A couple of days ago, we shared a video showing Half-Life: Alyx being played without a VR headset. And today, we are happy to report that the first non-VR mod for this latest Half Life game is available for download.
Now before continuing, we should note that this mod is more like a WIP project. It’s also a bit rough around the edges, and not as polished as we’d hoped. Still, it will allow you to play Half-Life: Alyx without a VR headset.
In order to play Half-Life: Alyx with a mouse and keyboard, you’ll have to download a few files and extract them to your HL:A directory. Then, you’ll have to launch the game with the following launch commands.
“-novr -console -nocrashdialog -retail -allowdebug -vconport 29000 -vcon -dev -w 1920 -h 1080 -sv_autojump 1”
As said, this mod is not that polished. For instance, it uses the Half-Life 2 weapons and there aren’t any 3D weapon models on screen. Moreover, the jump mechanics appear to be a bit buggy at the moment. Not only that, but you’ll have to manually load the maps in order to play them.
But anyway, you can download this first non-VR mod for Half Life Alyx from here. Icedwhisper has also released the following video in which he showcases how you can install this mod.
Have fun!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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Oh god, some people are going to think that they actually played Half Life: Alyx when they really just played a broken walking simulator. Yes, even when they improve it from this.
Lol it’s the generic mouse and keyboard shooter they waited 13 years for lol
I now realize valve probably didn’t make the next half life because fan expectancy is to dull.
That’s straight bs, fans can be dumb but they only asked for a decent FPS, not VR shovelware.
how the f*k is HL Alyx shovelware?
Hehe, yeah, that’s one way of looking at it 🙂
I think you’re right though. Valve always said they wanted something new and innovative for HL3. Fans may have just wanted a standard FPS to continue the story but that wasn’t good enough for the devs.
HL3 never happened in the years following Ep2 because Valve wasn’t inspired to do so. They realised they couldn’t think of anything that felt impressively different in order to want to make a new HL game. Until VR. So they felt like making Alyx and VR is the only reason.
People don’t seem to realise we either have VR Alyx or we don’t have a new HL game at all and how would that help anyone?
The HL game they’ve been waiting for isn’t being held-hostage.
If they couldn’t make it for everyone than I do believe it’s their creativity that’s too dull as well as their effort.
Still a lot of work to do. Maybe in a few months we might get a decently working non-VR mod.
and what would be the point of that? it’d be just a generic boring fps/walkingsimulator.
Lol devs spend years making average shooters.
That is what most pc gamers expect from half life.
After playing alyx I now realize why it was in VR.
Valve didn’t want to make a generic shooter.
While most the fans wanted that next underwhelming game they can complain about being generic.
Shooters are mostly the same, but in VR you can add so much more.
Any average shooter is better than this dogsh!t, VR or not.
“Valve didn’t want to make a generic shooter.”
The game is a generic first person puzzle shooter with setpieces and cutscenes, amazing how some people get bambozzled by smoke and mirrors.
and half life 1 and 2 was . . . ?
Non VR and much much better. Key thing to keep in mind is ALL pc players can play. ALL……………..
Exactly what this is only much closer to you eyes and not playable by all. So this is craptastic.. Non VR wouldn’t be much worse and all could play. Therefore better for the majority of people.
Just buy a vr headset. It’s made for VR which is different completely from flat games. Things that aren’t impressive or pointless in flat are incredible in vr. You neo ludists make me crack up.
Dude I am already playing it in VR and it is an amazing experience but I would not mind a fully functioning non-VR experience for another playthrough.
And you neo morons bore me to tears.
Any progress is great; and in such a short time. Hopefully we get a perfectly working version some day
A lot of work is needed for it to be decent, even then don’t expect to have a lot of fun playing this on a flat screen, it will be boring AF and that’s not the game’s fault, Pro tips : just lower your expectations, play it only for the story (totally worth it), wait for the mod to be more complete
The real half life fans want to be in the story.
BS.. The real HL fans want to play HL.
In vr this game is amazing. VR made combine freaking scary. The whole game is sometimes so scary you can even move. Flat screen will be just mediocre.
Yeah dude there was no horror games before VR.
But the Combine nor the invasion was really terrifying to think about, except on a existential level. But now it’s personal and it feels real, once you step into that world.
Also he said the game made the Combine scary, not that there were no horror games before VR.
Why the F HL needs to be a horror? I’d like HL2 much more if it didn’t have any monsters.
HL1 had very obvious horror vibes, HL2 in some levels too
meh, 2 had more but overall if you playing half life for horror you are doing it wrong, so much better games to play….for horror.
Never said it was a horror game, but it has horror elements since the beginning, and Alyx is obviously a perfect fit for those horror elements to take the lead
yeah, the entire Ravenholm level is straight from a zombie horror movie.
If people want to play this m&kb with a less than proper experience, more power to them? Some HL experience is better than none I guess.
See that’s what pisses me off the most, the idea of TECHNOLOGICAL advances are to have freedom of choice/MORE choice. But instead of going the route of making a Killer product with VR and still having your traditional ways of interface, they said, “nah FUQ IT, you will play this way or nothing” and we all know what that’s about. That’s about channeling the useful idiots to go out and buy buy buy, consume consume consume. Yes, it is he way of commerce but this was a very unnecessary and alienative move on their part. I never played a half Life game nor have i ever cared to play one. BUt i can still imagine if i was in the choose of those who waited over 15 years for one. How they must feel. Must be one giant A$$ slap in the face with a side of FUQ YOU, buy our gear that we will probably abandoned just like how we abandoned the steam controller. Yeah that’s gonna Go OVER WELL.
But you don’t need to buy the Valve Index to play Alyx. The game works extremely well on any HMD. I bought a HP WMR for 150 quid and it’s fine,
nothing to write home about.
But the fact Valve made sure Alyx runs well on it speaks to the testament that Valve wants everyone with a VR headset to play Al. Game design is completely different when developing from the ground up for VR. Environments are much larger and personal, characters feel alive when they are talking to you. Even Headcrabs are terrifying now!
A good example of a inferior VR to pancake port is Gunheart. Yeah it works, but the movement isn’t there, and the guys in VR are going to kick your a*s because you can’t aim as well as they can. VR is entirely different, and y’all can’t see the difference.
There is no non-VR version being withheld. It’ll be bland in flat mode.
They only made this game because of VR, without VR it wouldn’t exist. They made it because they were excited to see what they could achieve.
So why are people angry? We can’t force Valve to spend 4-5 years on a game they don’t want to make.
The choice is this: we either have a HL game in VR, or we don’t have one at all. Who wins if it’s the latter?
We can’t force Valve to pull their head out of there as- either. Very few people have won now that they’ve made it. Not really worth it
Yeah, but at least some people did – that’s better than nobody, isn’t it?
Look, I get that it really sucks for HL fans to miss out if they simply can’t play VR and I sympathise with their frustration, I sincerely do.
As to whether it was worth it, I don’t know how to gauge that.
It’s got great user reviews so most of the people who play it are happy. It’s had a great critical response too.
In the end it’s Valve’s project and only they know what their overall objectives were. My best guess is that they simply wanted to try to make a great game and if that’s so then they’ve succeeded by most metrics. If they wanted to make a crap ton of money as well then I have no idea but doubt it could earn that much due to the low install base, something they were surely aware of.
Anyway, stay safe while we all go through this crazy quarantine’d time.
Yeah it’s like porting a mobile game to a PC and not tweaking all the suck out of the game, they need years of modding to make this game resemble a decent FPS.
well yeah the ai just stands there and you never face more than 3-4 enemies in small areas.
Half life is way better in VR lol
So engaging.
Those creepy dark Scenes won’t hit you in the gut when your look in that 2d screen.
Good to see charity for the poor tho.
In VR 3 to 4 enemies like real life feels threatening.
With mouse and keyboard you are gonna need at least 5 to 8 enemies to get a challenge, as you are basically a super ninja alyx.
This game will be boring outside of vr
On a modded Stalker game, a single enemy can be a death sentence, so it’s just a matter of tweaking the nonexistant enemy AI, making then deal more damage etc.
Well of course they made the game with KB+M or a controller first. There is no way in hell these developers sat around with VR headsets on for thousands of hours it took to make this game. But they want you to believe otherwise. No KB+M = No Buy
I don’t quite agree with your logic, yeah any game gets coded in traditional desktop computers, but for whatever reason(in Valve case, maybe they want to sell their VR devices) they will restrict the market possibilities, be it consoles or VR.
Well, they will need 50 more games just like Alyx before i even consider buying a VR headset. like what idiot buys a piece of gear to play one blasted game. That’s like the idiots that buy a console for 1 exclusive. So 1 down, 49 to go.
Lol man why you’re calling me an idiot for that ? I have a decent job and i bought myself a headset for this game and the incoming ones because i wanted it, and i’m now discovering the other existing games like Boneworks, someone has to start somewhere to make this popular so other people can consider it, to make it 50 games someone has to create a demand right ? So those people who bought 3DFX cards back then instead of sticking to software mode are idiots ?? Console players are calling us idiots because we’re paying for much expansive hardware to play the same games, are they right and we’re idiots ? If you can afford something why not ? I hope i’m not sounding condescending because that’s not my goal at all, you can disagree with VR players but we can still keep respect intact^^
Who knows maybe valve is working on another 2 or 3 VR only games, then after that, Index is going to set next to Steam Machines, Steam Link, Steam Controller… for sure and from valve it self the next Half-Life is going to be traditional KB/MS & Gamepad. VR is going to be serious when they find a way to move your entire body, but nonetheless this is just the beginning of an awsome technology. And i’m pretty sure one day someone very talented are going to make HLA playable as any HL game, fans deserve to play this, and specially cause the ending is linked with EP-2.
Ah, now that makes more sense. This comment I can understand, as opposed to the one you make above.
You’re right, VR is a long way off from justifying its cost so it’ll take awhile before wide-range adoption.
Sorry, but when you play either version you’ll understand why.
If you play the VR version you’ll think, “Oh, now I get it, holy crap, this plays so differently” and if you try the modded version you’ll think, “The f%&k is this garbage?”
It’s not the kinda simple difference as between 2D movies and 3D, trust me. To even be a 6/10 fps game, it’ll need serious re-working and much more than just solid kb&m controls.
You could play through for a bit of atmosphere and story at best.
People are going to be so disappointed :s
It was made VR exclusive for a reason and that reason isn’t just to sell headsets. To be a decent FPS game it’ll need serious re-working of enemies and more combat, just for starters.
No more disappointed than people already are. Just imagine if you couldn’t use VR. Not that you didn’t want to but you weren’t physically able. Then they go off and make a game you’ve been waiting for for years and you can’t play it cuz they were pinheads and only made it for VR. That’s what alot of us are fealing right now so Valve can kiss our collective ( you know the rest).
THIS IS A VR GAME….PERIOD!
I stand by it. It will not be the same with VR.
But this is great news for those who just wanna play the story.
To be honest it wouldn’t be the same. You really need to experience this in VR.