As of last week, it’s long been a dream to play Valve’s landmark 2004 shooter Half life 2 in virtual reality has finally become a reality. The journey began nearly 10 years ago, when a man named Nathan Andrews tried to put together a working version of the all-time classic in VR. This precedes any Vives, Indexes, Quests or Oculi. With one Original Sony HMZ-T1 and dedicated motion-tracking equipment, Andrews ventured into a resonant cascade scenario to bring together a working platform for a Half life 2 VR mode. Over the next decade, dozens of volunteers will contribute to this project, all hoping to one day take down enemies with a crowbar in semi-realistic virtual reality.
And now Half Life 2: VR Mod ready to play, thanks to the hard work of Source mod group VR and theirs Free, open beta available on Steam. There’s certainly more work to be done—a public roadmap shows what’s to come — but the entire main campaign is up and running, and the experience is pretty surreal. Sharp corners and all, Half-Life 2: VR Mod well worth checking out now if you can.
The difference is quite immediate. The opening scene of G-Man gives a completely different sense of scale because you have an active sense of depth. The image flickers and appears inside him as a fully realized 3D space, which you can actually look inside and see with greater depth and dimension. This new presentation gives more weight to the whole scene.
As a video game graphics experience in VR, it’s amazing. Your eyes can track flying debris and exploding crates easily and quickly by simply turning your head. Violence and realistic physics of Half life 2 no longer just simulations appearing on the screen in front of you; they are happening in a 3D space where you feel the presence and space in it. It all feels so natural that it’s easy to forget that this is the end result of a decade of offensive technology crafted by fervent fans.
And while there’s still a lot of work to be done on weapons, it’s thrilling to be able to hold, test, and battle these classic video game weapons. Smash aggressive, flying with crowbar in VR is so much fun that I wish there was only this one spin-off mini mod. And my Fitbit tells me I’m earning “Zone Minutes” by hitting these. The 9mm pistol makes it fun to aim and shoot (and yes, I aim with one hand only). More modern VR games tend to have smoother reload mechanics, so this mod feels a bit clunky at times, but the action is still fun and exciting.
In a way, it feels like Half life 2 was always supposed to be this way. It’s very easy to lose yourself in this mod, both as a VR experience and Half-life one. It easily passes the status of “tech beta” or “mod,” feeling like it is shaping up to be a solid VR game in its own right.
The Half-Life 2: VR Mod The project is currently being worked on by users from the Flatscreen server to VR Discord, led by WormSlayer, who has been involved since the early days of the project. At that time, WormSlayer caught Andrews’ early prototypes and dedicated talents, starting with the work of making gun models.
WormSlayer’s description of the mod’s early days sounds like something you need to smash together to survive in City 17 itself. The tech set includes a “head-mounted Sony TV, gun controller for professional 3D tracking and control panels [Andrews] had access to,” WormSlayer told Kotaku. The headset in question is the Sony HMZ-T1, which has “640×720 resolution for each eye and a 45-degree field of view,” WormSlayer said. That headset will be left in favor Oculus DK1, the first piece of hardware that Oculus integrated (now Meta) ever released. You can see footage from those early days in the 2013 YouTube video.
As such an early consumer VR experiment, the project is for a number of obstacles as new technology emerges, rapidly aging existing standards. “Both Valve and Oculus have abandoned the idea of a VR headset as just another screen,” says WormSlayer. “This was a good idea for many reasons, but it effectively disrupted VR support in Half life 2. “
After that, the team gave up for a while. Andrews has retired from the project entirely. However, VR eager community members convinced WormSlayer to reconsider removing it all together. “[They] WormSlayer is confident that they can hack OpenVR support into the legacy project,” WormSlayer said. And so the project shined again, making tremendous progress before once again falling asleep as the essential contributors resume.
Thankfully, young people Half-Life 2: VR Mod will really see a second resurgence as the Screen-to-VR community gathers a new team. Now that the public beta is out and playable, they are focusing their efforts on bringing the project to a full and complete state.
Playable and fun as it is now, Half-Life 2: VR Mod there are still some issues, mostly performance related. “The old engine was very single-threaded and only supported DirectX 9, so even if we attacked together DXVK WormSlayer said. While I still haven’t gotten to some of the more chaotic scenes in the second half of the game, I’ve found the performance so far to be pretty good. However, since there is no teleportation style movement option, this mod can be annoying if you are new to VR.
Finally, the physics and technology of Half life 2 Still a pleasure to play with 18 years later. VR just amplifies the matter of its world, with the ability to magically pick up and manipulate objects. Half-Life 2: VR Mod is not Half-life: Alyx considering the sheer number of interactable objects, but it also fits in with a VR-worthy prequel. And with the addition of a crowbar and a head-mounted flashlight, it has many features and amenities of its own. Being able to virtualize objects in the world is a refreshing way to revisit the game’s many puzzles.
What was most surprising to me, however, was how much this experience affected my perception of the game’s characters, especially the silent protagonist himself.
Gordon Freeman is a quiet guy even as he frantically destroys trash. But even just being able to nod to an NPC increases the interaction between characters by 100%. Playing Half life 2 and can wave to Dr. Kleiner when he screams with excitement when he sees you makes me wonder: Is Gordon Freeman a waver? Does he give a thumbs up to show that he understands? Does he shake his head or nod when people talk to him? How have I never thought of this in all these years?
NPCs also look at you in sight in a very strange way. This feeling exists in other, more modern VR games, but it was surprising to see it appear in a game from 2004. Simplicity of the models, with light animations on top and doubles. eyes suggestive of personality and perception, just enough of the eerie valley escape game into something that’s beginning to feel real.
I’m not saying that nodding, gesturing, and making eye contact are the cool features you list on the back of the box (that’s saved for viciously defeating monsters with metal with a crowbar and watch this classic in true 3D), but it will definitely change the tone of Half life 2. A little tip here: It’s a pity you can’t see your hands while driving the plane boat. Not only do my eyes never leave G-Man as I pass him during my escape from the Complex, I also love to stare and stick my nose at him, as if to say “I see you as a jerk.” wretched. I see you.”
I look forward to playing the rest of the Half-Life 2: VR Mod, spot the unique changes the new format will add and inspire. WormSlayer and team still have a lot of work to do, including more improvements to weapons, tweaks to make the game a bit easier for people prone to motion sickness, and even some raised textures. AI level to bring the older aspects of the graphics a bit of a facelift. Those changes would be very welcome, but for now this first playable version makes for a great way to return to this classic game. If you like Half-life and own a PCVR headset, you should download this yesterday.
