When Half-Life 2 launched it was one of the turning points for the genre of first-person shooters (FPS). It’s one of the most respected games ever made and still has a very active fanbase. As such, it comes as no particular surprise that the Steam community bestowed its approval upon an attempt to make the title into a virtual reality (VR) experience.
A small group of fans with no affiliation to Valve have been working on a way to bring Half-Life 2 into VR since 2013, and in fact a version of the mod was available for the Oculus DK1 with support for Razer Hydra controllers, but since so much has changed in the VR sphere since then, the group elected to take a chance on the Greenlight process.
It took a grand total of four days for the project to receive enough votes to pass the Greenlight process and be approved. The mod team were very happy as the news, announcing on the Steam Page: “The whole team offers their heartfelt thanks to the ~15,769 wonderful people who have voted for us at the time of writing! The 95% yes rate and all the positive comments have given us many warm fuzzies over the last couple of days and kept us on the front page of the Steam community and the Half-Life 2 page.”
In addition, the team said that having the project on Steam would make the mod easier to develop and publish, but they also pointed out that they were all volunteers and as such couldn’t as of yet give a definite release date beyond ‘soon’. The team also said they were still seeking talented people with experience in programming or graphics, and encouraged such people to make themselves known to the team via Reddit or the Steam Greenlight page.
It is hoped that some gameplay footage and new screenshots will be made available soon, but in the mean time offer an image gallery to whet the appetite of fans.
VRFocus will continue to bring you news on further Half-Life 2 VR mod progress.
Update: Unsurprisingly, it hasn’t taken Half-Life 2 VR long to be approved on Steam Greenlight. The mod was greenlit this morning.
“The whole team offers their heartfelt thanks to the ~15,769 wonderful people who have voted for us at the time of writing!” the team wrote in an update. “The 95% yes rate and all the positive comments have given us many warm fuzzies over the last couple of days and kept us on the front page of the Steam community and the Half-Life 2 page.”
No date has been given just yet.
Original story: If there were ever a Steam Greenlight project that deserved the entire internet’s collective power of clicking on a “Yes” button, then this Half-Life 2 VR mod would be that project. We originally reported on the mod last month when a short teaser trailer was released by the SourceVR Mod Team on YouTube, but one of the mod’s chief creators, Worm Slayer, has now released a full features trailer, along with an actual Greenlight campaign. You can watch the new footage below:
With this new information we now know for sure that motion-tracked controllers will be fully supported, instead of just keyboard and mouse controls, and both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive will be able to enjoy the mod in perfect platform parity. It’s been in development since 2013 and will require that players own Half-Life 2, Half Life 2: Episode 1, and Half Life 2: Episode 2 all on Steam. The mod will purportedly pull from those files for assets.
In addition to the motion controller support the mod will have updated effects and textures so it looks good up close in VR, a remade GUI that’s in 3D and designed specifically for VR, realistic weapon interactions like manual reloading, and a multitude of locomotion options to fit all playstyles. All of those enhancements seem to make great sense considering the game originally released 13 years ago.
To be clear, this is not created by Valve. Since this is a mod its release will likely be very similar to the Portal Stories: VR mod created by Prism Studios. It is free to download for owners of Portal 2, but does include new content. This Half-Life 2 VR mod is expected to follow that sort of release as well more than likely.
An exact release date is unknown, but the Greenlight page does indicate it should release “soon”. In the meantime, enjoy some gorgeous new screenshots below and both trailers embedded above. Which games do you hope Valve is working on for its VR projects? Do you think one of them will be Half-Life related? Let us know down in the comments below!
Valve’s Half-Life 2 has become one of the most revered videogames in the industry’s history since its launch way back in 2004. So back in 2013 a dedicated group – unaffiliated with Valve – decided to mod the title so that it was playable in virtual reality (VR). Since then images and videos have been teased – the last was in April – but today Half-Life 2: VR moves one step closer to release by appearing on Steam Greenlight.
Actually, the mod was available back in 2013 for the Oculus DK1 with support for the Razer Hydra controllers, but a lot has happened since then. The latest version will support Oculus Rift and HTC Vive with full motion controller functionality. Half-Life 2: VR will also include updated effects, textures, models and maps, a 3D, made for VR GUI and multiple VR locomotion methods so whether players prefer teleportation or full first-person shooter (FPS) controls everyone should be catered for.
While Half-Life 2: VR needs a suitable amount of votes to pass Steam Greenlight the chance of this not happening is very slim – Half-Life 2 is just too well loved to not succeed.
As it is a mod Half-Life 2: VR isn’t going to be a standalone videogame, players will need the normal desktop versions of Half Life 2, Half Life 2: Episode 1 and Half Life 2: Episode 2 on Steam, but the mod will be distributed for free.
Checkout the Steam Greenlight trailer below, and for further updates keep reading VRFocus.
Praised as one of the greatest games ever made, the 13 year old Half-Life 2 is a lauded piece of gaming history. But soon you’ll be able to revisit the perils of City 17 using the latest and greatest VR hardware around. A reborn mod project is bringing compatibility for the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive with full motion input support, remastered visuals, a made-for-VR UI, realistic weapon interactions, and more.
Those who have been following the modern VR era since the beginning may recall the original HLVR mod launched in 2013 that was well ahead of it’s time, offering motion-controller input via the Razer Hydra, literally years before Oculus or Valve would announce their own VR controllers. Here’s some gameplay from the original mod played on the Rift DK1.
Back then we said that the mod “turned Half-Life 2 into one of the best virtual reality experiences available today.” Sadly, it wouldn’t last. While Valve had added support for the Rift development kits to their Source engine, as the software that the headsets relied on advanced over time, Valve didn’t update the Source implementation, leading to the present situation which is that the mod can’t be played on anything but old development kit headsets.
A Mod Reborn
After several years of the mod in dormancy, members of the original mod, with some new help, have devised a method to make the mod work with the latest Rift and Vive. Watch the trailer above. Not only will it allow players to step into the world of Half-Life 2 in VR, it will also add motion controller support to make the game function much like a modern VR title. The mod team is further promising the following:
HDR lighting
Updated effects, textures, models & maps
A made for VR UI
Realistic weapon interactions
Multiple VR locomotion methods
The mod team is sensibly calling the package Half-Life 2: VR (not to be confused with the original mod’s name, HLVR). It will be released entirely for free, though it does require a copy of Half-Life 2 and Episode 1 & 2 to work correctly. Luckily you can pick up all three, along with Portal (2007) for the entirely reasonable price of $20 via The Orange Box.
But in order to launch the Half-Life 2: VR mod on Steam for a simple one-click installation, the team needs your help. The group has launched a Steam Greenlight campaign for the project, which allows the community to vote on those which they think should be allowed to be distributed through Steam. Head over to the page to vote for the mod if you’d like to step into the shoes of Gordon Freeman in VR.
Perhaps one of the coolest parts of the Half-Life 2: VR mod is the ability to feel like you’re really wielding the game’s arsenal of memorable weapons. Because the game was originally a flat first-person-shooter, the mod team had to rebuild many of the weapons to be viewed from any angle now that players can hold them in any position.
They also went one step further, adding realistic reloading gestures. Several weapons require additional actions from the player to complete the reload. The .357 Magnum Revolver, for instance, requires the player tilt the gun up to dump out the spent cartridges, then swing the chamber back into place with a flick—much like the reload mechanism of Dead & Buried.
And yes, you can physically swing the Crowbar to break boxes and kill enemies.
The team has described the current set of reload operations as “gesture-like”, but say they plan to build these out further over time, making them more realistic. Work is already underway for a motion-based pump-reload on the Shotgun (yes please).
Presently, guns are linked to your right hand (as per the original programming), but the team plans to offer ambidextrous support in the future and make the two-handed weapons wieldable with input from both hands.
We’re eagerly awaiting the three VR games that Valve is working on right now but, at the same time, modders are bringing Rift and Vive support to the studio’s most beloved game, Half-Life 2. New footage of that mod has been released today.
The trailer below starts off by offering a glimpse of City 17, which serves as the game’s memorable opening location. We can’t wait to explore it in VR, but far more tantalising is the second half of the footage, which shows the game’s iconic Gravity Gun being controlled with position-tracked devices like the HTC Vive wands or the Oculus Touch controllers. The idea of running through the entire campaign inside the Rift or Vive is, quite frankly, very exciting indeed. No word on when the mod will be released yet but you can’t be sure we’ll keep an eye out.
