Half-Life: Alyx Official Thread

[Señor Jaggles]

My PC is like four years old and wasn't built to game :(

I'm sorry

 

[bubblegum]

Yeah tbh I don't find that enjoyable. I'd want games I can really immerse myself in notsomething with shitty minecraft game aesthetic. Most VR things I've seen besides like Elite Dangerous (which isn't solely VR yay uwu) seem really...I unno, tacky? Offputting? It felt like playing a Kinect game but some how worse.

That's just a level. It's a recreation of a gmod map, ttt_minecraft or something. In terms of gunplay, it feels pretty good.

 

[Señor Jaggles]

Yeah tbh I don't find that enjoyable. I'd want games I can really immerse myself in notsomething with shitty minecraft game aesthetic. Most VR things I've seen besides like Elite Dangerous (which isn't solely VR yay uwu) seem really...I unno, tacky? Offputting? It felt like playing a Kinect game but some how worse.

You really haven't tried VR at all ever, have you?

 

[Merlinsclaw]

My PC is like four years old and wasn't built to game :(

Gamer get the standalone headset. Do what must be done to GAME.

 

[Rabid]

Gamer get the standalone headset. Do what must be done to GAME.

Serious question - will it look as good as it would otherwise?

 

[Ricsow]

You can connect to the PC by means of Oculus Link, which is just a USB cable IIRC.

Will I have to have this usb cable on the entire time?

 

[bubblegum]

Will I have to have this usb cable on the entire time?

To play Rift games, yeah. Rift is compatible with steam vr.

 

[Señor Jaggles]

Gamer get the standalone headset. Do what must be done to GAME.

Windows VR (Lenovo and such) isn't bad at all, it's the one my friend has, and it's like €250-300 at most

Consoles have been doing this whole exclusivity shit forever, but when exclusivity comes to VR suddenly it's "veri b4d"

Well I'll tell you I've never bought a console for a game or saga but I'd buy a budget VR for a saga I love

 

[Merlinsclaw]

Serious question - will it look as good as it would otherwise?

The Oculus Quest is a good ass headset. Compares with the HTC Vive in many ways. I'd just go for it gamer if you want to play the game that badly.

It's a really good introduction headset. Go for it!

 

[Deleted member 442]

You really haven't tried VR at all ever, have you?

I've tried it on a few occasions. Never particularly liked it. I liked Skyrim in VR and Elite Dangerous (with joystick). Everything else felt really tacky and detached. Our Halo VR for Outpost Discovery was probably worst experience I had with it. If I can't immerse myself in a VR game I get fussy just using the damn thing.
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Consoles have been doing this whole exclusivity shit forever, but when exclusivity comes to VR suddenly it's "veri b4d"

Did anyone even like console exclusivity?

 

[bubblegum]

The Oculus Quest is a good ass headset. Compares with the HTC Vive in many ways. I'd just go for it gamer if you want to play the game that badly.

It's a really good introduction headset. Go for it!

Is the Quest compatible with steam vr tho

I've tried it on a few occasions. Never particularly liked it. I liked Skyrim in VR and Elite Dangerous (with joystick). Everything else felt really tacky and detached. Our Halo VR for Outpost Discovery was probably worst experience I had with it. If I can't immerse myself in a VR game I get fussy just using the damn thing.

You've tried literally the worst games for VR. None of those games were made for VR in mind, and they're just cheap additions. Try Superhot VR, or Budget Cuts. That's immersive.

 

[Señor Jaggles]

Did anyone even like console exclusivity?

Not "like" but people sure weren't throwing this much of a tantrum over a piece of equipment like lmao let people enjoy things, VR is relatively new, and Valve did a great job

 

[Megafreak]

steam has a vr benchmark available

other than that idk - my old pc was an x4 760k and 750ti with 8gb ram iirc and that was just borderline too low for vr although you could probably get it working on minimum settings at 60-80fps

are you talking about a standalone all in one unit though? idk but I wouldn't risk it personally - will be making a bang for buck vr pc build without the headset included on a part list soon though for people without a pc capable of running the benchmark

here it is boys

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/megafreak/saved/yQgvWZ

A middle ground vr capable pc

All in all though, under £650 for a standalone unit assuming you transfer your old disk drives. You could probably get the parts cheaper second hand too (be careful with this ofc though) e.g an rx 580 or 1660 ti from someone upgrading

cannibalising your old machine for the case and psu (assuming the psu is 550W or above) takes it down to £467

Spoiler: still a little too much?

You can knock down the price by choosing a cheaper mobo and psu (picking 550w takes the cost down by £20 and should be fine, I just like a little extra in case) but imo these are two parts you shouldn't cheap out on hastily
Knocking the ram down to a single stick of 8gb (don't lower the mhz, 3200 is ideal mid range price for performance for ryzens atm, 3600 is best though) lowers the price by about £20 too but puts you under hl:vr's minimum and isn't worth it as you'll be costing yourself £20 extra down the line when you need to get a second stick, although you might get away with only having 8, it's not really worth the hassle over £20 imo

TL;DR:
Standalone price - ~£640
Old PSU and Case - ~£467

So yeah, a little costly but this machine should easily be capable of supporting a vive to its max refresh rate with no problem or dips through the whole experience. Obviously the headset isn't included in this build but I really don't know much more than surface level specs/requirements for the most common headsets atm so I'm not really able to give good info on deals on them.

 

[Merlinsclaw]

Is the Quest compatible with steam vr tho

Yes!

 

[Deleted member 442]

Not "like" but people sure weren't throwing this much of a tantrum over a piece of equipment like lmao let people enjoy things, VR is relatively new, and Valve did a great job

Oh fuck off with that shit Jaggles. I wasn't throwing a tantrum or saying no one can enjoy it. I even said the trailer gives me a boner because I actually like what I see in terms of a game. I can give you a tantrum if you want to come at me with that attitude.

 

[bubblegum]

Yes!

Fuck yeah.
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I can give you a tantrum if you want to come at me with that attitude.

woah..... calm down buddy... i dont want to have to use this... *i inch my hand towards my holster on my hip*

 

[Cindy]

As someone who heavily dabbles in lore for roleplay purposes, HL:A concerns me solely on the level that Laidlaw is no longer involved. I feel like this could have major impacts on how they see the world in remaking the Half-Life environment and drastically change the tone of the setting rather than add to it.

There's definitely a lot to take inspiration from (you bet I'm going to be doing that overhead cord stuff with my map, holy shit) but I'm most likely going to keep it at arm's length until I'm convinced that it's in the same realm of creativity and not like the beta content where it's a completely different animal of a setting. Call me a purist.

I'm saddened that they went with the route of building the citadels instead of warping them in. Something oh so satisfying about the idea of just opening a superportal overhead and thrusting this massive black spear into the earth.

The exoskeleton rigs overtop of striders so that they can be used as platforms is such a neat way to spin how the Combine think of bipedal accessibility as an afterthought. Wonderful.

One of the things I really liked about this though is how human the overwatch soldiers sound. One step closer to convincing roleplayers everywhere that transhumans are characters and aren't just mindless S2K tools...

Radical take: I think that, content wise and VR exclusivity aside, if this holds true to the Laidlaw brand of Half-Life, this is better than an HL3. Sure, no Gordon, no Borealis, still a huge cliffhanger after Episode 2, but what we get is a chance to go back to the heart of Half-Life 2's setting: City 17. I doubt anyone expected them to touch upon the city environment again with another installment, the very setting we as roleplayers have been dabbling in for many years, some of us as far back as 2004 roleplaying in Half-Life 2 Deathmatch.

I'm excited, anxious, disappointed, surprised, but overall curious about this new game.

 

[Deleted member 442]

woah..... calm down buddy... i dont want to have to use this... *i inch my hand towards my holster on my hip*

You keep that vive controller in your holster buddy or I'm unplugging your headset.

 

[Señor Jaggles]

Oh fuck off with that shit Jaggles. I wasn't throwing a tantrum or saying no one can enjoy it. I even said the trailer gives me a boner because I actually like what I see in terms of a game. I can give you a tantrum if you want to come at me with that attitude.

No, half the people here is all about "the paywall"

Well the paywall isn't that big and ultimately due to updates on graphics and such people already spend 200-300€ from time to time so come on

There's no "fanbase dividing" here, and you're literally throwing a tantrum right there. "I can give you a tantrum if you want to come at me with that attitude.", what the fuck man nobody is looking for a fight

 

[bubblegum]

One step closer to convincing roleplayers everywhere that transhumans are characters and aren't just mindless S2K tools...