DF Direct: Half-Life Alyx Reaction - Is This VR's First True Killer App?

Join John and (appropriately) Alex for their reactions to the surprise Half-Life Alyx reveal. How does it fit into the technical history of Half-Life releases? What cool features do we see from the Source 2 engine? And is this really VR's first true killer app?

[drealms]

I suspect Valve is holding back Half-Life 3 for the launch of PC2.

[leonthesleepy]

VR will allow Richard to finally utilize....
*HAND MOVEMENTS*

[Benamax]

The motion blur in the trailer is most certainly something specifically for the trailer to give it a more cinematic look. Every VR dev and player knows that motion blur doesn’t work in VR, and Valve is one of the more knowledgable VR devs.

[johnd]

I can’t wait for John to jury-rig a VR headset out of old CRT monitors for the Alyx release analysis.

[banban]

You know it's serious when Alex shows his face in the intro

[carpetfluff]

I've got zero issue with full analogue movement in VR. It's when they enforce blinders or tunneling that I get headaches.

[coolertuep]

19:35

That’s actually possible.
There are apps on sidequest that allow WiFi streaming. Latency can be an issue, but many people say it’s not noticeable

I think it’s called ALVR. You buy it on the quest store and get a extension on sidequest to make it work

[danwarb]

You've not done a VR headset comparison or review on here.

[stuckinthepastproductions]

That damn HL:A trailer. I've never watched a minute and forty-nine seconds of video so many times.

[CasepbX]

Full smooth locomotion movement in VR or GTFO! I didn't even have to "get over" anything. I do understand that some people can't do this though, and that really sucks for them. Teleporting around is so incredibly lame.

[Art-Sin]

For production values, Lone Echo, Asgards Wrath and Stormland are up there. Real, high quality VR titles that innovate the way we expect to play VR from now on.

HL - The name is certainly a killer app and i'll no doubt it'll be super polished but the titles i've mentioned plus Medal of Honor VR and line Echo 2 need to be highlighted.

hell, i bet new to VR owners will end up being addicted to games Such as Beat Saber, Project Cars, Dirt Rally, Elite dangerous, Ect, Ect, Ect. (blow the pancake experiences out of the water)

[galakstiv]

John (19:29) : "If there was some way to wirelessly connect the Quest to your PC" ... well that exists, it's called ALVR (maybe a future review in DF?). It streams the game running on your PC to your Quest headset.

Otherwise, the other solution would be to get the wireless kit or the HTC Vive / Vive Pro / Cosmos.

[mcrazza]

I look forward to the sequel Half-Life: Battaglia with RTX.

[jhcoverdrive]

18:45 using “turnsignal” in SteamVR you can keep from “over-winding” the cable pretty easily and it’s quite adjustable

[nSpiraliArchitectb]

I really hope Kelly Bailey is doing sound production and engineering again.

[purrspctiv]

19:43 what the hell happened there with his hands

[FesterThanLight]

I only noticed now the huge scar on Alex's face, this in combination with his massive jaw makes him so badass: practically an action movie hero.

[kidShibuya]

17:00 omg you prefer warping? It's just terrible, worst control method ever invented. It makes you feel trapped and stuck in place.

[kunanon]

"Flat screen experience" is sounds like move from CRT to LED back in the day.

[Clairvoyant]

Here is why I'm pretty hyped for this: Valve, as far as I remember, never released a game that didn't play great. Add to that their ability to tell a good story in first person, I'm really looking forward to seeing what Valve does in VR.