5 ms·

Wait, so is that "beta" of Half Life 2 VR a thing I can play? If it is, how did I not know about this, and if not... why not? I'd also love to play Portal, act

Wait, so is that "beta" of Half Life 2 VR a thing I can play? If it is, how did I not know about this, and if not... why not? I'd also love to play Portal, actually. They say it makes you sick, but to my knowledge I'm immune from VR motion sickness, so worth a try...

aranelsurion 11mo ago
I don’t know about the beta, but there’s an excellent HL2 VR conversion mod you can play today. It feels just right and got me to play HL2 again after all these years.
- Philpax 11mo ago
  https://store.steampowered.com/app/658920/HalfLife_2_VR_Mod/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/658920/HalfLife_2_VR_Mod/
  - accrual 11mo ago
    Fantastic! If HL3 releases on VR, maybe I'll do HL2 in VR (refresher), then Alyx, then HL3. :)
    - phantasmish 11mo ago
      HL3 exclusively in VR is likely the only thing that’d get me to increase my “time spent in VR” from the current about-ten-minutes to about six hours.
      - Agentlien 11mo ago
        Interesting that Half-Life: Alyx exclusively in VR wasn't enough, then. I love VR and that game is the best VR experience I've had.
        BoGoToTo 11mo ago
        It's kinda sad, with all the time an money spent on VR, HL:Alyx remains the only truly great VR game.
        phantasmish 11mo ago
        It’s something I keep meaning to play. My wife got a decent headset for free through work about three or four years ago, and after we both played a collective 15 minutes of Beat Saber it’s been gathering dust on the top shelf of a closet ever since. We used to play tons of DDR and Wii Sports so we like moving-around games but the thing just didn’t interest either of us, at all. Alyx just hasn’t been quite enough motivation for me to take on the project of figuring out how to get it hooked up and working, though I did at one point do the few minutes of googling to confirm it might work (I think it’s one of those Facebook ones, and as I recall it is supposed to work for Alyx but I’ll need some cable or other). Especially since it’s a fairly short side-story, it’s just not enough juice to be worth the squeeze. The conclusion of the series (until it’s not the conclusion any more—yeah, I know how franchises work, lol) though? That’d do it. If I already had it out and used it regularly I’m sure I’d have played Alyx by now, but with that being the only thing I have any interest in doing with it, just not enough to get me to set the thing up for that alone.
        Philpax 11mo ago
        Alyx has implications for 3, and 3 will almost certainly follow on from Alyx, if that helps :-)
        phantasmish 11mo ago
        Maybe when I get that new Steam gaming computer (day 1 purchase… assuming the price isn’t crazy-high) I’ll get around to it.
    - zbendefy 11mo ago
      there is also a vr mod for HL1 as well
davepdotorg 11mo ago
There’s a great VR mod for Portal 2. Played it all the way through. Surprisingly comfortable to play too.
- patrickdavey 11mo ago
  I'm pretty sure I'd be vomiting everywhere! I'm amazed you found it comfortable!!
Shekelphile 11mo ago
It was publicly released in 2013 and you can enable it with -vr in args IIRC. Not sure if it would work with modern VR hardware since steamvr wasn't a thing back then.
- account42 11mo ago
  It did work with the Index at some point. Valve have been neglecting VR though (especially on Linux) so I wouldn't bet on it still working.
  - RobKohr 11mo ago
    Considering the upcoming release of Frame, a VR headset based on Linux, I feel this couldn't be a more untrue statement. The real truth is they moved out of the game development space and embraced the game platform space letting their old products wither and die.
    - akimbostrawman 11mo ago
      Both can be true considering they are very different projects and hardware. SteamVR on linux even with a steam index has many issues. I am sure however that the linux support of the frame will be much better considering it also releases alongside there own Linux PC.
- Wowfunhappy 11mo ago
  Ah, it predates SteamVR! Thanks, that explains why I didn't know about it.

aranelsurion 11mo ago

I don’t know about the beta, but there’s an excellent HL2 VR conversion mod you can play today. It feels just right and got me to play HL2 again after all these years.

Philpax 11mo ago
https://store.steampowered.com/app/658920/HalfLife_2_VR_Mod/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/658920/HalfLife_2_VR_Mod/
- accrual 11mo ago
  Fantastic! If HL3 releases on VR, maybe I'll do HL2 in VR (refresher), then Alyx, then HL3. :)
  - phantasmish 11mo ago
    HL3 exclusively in VR is likely the only thing that’d get me to increase my “time spent in VR” from the current about-ten-minutes to about six hours.
    - Agentlien 11mo ago
      Interesting that Half-Life: Alyx exclusively in VR wasn't enough, then. I love VR and that game is the best VR experience I've had.
      - BoGoToTo 11mo ago
        It's kinda sad, with all the time an money spent on VR, HL:Alyx remains the only truly great VR game.
      - phantasmish 11mo ago
        It’s something I keep meaning to play. My wife got a decent headset for free through work about three or four years ago, and after we both played a collective 15 minutes of Beat Saber it’s been gathering dust on the top shelf of a closet ever since. We used to play tons of DDR and Wii Sports so we like moving-around games but the thing just didn’t interest either of us, at all. Alyx just hasn’t been quite enough motivation for me to take on the project of figuring out how to get it hooked up and working, though I did at one point do the few minutes of googling to confirm it might work (I think it’s one of those Facebook ones, and as I recall it is supposed to work for Alyx but I’ll need some cable or other). Especially since it’s a fairly short side-story, it’s just not enough juice to be worth the squeeze. The conclusion of the series (until it’s not the conclusion any more—yeah, I know how franchises work, lol) though? That’d do it. If I already had it out and used it regularly I’m sure I’d have played Alyx by now, but with that being the only thing I have any interest in doing with it, just not enough to get me to set the thing up for that alone.
        Philpax 11mo ago
        Alyx has implications for 3, and 3 will almost certainly follow on from Alyx, if that helps :-)
        phantasmish 11mo ago
        Maybe when I get that new Steam gaming computer (day 1 purchase… assuming the price isn’t crazy-high) I’ll get around to it.
  - zbendefy 11mo ago
    there is also a vr mod for HL1 as well

davepdotorg 11mo ago

There’s a great VR mod for Portal 2. Played it all the way through. Surprisingly comfortable to play too.

patrickdavey 11mo ago
I'm pretty sure I'd be vomiting everywhere! I'm amazed you found it comfortable!!

Shekelphile 11mo ago

It was publicly released in 2013 and you can enable it with -vr in args IIRC. Not sure if it would work with modern VR hardware since steamvr wasn't a thing back then.

account42 11mo ago
It did work with the Index at some point. Valve have been neglecting VR though (especially on Linux) so I wouldn't bet on it still working.
- RobKohr 11mo ago
  Considering the upcoming release of Frame, a VR headset based on Linux, I feel this couldn't be a more untrue statement. The real truth is they moved out of the game development space and embraced the game platform space letting their old products wither and die.
  - akimbostrawman 11mo ago
    Both can be true considering they are very different projects and hardware. SteamVR on linux even with a steam index has many issues. I am sure however that the linux support of the frame will be much better considering it also releases alongside there own Linux PC.
Wowfunhappy 11mo ago
Ah, it predates SteamVR! Thanks, that explains why I didn't know about it.