It's pretty crazy how 'right' this game gets everything. I think ladders feel a little hacky, but I guess they added that fairly late.Decoupling body orientation from gaze is an early design idea that was discussed very heavily in oculus developer forums back around 2015 once it became possible. But over time, many devs haven't heeded that design decision. This is part of the reason Half Life Alyx is a tentpole, mario 64-style release: It presents all the best practices that have been learned in VR game design in the last 7 years, in a huge and polished enough package that everybody pays attention. Suddenly, when subsequent games from others are lacking options that HL:A had standard, you'll have players experienced and knowledgeable enough to ask why they are missing in the first place. It's legitimately a great thing for VR.
Ladders feel great to me, perfect implementation of it. As a very current counter point Walking Dead, whilst a good game overall had pretty bad climbing.It's pretty crazy how 'right' this game gets everything. I think ladders feel a little hacky, but I guess that added that fairly late.
It's pretty crazy how 'right' this game gets everything. I think ladders feel a little hacky, but I guess that added that fairly late.
Because many people developers don't pay attention to the discourse from other developers who experiment as much as you'd assume. Keeping up with all the best design practices is tough, especially right now for VR because it's still so new. By comparison, if you're making a conventional FPS on a flat screen, you have decades worth of examples to crib from when designing the controls. It's the reason why you can pick up any random FPS today and they all sort of control the same, over many, many huge selling examples, the controls and practices for flat games have become codified in the zeitgeist of gamers.
Decoupling body orientation from gaze is an early design idea that was discussed very heavily in oculus developer forums back around 2015 once it became possible. But over time, many devs haven't heeded that design decision. This is part of the reason Half Life Alyx is a tentpole, mario 64-style release: It presents all the best practices that have been learned in VR game design in the last 7 years, in a huge and polished enough package that everybody pays attention. Suddenly, when subsequent games from others are lacking options that HL:A had standard, you'll have players experienced and knowledgeable enough to ask why they are missing in the first place. It's legitimately a great thing for VR.
I felt somewhat similar until chapter 5. The level design takes a step up.I'm guessing the impact of this game is greater if this is one of your first VR experiences but from what I've played thus far I'm not sure how this game separates itself from some other VR experiences which is what I was expecting going in. I mean it's great being in the Half-Life universe and all and the visuals are top-notch for a VR game but for instance I'm not having the same sense of presence as I did in something like Lone Echo where you really could interact with a lot of the environment and control your momentum, etc. Maybe I just need to get further in the game. Nothing wrong with it per say but I guess I have those Valve expectations. Hope to blown away at some point as I'm only in Chapter 3.
Since I got Revive working well with the Index I purchased this. Looking forward to some Ready At Dawn goodness once I've completed Alyx.Lone Echo is pretty much on the same level as HLA to me. Try it.
I think I agree. Not that I don't think the dialogue or voice isn't well done. I think it would be more immersive if Russel was talking to ME.
I think Valve mentioned they have 2 other VR games in development.This game is so, so good. The atmosphere is insane. I hope Valve (I know, not gonna happen) will keep on pushing out more VR games if they can do it at this level.
hope they're just on hold, I'm not even finished with Alyx and I want more from Valve. doesn't have to be Half-Life but anything within the VR space from them.I think Valve mentioned they have 2 other VR games in development.
edit: guess not https://www.google.com/amp/s/uploadvr.com/new-valve-vr-games/?amp
Wow what a game. Anyone else a pack mule? At one point I had like 5 syringes and 8 grenades, and a med station refill. I was carrying it around in a bucket but game kept crashing.
Ehm, they're pretty much everywhere, I'm almost at the end and I honestly don't remember a single section without at least 1 headcrab....Can anyone tell me how many headcrab sections there are? I'm basically PTSD-level with VR spiders nowadays, I just fucking hate shit jumping at my face in VR but I also really want to play this game :\
It's funny, because as someone who hasn't played it yet, footage of headcrabs always look cute due to the way they now ragdoll when they hit stuff, which really shows the different experience of playing VR versus watching. I'm definitely not going to watch a play through.last night I finally made the comparison that clicked with me why headcrabs are so scary in this game: they move like roaches. When they're in the dark and all you see is a glimmer of light on them as they scurry about, they look like large, turkey-sized roaches. THAT'S why they're so incredibly terrifying IMO.
Holy shit I didn't even think about doing this.Wow what a game. Anyone else a pack mule? At one point I had like 5 syringes and 8 grenades, and a med station refill. I was carrying it around in a bucket but game kept crashing.
"Koooobe"
I made a VR basketball game for the Houston Rockets where all you did is shoot a free throws. I cannot tell you enough how unbeliveably hard what you just did is to accomplish through programming. This is one of those "when you do things right, people won't know you've done anything at all" but solving throwing mechanics in VR is one of the most complex problems around. It's all faked, we outright don't have enough tracking points to model a throwing motion correctly. I flat out don't know how valve does it, their tech for the physics model regarding throwing objects is black fucking magic.
Very honestly one of the single most impressive parts of Alyx.
Soon.So people who have finished... without spoiling anything, do you feel like Valve is going to make another HL game soon or was this more of a one-and-done, stop-asking-about-HL game?
Fascinating stuff, didn't realise it was so difficult to pull off. I have been playing a lot of VR stuff recently, and Valve is definitely miles ahead in this regard. I'd never be able to do that in any other game, just don't have that sort of confidence in the physics.
It's the first time in VR that I feel like my throws are accurate. The grenades go in the general area of where I expect them to go. One of my favorite things to do is throw plates like frisbees very accurately.To accurately simulate a throwing motion, you need to track rotation of both the elbow and shoulder. All we get from current VR is the angular velocity of the hand. We see the object flying forward, but can't really tell the difference between an arcing lob, like shooting a basketball, and throwing something like darts.
It's a very, very math heavy topic that lots and lots of engineering teams have tried to conquer. That's partially why H3 is well lauded in VR circles, they do a pretty good job of simulating lobbing hand grenades. One problem that comes when trying to simulate throwing physics is that you can fake a lot of it for one type of throwing motion, but it doesn't apply to other throwing motions. So like, with the basketball free throw thing I made, I could go through and tweak it so that it would feel right for a free throw style shot, but if someone tried to shoot the ball like it wasn't a free throw, it'd look all wrong. Like the ball would automatically arc as though it was assumed you were shooting that way, even if you weren't. Valve's tech looks right for any throwing motion, which is mind boggling.
I'm being serious when I say I don't know how Valve pulled of the throwing mechanics in this game. I hope they give a lecture on it, because this is really amazing stuff.
I wonder if there's an element of 'auto-aim' in the throwing? Like it automatically correcting if you're close enough to the target?
It does feel strangely natural and intuitive (as does the whole game, tbh).
There's a bit at one point where to access some optional part of a level, you have to toss a grenade into a duct in the air, and it definitely doesn't seem like there is "auto aim." I'm just as terrible a shot in VR as I am IRL haha. It's not that the grenade wasn't going where I was aiming, it's that my aim when throwing a ball like a basketball is just naturally terrible. Ever since I've been a kid, I've been an awful free throw shooter. If I was nailing the shot, I would have assumed some auto-aim haha.
Valve really chose a great selection of weapons here when you think about what you're up against in the game. Not every gun is good for every scenario. Game continues to impress me with every little detail in its core design. I honestly wasn't sure if after all this time Valve could hold a candle to their younger selves -- but they actually aged like fine wine. And seeing portions of The Lab in here (like the disarming mini-game is straight out of the space shooter they built -- what a fucking application!) brings a smile to my face.
Not on Spotify, but Valve has uploaded all the other Half-Life OSTs within the last couple of weeks (I forget if there was a thread about it):