A team of developers has long been working on a promising VR modification of Half-Life 2 for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. When the beta is released is still unclear. The team around Reddit user Wormslayer developed the HL2 modification HLVR for the developer versions of Oculus Rift years ago. In April 2017, the group announced its return and announced a new release in the mod, which is optimized for HTC Vive and the retail version of Oculus Rift and brings full support for the Vive controller and Oculus Touch.
Even then it was clear that the developers wanted to make the PC classic more compatible with current VR systems. The team wanted to implement contemporary VR locomotion models and develop a 3D user interface specifically for virtual reality. The group also redesigned the weapon models and added animations that allow for manual reloading.
Green light for the project
In May, the group launched a Greenlight campaign, which received the required number of votes after a short time. Valve apparently did not object to the project, so nothing was standing in the way of a release on Steam.
However, the developers did not want to commit themselves to a release date. “It depends on the team’s decision whether to make the mod available to everyone right away, to have a closed alpha test, or to wait for a release until everything is near perfect,” it said in April.
No Kickstarter campaign planned
After the Greenlight campaign, the developers got quiet. When asked by a Reddit user about the status of the project, Wormslayer replied that there is still no news and that the team is still working on the modification. “We still hope to release ‘soon’ a playable beta on Steam,” writes the lead developer.
Because the team members can only work on the project in their free time, it is difficult to make predictions. Also, the “situation” has changed, so the plans had to be adjusted a bit.
A flock financing by Kickstarter or Patreon was discussed internally but rejected. “I’m reluctant to take money from people and make promises if I’m not sure I can keep them,” writes Wormslayer. However, he is confident that the VR modification will be released.
New VR systems in the works
According to a second developer, the last fully playable version was completed in September 2017. Although this was significantly better than the original HLVR and compatible with the current VR systems, many of the planned VR functions were still implemented or felt unnatural.
The current state is that you have developed a variety of new VR-specific systems. These would have to be implemented and optimized for the game. The development schedule is very modular, so you can not guess when the beta will appear. “But it gradually looks like the development is going to be more linear. I hope that means we are getting closer. ”
The Reddit subforum of the project can be found here.