Half Life - Alyx

I'm not interested in any VR headset, but if I was I'd take the HP just because it doesn't require anything but the headset and controllers.

 

Yep, we're going that way. I've pre-ordered the HP. On to the next few months of waiting now!

In the mean time, I'm waiting for an answer from a few friends if they want the Index (without waiting in line).

Also, I can't begin to say how much I hate scalpers, so I'm going to ask for exactly what I'm paying for the kit. (well, if I do order it, I'll get Alyx in my account so that would be the only bonus).


BTW, I chuckled when I saw the price for the HP kit. It must be a good sign, right?

 

Everyone I asked either already got one or are close in the queue to getting one. I have 3 more days before I will cancel the order.

 

@hfm dude your like me never playing 2d games...if you checked out vr im sure you would never go back

 

Not interested, thanks though.

 

@cucubits check this out ridiculus price but pretty cool

https://www.sensoryx.com/



now they have full body tracking, talk about immersion

 

Vr is no doubt the future..but what do you guys think of vr suits

 

I just played till the second level feels like I need to be in my best mood to play this as it feels like the pinnacle of gaming.
also @cucubits the quest 2 is coming out and that will be the headset to beat as it has 4k displays and hand tracking as well as wireless. i'd cancel g2 if i was you

 

Nope, no way, I'm not going to support anything tied to facebook. I'm sure I'll be happy with the G2 too. Sadly nothing new on that front, no ETA for the orders from connection.com
I do hope we're close.

 

I heard the g2 is being upgraded hopefully this is true as this means it will be the top pc vr headset...I would sti ll go for the quest two due to wireless

 

Hopefully we're getting close. Last I heard the first batch for the G2 preorders from Connection will start shipping around the end of November. Fingers crossed. Folks who preordered after mid September are getting December estimates so this gives me hope with my August order.

This gave me fresh motivation to start preparing and I've finally got around to post the Vive set for sale. Someone will get to enjoy VR for not that much money. (not plugging my ad here, I'd appreciate if this does not get edited out )

 

yeah this game is ok..id say ok enough to be game of the year...what do you think as we have gone off topic

 

I did see a recent poll on Steam and to me the choice for Game of the Year came down to Alyx vs Death Stranding. Very tough choice, Death Stranding is totally unique and awesome but Alyx, man this is a game changer... and I'm a sucker for the whole Half-Life universe.

Half-Life 1, when it came out, blew my 15-16yo mind completely.

 

FYI, Alyx is 25% off on Steam until Nov 2nd.

 

I still can't beat the part where you have to open the console to open the first main door..and now my computer is being fixed Bah torture...anyone notice how fun this game is just walking around checking out the sights

 

Did you get your G2 and if so how is it

 

Not yet. Last I heard they're going to ship them soon. Maybe next week?

 

They actually shipped when they said they would

Got the G2 a few days ago but haven't had too much time to play around. Only installed The Lab on Steam. So far I have to say that the displays are very impressive. The image is perfectly clear, I can't see any lines/circles/pixels. Really, I can't imagine how they fit such high resolution screens in a tiny box.

Setup was easy. I'm not a fan that it uses Windows Mixed Reality portal but Steam VR works too after the required plugin is installed. Not having base stations is a huge plus for me as it's not restricting me to have just one play area set up and not crowd my already small living room with more wires.

Headset tracking works fine, I really can't find any flaws here, it just works.

The controllers, well, I have to admit that even the old Vive controllers felt a bit higher quality and had better design. I feel HP cheaped out on the controllers. Tracking is fine, with my short test sessions, I couldn't find major issues here. Obviously they lose tracking when they're completely out of sight from the headset but that's fine.
The only one position I found that they lose tracking and shouldn't is when I bring one controller right up to my face, close to the headset. Imagine the scenario of shooting a bow: you hold one hand away and the other pulling the string, you need to line it up with your face to aim. When your hand pulling the string is right in front of the headset, it loses tracking. Shooting guns in games should not pose any issues where you hold your hand a bit further out. We'll see.
The side buttons on the controllers also feel a bit off, maybe I just need to get used to them but the Vive ones felt more natural.

Not installing Alyx just yet, I think I'll play around with other titles first to get me accustomed to actual movement. I'd like to experience it without teleport and without making myself motion sick.

 

keep us updated. @cucubits so you dont see any pixels? im thinking of buying a g2 or a quest 2 and just can't make my mind up I like the idea of an all in one wireless vr experience but the superior IQ of the g2 has me tempted thoughts?

 

Will post as many details as I can as soon as I get to test them some more.

One thing comes to mind, without knowing much about the quest 2, not supporting the facebook empire would be reason enough for me to stay away from that.

I'll post more details about the G2 over the next few days. If you'd like to see anything in particular, close-up shots, etc, just let me know and I'll post.

 

My Reverb G2 came in on Friday. i've been stuck on windows 1809 so it technically isn't supported on my build (something is preventing windows version updates, but not feature updates on my computer and i didn't feel like messing with it yet). i manually installed a bunch of the newer WMR drivers and the hp motion controller drivers and have it up and working except one flaw. the G2 controllers won't show up in Steam VR. they work great in the WMR cliff house, then when i launch Steam VR they disappear in the Steam VR cliff house, all the buttons besides the WMR menu button stop working, and only the headset shows connected in the Steam VR headset/controller status window. they show back up in Steam VR if i press the WMR for Steam VR menu screen button and pull up that menu screen in Steam VR, but disappear again when you close the menu. Steam VR won't let me connect the controllers while i'm in Steam Vr either. i'm sure its a compatibility issue with my older windows version and getting the windows to the supported version will probably fix the controller support files.

luckily my previous head set was a Samsung Odyssey WMR and those controllers work fine with the G2. so i can still use it fine with those controllers.

compared to my Samsung Odyssey the visuals are crystal clear, everything looks great. i can't really see any SDE. or i could say it's to the point where i can't remember if i have seen any or not. it just doesn't enter your mind with the G2. the smaller FOV than my Odyssey was instantly noticeable, but i got used to it in a few hours and stopped noticing it as much. the Odyssey actually has a pretty wide FOV so people coming from other headsets might not notice it as much. if you take the face plate off the FOV improves drastically and i think a new face plate that is probably 2cm or a little more thinner would fix the FOV to be closer to the Odyssey. i'm sure some VR mod company will make one to sell eventually. i have a 9900k, rtx 2080, and 32gb ram and it runs just as smooth as my Odyssey did. controllers track just fine. honestly similar to the Odyssey tracking with just better tracking near the head and side of the head. tapping the side of your helmet to turn the flashlight on in lone echo used to be a pain with the Odyssey as well as throwing grenades in Contractors. that is all fixed. i'm sure people used to using light houses for tracking might scoff at the tracking, but being a WMR user it is actually an improvement for me.

it is like seeing some games for the first time again. floating in space in Lone Echo is amazing with the crystal clear visuals.

i played to the first 2 save points on Half Life Alyx with my Odyssey before, but i stopped playing it and was saving the rest of my playthrough for when the Reverb G2 came in.

 

Too bad about the controllers I heard they take 2 batteries and only last about 4 hours which is awful but the main thing is the display and I heard it really is a marvel to see first hand people seem to be raving about it and its lack of screen door effect. I think the best of both worlds would be index controllers and g2 HMD

 

WMR controllers were always not the best on batteries. the controllers i have for my Samsung Odyssey and G2 are pretty much the same way with normal voltage batteries. the batteries that come with the G2 suck and that is why people are saying 4 hours. normal batteries last like 8-10 hours. the pkcell 1.5v rechargeable batteries i use last a lot longer than normal batteries. similar to how long my Xbox Elite controller lasts on a charge.

i may try the index controller route eventually though. not enough games use the multi finger tracking yet and i don't use VR chat so i'm holding off on that yet. maybe by the time games use more finger tracking WMR might have a better controller option than now.

to be honest i like the button layout on the Odyssey controllers more than the G2. having both a joy stick and a track pad with capacitive touch sensors and 4 way d-pad type input instead of a joy stick and 2 buttons means the Samsung controllers have a lot more button options. just sucks the Odyssey controllers are way bigger and the joy stick isn't as nice feeling as the G2. the grab button is a lot easier to use on the Odyssey controllers though.

 

Interesting! I've never seen the Odyssey controllers. It really looks like HP did not put too much effort in designing the G2 controllers. A bit of copy/paste, some resize, some more buttons and done
The grab button on the Vive controllers worked better for me but who knows, I may get used to these.

Using Index controllers with the G2, while it would work and probably improve the overall experience, I'm not sure it's worth the investment for now. I think the controllers only are $250 and a pair of base stations are also around $200. I may be wrong.

Most likely better and better headsets will start coming out and one of them is bound nail everything on a set.

Speaking of the batteries, I've also read these need quite a lot of power and that regular AAs are not the way to go. I've ordered these, should arrive tomorrow:

 

yeah Iv'e never seen batteries like that thats pretty sweet....might pick some up tomorrow..need them for my quest controllers.

also one quick question are there any free ways to play vr videos I have a few vr videos I want to check out but they are on my laptop..also have you guys tried virtual desktop with your g2?

How does the text look expereince ecetera

 

I was just planning on trying it out with some videos today. Download took a bit longer Will let you know. Haven't tested yet but search for DeoVR on Steam. It's a free 360 video player.

Haven't done any more testing, got a little annoyed last night as I couldn't get Boneworks started. The default controller mapping in Boneworks for the G2 is messed up and I couldn't even press the start button in the game's first room. Couldn't figure out how to set the controller mapping correctly and I just stopped... will try again.

Text looks good, even if I try to look at small details, I still can't see pixels. The screens really are good. One caveat here, you really need to have the headset in the correct position on your head. If it's a little high or a little low, things start to get blurry. The sweetspot is not too too small but careful initial headstrap adjustment is needed.

 

should i get a tv or the g2 thoughts? i know its subjective but i have no tv...but think the vr hmd would be the better choice

 

quick question...im thinking of using a 50 dollar gift card my dad sent for amazon...does a occulus link cable vs regular usb to usb c cable offer better iq and what do i search for to find those batteries

 

No idea about the cables. For the batts, I just went on Amazon and looked for 1.5v usb aa batteries

 

This headset is truly awesome. I've managed to set the correct controller profile and got in Boneworks last night. The image is very clear, text is easy to read and the fit is very comfortable. Once the straps are set, there's no fiddling, it just works whenever you put it on. Also, most likely because of the high resolution and high refresh rate, I feel I can play much longer with smooth motion and I have no signs of getting sick. With the Vive I had to keep my Boneworks sessions pretty short while last night, even after months of break, I had no problems even after an hour or so.

I love the audio setup too, it really helps there isn't something sitting and warming your ears too, less likely to cause fogging issues.

I'm really mad at HP for cheaping out with the controllers. The really would've been the ideal set at the moment. I have no tracking issues, I know the limitations but for normal gameplay, it works fine. My problem is they just don't feel natural, the button/trigger placement is bad and overall they just feel cheap. My only reference, as I said, are the old Vive controllers which I have to admit, felt awesome as soon as I fired up VR for the first time.

In the mean time I've bought what looks like a cool VR game (early build). Take a quick look at "Low-Fi". Going to try it later today.

 

Well poopies!

Looks like I spoke too soon about the good things on the G2.

Today when I connected it to mess with Boneworks some more, as soon as WMR fires up, the audio from the right speaker is staticky, garbled, completely broken.

I've been trying everything for the past few hours with no luck at all. At this point I honestly can't tell if it's a software issue from my side or something broken in the headset.

Here are more details on this, I've written a reddit post to see if I get some ideas:
https://www.reddit.com/r/HPReverb/comments/k1u9q5/help_reverb_g2_crackling_and_garbled_audio_from/

Any suggestions are welcome.

I'd really love to get these working... not a fan of the idea of paying $1k for the Index but I will return the G2 if I can't get this solved.

 

sounds like software....id try uninstalling audio drivers and uninstalling all software then reninstall everything cept audio and see if the sound stops crackling...like just use generic drivers at first

 

My laptop fan is being fixed as I type should be ready in an hour...going to give Alex another go....super excited...been without a gaming system for a month...hopefully I get a coffee and pull an allnighter

 

This was my feeling too but I tried everything I could think of. I've updated all drivers, I've reinstalled WMR, made sure the speaker contacts are clean and seated properly, I've even bought a powered USB 3.0 hub just to make sure it's not that... nothing works, the right audio channel is always garbled/cuts out/staticky.

It's a bit concerning how many I see complaining about very similar issues. At this point I'm not even sure I'd like to RMA it. I'm considering just returning it and moving on to something else. Not happy about this, the image quality really is awesome...

Also, I am not compromising by removing the speakers and using my own headset. Not dealing with one more cable and I really liked how these off-ears sound.

 

bummer...i have issues also... the guy that fixed my fans broke my wifi card now my laptop has no wifi/bluetooth....so frustrating dealing with cheaply made electronics

 

Update, I'm 100% convinced now that it's a fault with the G2. I just realized I had a mini HDMI port on my work laptop, hooked it up and sure enough, even without starting WMR, just by playing with the audio slider in windows, the right channel plays garbled/staticky audio. No way it's a driver issue.

Hopefully Connection customer service will play nice. Waiting on a reply from them, if nothing by Monday, I'll try calling.

 

dude im so sorry....you waited months and this...damn not cool.

 

Thanks, appreciate it!

I can't be too mad, this is sort of expected with releases of new hardware. There aren't really any viable alternatives out there currently. With a full Index kit costing $400 more than the G2, I just can't consider it. Fingers crossed that Connection support will take care of this quickly.

 

i finally beat the next two parts....just passed the area with new gun but just skipped past it unless i get it later

 

I still haven't finished this game yet. My hard drive with my OS on it failed. I had to reinstall windows and I just got everything back to normal and running. since i was able to install Windows 20h2 the HP controllers work now. i still prefer the odyssey controllers, but I'll probably stick to the HP ones so i can give my old Samsung Odyssey to my niece.

 

HL alyx is truely the tip of the iceberg as far as immersion and video games go...if this doesnt get game of the year I will never read a review again.

 

looks like gamespot gave it game of the year..it really is something else unlike anything ever released....new level and echelon of gaming spawning an era of hyper realistic and immersive gaming

 

A short update on my G2 saga. Spoiler: it's not going to be a happy story.

I had zero communication from Connection.com (official HP retailer in the US), nothing, after the initial faulty unit was delivered they completely stopped replying to any emails.

I did have some luck contacting straight up HP service but from here it goes downhill. Back at the beginning of December when I noticed the issue, I chatted with an HP rep and after explaining all the troubleshooting steps I took, he told me I would get a replacement in 2-3 business days (spoiler: he was lying). I agreed, he opened the case and in a couple days HP shipped me an empty shipping box to send my unit to them. I did as instructed, I packed up everything and dropped off at a Fedex location. HP received my faulty unit on Dec 4th. At this point I was pretty happy since I had just been told it would take a couple days. Nothing for about a week so I get on the chat with HP but this time their story changed. The first rep I talk to says he has no access to the system which could tell me when I will receive my unit but he can give me a phone number to a warehouse where they can help me (spoiler: he was lying). All good, I write down the number and call. After spending a short eternity on the line, a guy answered and explained to me that they do not handle anything related to VR headsets, they're just for computers but he can help, he'd give me a number where to call (spoiler: he was lying). All good, I write down the number and call. Deja vu? Deja vu? Hilariously, I get on the line with the initial guy I spoke with, who had given me the number to the "computers warehouse guy". So yeah, I was getting the textbook runaround. At this point it was pretty clear, they have no idea what's going on and most likely haven't set aside stock for RMA units.

Fast forward a few weeks my service ticket status now just got updated with an ETA of... wait for it... 02/26/2021. Yes, THREE months (maybe) turnaround for an RMA unit while HP is actively shipping more recent orders.

This is completely unacceptable and HP essentially screwed me out of my 30 day return/refund window. I can't ask for a refund because I have nothing to send back to Connection, my unit is still being held hostage at HP service center.

Needless to say I want nothing to do with a G2 anymore so when/if I receive it, I will sell it and go for something else. Most likely an Index. I was thinking about ordering one already but to be honest, I'm not in a rush, I have quite a few side projects going on now and Cyberpunk is keeping me busy.

 

in vr the screen is the lowest common denominator.....quest 2 g2 are your only options otherwise you will have to live with blurry and or screen door effect.

1 vote for quest 2 with elite strap...facebook isnt needed anymore so i think

there is more to a vr headset than just games (movies,apps,vr desktop,convinence) and since the quest can be used wirelessly and stand alone you can technically do like 4 times more with it.

And dude why would you punish yourself over facebook?

Quest 2 is easily the best headset overall, wireless and standalone as well as oculus link,

 

Yeah, I keep hearing good things about the Quest 2. We'll see, I'll do some more research before making a decision. After playing for a very short time with the G2, I'm not sure how I feel about inside out tracking. Maybe I should've stuck to my initial plan and got an Index. By the time I make up my mind, another one will come out

 

dude I own the quest 1 and just about bought the index...I had no clue id use wireless and the headset for more things than gaming...in the end im super happy everytime I use it and I almost never play vr games and when I do I can just put it on and play beat saber, pavlov, and vader all with sweet graphics and great tracking.....what im getting at is with the controllerless tracking aka hand tracking for use outside of games its simply the best and many people have claimed that....and what am I getting at the quest two is better by a long shot in everyway except for black levels..quest one has the oled so its king for videos.. in fact


I feel like saying buy the quest two and if you dont like it ill pay for it.....its that good and I have lots of money...inheritance...but ill think about it a bit more

 

Come on, be serious It's not about the money, I really do despise what facebook ended up becoming and how they hog up, buy and use for their interests all these companies... especially now with the whatsapp mess... I really don't what to support anything related to them.

I don't know what to say, if I get a chance to test the G2 in Alyx and it works as well as the Vive did, I may still end up keeping it... on the other hand, from what I keep reading around, it may not be so enjoyable (lots of issues with the controllers).

I really was ready to just buy an Index and not even touch the G2 when/if it comes back from HP, but the only thing stopping me is that I really have a lot of other side quests going on For the gaming part, Cyberpunk is making me happy, and otherwise I got pretty recently into astronomy and I'm designing, printing, building a telescope.

 

honestly I dont have facebook and hate them but I own a quest 1 and am very very happy with it, and now that the quest 2 is out and its 3 times as good im thinking of the upgrade and will testify it must be as good as people are saying...no way millions are wrong in such a small market as VR

 

looking pretty amazing




maybe they will copy this

 

Well, it looks like finally HP is shipping out replacement RMA units. Got the notice that mine will be delivered on Monday.

In case they didn't put an old G1,my initial broken G2, potatoes in the box, I will post back soon if I indeed have a working unit.


I still haven't decided what to do. In all honesty, even if it's going to be a brand new G2, I'm very hesitant to start using it. I've read so many reports of G2s breaking with various faults after just a few hours of usage. For sure I don't want to have to deal with HP RMA process again.