Category: Half-Life

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Modders Bring Half-Life To Oculus Go Via Quake’s Engine

half life

Thanks to the efforts of open source developers and modders, you can now play the original Half-Life on your Oculus Go. Well, sort of. It actually works by importing the game’s files into Quake’s engine.

Video from MrNeitey

Half-Life’s engine, GoldSrc, was actually just a modified version of the Quake engine. That engine was written by John Carmack and Michael Abrash in 1996 for Quake itself. Coincidentally, both now work on VR at Facebook. Carmack in particular was heavily involved in the creation of the Go headset.

The open source project QuakeGVR adds the Oculus SDK to a 2002 modification of the original engine.

So modders figured out that you can import the assets from Half-Life to the VR Quake app’s directory and actually play Half-Life. It’s not perfect, but the engine is similar enough that it does mostly work.

Source: UploadVR

It’s a little awkward to move around with Go’s touchpad, but that’s just the limitations of the platform. We didn’t try playing with a gamepad when testing it.

The developer of QuakeGVR stated they plan to bring the project to Oculus Quest– so hopefully you can play Half-Life on Quest too with full 6DOF head tracking when it releases.

The fact that a game released in 1998 using a modified engine from 1996 can be played on a standalone VR headset from 2018 says mountains about the value of open source software. Hopefully the VR development community adopts more open source principles so 20 years from now we can play Superhot VR in the Holodeck.

Installation

Want to get this running on your Go? As QuakeGVR isn’t available on the Oculus Store (likely due to copyright reasons), you’ll need to sideload it.

To learn how to do that, follow our guide: How To Sideload Apps And Games On Oculus Go

Once you know how to sideload:

    1. Download the latest release of QuakeGVR on your PC
    2. Connect your Oculus Go to your PC and use the ADB command to sideload
    3. Launch Quake in the Unknown Sources section of your Oculus Go library. Make sure it works properly, then close it.
    4. Sideload the Amaze File Manager if you do not already have a file manager on your headset
    5. Download the Half-Life 1 game files from the Oculus Browser in the headset. Alternatively, download them on your PC and then drag it into the Download folder on Go (but the USB transfer may take some time).
    6. Put on your headset and launch the Oculus TV app. Scroll down and open Amaze File Manager.
    7. In the QGVR folder delete the folder called id1
    8. Navigate to the Half Life files zip you downloaded. Click on it and click EXTRACT.
    9. Navigate to the extracted folders. MOVE/CUT the id1 and hl folders to the QGVR folder (where you deleted the old id1 folder).
    10. COPY progs.dat from the hl1 folder to the id1 folder.

When you open QuakeGVR it should now be Half-Life. Note that the menu won’t be different and it may take a very long time to load. But we tried it and it worked, so it should for you too.

DISCLAIMER: Sideloaded apps are by definition not vetted by Oculus. You install them “at your own risk”, as they could affect the security or stability of your headset.

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5 Reasons Why Half-Life Is Perfect For VR

5 Reasons Why Half-Life Is Perfect For VR

In case you hadn’t heard, we’ve got confirmation from multiple sources that not only is Valve working on its very own VR headset, but the headset is also expected to come bundled with a Half-Life VR game. Reportedly, this game will be a prequel story either before or immediately after Half-Life 2.

Today, November 19th, is the 20th anniversary of the original Half-Life. Around the world, Half-Life is widely regarded as one of the greatest games of all-time. Back when it first released in 1998 on PC, it set a new precedent for first-person shooters and narrative-driven games as a whole. Before then, the likes of DOOM and Quake had popularized corridor shooters overflowing with gore and enemies with little to no story, but after Half-Life everything changed.

In the above video, YouTuber Ahoy breaks down exactly what made the original game so revolutionary for its time. Furthermore, if you want to see someone play it with a fresh perspective (that’s right, I’ve never finished a single Half-Life game) you can join me for my planned Let’s Play series over on my personal YouTube and Twitch as well.

And finally, popular gaming documentary company, NoClip, is planning a new entry focused on the franchise as well — so that’s definitely worth a look.

But now let’s go to it! These are the main five reasons that we think Half-Life is a perfect fit for VR and why we can’t wait to learn more about this new game.

Focus On Atmosphere

In an uncharacteristic move for the time, the original Half-Life opened with a scripted trolly ride in which you stand there, watch environments pass by, and listen to voiceovers as you saw the opening credits on your screen, a lot like you’d see in a movie. It was slow-paced and deliberately atmospheric. VR games are always at their best when they’re designed with those sorts of themes in mind.

Without much surprise, Half-Life feels like the kind of series that would transition over to VR incredibly naturally. Whereas some games like Skyrim VR and Fallout 4 VR feel a little hamfisted, a Half-Life adaptation could feel incredibly bespoke and organic, especially if it’s being designed with VR in mind first and foremost.

Familiar World

If you take a look at many of the top-selling and best-performing VR games over the last two and a half years of consumer VR, you can clearly see that familiar IPs tend to do well. That’s why Bethesda adapted the worlds of Skyrim, Fallout, and DOOM instead of crafting brand new experiences and investing tons of extra capital.

Similarly, Half-Life’s world is regarded as one of the most treasured and well-known in PC gaming. Not only for the main series, but even branching out into the Portal universe as well. I’d be willing to bet that a Half-Life VR game would be a persuasive argument in favor of buying a VR headset, especially if it came directly from Valve.

Agency in the Experience

Gordon Freeman might be a well-known and recognizable protagonist now, 20 years after Half-Life first came out, but back then he was anything but iconic. Other than the main menu and box art, you never really see his face and he never once speaks. But instead of just being a vessel for destruction like in most other shooters, he still feels like a real character.

Half-Life did a great job of transferring that agency onto the player directly. When you interact with scientists, swing your crowbar, and gun down security guards it feels like a world that you are really exploring.

Great Storytelling

There are no cutscenes in Half-Life, at least not in the traditional sense. This goes back to the point about player agency, as you are always in control. But with that being said, it’s a strictly linear game with a curated story that’s meant to be experiences beat for beat the same way every time. And it’s fantastic.

Things start out slowly, but it’s a real roller coaster ride. And while it looks extremely dated by today’s standards, Half-Life and its sequel really did set the bar for storytelling in first-person action games. Its influences can still be seen today.

Modding Potential

Finally, this reason is less tangible in the game itself, but it would be a massive oversight to not mention the modding community that surrounds the various Half-Life releases. From official spin-offs like Counter-Strike, to popular user-made mods and endless iterations on the games, the Half-Life series attracts serious talent from the player base.

While a handful of VR titles have embraced the modding community, such as Pavlov VR, Beat Saber, and Skyrim VR, it’s not as common as early 2000s PC gaming modders. With a new Half-Life title focused squarely on VR, that could usher in a new era of excited modding talent.

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Valve soll an Half-Life VR arbeiten

Wie wir am Wochenende berichteten, sind Fotos von einem neuen Prototypen von Valve im Netz aufgetaucht, welcher mit Kameras für das Tracking ausgestattet ist. Wie Upload VR nun durch diverse Quellen erfahren haben will, soll es sich bei der neuen VR-Brille tatsächlich um ein geplantes Produkt für Konsumenten handeln, welches ein Field of View von 135 Grad bietet, mit Knuckles Controllern ausgeliefert wird und mit der “Vive Pro Auflösung” arbeitet. Zudem soll Valve bereits die perfekte Software zur Vermarktung in der Hinterhand haben: Half-Life VR.

Valve soll an Half-Life VR arbeiten

Valve Prototyp mit Tracking-Kameras

Upload VR gibt derzeit keine Einblicke in Half-Life VR, jedoch sollen die Quellen des Magazins berichten, dass Valve an einem VR Prequel für Half-Life arbeite. Dementsprechend soll Valve das Spiel wohl nicht als Half-Life 3 vermarkten, sondern als gesonderten VR-Ableger. Dennoch könnte Valve mit einem solchen Spiel für ein großes Interesse an Virtual-Reality-Brillen sorgen und eine perfekte Demo für die Knuckles Controller liefern.

Valve-Knuckles-EV3-Steam

Zwar ist Half-Life 3 bereits ein Running Gag, aber das Gerücht könnte sich bewahrheiten, denn auch Gabe Newell hat im Januar 2017 gesagt, dass Valve an Spielen für die Virtual Reality arbeite.

Aktuell ist noch nicht bekannt, wann und ob die neue VR-Brille von Valve mit Half-Life VR auf den Markt kommt. Sollte es das Headset noch 2019 in den Handel schaffen, könnte es eine starke Konkurrenz zur Vive Pro, Pimax 5K+ oder der Rift S werden.

Der Beitrag Valve soll an Half-Life VR arbeiten zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

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The Big Question: What Are Valve’s Three VR Games?

The Big Question: What Are Valve’s Three VR Games?

It’s an urban myth that Valve hates 3’s. The beloved studio has taken us up to Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Portal 2, Left4Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, and DOTA2, but it can can never quite bring itself to complete a trilogy. This week, though, the company announced that it’s breaking that curse in a way; it’s currently working on three VR games.

That’s enough to get anyone that’s been playing games over the last five to 20 years very excited. Over that period, this developer has released some of the most celebrated and popular games of all time, including pretty much all of the above. More recently, it’s turned its attention to VR and built the SteamVR system seen in the HTC Vive, as well as The Lab and Destinations. We’ve long wondered when Valve would combine its brilliant new hardware with its famed game making skills for a more robust experience, and now we know it’s really happening. One of these three could be Valve’s killer app.

But what is Valve actually making?

That’s the real question here, and one that we’ll go mad thinking over in the coming weeks and months. We’re expecting at least one of these games to be revealed this year but, until it is, we’re all going to be guessing as to what the studio is working on. Let’s get our thoughts in order.

New IP

This is probably the safest bet for at least one or two of these games. VR gives developers a whole new set of tools to play with and, while we desperately want to see some Valve franchises in VR, it makes more sense to build a universe from the ground up, or at least a new property in the existing Half-Life/Portal-verse. You shouldn’t turn your nose up at that thought; all of Valve’s celebrated series had to start somewhere. Think about how incredible the first Portal was, and then imagine if they could pull that off again in VR.

Team Fortress 3/Counter-Strike VR

At first we thought these were the least likely sequel options out of Valve’s stable of IP, but then we recalled the early days of the Oculus Rift, when development kit owners tried TF2 running on the headset. I also remembered that Valve recently invited the developer of one of VR’s most popular online FPSs, Onward, to work at their studio over January, seemingly legitimizing their belief in the genre. Could TF3 really be in the works?

DOTA Spin-off

DOTA2 already has some basic VR integration, but it doesn’t allow you to actually play the game. While we’d love for DOTA3 to fully support headsets, there’s no reason for Valve to make the sequel while this MOBA remains so popular, and certainly not restrict its popularity. But it could still put the series’ colorful cast of characters to work in VR with a spin-off adventure. There’s a lot of potential there we hope they’ll explore.

Left4Dead 3

It’s been a long time since we had a new entry in the Left4Dead series, unless you count the arcade installment that hit Japan a few years back. VR is the perfect venue for its return although, frankly, we’ve seen a lot of shooters that try to distill the series’ intense combat into a stationary experience. If Valve is making L4D3 in VR, we’d want it to be the full experience with full locomotion. How could they possibly pull that off? That’s up to Valve to solve.

The Lab 2

Valve assures us that these new games will be full experiences, but that doesn’t mean one couldn’t build on the world(s) it established in its free minigame compilation. The Lab still features some of the most compelling mechanics in VR and, if the company were to build some of these into full games, they could definitely create something compelling.

Portal 3

Personally, I’d bet that this is one of the three games; a trailer for the HTC Vive last year seemed to drop a pretty big hint that a Portal VR game was in the works. We’ve had a glimpse into what the mind-bending world of Portal can look like in mixed reality, but the potential for an amazing VR experience is almost too good to pass up. Imagine more intricate puzzles that have you sticking arms and heads through multiple portals to solve challenges. There’s a lot of great opportunity here. There is a solid but short VR mod for Portal 2 to tide you over in the meantime.

Half-Life 3

There, we said it. Don’t shoot the messenger.

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