How Much Should You Spend to play Half Life Alyx?

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With basically the first "AAA" game dropping for VR loads of people will want a cheap rig to play it, but are you okay with min specs?
Half-Life: Alyx: lmg.gg/HL
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[@Breloom286]

dam a 1060 for 100$, it was another world back then

[@sourceeee]

I almost don't believe those prices. The chip shortage sucks right now.

[@BodisBomas]

@@sourceeee yeah, I'm hoping to snag a 3080ti for the "alleged" MSRP for 999.

[@DJandLIMON111]

lmao was gonna comment this same thing

[@milesbresnahan2395]

even during the summer, my friend got the same evga card in the video brand new sealed for 140 cad (about 110usd)

[@unknownknife4993]

dude im crying cause im trying to get a 3060 because I use to think it was like 1000 now its only 1000 and I don't have a gpu

[@mrmuffinz126]

"These graphics don't look much better than out of Half-Life 2" *shows an HL1 headcrab*

[@spentcomb7864]

True

[@MilzSizzstar]

Fact

[@jackepyro276]

have they seen half life 2?

[@mootwo_]

jack e pyro Linus specifically probably hasn’t seen it in at least 5 years if he thinks HL:A is on par with HL2

[@vaseto1987]

YES

[@DanB95]

Valve actually made it a point to do the work to support third-party VR to help protect the VR industry as a whole. One of the many reasons I actually like Valve

[@ES-xq7iu]

Well 50% of vr users on steam are from oculus so the work they put in pays back a thousend times

[@HK-ni8wj]

@@ES-xq7iu 50% now but when valve did it it was not 50%

[@TraceguyRune]

The reason I like Valve is that they are a private company, which allows them to take care of their customers, rather than investors. This is why we get so many sales

[@arbiter8246]

@@TraceguyRune Take care of their customers by not concluding the Half Life story?

[@lakuspakus8782]

@@arbiter8246 Theres an argument that Valve didnt feel like it had a good idea to make HL3 what they felt it should be and not just a another HL2. And so, unlike public companies, they didnt just push out a sequel with a 100% guaranteed payday - and instead chose to retain their artistic identity. Taking care of their customers doesnt mean keep pushing games out until the fans are tired of it. It means making games you feel like will give your audience a good and possible unique experience. If they felt they couldnt do that, they didnt want to just do HL2 again. Which I very much appreciate.

[@a.g.cleaveland820]

I remember when a gpu could be had for under a hundred. Those were good days

[@wes2091]

I was just thinking the same thing.... Oh how we have reached the darkest timeline

[@vogonp4287]

Yeah, I got a RX 580 8gb for $75 about a year ago.

[@tolisgunn]

@@vogonp4287 right now in Greece an rx580 costs 550€ while a gtx1660ti costs 600€ 🤯

[@vogonp4287]

@@tolisgunn Where I am, the prices of those cards are about the same. They both cost over 500 usd though.

[@Ibrahim_Alharbi]

What 1060 did linus use the 3gb or 6gb?

[@nobodyschannel3096]

"Here's a soft shadow": From the looks of it, that soft shadow is baked into the light map so the performance hit is negligible on any quality.

[@ender-gaming]

Yeah, he picked a terrible spot to look at. Lighting is almost all baked for performance, and the ground texture is very plain as well. Would have been better to do it at the starting area where you can look out and interact with objects in a good light source.

[@d0m96]

Honestly, the wall and ground textures in this game are in general incredibly poor. Am I the only one that immediately noticed they were flat and has been disappointed ever since? Even pillars have little to no depth to them.

[@brianorourke4880]

They are baked into the light map. Playing the game i noticed that when you actually close a door behind you the light rays are still showing on the floor as if it was open. Still think it's a great game. The NPC animation is fucking flawless so far. The movement is way too fluid. It's almost creepy.

[@GANCHO1997]

@@d0m96 You people are really whiny.

[@bovice5072]

@@d0m96 Your comment exemplifies the vast disproportion between growth of expectation and growth of technology. In other words, what hk_97 said.

[@3333218]

Everybody who was alive back when Half Life 2 was released remembers the graphics of the game to be way better than they actually are.

[@MarrodLP]

TCMOREIRA yea they are bad now. But for the release it was just nuts. And everyone saying the graphics didnt change much, please play the game at least 5 hours and youll see the differences :D

[@3333218]

@@MarrodLP I know bro. I was there. Before the game came out I had the discs containing the demo videos (this was before KZbin was a thing) and I would watch them over and over in awe. I even made my parents watch it (lol). My computer at the time wasn't capable of running it, I had to buy a new one and still it would only run on medium-high settings. Played the game obsessively for many years (as I was already an obsessed fan of the first one).

[@MarrodLP]

TCMOREIRA probably one of mY fav gaming series of all time. I just love it. I know that feeling. I think i sat like 5 hrs with my dad in front of the pc just to install half life 2. i wad like 9 or 10 back then :D have a good one

[@sparkyenergia]

It hurts that my wife's little brother, a uni student. Was not born when Half Life came out.

[@niklosupinfo]

I don't really agree with that statment. Back in the days, we had 3 great AAA FPS game which were Far Cry, Doom 3 and Half Life 2. Try to run all 3 of them and you will see that HL2 is the best among all 3 of them. Actually, FC looks like crap, Doom 3 is in the middle and HL2 is, too me att least, the best of all three and actually is still OKish today.

[@blahblah1501]

It would be interesting to see this test re-run now, 18 months later. The Rift is dead but the Quest 2 is out and has a higher refresh rate, plus you could test a cable vs air link vs virtual desktop. You could even throw in 3rd party straps for the Quest controllers to mimic the ability to let go of the Index.

[@OneAndZer0]

@@TheOddlySatisfyingFacts That's not what jaded means, unless you mean you're bored about them dropping support.

[@oglcn11]

Quest2 with Virtual Desktop and decent Wifi6 router is actually awesome as HL:Alyx. Not any discernible latency (50ms-65ms reported by Virtual Desktop) and awesome untethered experience...

[@coolmacatrain9434]

@@oglcn11 Quest 3 with Virtual desktop is _Amazing_ even with wifi5 I'm only getting 47-57 latency with everything at Max quality

[@plaonder]

I believe the reason for the shadows not changing was that they were pre-baked into the map, which makes them more realistic at the cost of not being able to move around the objects casting the shadows. But that means that you’ll have much much better performance

[@DeSinc]

you put up a picture of a half life 1 headcrab for the half life 2 image at 13:38 it's true that the jump in graphics from 2 to alyx was less than the jump from 1 to 2, I agree with linus

[@wenyt2785]

Ayy desinc here

[@wenyt2785]

Will you do a speedrun of hl:a

[@kylefinn5301]

I do too

[@fuwe]

yea

[@tomato6102]

a wild desinc

[@AshleyTayles]

"doesn't look much better than half life 2" ahhh, nostalgia goggles lol

[@MrTomWaffles]

Very true

[@Themunit1]

Especially the headcrabs are looking way better, you can see they have real fat etc.

[@CarloRosillo]

Yeah what the hell... I didn't play hl 2 until a month ago and alyx is miles ahead of hl2

[@mathpc4047]

What the hell lmao. Alyx graphics it's miles ahead of Half life 2. I would go as far as to say that the characters facial expressions are way better than most current games with far better graphics and engines.

[@thisconnectd]

that headcrab was from half life 1 not 2

[@argorath]

For those who don't know, the reason Linus couldn't tell the difference between low and high is that most of the lighting is baked into the environment, and isn't changed by graphical settings, the preset also doesn't change the texture quality. What will change will be the shadows of dynamic objects, and the dynamic volumetric effects.

[@rizzmo8451]

I’m used to the crappy, mobile looking graphics on the quest 2, and I’m going to buy a computer with a RX5500, so I’m excited to try out PCVR for the first time. I think the dynamic shadows won’t be a huge deal to me

[@sharcc2511]

"We're going to make a small upgrade from the 1060" * JUMPS UP A WHOLE GENERATION AND TIER AND SUBTIER *

[@brianhsin678]

I have tried on my older rig which is a 1070 MSI X, it runs nicely with high fidelity. You use to be able to grab those used for about 225 ish in the US. Now unfortunately even that is sitting around 400+.

[@falloutfreak24]

Checking floor textures “hmm, yes. This floor seems to be made of floor.”

[@dreweats]

That is my favorite meme of all time. Thank you good sir.

[@falloutfreak24]

MegaMunchy only the best for my fellow meme lovers.

[@suniro]

Dead memes but still good

[@yakymoto]

it's a normal map

[@TruthNerds]

The quality difference didn't exactly floor me.

[@stevenjobs8303]

Valve: Makes an amazing AAA VR-game with astounding areas Linus: Spends 30 minutes analyzing the floor tiles

[@annoyingguyoninternet1631]

Linus: Hmmm yes the floor is made out of floor

[@annoyingguyoninternet1631]

@@donkeymoo1581 probably Valve did this graphic on purpose to make it accessible for everyone don't be mad at it that is already good

[@annoyingguyoninternet1631]

@@donkeymoo1581 that fits Valve low interest in making games over years

[@Martel4]

@@donkeymoo1581 Guarantee you haven't played the game. Play the game and then you can critique it. Trust me, I HAVE played it.

[@nazarenomilohanich4883]

@@donkeymoo1581 Literaly zero fucking clue about both game desing and graphics. Way to talk out of your ass lol

[@JCorbinPhoto]

Remember that one time that the GTX 1060 was "$80 to $100 on ebay?" I remember like it was last year...

[@Rowa_n]

my 1050 ti trying to run this game at 100%: *this is fine.*

[@streylok439]

Can a 1050 ti even run VR? I have a 1050 ti and want to know

[@breeze173]

@@streylok439 maybe at lowest setting

[@barple367]

@@streylok439 it can, yes, but only just. You're likely not going to have a great experience with it though.

[@ifrit35]

@@streylok439 HLA will run on low settings and scaling turned down to 60 percent or something like that. However there are many less demanding titles that you can play in VR

[@chazdude3644]

@@streylok439 I have been using a 1050ti for a while, Only game i have not been able to play so far is boneworks. HL:A is a bit messy at times but works fine, same with pavlov

[@mohsensadeghian6868]

13:38 someone just google searched Headcrab and put it in the video without knowing its from half life 1 HD models pack.

[@runninggames771]

yeah the fact that he said it doesn't look that much better then half life 2 was cringe... it looks way better wtf is he talking about, espisally in vr. Play hl2 in vr and tell me the headcrabs don't look worse then in alyx lol

[@iliabashel]

and dude says its not even good looking compared to that like what lol

[@Milanesachan]

I don't know if it's y'all or me who are getting whooshed but I'm pretty sure Linus said that as a joke and whoever edited it used the HL1 model just to double down on the joke.

[@Questchaun]

How lame right?

[@audreymai2773]

@@HelenGPitts stfu

[@robinhalen8563]

The feeling when you realize that their starting "low-point" is your own setup at home...

[@Leignheart]

Kinda feels like a low blow huh? Lol I've been there with the bottom barrel pc.

[@SuperOtter]

well the 1060 6gb is the most common card used for gaming systems. So yeah I also rock the "low-point".

[@matnic_6623]

Same, but instead of the 1060 I have a RX 590

[@robinhalen8563]

I'm still gonna try it, just need to get a link-cable. And I believe they tried it with a 1060 3GB, I have the 6GB card so hope it works a little better.

[@robinhalen8563]

@Red Line what are you talking about? How could you possibly have any idea what my setup looks like?

[@3amodoge]

the fact valve sacrificed cool features on their own headset so that any headset can experience HLA says a lot I tip my hat to you, valve

[@supremeleaderfokou5693]

DAAAAM. It's amazing that you could get a 1060 for 100 dollars. These days you would be lucky to find one for 250

[@juulh6870]

13:35 1. That's the Half-Life 1 HD models pack. 2. Go and replay Half-Life 2 and Half-Life: Alyx, the graphics are very much better. Aside from that and some other stuff, pretty good video.

[@girlsdrinkfeck]

metroid prime VR is still cooler ;)

[@ikiwyu]

Actually that particular headcrab is from the ps2 port of half life

[@MarrodLP]

girlsdrinkfeck where

[@jeremiah9913]

Are you simping half life?

[@girlsdrinkfeck]

@d c I got more likes than u

[@Rainaman-]

Valve knows how to optimize games for low end hardware. I think thats been their strong point in their games since the good old days

[@sammo505]

That's true HL1 , HL2 ran on some really old hardware when it was released. Which was not the trend at the time, generally it was a crap shoot if your rig was more than a couple years old with AAA games. And that made it ideal for CS leveraging more FPS for competitive shooters.

[@unnoticedhero1]

Yeah playing HL2 and Portal on a laptop with integrated graphics which wouldn't run most other 3d games besides n64 emulation was a godsend.

[@doumanseiman2645]

one of the reasons everyone played HL

[@float32]

This makes me think Xbox series x or ps5 were possible targets.

[@nikolygtx8848]

And what its low end hardware here?

[@MerkinMuffly]

Guess I'll be waiting five years for prices to drop or maybe I can loot a Valve Store, do those even exist?

[@morrigan7066]

MerkinMuffly Valve headquarters?

[@paulhoeksema7200]

Loot the steam digital store

[@lucasmontero1456]

"i'm in"

[@camelcam6008]

Now you can just get a RTX 30

[@lucasmontero1456]

Since the 2080 ti dropped below 500 $ what about the other cards ?

[@vrgalaxy11]

My goodness, this game is amazing. Running it wirelessly on my Quest 2 using Virtual Desktop and it works 98.9999% flawless. Was a bit of messing about but it's great not having a tether getting in the way. Would love to try it on the Index, although the price is a sticking point for me.

[@fettuccine723]

I will never understand why people like wireless so much, just be aware that there is a wire so you don't trip over it, just remember where it is, there is a huge amount of compression that goes on with the wireless headsets, even if you are using it and wired link mode there's still a bunch of compression, that's why everything looks blurry and pixelated when you look off in the distance, I will take higher quality wired any day

[@docn1ght]

@@fettuccine723 the only wired ones that are still higher quality visually than the wireless ones like the quest 2 is something like the index.

[@stephyhasnotificationsoff4325]

@@docn1ght Quest 2 is locked to a compressed video stream even when wired and the Index has a lower resolution but still looks better; which should be embarrassing, there's headsets significantly older than Quest 2 that look better and newer headsets like the Vive Pro, Vive Pro Eyes, Vive Pro 2. Nearly every single wired headset blows Quest 2 out of the water, you might as well try to get a slightly better stream with a cable even if it still looks terrible.

[@stephyhasnotificationsoff4325]

@@fettuccine723 I've never tripped on a wire with any of my headsets, I'm soo confused how people have done this lmao. Even the common VRChat alcoholics can get shitfaced and not trip over their cable while approaching alcohol poisoning.

[@ZedDevStuff]

@@stephyhasnotificationsoff4325 Very late but cables wear out faster if you twist them, which happens always unless you're always aware of what position you're in. Some headsets even don't have a replaceable cable. Also compression isn't that much of an issue otherwise people wouldn't praise it all the time

[@morgan1168]

I think a true test would be to render Linus' hair in VR on ultra settings.

[@djmccullough9233]

Nvidia HairWorks On?

[@vinicius401]

With nvidia hairworks enabled.

[@Rainbow__cookie]

I just think on Laura's hair in tomb raider I think that as Linus hair

[@MrMW2nd]

That'll take decades of consecutive render power

[@soullessleftover8427]

Not too hard, if we properly model his bald spots.

[@christopherx1788]

"Doesn't look that much better than Halflife 2" - obviously, he has not played Halflife 2 for a LONG time :P

[@BenderBendingRodriguezOFFICIAL]

Well I have, and it doesn't look much better aside from SSAO.

[@denxos]

@@BenderBendingRodriguezOFFICIAL You people need your eyes checked.

[@VeyronBD]

There is probably more polygons in a bike in this game than some entire levels of hl2 rofl

[@projecthopestudios3248]

Obviously you guys can’t get over nostalgia.

[@VeyronBD]

@Donkey Moo Sure but no, the most powerful of those two was the PS3 and the damn thing had 256MB of VRAM, that wouldn't even be able to render a static room to the standard of this game. The textures are just too much to fit into memory, not to mention the thousands of other factors such as huge polygon counts. As for phones the best looking game I can think of for them in similar style is the new Call of Duty game which isnt even as detailed as the original half life 2 for christ sake...

[@manoahvanderwolf3259]

I love how the cat was looking and assessing the situation.

[@BMac420]

remember when a 1060 was 80-100$ on ebay? Oh the good ole days

[@supremeleaderfokou5693]

No we need to fight to buy a 1030 for 120

[@JasonZakrajsek]

10:07 Low Fidelity: No hand shadows 10:10 High Fidelity: Hand shadows

[@alfredkjeller8420]

@Zwenk Wiel ​ Nick B The textures are set to high on all presets, therefore they look the same.

[@darkm007]

Wasnt there a difference in volumetrics as well?

[@FlawlessSin11]

not to mention they didn't even look in the advanced settings, IIRC low settings still have either medium or high resolution textures and other things like shadows, particles, and lighting effects are bumped down, they didn't even look at those features on the lower ends.

[@SteelSkin667]

Looks like those hands shadows are a product of SSAO (or some sort of ambient occlusion) being turned on and off between settings.

[@CaveyMoth]

Hands down, there is definitely a difference.

[@MarkBerberoglu]

Is it weird that I'm excited Linus called out a 4770k with a slight overclock!? Huzzah I don't have to upgrade!

[@Blake240p]

Haha I'm running an oc 3770k and felt the same way

[@Blake240p]

However I would probably experience many unforeseen benefits upgrading my cpu because of modern RAM, motherboards, etc...

[@mryellow6918]

@@ryanmalin he's still using a 4770k, I doubt he wants to pay current intel prices. Or I'd assume he'd have upgraded already

[@PeterGriffin-kb2hf]

Cries in pentium

[@xLeidenFrost]

my i7 3770 was limiting my 1060 6gb lol. After upgrading to a 3900x, my 1060 on average across all games, increased by 10-30 fps

[@zarr1356]

If LINUS HIMSELF can't tell the difference, there ain't a damn difference.

[@evolicious]

Linus is an idiot that doesn't really know much about this stuff. Don't trust his opinion for anything regarding PCs and gaming.

[@django4449]

EVOLICIOUS yeah he’s a snob but I still like him

[@zarr1356]

@@evolicious I was making a joke but thanks for your opinion I guess

[@d-o-n-u-t]

There’s no difference because 90% of the shadows in the game are baked. The only realtime shadows you’ll ever find is for moving objects that the player can interact with. Everything else has already been processed, and so it takes the strain off of your GPU for optimal performance paired with optimal graphics.

[@coolertuep]

I have played the game on low because I couldn’t see a difference myself and having an even more stable framerate was better here. That‘s said - Linux opinion about using the oculus quest wireless is conepletly wrong. Modern 5GHZ wlan + virtual desktop and playing half life Alyx Wireless on the Quest Works even better as with oculus links

Finished the game yesterday; with a GTX1080, Oculus Quest 1, and without any wires using Virtual Desktop. And guess what, I enjoyed it from first minute to the last. This game is a milestone in story telling action VR games. You might not like the Half Life universe, and I can accept that, but in overall VR game presentation, this is miles ahead anything else.

[@ParkerTyler]

Linus on last week's WAN show: "I haven't been sick in YEARS!" Me: 🤔

[@dangermouse8640]

super spreader right there

[@kevindie]

Parker Tyler *_Corona-chan gave Linus a visit._*

[@youdig-detection]

You can feel the fever trough thr screen, i hope he's fine.

[@mariocabrera6695]

hopefully he only has an allergy

[@ZackMylon12]

I feel like he's sick too. Hope you're okay, Linus.

[@bosanford2471]

13:36 That head crab is from half life 1.......

[@JDC2389]

deceptive aint it

[@gavinbunch2607]

"the game runs better on the 2080 ti" i would have never known that

[@whatthefuckisthis7]

is nobody gonna talk about how linus whips out the screwdriver or how he magically always has one holstered like a revolver

[@sierra7534]

Nobody except for the 7 million other people who mentioned it before you

[@kuromiLayfe]

Small tip: do “not” use screen mirroring with VR games that already mirror its output (spectator mode) together with screen recording (letting the screen mirror 3-7 times (yea this causes huge lag or even disconnects for obvious reasons on low end systems)

[@LuxGamer16]

Great thanks. Was feeling sad for a moment for the quest one. Because i was interested in it.

[@Tore299]

"Half Life 2" *Shows Half Life 1 headcrab* Half Life Alyx is a lot more detailed than Half Life 2 anyway.

[@Web720]

That was the joke.

[@soniablanche5672]

They've improved the half life 2 engine a lot since then...

[@z0mb13k1ll2012]

saying something is "a lot more detailed than Half Life 2" isnt an impressive statement. Half Life Alyx looks like hot ass

[@SteveJaws-fv3fk]

Wes Gale I know you meant it looks trash, but just saying, hot ass looks pretty good to me lmao

[@nouns7504]

@@soniablanche5672 this is source 2 not source, its a new engine

[@6Twisted]

I'm watching this while recovering from motion sickness from playing Alyx. My overclocked 1070ti rarely gets more than 72 FPS on the lowest settings at 100% resolution on the Index because of vsync. It's also worth pointing out that Half life uses a dynamic resolution that adjusts to your framerate.

[@CantEven]

I had the exact same problem, it was fixed entirely by overclocking my memory (from 2400 to about 3000), so I know it's a bit late but that might be worth trying, it runs absolutely perfect on my regular 1070ti medium settings

[@JayMaverick]

1070ti here as well, thanks for the tip! I just realized I've been running my memory at lower frequencies for all this time. =)

[@mataskart9894]

72 fps is heaven on the quest, I usually play at 36 (with ASW it's 72....).......

[@zarkflappysheep]

this is a travesty. how DARE you say "the graphics arent that much better than half life 2" SHUT UP

[@mink1872]

cool, now stfu.

[@mink1872]

no u

[@theunreal_TOEBEANS]

Wow it's zark! Hi zark!

[@VRJosh]

13:50 Linus totally forgetting about the opening of the game where they start you out looking across the entire city. The engine is capable of giving you wide vistas, no problem. The scene with the fog isn't about hiding draw distance limits, it was a stylistic choice for that scene.

[@3333218]

It was probably both. Wide vistas come at a optimization time cost.

[@naufalap]

yeah why didn't he just compare them in the same area

[@AlfaPro1337]

It's basically a 3D skybox, what you're looking at is basically a sky and a medium resolution buildings. kzbin.info/www/bejne/noStlZ-KobyCf6M Source 2 is just Source with Vulkan and VR support. It is a dated engine.

[@VRJosh]

@Daniel Kintigh He says "they've done away with a lot of the draw distance you might see in a game that's not in VR." which is a bit silly considering games haven't needed to use fog to hide draw distance since the PS1 days.

[@Demez]

Source 2 has a lot more than just that, saying it's source with vulkan and vr support is like saying source is just gold source with dx9 and better models and textures. Source 2 also ditches BSP maps and uses static mesh maps, and 3D skyboxes are still perfectly valid.

[@fakewood4025]

If you press ‘A’ on the Oculus Touch when holding an uncrushed can, it actually crushes the can

[@Etholux]

I didn't know that lol. I knew you could squish the headcrab hearts using the "a" button, and use the grenades as well, but I didn't know you used that button to crush the cans.

[@hatchingdraggon8073]

You can also squeeze the index controllers for the same effect

[@someasiankid6323]

not on windows mixed reality

[@Etholux]

@@someasiankid6323 How do you get the headcrab heart squish achievement on windows mixed reality?

[@someasiankid6323]

@@Etholux idk I haven't tried grabbing his heart

[@dorrisdormouse]

It would be interesting to see a quick update on how much difference there is on a oculus quest 2 link setup in 90hz at higher res

[@SevenGC89]

I've only tried PSVR and I know its not even close to PCVR but the first thing that really blew my mind was while i was playing "The Inpatient" which is the prequel to Until Dawn there are parts in it where the doctor is asking you questions with multiple choice answers and you can answer by just reading the choice you want out loud, also some of the questions have 2 of the same answer but judging by the inflection of your voice like for example one question the doctor asks is "Are you scared" and you can either answer "No I'm not!" in a firm voice or in a shaky voice and it can actually differentiate which way you responded. I know it's not a giant tech leap forward but it blew my mind discovering it lol.

[@Geoff_W]

Fyi, the updates have largely fixed the nauseating issue when playing wirelessly with the Quest. I've been enjoying Alyx wireless with mine 😁

[@TayoEXE]

Yeah, a lot of people have been noting much better results with VD 10 I think.

[@Lupinvej]

Wait, you can play Alyx wireless with the quest?

[@gpeaes]

@@Lupinvej Yes, using Virtual Desktop or ALVR

[@Geoff_W]

@@Lupinvej Yup! It's awesome, since it's the only way to turn SMOOTHELY. All the other methods use the joystick to turn, and it's a teleport-turn, which personally makes me sick.

[@Lupinvej]

@@gpeaes Very cool

[@_kps8734]

13:35 That's not the Half-Life 2 headcrab, that's from the HD model pack for Half-Life 1.

[@Dan_213]

bruh moment

[@SwanChairUh]

yeah I have no idea how they screwed that up lol

[@JDC2389]

@@SwanChairUh It's called shilling Half-life Alyx

[@sjsh5837]

@@JDC2389 How are they shilling HL:A when Linus is specifically saying that the graphics aren't particularly good. Use your goddamn brain.

[@Z098]

@@SwanChairUh It is the biggest picture on the Hal-life wiki for headcrabs.

[@oldmangana]

Just got a quest 2 for Christmas and I was hoping my 1070 would be ok for pc vr. *happy 1070 noises*

[@ron88222]

Non dynamic shadows are baked into the environment, so changing the quality doesn't change it. Only for dynamic shadows for props etc.

[@TheRealGuywithoutaMustache]

In all seriousness, Half-Life Alyx is one of the, if not the best VR game to come out. Valve did not disappoint on this, they delivered.

[@ryanb1374]

Very true. Lives up to the Half Life name.

[@mataskart9894]

agreed, though to be honest I had similar fun with the walking dead game, though I'm only 8 hours into alyx, hoping it surprises me with something, it's a little bland so far :/

[@randombrowser6692]

@@Noxren. you must not buy it for the cs pack then

[@abscent_souls4781]

I have but two questions Who are you And Why do I see you every time I venture into the comment section

[@sauvagemusic1844]

That's the whole point of the endeavour...

[@busterbunny005]

Headcrab from HL2: *Shows headcrab from HL1*

[@GuyOnAChair]

That bothered me.

[@Dan4G]

That confused me.

[@DragonBane299]

That annoyed me.

[@Bluejet_007]

That saddened me.

[@munyvgm]

That angered me.

[@calebb7012]

VR at those pricepoints will never go mainstream.

[@A5tr0101]

texture fidelity is different to the overall setting, so you need to go into advanced settings to change it to true low

[@sntient]

literally every youtuber: OMG this is the BEST looking VR game ever!!!!!1! linus: yea this looks couple generations behind

[@underflip2]

I almost spit out my energy drink when he said that. The game is fucking georgious imo

[@justabrokeredneck]

for a semi open world vr game i think it looks alright. i’d much rather have gta 5 on ultra graphics in vr tho

[@saganakist]

To be fair, that doesn't contradict itself.

[@underflip2]

@@justabrokeredneck I play gta5 in VR al the time and alyx look way better. More lifelike .

[@Plur307]

I am still going to wait one more generation in VR hardware before I buy into it. It looks good now, but I think in another year or 2 it will finally be where I would like it to be for the price.

[@Fanunic]

The image of a headcrab at 13:38 is from Half Life 1, not 2

[@Cubified]

Fanunic shut up dweeb

[@baddog9188]

shoulda linked 13:37 just for the sake of it bruh

[@Fanunic]

@@Cubified Sure, it could be a bit nit-picky, but HL1 came out in 1998, while the models used in HL2 were featured in the series through 2007. If you look up images on google, they look much, much more like the headcrabs from HL:A.

[@damsen978]

@@Cubified He's right you piece of shit, it's from Half-Life 1, not 2.

[@Crow_Guy]

i think that was a joke

[@iamphil159]

A year later I play this with Oculus Quest 2 wireless with Virtual Desktop and Rtx 3080. I gotta say the experience is amazing. No stuttering and the game run well at 120hz on quest 2. I dunno how much better Valve Index would be but I'm pretty satisfy with the quest 2 for this game.

[@kumxr]

0:41 "A combo of which is gonna cost you $500" Oh, how the times have changed.

[@thebyzocker]

1060 costs like 350 the last time I checked, oh yes how the times have changed

[@StickyKeys187]

Oh give it up. Those "good times" are back again. Although ngreedia still messed up big time with their latest line of GPUs.

[@Monzy_]

Make this video again when you get to the more demanding levels. There are some outside levels and some particles effects which gives me framedrops on my vive@medium EDIT: Forgot to mention I have a GTX 1070 and i7 9700K

[@buzzfightbeer8023]

Wouldn't that be your videocard? At least the frame drops.

[@TheMagnumload]

It is true. mid-late through the game, you can get some intense areas that have my 2070 Super dropping frames. High - Rift S

[@thompham6964]

clonesavegir.link/LxDsIZ3K5Pa

[@multixdd]

Your cpu is a bit overkill for your gpu lol

[@Monzy_]

@@multixdd I had a 2500K before, so I decided to fully upgrade my CPU. I also use it for video encoding besides gaming

[@Voxvalve]

Chainging to the official optical cable fixed all the reliability issues for me. I have had no issues at all since. (Old setup was also high quality cable + active entender.)

[@LinusTechTips]

Good comment! The problem is that it pushes quest dangerously close to standalone headset pricing...

[@dioclias]

While the Quest is great, purely for PCVR, the Rift S takes the Cake. No video compression, less input lag, (this one might be preference, but I've heard the same from a lot of people) comfort and not having to charge the headset seems (to me) that it's better purely for PCVR.

[@eth_r1]

@@LinusTechTips im playing with a quest and an overclocked rx590, i5-8400 @ 3.8 GHz, and 8gb of ram. it runs alright but i think all my problems come with the cable and ram

[@d0m96]

I grabbed an Anker Powerline 3m USB A USB C cable for £15 and it works beautifully with the Quest. Haven't had any connection issues at all.

[@eth_r1]

@@d0m96 yeah I have that too but I wanted more room to move so I bought a 5m extension and I think that's probably the problem, it works but not optimal

[@Bassquake76]

1:40 Oh you poor sweet summer child 😄

[@bluewaterboof82]

The hitching at 6:50 can be drastically reduced by disabling ASW through the Oculus Debug Tool. This will stop the headset from halving the frame rate and going into reprojection whenever it detects a slight drop in frame rate. I was having awful stuttering, hitching, and ghosting in a handful of games like Alyx and DCS even with an overclocked i7-10700k paired with a 2080 Super which is far from developer minimum specs. Disabling the ASW made a huge improvement to my VR experience for those games.

[@drags666]

fpsvr is the best way to monitor performance on the fly. Also you need to press the gear icon in performance to change texture, the fidelity settings don't change it.

[@CaveyMoth]

I would never leave RL without FPSVR.

[@keith-bates]

What does fidelity change?

[@MYFAtal13]

Linus, buy some grip covers for your oculus controllers. They come with straps that go around your knuckles like valves do. Well worth the $25 they cost on Amazon.

[@sarge8905]

I didn't even know they were a thing! Do you have a particular set you can vouch for?

[@MYFAtal13]

@@sarge8905 look for the amvr oculus controller grips. They are Amazon's choice. The straps don't look like much but trust me when I say they are worth it.

[@SuperCatfishpro]

This! theyre basically a must buy. Its unfortunate they dont come with something like this natively

[@MYFAtal13]

@@SuperCatfishpro Agreed, my first grips were some 3d printed ones I bought off some dude online, they since broke. I'm glad they are much easier to find now. I have no complaints with my amvr sets. They are truly a must buy.

[@PanRobak.]

That what I was thinking. I've heard they're really cool and help to get more immersed, especially in games like Half Life Alyx. So basically with the grips and the official Oculus Link cable, Quest becomes a budget Index.

[@Toyss]

Mom: "Were you playing video games when I told you not to?" Me: 5:10

[@MuwexPelaa]

Just informing. Atm. Oculus Quest is AMAZING wirelessly if using 5GHz Wi-Fi and good latency. Like 10-60 seems to run fine. App I use for wireless is Virtual Desktop. I have sidequest and Virtual desktop streamer on!

[@eduardofarrerasartorius577]

I feel like linus completely ditched the WMR since his first review when they just launched, when they literally solved the issues he mentioned in that video like 2 or 3 months latter and dropped the price making them the cheapest vr headsets and actually a pretty good starting point for vr gamers

[@KnuxKitsune]

I'm relatively happy with my Samsung HMD Galaxy+. I'm still running a GTX 1060 6gb though, so I'm right at the low-end of the spectrum.

[@jbholland1987]

i really love my samsung.

[@katamus]

Thats very true...but they are out of stock right now, and i was just going to be able to get one

[@CaveyMoth]

I'm loving my Odyssey+..but cocking the shotgun is a bit iffy sometimes, because my controllers bump together.

[@chickeni3oo]

I also found covering your mouth to prevent coughing finicky at best with the odyssey+. Circumvented by finding filter masks though. +1 for the Odyssey+ though. Got mine on sale for $230

[@oristechreviews]

Half life alyx is here and my voice is gone after screaming in a tiny cybertruck

[@columrichardson5279]

I put a cabin out in my back garden just to enable having my dream setup without taking up too much space in the house, and I realised that it would give me a fantastic opportunity to get into vr. I’ve played on the vive before but I’m getting a rift s to jump into boneworks and half life alyx (and probably beat Sabre, gorn, and blade of sorcery) nice to see this review and realize that I’ll be very comfortable at its highest settings.

[@selfelements8037]

9:25 That's exactly what I'd do in simulations with VR. No gaming objectives per say, just sheer exploration of the environment. And testing the variables in it.

[@thogz777]

10:16 hmm, the floor is made of floor

[@sulphurous2656]

13:35 Is this supposed to be hyperbole? That headcrab model on the left is from 1997...

[@compaqdeskpro5770]

You’re right someone screwed up, that is the headcrab from HL1.

[@EndoliteM4trix]

@@compaqdeskpro5770 No, that's definitely half life 2. Just with HL2 era hardware. With resolution and hardware performance increase, they have been smoothed out. But the graphics are still an improvement to HL2 by a long margin. We all just remember it looking as good as games today

[@Psybandit]

@@EndoliteM4trix No, I promise you that it is from half life 1.

[@GlowingOrangeOoze]

@@EndoliteM4trix It's HL1 with the "HD" pack from Blue Shift installed.

[@Pendleton115]

GlowingOrangeOoze Yeah, it’s from the PS2 version originally, which came to the PC with the “HD Pack”

[@AndrewInoue]

I would love to see Linus trying to do a setup with Riftcat and a Kinect for the cheapest option

[@simondebeugher876]

10:00 linus looking for his contact lens

[@kaililkendrick]

Y’all gotta try streaming the quest via Virtual Desktop! They’ve improved upon the streaming ridiculously well. It’s on par with oculus link with no difference in latency. Best experience ever

[@tlipz1168]

I believe it's better than the link. I may have the wrong information but I think the link lowers the quality of the colors and graphics when looking in the headset while virtual desktop does not.

[@Just-A-Bit]

I bought it. Tried for hours to set it up but it was never able to connect to my computer.

[@Boba19423O]

I would love to try it but I dont think my internet would have the speed

[@aqilardi5266]

@@Boba19423O your internet plan doesn't matter, as long as your router supports 5ghz ac it should be fine since it's running on a local connection

[@kamarukou3648]

@@Just-A-Bit discord.com/invite/6rYepzg there is a discord mind you. Perhaps getting some help would sort out your issues.

[@alpha3836]

4:19 That cat is like : *_Aah yes do it right human, I'll forgive no mistakes..._* *_I AM WATCHING_*

[@sireuchre]

Monitor cat is monitoring you.

[@DelightfulWalrus]

Rip shadow 2020

[@querps1043]

@@sem6045 His children's babysitter accidentally killed his cat.

[@TheLitschiSan]

Linus Cat Tips

[@horacegentleman3296]

Khajiit is judging you human.

[@vanderneut]

I'm playing Half Life Alyx wireless via Virtual Desktop on the Oculus Quest 2. Absolutely *love* playing it wirelessly. In Alyx you turn and move around a lot, and with a USB cable you get entangled. With a good wifi network, the wireless connection is not a bottleneck at all.

[@LilSodium]

0:25 almost looks like beard linus came from another time to give non beard linus that box

[@claudio7010]

looooool

[@justkarkat9575]

I notice in my settings, I had to enter the advanced settings to actually increase the graphics, the presets do not adjust all settings.

[@inscrutablewut]

First time?

[@justabrokeredneck]

yea the effort in these videos don’t seem as high as they could be. they just feel spammy.

[@JeskidoYT]

What do the presents actually do then? Explain that devs

[@ardemus]

Yeah, I have to wonder if there's a bug with applying settings, or a UI issue where they don't tell you to restart the game for some of them to apply.

[@Askaly]

@@justabrokeredneck As they could be? Dude, LTT does daily videos, dont expect crazy benchmark excel tables for videos like this one.

[@Nalianna]

4:20 at least someone responsible is supervising linus

[@sebbe91]

haha! meow :p

[@nyelbaig]

Nice

[@foureyes.d3dth]

Nice

[@JoshuaOCallaghan]

I play this wirelessly on the Quest through Virtual Desktop using a 2060S. Honestly the graphics look great and I don't see the problem. Being able to turn and freely walk around the rooms by walking in real life is a massive emersive win (so long as you have the space). I wish the quest had finger tracking like the Index but for now you can purchase a hand strap from Amazon that allows you to let go of the touch controllers without dropping them.

[@MDADigital]

Guys those are baked shadows :D You need to look at the real time shadows. :D They use something called mixed mode lighting. You bake the shadows for the static geo and only use realtime shadows for dynamic geo

[@landmarker]

10:19 high fidelity=> look at the shadow from ur hand on the floor .. thats not there in low

[@ACViper]

Also u can click on the small cog wheel to turn up the texture. For some reason it makes the texture below medium even if ur gpu is a 2080

[@bendeco]

I can't believe all you have is a 86" QLED panel for gaming.

[@TheCloudhopper]

Yeah its pretty pedestrian tbh.

[@daveslow84]

*an* My work here is done.

[@Landstreicher48]

@@daveslow84 Really? Thought it would be a, since Panel starts with a P.

[@Rabolisk]

@@Boxish What was his gaming TV?

[@Rabolisk]

Diminishing returns. It may not be the best TV out there, but any TV more expensive is only marginally better.

[@the_platapus3522]

1:46 "$80 - $100" times have changed for sure, for the worse. 1060 3gb's are like $250 now

[@foxtrotunit1269]

I remember when good GPUs were under 150$ Those were the good old days - and I'm not a senior citizen. This inflation and GPU market swings make me feel like one though...

[@KenzoElysium]

13:35 I swear to god, Linus. That’s Half Life 1.

[@JupiterMaroon]

I remember crushing through half life 2 at 12 fps because I couldnt afford the hardware most people were using. But I was also 10 so I dunno

[@runninggames771]

@@JupiterMaroon how does that pertane to anything he said?

[@JupiterMaroon]

@@runninggames771 I have no idea. I think I tapped reply on the wrong comment. Whoops. Arrest me officer.

[@Shadow-ig3hf]

When he said "the difference in frame rate 8 hertz" I thought he said "It Hurts"....I was like Wow that's not good.

[@mantot_123]

It hurts when Linus gets hit by a headcrab

[@mr.shankly]

Looks like the oculus headset hurts, look at his face at 5:18 ish... ouch

[@EmmieFloding]

@@mr.shankly looks a lot worse worse than it is, doesn't hurt at all luckily

[@Geoff_W]

@@mr.shankly He is wearing it without a counter-weight. It's something I wish they would cover better on this channel. They mod PC's all the time, but there is a rich community of Quest mods.

[@tf2whackyengineer]

My eyes, the vr goggles do nothing!

[@justnodnsayes]

I know you are a hard working guy, your videos are still good after over a decade of making tech videos.

[@a-ramenartist9734]

answer: $500

[@spussego]

going from low to high fidelity on ur 2070, when you moved your left hand over the floor, on low fidelity there is no hand shadow.... on high fidelity there is....

[@verzure]

timestamps for each hand move and this would be a 5/5 comment.

[@verzure]

i mean now I just have to... 10:05 low fid no shadow under hands, 10:10 high fid shadow under hands

[@soullessleftover8427]

3:00 That is one amazing hairstyle Linus.

[@robbierolla]

I'm one minute in and already smashed the like button.... This is exactly what I needed. Tks.

[@Scie]

17:45 THEY ACKNOWLEDGE THE 5 OF US THAT EXIST

[@naternaterspaceinvader8217]

2:51 classic Linus living on the *edge*

[@Kubalopl]

linus drop tips

[@LinusDropTips]

I'm surprised he didn't drop it

[@sawyermervis4232]

13:37 that is absolutely a half life 1 headcrab.

[@iliabashel]

compares it to game which was made in 1998 and it does not even look better he says

[@lukkkasz323]

@@iliabashel This one particular model is a part of the HD pack released for the PS2 version of Half-Life 1 and later PC. So it's from 2001 to be exact.

[@TomFoolery9001]

FYI, Alyx also seems to run well on a 980 TI if you are still rocking one of those. From the numbers the 980 ti and 1070 are almost tied.

[@jessykaas2650]

you can also just buy handstraps for the quest and rift controllers

[@Retr0dag]

Btw rift s and quest have the same controllers

[@LEWLUNOOB]

Been playing with my acer WMR that i bought for $170 2 years ago and a gtx1080 on high. So far no problems and smooth sailing

[@infxtry2619]

Linus: The GTX 1060 is a nice entry level gpu. Me, who uses a GTX 1060: *Oh*

[@nathansavage8692]

think how i feel stuck on a 950

[@jamesamparado195]

@@nathansavage8692 think how I feel stuck on a R7 m440

[@AeXerr]

@@nathansavage8692 i have a gt 240

[@malikrameez2650]

I use rx 570 way better than nvidia

[@djlaithie2525]

@Dmitry Simmons 1660ti or gtx 1080ti?

[@Toots_McPoopins]

I feel so validated with all my PC VR hardware choices. I basically have all the components he mentioned as side recommendations. GTX 1080ti, Vive Pro with Wireless Kit, Index controllers. Unfortunately my 4 core i7 7700k HATES the overhead of the wireless kit. I guess you have to be Linus to not have a bottleneck somewhere. “Lemme just rifle through all my various VR setups and graphics cards I have stuffed in the entertainment center.” 😂

[@SlayerDUDE1993]

2:53 I was like "Oh sh! uff"