reached the hotel, i'm running hogging nades in each hand and in my wrists. why wouldn't they let me store a few? i love these damn things
My 1060 is holding okay, but there are areas where im feeling a little uncomfortable with the movement, its not always smooth enough.
My 1060 is holding okay, but there are areas where im feeling a little uncomfortable with the movement, its not always smooth enough.
I'm of the opinion the Valve of today will support consoles only if that work is a natural extension of what it's doing on the PC/mobile side, so I think a PS5 port will come down to whether the PSVR2 is officially PC-compatible. If Sony does get behind OpenVR/SteamVR, then Valve will no doubt add official PSVR2 support to Alyx, and at that point I'm sure the question of "Why don't we port the game to the PS5?" will come up.
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hmm, I'm pretty sure the compression is handled by the CPU before being sent off to the HMD.
the wire really is the enemy of VR. I constantly feel constrained in my reactions to things because of the wire. I have to use the rotate on my right stick to react to things rather than swivel quickly around because I'm always worried about where the wire is. Good game though.
I am curious about comfort on the Index.
I've only really had a chance to sample the Rift, Rift-S and Vive (and DK1, 2 and PSVR but those aren't relevant here)
I found the Vive extremely uncomfortable with glasses while the original Rift was also relatively difficult to use for long sessions. Both fogged up and were not comfortable for me specifically.
The Rift-S was like a breath of fresh air in comparison and is the first headset I can enjoy for hours. I had spent a lot of time tweaking Vive and Rift and never found a way to make it fully comfortable.
So, the question is - does the Index compare more favorably with Rift-S here?
I've only really had a chance to sample the Rift, Rift-S and Vive (and DK1, 2 and PSVR but those aren't relevant here)
I found the Vive extremely uncomfortable with glasses while the original Rift was also relatively difficult to use for long sessions. Both fogged up and were not comfortable for me specifically.
The Rift-S was like a breath of fresh air in comparison and is the first headset I can enjoy for hours. I had spent a lot of time tweaking Vive and Rift and never found a way to make it fully comfortable.
So, the question is - does the Index compare more favorably with Rift-S here?
I'd say this is a save bet. Most Half-Life games ended on console one way or the other and Alyx will be the gold standard for VR for some time now. I hope Sony learns some lessons and produces a real system seller for PSVR2. An AAA VR game made by Santa Monica, Naughty Dog, Guerilla or Insomniac.
Yup. Now that I'm using Virtual Desktop, I find myself almost never using the snap turn (unless I'm just being lazy)
Not really a VR controls limitation, and more a game design one. If you've ever played Job Simulator, you'd know that all those things you mention are possible (you can even remove bottle caps with your free hand when holding the bottle with the other)
Guys I'm legitimately too terrified to go any further. I'm a little past the part where you get the flashlight and can't even bring myself to move forward. It's like I wanna play so badly but end up completely petrified every time a headcrab jumps out.
I think I'm actually screwed too cause it's only going to get worse from here. I still absolutely love the game though.
I think I'm actually screwed too cause it's only going to get worse from here. I still absolutely love the game though.
Couple semi major complaints from me
Half way through the game
Possible very minor spoilers
Half way through the game
Possible very minor spoilers
Im disappointed at how sparse the fights with the combine are. There's only a handful of gun fights in the 6 hours I've played.
The same two zombie models and headcrabs, and barnacles gets boring pretty early on.
Also, I'm still stuck only using a pistol and shotgun. Again, very boring early on. I don't know why they went this one handed route, I've not found a single situation where I needed my other hand independent from my shooting hand. Sadly, gunplay potential suffers tremendously here.
The same two zombie models and headcrabs, and barnacles gets boring pretty early on.
Also, I'm still stuck only using a pistol and shotgun. Again, very boring early on. I don't know why they went this one handed route, I've not found a single situation where I needed my other hand independent from my shooting hand. Sadly, gunplay potential suffers tremendously here.
Yes. If you are also using glasses you might want to look into getting prescription lenses so that you dont need to use glasses