The VR shooter Half-Life: Alyx, which is said to be a new selling point for VR headsets, can suddenly be played with mouse and keyboard. He won't win a flower pot for beauty, but we'll show you why this discovery is still interesting.
Half-Life: Alyx was only released at the beginning of the week on March 23. The hype had previously led to the Valve Index being sold out worldwide. The international ratings go through the roof and Petra also sees Half-Life: Alyx as the best VR shooter of all time in her plus test.
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Half-Life: Alyx in the test – the best VR shooter ever
This is how you play Half-Life: Alyx without VR
The trick that makes Half-Life: Alyx a commercial desktop game was discovered by Tyler McVicker, founder of the Valve News Network. He uses the command »vr_enable_fake_vr_test«, which enables him to control Alyx with the mouse and keyboard and also shoot with the mouse.
The result is, of course, an optical disaster, because the system is not designed to function via normal PC control. In the clip you can see how Alyx's hand is wooden in front of the camera and the animation flickers like crazy.
Why is that still an exciting discovery?
The command was probably built in by developers for test purposes so that certain sections can be quickly checked on the PC without having to use the VR headset.
But that means that Half-Life: Alyx has a VR-less foundation, that can be used by modders to develop a PC version. This is unusual because most VR games would not be able to do this.
So will we see a half-life soon: Alyx for our desktops? Of course, it is also questionable whether the shooter could not lose its appeal as a result.
If you prefer to continue using the VR version, then Natalie has put together detailed tips for you against motion sickness in her Plus article.
