Half-Life Alyx launched a week ago and has received critical reception from both fans and press. Some are even calling it the best VR title ever made, and for good reason. Many VR titles are only a couple of hours long, whereas Alyx offers plenty of content and at a AAA game calibur, if not better.
Given that it’s a PC game and developed by none other than Valve, it was only a matter of time that some amazing mods were going to show up online. If you liked Alyx then there is some good news for you. A mod is being developed that makes Half-Life 2 into a VR game. There is a showcase available on YouTube as well, so you can watch the mod at work for yourself.
The modder Vect0r explained how he made all this work. He converted the original Half-Life 2 map into the Source 2 format, the same engine Alyx uses. After that, he just imported the map into a new game. Both HL2 and Alyx assets were used in the mod. However, this has not been an easy task. Valve didn’t share the software development kit (SDK) for Source 2, and that made the mod fairly limited. Unfortunately, that is not going to change any time soon. Valve confirmed back in January that they have no plans to share the SDK of Source 2.
Maybe this is the reason that the modder is not releasing the VR port for the game just yet. “I have no plans to share this yet since it's just a showcase demo and nothing more,” Vect0r said in the YouTube description. Looks like we are going to have to wait for a while before enjoying another HL game in VR.
Speaking of mods, there is another one that makes Alyx into a non-VR game. As expected, it is fairly limited and not even close to complete. Robin Walker, designer of Half-Life Alyx, even said that he is looking forward to a non-VR version.
So what do you think? Are you interested in playing Half-Life 2 in virtual reality? Have you played Half-Life Alyx yet? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
