Half-Life 2 Update Brings Beta Linux and Oculus Rift Support

[ríomhaire]

Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Half-Life 2: Lost Coast and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch have all been updated with Linux support. With this Gordon Freeman's entire saga (to date) is now available on Windows, MacOS and Linux. With Portal having arrived on Linux last week and Left 4 Dead 2 at the end of April Valve are getting all their big titles ready for Linux for their upcoming SteamBox platform.

An update also included Oculus Rift support for Half-Life 2 as detailed on the official Oculus forums. All the settings from the Team Fortress 2 implementation of Rift are available plus two additional setting to adjust the position of Gordon's arms in the first person view "so the elbows are harder to see and it feels more attached to your body." Instructions on how to activate the VR beta can be found on PCGamingWiki.​

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Speaking of Half-Life 2 and the Oculus Rift, do you remember the Half-Life 2 VR mod we posted about a while back? The devs have been hard at work on it and have added Razer Hydra support. With this the player's hands can be fully tracked in 3D space with the Razer Hydra allowing for features like the ability to aim down the sights of the gun in a realistic fashion for aiming without slowing down movement or play, rather than the head-glued-gun method featured in many modern shooters, and also to use the crowbar by physically swinging it at those pesky headcrabs! See the latest video below:​

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[Dr. House]

Because people without arms is way more realistic that people with the arms quiet...
Well, I guess Rayman likes it XD

 

[Lobster]

I really want to buy an Oculus Rift, I hope the retail version isn't TOO far off.

Predicted order for the remaining games awaiting Linux Support: Portal 2 > CSGO > DOTA 2 with DOD:S and Alien Swarm to follow once Valve complete their winged-porcine genetic experiment.

 

[ríomhaire]

They still have to do Half-Life: Source and Half-Life Deathmatch: Source too but I wouldn't be surprised if they never bother with them.

 

[Skyace65]

I really want to buy an Oculus Rift, I hope the retail version isn't TOO far off.

Predicted order for the remaining games awaiting Linux Support: Portal 2 > CSGO > DOTA 2 with DOD:S and Alien Swarm to follow once Valve complete their winged-porcine genetic experiment.

DOTA 2 doesn't even have MAC support yet so I would assume that would be really low priority. hell it doesn't even have controller support either(it definitely could work like that)

 

[Vegeta897]

hell it doesn't even have controller support either(it definitely could work like that)

No, no.

 

[Exdread]

I would love to use the Oculus Rift! But swinging my arms around the room with a plastic toy gun is a big no no.

 

[Rorschach120]

No, no.

Dude...

*pelvic thrust*

"THUNDERGOD'S WRATHHH"

GG

 

[ríomhaire]

No, no.

As someone who doesn't really like MOBAs/ARTSs/AoS-likes/Dota-likes/ASSFAGGOTSs and has not played much of them it does seem like it could work to me, at least for heroes who don't duplicate or spawn extra minions to control. Left stick for move, right for aiming abilities, dpad and face buttons for inventory related stuff and voice chat. I didn't think APM was so important in Dota compared to just quick reactions. Again, this is all very much an outside perspective, please correct me if I'm wrong.

Also, the Rift could be cool for the spectator client. Like a god's eye view of the battlefield where you can turn your head to glance up a lane.

 

[morgs]

There's no way a controller would work with DOTA. Abilities work in a multitude of different ways, and you just wouldn't be able to put them all on one stick so they would function properly. Having spells like blink to make a split second getaway just wouldn't be possible.

 

[Vegeta897]

As someone who doesn't really like MOBAs/ARTSs/AoS-likes/Dota-likes/ASSFAGGOTSs and has not played much of them it does seem like it could work to me, at least for heroes who don't duplicate or spawn extra minions to control. Left stick for move, right for aiming abilities, dpad and face buttons for inventory related stuff and voice chat. I didn't think APM was so important in Dota compared to just quick reactions. Again, this is all very much an outside perspective, please correct me if I'm wrong.

6 item buttons, 4, sometimes 5 ability buttons, shop buttons, level up button, voip button. There aren't enough buttons on a controller to do all that stuff. But that's not even the bad part. Using a stick to move your hero, or any kind of relative movement, would be so awful. You need to be able to have your hero moving in some direction while looking somewhere else. How would you use a TP to go where you wanted on the minimap? Using another stick for 'aiming' abilities is also terribly imprecise.

Long story short, not only would using a controller be very frustrating, but nobody using one would stand a chance against someone with mouse and keyboard. Like, imagine the gap in FPS games but times 100.

 

[Skyace65]

6 item buttons, 4, sometimes 5 ability buttons, shop buttons, level up button, voip button. There aren't enough buttons on a controller to do all that stuff. But that's not even the bad part. Using a stick to move your hero, or any kind of relative movement, would be so awful. You need to be able to have your hero moving in some direction while looking somewhere else. How would you use a TP to go where you wanted on the minimap? Using another stick for 'aiming' abilities is also terribly imprecise.

Long story short, not only would using a controller be very frustrating, but nobody using one would stand a chance against someone with mouse and keyboard. Like, imagine the gap in FPS games but times 100.

left stick to move around the camera. A button to try and go someware. Y button to level up. RB and LB to switch between abilitys and press X to use. B button to acces inventory and than use D-pad to naviage and use X to select an item and B again to exit the menu. L trigger to open up a shop menu and use joystick to move around the menu, use D-pad to navigate crafting menu and use R-trigger to select a different item on crafting menu, start button to buy something.

this would work

 

[morgs]

Finding a mapping for different keys doesn't make it 'work'. I would LOVE to see ten people play a game with that setup.

 

[Vegeta897]

RB and LB to switch between abilitys and press X to use. B button to acces inventory and than use D-pad to naviage and use X to select an item and B again to exit the menu.

this would work

LOL

Yeah, try that out during a team fight (or any fight, really) and tell me how it goes.

Not to mention how imprecise giving orders would be. Imagine how many times you'd end up casting an ability on a creep when a hero is near them. Imagine trying to use something or attack the right hero in a team fight. If you lower the sensitivity, then you can no longer quickly look around.

There just is no feasible way to do it with a controller, without some extra peripherals on top of it. You need a device that can very accurately and quickly traverse a screen. The mouse is the most accurate, or a touch screen. But we've already discussed how unfeasible a touchscreen would be.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

Has Gordon turned into Rayman, with disembodied hands

 

[ríomhaire]

Has Gordon turned into Rayman, with disembodied hands

You were beaten to this joke by the first comment in this thread. Also the reason Gordon has floaty arms in this mod: Inverse kinematics is hard.

 

[Dr. House]

You were beaten to this joke by the first comment in this thread. Also the reason Gordon has floaty arms in this mod: Inverse kinematics is hard.

Yeah, I did beat him XD.
But the reason in not that "Inverse kinematics is hard", it's just that the arms are usually fixed in a position, and in that position the rest was never visible, so Valve just didn't model it. Not this "mod" allows you moving the arms outside of the "safe zone" where the cut is visible.
indeed it would be hard to make it right, but currently they didn't even try.