After years of development and many ups and downs along the way, the developers have created a virtual reality mod for the original half-life 2 have announced a public beta that will start next month.
Half Life 2: VR has been in development for so long that it was originally part of Steam’s Greenlight program in 2017and in fact some project participants have been working on it since then 2013. The slow walking is mainly due to that not how alyxthe The game just wasn’t designed to be played in VR, so there are numerous sections that were difficult, if not impossible, to port to a headset.
Buoyed by the “overwhelmingly positive feedback from our private beta testers” over the last few weeks, the developers have steeled themselves and now believe in it “that the game as it is now not only can be played through from start to finish, but is also a lot of fun”.
As a result, they have announced that they will be holding next month a public beta showing everything that’s running so far. Which, judging by the trailer below, which includes vehicle parts, is a lot:
Surely you now have some questions, especially about movement and vehicles, for which the developer’s FAQ section has answers:
What movement options are there?
The mod features smooth locomotion where the direction of movement can be configured to either follow your head or either of the two controllers. Turning can be configured steplessly or at fixed intervals (snap turns).
No teleport movement is currently available, and it’s unclear if this will be a viable option in the future.
How do you deal with the vehicle parts? I don’t think I can take them in VR.
Right now, the vehicle rides actually require strong VR legs. However, there are some comfort options that will help you survive them. A classic movement vignette is available and can be activated for vehicle journeys. As you drive the vehicles, the edges of your screen will blacken, reducing your field of vision and reducing the effects of motion sickness. In addition, you can choose to experience the vehicle rides from a 3rd person camera perspective. In this mode, the camera follows the vehicle at a distance and is not directly exposed to the vehicle’s fast movements and turns, which should drastically reduce motion sickness. However, it makes controlling the vehicles a bit more cumbersome.
In the future, we may implement an additional mode where the vehicle journeys are displayed on a 2D virtual screen in front of the user, giving everyone the opportunity to progress through the vehicle sections in the game. This mode would obviously be less immersive than the current ones as it would remove any 3D effect from the experience.
This 2D virtual screen option sounds great for anyone getting nauseous! You can read more about the project and see which areas they are still tackling, on his website.
