A new mod for Half-Life: Alyx recreates environments and assets from Half-Life 2 in VR, using the Source 2 engine.
Created by Vect0r, the mod is just a showcase for now and won’t be released to the public. It features the outdoor area of City 17 which Gordon Freeman runs through in the beginning of the game and shows some other Half-Life: 2 assets. So while it’s still exciting, the mod is just a demonstration and doesn’t represent a fully playable VR version of Half-Life 2 just yet.
As you can see, despite running on the new Source 2 engine that debuted in Half-Life: Alyx, the ported assets and visuals in the mod don’t look nearly as polished, for very understandable reasons. “I took the original map file and converted to Source 2 format and added to Half-Life: Alyx,” said Vect0r, in the video description. “In process, I converted assets of Half-Life 2 to Half-Life: Alyx as well. Things I was able to do was very limited since Valve didn’t share SDK with the public yet. [sic]”
Obviously substantial work would be needed, particularly with lighting and other effects, to properly port the Half-Life 2 assets into Source 2, for VR or otherwise. That being said, the mod does allow the player to use the reload and eject mechanic from Alyx, which is exciting.
While it’s just a demonstration for now, it bodes well for the future. It would be amazing to play through Half-Life 2 in VR using Alyx’s gunplay and mechanics. A group of developers is working on porting the original game to VR more fully, though.
If you’ve finished Alyx and you’re desperate for more Half-Life in VR, the original Half-Life game has been ported to the Oculus Quest and is fully playable, from start to finish. You can read a guide on what you need and how to set that up on your Quest here.
Would you like to play Half-Life 2 in VR? Let us know in the comments below.
