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[Half-Life] 25th Anniversary Update and Documentary

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Posts

  • SyzygySyzygy Registered User regular
    Just got my index set up today and suddenly:

    "Insufficient System Memory".

    Wat.

    Oh shit, one of my RAM stick is dead.

    Oh, heheheh, heyyyyy, fuck me!

    I did get the play the opening part at least, but holy shit I get massive eyestrain and nausea. The eyestrain might be my glasses? I can't see more than a foot in front of me without them so I can't not have them for VR, but twice now I'v gotten horrible headaches/eye-aches within 30 minutes of using them. The headset is just so damn tight around the eyes with my glasses on it feels. I either need VR prescription lenses contacts, or lasik because even if the nausea is surmountable the eyestrain is worse.

    BTW, anyone got any hot tips for mitigating nausea?

  • Undead ScottsmanUndead Scottsman Registered User regular
    There should be an adjustment knob on the headset to increase/ decrease the distance between the eyepieces and your eyes.

  • FiatilFiatil Registered User regular
    edited March 2020
    Syzygy wrote: »
    Just got my index set up today and suddenly:

    "Insufficient System Memory".

    Wat.

    Oh shit, one of my RAM stick is dead.

    Oh, heheheh, heyyyyy, fuck me!

    I did get the play the opening part at least, but holy shit I get massive eyestrain and nausea. The eyestrain might be my glasses? I can't see more than a foot in front of me without them so I can't not have them for VR, but twice now I'v gotten horrible headaches/eye-aches within 30 minutes of using them. The headset is just so damn tight around the eyes with my glasses on it feels. I either need VR prescription lenses contacts, or lasik because even if the nausea is surmountable the eyestrain is worse.

    BTW, anyone got any hot tips for mitigating nausea?

    If you're getting massive eyestrain from just using the headset, you probably need to adjust your IPD (interpupillary distance). There's a slider for that on the underside of the headset (on the right side with the headset facing forward) and it will pop up a display showing what the IPD is set at as you use it.

    Figuring out your IPD is a different trick! If you wear glasses your optometrist would know, or it may be on your prescription, as it's needed for proper glasses fitting. If not, there are some apps you can use to measure it for you (there's one on the android store that's like $3 so I just went for it).

    And for tightness with wearing glasses, yeah make sure you're using the dial to move the lenses closer to/farther from your face. It's the knob on the right side of the headset -- you'll lose FOV if you push the lenses farther away, but it's a necessary tradeoff if you want to wear glasses.

    On the nausea front -- I'm assuming you're using teleport movement? That's going to be by far the easiest on your stomach. If you use traditional FPS movement, it's really rough on people that are new to VR. Your brain and inner ear are in a disconnect because your brain sees the world moving around you but your body doesn't "feel" you moving, which causes nausea. Some people are totally fine with it, and some people get used to it over time. If you're still having nausea despite playing on the most "comfortable" settings, or you want to suppress it and try less comfortable settings -- ginger pills are magic. They work great for treating nausea and are super cheap -- just take a couple before you VR and it should help a lot! I was doing that quite a bit when I first started playing games without teleport movement (teleporting gives me 0 nausea), as I'm prone to nausea. Over time I got over it and don't really need them anymore.

    Fiatil on
  • AxenAxen My avatar is Excalibur. Yes, the sword.Registered User regular
    Syzygy wrote: »
    -snip-

    BTW, anyone got any hot tips for mitigating nausea?

    Dramamine. Not even kidding, works like a charm for me.

    A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
  • PeewiPeewi Registered User regular
    Fiatil wrote: »
    Figuring out your IPD is a different trick! If you wear glasses your optometrist would know, or it may be on your prescription, as it's needed for proper glasses fitting. If not, there are some apps you can use to measure it for you (there's one on the android store that's like $3 so I just went for it).

    Or you could hold a ruler up to your face and look in a mirror.

  • FiatilFiatil Registered User regular
    edited March 2020
    Peewi wrote: »
    Fiatil wrote: »
    Figuring out your IPD is a different trick! If you wear glasses your optometrist would know, or it may be on your prescription, as it's needed for proper glasses fitting. If not, there are some apps you can use to measure it for you (there's one on the android store that's like $3 so I just went for it).

    Or you could hold a ruler up to your face and look in a mirror.

    If you want an inaccurate result, totally! It's recommended to have someone else do that for you at best, and you're still not going to get as accurate of a result as if you use an app that uses the credit card method (or an optometrist).

    It's better than nothing, but doing it yourself "tricks your eyes" for lack of a better term and is not as accurate as other methods.

    Fiatil on
  • ElvenshaeElvenshae Registered User regular
    Fiatil wrote: »
    Peewi wrote: »
    Fiatil wrote: »
    Figuring out your IPD is a different trick! If you wear glasses your optometrist would know, or it may be on your prescription, as it's needed for proper glasses fitting. If not, there are some apps you can use to measure it for you (there's one on the android store that's like $3 so I just went for it).

    Or you could hold a ruler up to your face and look in a mirror.

    If you want an inaccurate result, totally! It's recommended to have someone else do that for you at best, and you're still not going to get as accurate of a result as if you use an app that uses the credit card method (or an optometrist).

    It's better than nothing, but doing it yourself "tricks your eyes" for lack of a better term and is not as accurate as other methods.

    Don't most of the headsets help you adjust the IPD slider as part of set-up? The Oculus CV does, at least.

  • FiatilFiatil Registered User regular
    Elvenshae wrote: »
    Fiatil wrote: »
    Peewi wrote: »
    Fiatil wrote: »
    Figuring out your IPD is a different trick! If you wear glasses your optometrist would know, or it may be on your prescription, as it's needed for proper glasses fitting. If not, there are some apps you can use to measure it for you (there's one on the android store that's like $3 so I just went for it).

    Or you could hold a ruler up to your face and look in a mirror.

    If you want an inaccurate result, totally! It's recommended to have someone else do that for you at best, and you're still not going to get as accurate of a result as if you use an app that uses the credit card method (or an optometrist).

    It's better than nothing, but doing it yourself "tricks your eyes" for lack of a better term and is not as accurate as other methods.

    Don't most of the headsets help you adjust the IPD slider as part of set-up? The Oculus CV does, at least.

    Unfortunately, I'm not aware of any offical SteamVR stuff that does that. There was a homebrew app when the Vive first launched that did, but it was of kind of dubious accuracy and the best method seemed to be trying to line up the fresnel lense overlap that you could see on the Vive with a bright white screen. There may be some newer apps that do though!

  • DhalphirDhalphir don't you open that trapdoor you're a fool if you dareRegistered User regular
    half life alyx update; I'm a scared little baby who noped out at the first poison headcrab

  • DhalphirDhalphir don't you open that trapdoor you're a fool if you dareRegistered User regular
    edited March 2020
    I think I'll actually refund it. There's no way I have the spine to actually finish this.

    There's a PA strip that's applicable here.

    5txwxnun5db3.jpg

    Dhalphir on
  • SyzygySyzygy Registered User regular
    Fiatil wrote: »
    Syzygy wrote: »
    Just got my index set up today and suddenly:

    "Insufficient System Memory".

    Wat.

    Oh shit, one of my RAM stick is dead.

    Oh, heheheh, heyyyyy, fuck me!

    I did get the play the opening part at least, but holy shit I get massive eyestrain and nausea. The eyestrain might be my glasses? I can't see more than a foot in front of me without them so I can't not have them for VR, but twice now I'v gotten horrible headaches/eye-aches within 30 minutes of using them. The headset is just so damn tight around the eyes with my glasses on it feels. I either need VR prescription lenses contacts, or lasik because even if the nausea is surmountable the eyestrain is worse.

    BTW, anyone got any hot tips for mitigating nausea?

    If you're getting massive eyestrain from just using the headset, you probably need to adjust your IPD (interpupillary distance). There's a slider for that on the underside of the headset (on the right side with the headset facing forward) and it will pop up a display showing what the IPD is set at as you use it.

    Figuring out your IPD is a different trick! If you wear glasses your optometrist would know, or it may be on your prescription, as it's needed for proper glasses fitting. If not, there are some apps you can use to measure it for you (there's one on the android store that's like $3 so I just went for it).

    And for tightness with wearing glasses, yeah make sure you're using the dial to move the lenses closer to/farther from your face. It's the knob on the right side of the headset -- you'll lose FOV if you push the lenses farther away, but it's a necessary tradeoff if you want to wear glasses.

    On the nausea front -- I'm assuming you're using teleport movement? That's going to be by far the easiest on your stomach. If you use traditional FPS movement, it's really rough on people that are new to VR. Your brain and inner ear are in a disconnect because your brain sees the world moving around you but your body doesn't "feel" you moving, which causes nausea. Some people are totally fine with it, and some people get used to it over time. If you're still having nausea despite playing on the most "comfortable" settings, or you want to suppress it and try less comfortable settings -- ginger pills are magic. They work great for treating nausea and are super cheap -- just take a couple before you VR and it should help a lot! I was doing that quite a bit when I first started playing games without teleport movement (teleporting gives me 0 nausea), as I'm prone to nausea. Over time I got over it and don't really need them anymore.

    The IPD setting it's currently at is the only one that allows as close to perfect clarity as possible. Anything else and everything starts going out of focus. On the glasses front, I already have it at max distance, and my glasses are on the smaller side.

    Just out of curiosity, did you have any adjustment period to the whole nausea thing? If so, how long did it take you to adapt?

  • DhalphirDhalphir don't you open that trapdoor you're a fool if you dareRegistered User regular
    This is one of my favourite videos of the last couple weeks

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK_PdwL5Y8g&t=630s

  • Dark Raven XDark Raven X Laugh hard, run fast, be kindRegistered User regular
    So is Valve Index a good place to start with VR?

    Oh brilliant
  • DonnictonDonnicton Registered User regular
    Alyx is so much better of a character now that she has a game where her primary character traits aren't 1. Exposition dump 2. Fawn over Gordon

  • ZxerolZxerol for the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't do so i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered User regular
    So is Valve Index a good place to start with VR?

    I'd probably look into something like the Oculus Quest, which has the advantage of being self-contained if you want to dip into VR, and you can grab the link cable for heavy-duty PC VR stuff like Alyx. It also has the advantage of being like 600 dollars less than the Index.

  • DixonDixon Screwed...possibly doomed CanadaRegistered User regular
    edited March 2020
    Damn a jump scare got me good

    First 2 hours spoilers
    Before speaking to the dude with the head injury there is a set of stairs you walk down, there is the corpse on a mattress before the stairs and I figured it would come at me. I throw some bottles at it, just to test, everything looks good so I walk over and then to a window on the right, another zombie smashes through the window and yells at me...i yelled back, pulling that trigger over over

    10/10 would soil myself again

    Dixon on
  • FiatilFiatil Registered User regular
    edited March 2020
    Syzygy wrote: »
    Fiatil wrote: »
    Syzygy wrote: »
    Just got my index set up today and suddenly:

    "Insufficient System Memory".

    Wat.

    Oh shit, one of my RAM stick is dead.

    Oh, heheheh, heyyyyy, fuck me!

    I did get the play the opening part at least, but holy shit I get massive eyestrain and nausea. The eyestrain might be my glasses? I can't see more than a foot in front of me without them so I can't not have them for VR, but twice now I'v gotten horrible headaches/eye-aches within 30 minutes of using them. The headset is just so damn tight around the eyes with my glasses on it feels. I either need VR prescription lenses contacts, or lasik because even if the nausea is surmountable the eyestrain is worse.

    BTW, anyone got any hot tips for mitigating nausea?

    If you're getting massive eyestrain from just using the headset, you probably need to adjust your IPD (interpupillary distance). There's a slider for that on the underside of the headset (on the right side with the headset facing forward) and it will pop up a display showing what the IPD is set at as you use it.

    Figuring out your IPD is a different trick! If you wear glasses your optometrist would know, or it may be on your prescription, as it's needed for proper glasses fitting. If not, there are some apps you can use to measure it for you (there's one on the android store that's like $3 so I just went for it).

    And for tightness with wearing glasses, yeah make sure you're using the dial to move the lenses closer to/farther from your face. It's the knob on the right side of the headset -- you'll lose FOV if you push the lenses farther away, but it's a necessary tradeoff if you want to wear glasses.

    On the nausea front -- I'm assuming you're using teleport movement? That's going to be by far the easiest on your stomach. If you use traditional FPS movement, it's really rough on people that are new to VR. Your brain and inner ear are in a disconnect because your brain sees the world moving around you but your body doesn't "feel" you moving, which causes nausea. Some people are totally fine with it, and some people get used to it over time. If you're still having nausea despite playing on the most "comfortable" settings, or you want to suppress it and try less comfortable settings -- ginger pills are magic. They work great for treating nausea and are super cheap -- just take a couple before you VR and it should help a lot! I was doing that quite a bit when I first started playing games without teleport movement (teleporting gives me 0 nausea), as I'm prone to nausea. Over time I got over it and don't really need them anymore.

    The IPD setting it's currently at is the only one that allows as close to perfect clarity as possible. Anything else and everything starts going out of focus. On the glasses front, I already have it at max distance, and my glasses are on the smaller side.

    Just out of curiosity, did you have any adjustment period to the whole nausea thing? If so, how long did it take you to adapt?

    So this is kind of a weird one, but IPD shouldn't really affect vision in the sense of blurryness -- it's not a focal slider like adjusting the prescription on your glasses or anything. But if the current setting seems to make it less blurry, then go for it! I haven't really ever noticed more/less blur with the IPD being too high, but I'm not wearing glasses either. So maybe the "correct" IPD puts it in the best spot for your glasses, reducing blur because the lenses are aligned with the center of your glasses. It's a bummer that you're getting tons of eyestrain at that setting though -- the only time I've had people experience eyestrain when VRing is when the IPD is messed up. It's probably worth trying without your glasses at some point just to see if that affects your eyestrain -- there are prescription lenses and stuff you can buy if you want to go down that route, but it's worth a test to see at least.

    And yeah I had an adjustment period. I get really bad carsickness when I'm not in the driver's seat, and had heard about the ginger pills thing a long time ago (Mythbusters wooh!). I had a roadtrip to the Grand Canyon a few years ago and needed a fix, so I went trial by fire and gave the ginger pills a shot. It worked great! I could eat in the passenger seat and had no nausea at all, so I was pretty damn sold. I say that to say -- I knew going into VR that motion sickness was a big thing with non-teleport movement, and that I would probably need help. So as soon as I started playing less "comfortable" games (IE, games that use traditional FPS movement and not teleportation) I was already taking the ginger pills before I played. But, over time I stopped, and I don't have issues with it anymore.

    I should point out -- I only play VR games standing, unless it's a cockpit game like Elite or any driving game. This is because using the joystick to turn your vision in VR (think traditional camera controls in a console FPS) 100% makes me nauseous, and is a common cause of nausea. The key is to use your head for vision control, and only your head -- the head tracking in the headset is your friend. Once you start turning your camera in first person VR but your head isn't actually turning, that sends lots of bad signals to the stomach and is an extra level of nausea tolerance that I don't have. Not everyone does this -- it's fairly common to play stuff like Resident Evil VR sitting in a chair and using joystick movement to compensate for not being able to turn your head all the way around, but my stomach isn't a fan at all and if you're getting nauseous definitely avoid that stuff.

    Fiatil on
  • FiatilFiatil Registered User regular
    edited March 2020
    So is Valve Index a good place to start with VR?

    If you want the best experience, dive all the way in money be damned, then yeah. It looks like there's an 8 week wait for new headsets though, and they were out of stock for a long time prior.

    But it's quite expensive and you need to be pretty damn certain you want to VR for that. If you want to test the waters and not immediately spend $1000, then you're probably better off trying the Rift S if you have a gaming PC, and the Quest if not.

    Fiatil on
  • Albino BunnyAlbino Bunny Jackie Registered User regular
    I'm coming towards what I presume is the end of the hotel.

    Just did a sequence that solidified that I'm 99% certain you could write a review of this game where you just write fuck headcrabs over and over again.

  • ZxerolZxerol for the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't do so i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered User regular
    I'm coming towards what I presume is the end of the hotel.

    Just did a sequence that solidified that I'm 99% certain you could write a review of this game where you just write fuck headcrabs over and over again.

    I don't know if they used different proportions, VR making for a realistic perspective, or both, but turns out headcrabs are fucking huge. They're practically dog sized! That's fucked!

  • McGibsMcGibs TorontoRegistered User regular
  • SniperGuySniperGuy SniperGuyGaming Registered User regular
    I'm about 6 hours in and am going to stream more of it in just a few if you want to hear me shriek. And yes, I can see the twitch chat.
    twitch.tv/sniperguygaming

    There's an achievement to grab the heart out of a headcrab.

    I...don't think I want to get that one.

  • DarkPrimusDarkPrimus Registered User regular
    SniperGuy wrote: »
    I'm about 6 hours in and am going to stream more of it in just a few if you want to hear me shriek. And yes, I can see the twitch chat.
    twitch.tv/sniperguygaming

    There's an achievement to grab the heart out of a headcrab.

    I...don't think I want to get that one.

    Yo this game is scary as fuck

  • SniperGuySniperGuy SniperGuyGaming Registered User regular
    Okay so I didn't beat it, I'm on chapter number
    8 or 9?

    and OH MAN IT'S SCARY

    I met Jeff!
    FUCK JEFF SO HARD

  • DhalphirDhalphir don't you open that trapdoor you're a fool if you dareRegistered User regular
    i literally refunded

    not even joking, i can't handle this. HL2 was one of my favourite games, but I didn't even like Ravenholm much and after my very first playthrough of the game, every subsequent playthrough I used noclip to get through it instantly and just skip to the other side. In VR it's unendurable.

  • Undead ScottsmanUndead Scottsman Registered User regular
    Kinda wish we could split the difference between us. I've been startled a few times, but the teleport mechanic makes it trivially easy to get to safaty and reload or reassess your shots. Headcrabs and Zombies don't really phase me. Even
    Jeff didn't bother me much. About the only thing that actually scared the shit out of me was the Strider in the beginning, and that was just because I wasn't expecting anything like that in the beginning.

  • Albino BunnyAlbino Bunny Jackie Registered User regular
    Honestly teleport seems like it'd defuse a lot of the zombie/headcrab encounters because they seem designed just like old Resident Evil encounters where the stop and pop aim is supposed to bring tension.

    Also While I've being having fun I wish this game had significantly more bits of Combine fighting because Zombies/Headcrabs are often very routine to just shoot by the time you're most of the way through the hotel.

  • Undead ScottsmanUndead Scottsman Registered User regular
    I did have an amazing fight against the combine
    In the pavillion outside of the hotel. I had just gotten the assault rifle, which is a rad gun, and there were all these kiosks around with partially open windows that you could absolutely duck down and aim through and shoot the Combine through the partially open windows and it felt awesome)

    Haven't gotten that feeling again though. Also I apparently regressed on my grenade skills. I was doing kinda good but now I can never seem to throw them more than a foot in front of myself. Has made some encounters way more difficult than they needed to be.

  • augustaugust where you come from is gone Registered User regular
    Dhalphir wrote: »
    i literally refunded

    not even joking, i can't handle this. HL2 was one of my favourite games, but I didn't even like Ravenholm much and after my very first playthrough of the game, every subsequent playthrough I used noclip to get through it instantly and just skip to the other side. In VR it's unendurable.

    You should watch a video of this game if you are at all invested in the characters and universe of Half-Life, because this game Has Some Stuff In It.

  • Undead ScottsmanUndead Scottsman Registered User regular
    I just got to the part where
    Eli let's Alyx know that the Vault is actually a prison for.. something.

    I'm 50/50 on it being the Gman, which would be very interesting. We know a handful of hopped up Vortigaunts were able to keep him at bay, but if the Combine were actually able to imprison him, it'd be a huge revelation about his reletive power, as well as that of the Combine.

    Or it might be something else entirely.

  • TetraRayTetraRay Registered User regular
    Well game beat after 13ish hours. That was one fun ride, and I really hope they don't plan on waiting to long for more (HA! :( ). This clearly showed how good VR can be to me

    Steam ID: TetraRay
  • SniperGuySniperGuy SniperGuyGaming Registered User regular
    I beat it! It's incredible!

    Gonna have to mull over that ending for a while. holy shit.

  • ZxerolZxerol for the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't do so i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered User regular
    edited March 2020
    Alright, slowly making my through this game, got into the dumbest firefight. Construction yard, got jumped by a couple Combine assholes, found myself behind some construction junk, leveraging the door of a porta potty that I had searched earlier. And of course, naturally, one of said Combine assholes tossed a grenade at my feet. Sure, I could handle that, done so several times already.

    Except my brain sharted itself and I couldn't coordinate worth a damn. My dominant hand had a gun, and when I tried to stow it away to free up the hand, I ended up with the damn hack tool. In a panic, I tried using my other hand, but I couldn't for the life of me pick that fucker up. Panicking even harder and not wanting to run out of cover, I did the only sane thing left to do: jump the fuck inside the portapotty, slam the door shot, and wait for the boom.

    And it worked! When everything got quiet, I took a breather, slowly peaked the door open with the gun pointed out, and cap that motherfucker in the head. Had to save and take a break from all that. Good thing to because my controller just about had no juice left.

    This kinda scenario would be bog-standard routine in any other game, but the added stressors of VR made it into an event. It's some pretty dope shit!

    Zxerol on
  • Undead ScottsmanUndead Scottsman Registered User regular
    Beat it.

    Ending Spoilers
    The moment they went "It's Gordon Freeman!" I knew it was going to be the Gman, especially given they were using vortigaunts to power his prison.

    ...I did not expect the ending would tie so much into episode 2. I ESPECIALLY didn't expect it to retcon the ending the way it did. Half-Life is truly in uncharted waters now, I can't imagine what a sequel would look like now.

    Near ending mechanics/sequence spoilers
    When I realized they were giving you vortiguant lightning powers, I was so stoked. Excellent echos of the super gravity gun from HL2. When they interrupted that with a god awful low-g grenade tossing sequence I was flabbergasted; it ruins that entire end sequence! Just give me more combine soldiers to zap and puzzles to solve!

  • DonnictonDonnicton Registered User regular
    SniperGuy wrote: »
    I met Jeff!
    FUCK JEFF SO HARD
    Alyx makes the best remark if you check out Jeff's corpse afterward.

  • SniperGuySniperGuy SniperGuyGaming Registered User regular
    Donnicton wrote: »
    SniperGuy wrote: »
    I met Jeff!
    FUCK JEFF SO HARD
    Alyx makes the best remark if you check out Jeff's corpse afterward.

    That was so satisfying. Apparently there's a lot of different dialogue!

    Some spoikers:
    if you bring one or two bottles of vodka through the distillery, you get different dialogue from Russell. Depending on how fast you stab yourself with a health syringe the first time you'll get different dialogue. That stuff is so cool

  • augustaugust where you come from is gone Registered User regular
    It is shocking and impressive the degree to which the story of this video game is specifically for Half-Life fans, and no one else.

  • AumniAumni Registered User regular
    Just finished it! That was fantastic from start to finish. That ending will take some time to process. Valve knocked it out of the park!

    http://steamcommunity.com/id/aumni/ Battlenet: Aumni#1978 GW2: Aumni.1425 PSN: Aumnius
  • SyzygySyzygy Registered User regular
    edited March 2020
    Yeah what IS up with that ending? How did 19 year old past Alyx change... What she changed? Episode 2 went on after that scene didn't it? Wouldn't sad future her remember changing that scene? Also how can she be there in that scene mourning when she got pulled out of the plot by... the guy, as 19 year old Alyx?

    Ok, how the hell do I do spoiler tags? This is getting ridiculous.

    Sterica on
  • PeewiPeewi Registered User regular
    Syzygy wrote: »
    Yeah what IS up with that ending?
    How did 19 year old past Alyx change... What she changed? Episode 2 went on after that scene didn't it? Wouldn't sad future her remember changing that scene? Also how can she be there in that scene mourning when she got pulled out of the plot by... the guy, as 19 year old Alyx?

    Ok, how the hell do I do spoiler tags? This is getting ridiculous.

    Wrap the text between [ spoiler ] and [ /spoiler ] without the spaces.
    Some messed up time fuckery is going on here.

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