Half Life 2 VR mod out (free on steam)

[FourWheelDrift]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2177750/HalfLif...

"Return as Gordon Freeman in a new VR adventure to City 17 and beyond. Deal with the consequences of your actions in Half-Life 2 with this community-made adaptation of Episode One to glorious roomscale Virtual Reality!"

Was released 17th March 2023

[8bit]

Thanks for posting, I'll have some of that.

[heisthegaffer]

Not played this for years, quite fancy connecting the Quest 2 headset to play it.

I do need a new PC though...

[Lucas Ayde]

Nice - the VR Mod for the main Half Life 2 story was excellent ... Really amazing how good a game that is almost 20 years old can look in VR, just through a mod. Obviously not up to Half LIfe:Alyx level but pretty amazing nontheless. Great that we can now also play Episode 1 in VR, roll on Episode 2!

I'd like to see Black Mesa brought into VR next ...

Wait - episode two VR mod is out in a few weeks time! Sweet.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2177760/HalfLif...

Edited by Lucas Ayde on Tuesday 21st March 12:35

Edited by Lucas Ayde on Tuesday 21st March 12:37

[Lucas Ayde]

heisthegaffer said:

Not played this for years, quite fancy connecting the Quest 2 headset to play it.

I do need a new PC though...

If you haven't tried Half Life:Alyx, now is the time to get it. Currently on the Steam Spring Sale for £20.

It's just amazing, probably the best VR game out there. The VR mod for HL2 was also pretty good though and likely less demanding on lower end PCs.

[heisthegaffer]

Lucas Ayde said:

heisthegaffer said:

Not played this for years, quite fancy connecting the Quest 2 headset to play it.

I do need a new PC though...

If you haven't tried Half Life:Alyx, now is the time to get it. Currently on the Steam Spring Sale for £20.

It's just amazing, probably the best VR game out there. The VR mod for HL2 was also pretty good though and likely less demanding on lower end PCs.

Cheers. Is that on PC?

[Lucas Ayde]

heisthegaffer said:

Cheers. Is that on PC?

Yep - PC. So you'll need to use Oculus Link (or better, Airlink or Virtual Desktop) , to stream it.

Obviously the more powerful your hardware the better it will look but I would say, back when I had a 3700X with 1060 6GB card, it actually played well and looked decent.

[heisthegaffer]

Lucas Ayde said:

heisthegaffer said:

Cheers. Is that on PC?

Yep - PC. So you'll need to use Oculus Link (or better, Airlink or Virtual Desktop) , to stream it.

Obviously the more powerful your hardware the better it will look but I would say, back when I had a 3700X with 1060 6GB card, it actually played well and looked decent.

Cheers. Will have a ponder about getting a new PC.

[8bit]

Lucas Ayde said:

Yep - PC. So you'll need to use Oculus Link (or better, Airlink or Virtual Desktop) , to stream it.

Obviously the more powerful your hardware the better it will look but I would say, back when I had a 3700X with 1060 6GB card, it actually played well and looked decent.

How do you use Virtual Desktop for games? For that matter, why?

[Lucas Ayde]

8bit said:

How do you use Virtual Desktop for games? For that matter, why?

It was the original app for the Quest that gave wireless PC game streaming, long before Oculus brought out Airlink for official wireless streaming.

It's called Virtual Desktop because the default interface you get is an actual virtual Windows desktop from your PC. You can launch games as per normal in Windows or just press the left Oculus button and you get a super-handy menu that includes a VR game launcher (shows Oculus and Steam VR games).

IMO it's a much easier/nicer to use system and well worth the small cost of the app (Airlink is of course, free).

[8bit]

Lucas Ayde said:

It was the original app for the Quest that gave wireless PC game streaming, long before Oculus brought out Airlink for official wireless streaming.

It's called Virtual Desktop because the default interface you get is an actual virtual Windows desktop from your PC. You can launch games as per normal in Windows or just press the left Oculus button and you get a super-handy menu that includes a VR game launcher (shows Oculus and Steam VR games).

IMO it's a much easier/nicer to use system and well worth the small cost of the app (Airlink is of course, free).

I have Virtual Desktop already, bought it ages ago to mess about with when I had my DK2. I guess the bit I'm unclear on is what benefit is there to starting a game from within that vs. just starting it in Oculus or SteamVR mode as surely that's just another layer or component taxing the system? The Quest2 has it's own, basic virtual desktop available when you start the link mode with the PC, is that not basically the same thing?

[Lucas Ayde]

8bit said:

I have Virtual Desktop already, bought it ages ago to mess about with when I had my DK2. I guess the bit I'm unclear on is what benefit is there to starting a game from within that vs. just starting it in Oculus or SteamVR mode as surely that's just another layer or component taxing the system? The Quest2 has it's own, basic virtual desktop available when you start the link mode with the PC, is that not basically the same thing?

I find Virtual Desktop a lot easier to use. Just click the left Oculus button and all your Oculus and SteamVR games are in the games menu ... a lot more intuitive than navigating the Oculus Airlink VR interface.

I also had a lot of issues with Airlink when I had to re-install my Oculus PC desktop client, as it wouldn't let me pair up again (the old pairing with the PC seemed to be 'stuck' in the Quest) and that only cleared up on the next Quest OS update which presumably wiped the pairing.

Also of course you can use VD to easily run any Windows PC software in your headset, not just PCVR games.

The only time I've used Airlink in preference to VD was when I was having issues with Myst ... which were quickly cleared up with some settings changes when I asked for help in the VD Discord.

But of course YMMV.

[8bit]

Lucas Ayde said:

I find Virtual Desktop a lot easier to use. Just click the left Oculus button and all your Oculus and SteamVR games are in the games menu ... a lot more intuitive than navigating the Oculus Airlink VR interface.

I also had a lot of issues with Airlink when I had to re-install my Oculus PC desktop client, as it wouldn't let me pair up again (the old pairing with the PC seemed to be 'stuck' in the Quest) and that only cleared up on the next Quest OS update which presumably wiped the pairing.

Also of course you can use VD to easily run any Windows PC software in your headset, not just PCVR games.

The only time I've used Airlink in preference to VD was when I was having issues with Myst ... which were quickly cleared up with some settings changes when I asked for help in the VD Discord.

But of course YMMV.

OK thanks. I think I'll have to try it as I'm still not getting what you mean. I don't use Airlink as it ran like crap when I tried it, possibly because I have a mesh Wifi setup (the documentation suggested this). I never use the Quest 2 standalone either, the only time I ever use either of the controllers is when I put the headset on to access Oculus Link and display the windows desktop, then I put the controller down and use mouse and keyboard to start whatever game I want to play via Steam or whatever.

Personally I'd be happier if the HMD would just default straight into Oculus Link and display the Windows desktop all the time as that's what I bought it for I picked it up to replace an HP Reverb G2 that kept breaking and the Windows Mixed Reality bks that just seemed to be trying to ruin any fun or usefulness of the device.

[Lucas Ayde]

8bit said:

Lucas Ayde said:

I find Virtual Desktop a lot easier to use. Just click the left Oculus button and all your Oculus and SteamVR games are in the games menu ... a lot more intuitive than navigating the Oculus Airlink VR interface.

I also had a lot of issues with Airlink when I had to re-install my Oculus PC desktop client, as it wouldn't let me pair up again (the old pairing with the PC seemed to be 'stuck' in the Quest) and that only cleared up on the next Quest OS update which presumably wiped the pairing.

Also of course you can use VD to easily run any Windows PC software in your headset, not just PCVR games.

The only time I've used Airlink in preference to VD was when I was having issues with Myst ... which were quickly cleared up with some settings changes when I asked for help in the VD Discord.

But of course YMMV.

OK thanks. I think I'll have to try it as I'm still not getting what you mean. I don't use Airlink as it ran like crap when I tried it, possibly because I have a mesh Wifi setup (the documentation suggested this). I never use the Quest 2 standalone either, the only time I ever use either of the controllers is when I put the headset on to access Oculus Link and display the windows desktop, then I put the controller down and use mouse and keyboard to start whatever game I want to play via Steam or whatever.

Personally I'd be happier if the HMD would just default straight into Oculus Link and display the Windows desktop all the time as that's what I bought it for I picked it up to replace an HP Reverb G2 that kept breaking and the Windows Mixed Reality bks that just seemed to be trying to ruin any fun or usefulness of the device.

I've got a mesh system too ... not really experienced many problems. I was worried that if the Quest connected to the 'wrong' disc (ie. not the primary one plugged into the router by ethernet cable) I'd get really bad performance but it doesn't seem to matter, or maybe I'm just lucky the headset is closest to the primary disc. The only issue I've come across is that the mesh system likes to bounce devices between discs depending on signal and can be a little too agressive, meaning that if you are streaming as VR game then you get a glitch should the mesh decide you need to be on a different disc suddenly, since unlike audio/video streaming you can't really buffer game streams especially VR ones. On my BT mesh you can turn off 'steering' (meaning that a device will stick with the first disc it connects to) and doing so stopped that from happening.


If you are using mouse/keyboard then presumably you are mostly playing seated stuff (racing, flight sims etc)? In that case, just use a wired connection ie a decent USB-C cable for Oculus Link and don't worry about wireless. Most of the games I play are best suited to standing and being wireless is a great advantage for that. I don't think I'd really be able enjoy games like HL:Alyx seated and a cable would be a real hassle when standing and moving around a bit.


I also play quite a bit of standalone Quest2 stuff too - despite being far lower spec than my PC, many of the games are still very good and the convenience factor is off the scale of being able to pick up the headset and be in a game inside a minute or two. The fact that I can easily connect to my PC (just launch the VD app on the headset and so long as I have the client running on my PC, connect straight in) and play PCVR stuff wirelessly is a huge extra bonus. It's just a really great headset all around - absolute bargain of the century when Facebook were heavily subsidising it and even at the new higher price points its still great VFM.

[okenemem]

them head crabs scare me lol

wouldnt dare play this in 3d