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Really sorry, mate.

I finished it last Friday.
Probably the best VR game available right now (though overall not my favorite VR game, that would be A Fisherman's Tale).

Non-spoiler review but I still reveal important things about the game. Avoid if you must.
+Some amazingly designed environments, with a technical+artistic quality only rivaled by a handful of games like Dishonored 2.
+It was awesome to see City 17 again and recognize high-poly version of the old props. So cool.
+The last level was amazing. It's difficult to find words to describe it. Wish the whole game had been as inventive or poignant. But I understand the reasons.
+Gunplay was solid and the firefights were a highlight. At times I actually believed I was exchanging real fire. Never had such a real VR moment before.

-The cast is very limited. Like literally a handful of characters only. You meet more people in the first 10 minutes of HL2 than in this whole game. Felt like a huge step back.
-Solitary experience. It's mostly you, the environment, the monsters and a voice in a headset. A voice in a headset is fine, but it's not better for being in VR. The face-to-face meetings with NPCs were either great or amazing. Just too few!
-A game played only "on foot". Don't expect a cool train ride. In fact don't expect any "feeling of travel" like the airboat or car sections of HL2. There's nothing here. You are always moving at the same speed throughtout all the environments, minus an eleveator or forklift here and there. Step back in the franchise.
-Some small technical issues, such as metrocops not reacting to objects being thrown, pigeons flying right through one of them in a particular sequence (always happens) and a slight lack of polish compared to original HL2, even if the assets look amazing.
-Lack of melee combat. Having a broomstick and not being able to defend yourself with it is always disappointing.

It's an amazing game. Has some of the best moments in the HL franchise, in VR and gaming in general, but overall it feels like it plays it too safe and doesn't do enough of what the medium offers in terms of events. Interactions are fine and player agency is great. I just wished you could witness more things going on around you, as Half-life has always done via scripted sequences and choreographed scenes. It could've used two or three times the amount of those.

cool, i needed something like this for my hl randomizer, thanks very much!

You're really admirable. I wish I had done as much as you do at your age. For me it's quite weird when I realize that I begin learning more and more from people younger than me. In a way it confirms me that the world won't stop and knowledge keeps passing on.

My sincere condolences.

Hope you can pass well over this event. It must be really shitty especially if you cared about him, but even if not, probably a weird experience knowing the ephemerality of life can hit so close.
Take care man.

Thank you for the boost of confidence.

Well the wind speed, wind vane and rain gauge came as a kit I bought from here. I know it originally from sparkfun (if you search a bit they have a more "complete" solution based on micro::bit - it's more beginner friendly and faster to set up, I had to actually investigate how it works and compute some values for it).
At the time the kit wasn't available at any shop in my country and I could hardly find it even on European sites. It was the most costly of the assembly.
Other sensors are not as expensive. I can find a DHT22 for example, which is used for temperature&humidity, at around 6$-7$. An alternative DHT11, which is less accurate, is dirt cheap at around 2$.

The pole is metallic and made from 2 pieces (telescopic). I actually found an old pipe that was used in heating around the backyard that I reconditioned and painted white. The "base" in which the pole is "planted" was already there. So this cost nothing.
Where I've put this I also had to invest in internet equipment like a router, UPS etc.

I never thought about maintaining a BOM file so I'd have to estimate it at about 400$ until now. But if you already have the infrastructure in place and some other materials (internet connection, a roof maybe where to put this on a tripod with a weight etc., have some resistors and wires and whatnot every hobbyist has lying around at home), this shouldn't cost more than 100$.

Didn't really think of the price in the long term. Having something to do can be fun at times, it's a mood erector.

Damn, I'm sorry to hear that.

It's a file generated during the compile process by BSP, which contains the number of visleaves, portals, and their coordinates. VIS uses this information to generate the visleaves. This is why it's important the tool is run after VIS has finished compiling, not before.

Sorry to hear about your grandfather, my condolences to you and the family.

Condolences to you and the rest of your family.

That's such a cool project. It's one of the most erected things I've ever seen. Top score for your erection.

Really, though, what sort of price tag does all that equipment run up?

@Archie: Nice flying vacuum. This could be used to wireless dry-clean and style your hair without any shampoo. Eco friendly and Greta-approved!

@zeeba-G: nice man! I think I saw your kickstarter before. Right now I'm "isolated" and happen to be near a river, but I live in Europe. Last time I went fishing was maybe 12 or 13 years ago, when my rod got stuck in a tree branch and it broke. Decided fishing is not for me (well, fishing is quite an art to learn and dedicate time to honestly). This rodless thing seems like a fun thing to carry around. I think it should be in any survival kit :D.

@Urby: What was that mod called? The care? The cart? The corn? The crane? Gee man, I just can't remember. Hope you have time to finish it though, can't wait to play it!

As for me... not much. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), even though we're in quarantine and we have to stay at home, I still do home office and honestly it sucks a bit, seems like the 8 hours I'd spend at the office gets spread out to 10-11 at home :\. Sucks my mood to do anything...

I should work on finishing a project I started in December 2018, which I worked on a bit more during the summer of 2019. I've erected (I like this verb) a small weather station with temperature/humidity/pressure/windspeed/wind-direction/raingauge sensors. It's not much, it's based around an ESP8266 chip and it's all custom code but I plan on changing that in the future and base it more on community driven libraries - I have to draw schematics to remember what wires are go where and the code becomes technical debt after a while.The things I want to work on it are:

• better data availability (due to a bug I have to reset it every now and then else it won't transmit data); find a way to store data locally or to a personal repository and reduce dependency on the current cloud store (thingspeak - although thingspeak provides nice graphs and is what I use to consult the data on my phone)
• create an interface for it
• add more sensors (light, UV, lightning strike, PM2.5 PM10 etc.)

I've been thinking about adding a radiation sensor just for the lulz for some time now. Unfortunately an off-the-shelf solution is very expensive(though probably calibrated). It would have been great now with the Chernobyl forest fires going on these days - probably the radiation will minimally increase anyway because this is I think about 1000km away, but fun to detect.

Well, I should probably have made a journal post. Probably will at some point. Too lazy now.

Can you explain what a Portal file is?

same, thanks

I'm proud of you, lol.

My grandfather has apparently both had a heart attack and tested positive.
I'm staying hopeful but preparing for the worst.

"Contents" can be set to -3 to replicate water inside the brush

I launched a Kickstarter and it got succesfully funded in 3 days!

Fuck yeah, Zeeba! That's awesome!!!

That's tough man, must be really shit to hear someone you've seen probably daily for months or potentially years suddenly pass away. Unfortunately the virus is going to affect all of us in some way, some worse than others - we all just need to stick together ( at least 2 metres apart though ) and stay strong.

Looks great!

I'm sorry about your loss, my honest condolences. One of my worst fears is losing family members and others close to me to this virus. I'm just waiting for it to happen, but I hope it won't.

Thanks Penguinboy. In my County my job is also considered essential so i've been going to work however I took off a week vacation to try and stay away as much as possible.

@JeffMOD, my wife is in the same boat. Her job is considered essential so she's got an official letter she needs to carry on her, in case she gets stopped. Meanwhile I'm stuck in the house with the kids.

google images

Congrats on the Kickstarter success, zeeba!

Y'all get to isolate?
I work at a grocery store, I don't even have the option of staying home until I actually get sick.

What haha Archie shit got crazy when that thing left the building.

I launched a Kickstarter and it got succesfully funded in 3 days! Guess everyone's at home on their computers buying stuff.

Here's the link to the Kickstarter if anyone that lives in the US is interested.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rodlessreel/rodless-fishing-reel

Chyeah

Thanks!! ^^ I will survive, don't think that this newbie will stop bothering you with his stupid coding problems!!, haha!!

Damn Arch, just imagining the hours of tedious motion tracking and keyframing and it makes me realize just what an existential threat boredom can be.

That being said, my daily routine tends to be nothing short of mapping, fucking around in the house, playing D&D with friends and going for a 100% completion playthrough of every Final Fantasy.

Calculus and a mod

Aww man, I thought it was a real one.

What projects are you guys getting up to whilst isolating?

Meh, not much, trying to get some work done on my idTech 4 game, maybe I'll port a couple of tutorials from GameBanana to TWHL too.

I'm being a sad sack.

What projects are you guys getting up to whilst isolating?

I'm working on a mod at the moment. Started it a little bit before the isolation kicked in though.

And if you think a flying Roomba is fun just wait till you find out about what you can do when you convert your Roomba to a Doomba!

What projects are you guys getting up to whilst isolating?

Where did you dig up this sarcophagus? It looks well preserved

It was never my aim really to make the models very realistic, I just really wanted to fix the UV issues and do use the best animations available, but I might take a look later on that article you linked.

Nice! I suggest that you read a little of this http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Half-Life#See_Also if you're going to do a more realistic remodel of them, as on this site they point out many possible aesthetical mistakes in those weapons.

Well, I have watched two full walkthrougs, and the sensations I received are those I have wrote. I have no VR device yet, neither I think I'll buy one, but I have started my post saying that I talk from my experience as FPS player from the last 23 years. Of course my oppinion lacks of the experience of a VR device owner. Aniway, I am sure that a true VR device that covers real movement and hand operation will be done soon for us to enjoy games like HLA, and of course I'll regret what I did say if I see something better that I've seen.

Dang Abbadon holy crap! Well, hang in there man!

Abaddon, you talk about the game both as if you've played it and as if you've only seen videos. Which is it?

Oh snap. Good luck, abbadon!

Chinese conpiracy? Oh, c'mon. I am isolated, I am C19 positive and I will win the fight for sure. Take care of yourselves, please, don't be stupid and remain at home. This is a SARS virus, is a badass little bitch that'll keep us busy until we find a proper vaccine and treatment, until then, please, be careful my friends.

Did not like it. I will talk from a fps player experience since 1997. I have seen two kalkthrougs, the player movement using the footstep tool (i can only call the two foot with the line that way) is choppy like when you play the old Resident Evil 1(scene, cut,scene,cut), the jumping from or towards cliffs is... Like the one seen in AvsP 2010, that is: weird and console-ish. Even if you are in an open world full of possibilities( that require you to sell a kidney in the black market to buy a new pc) the game is as limited as if you play old HL2:locked doors that you cannot open, unpassable areas, etc. Btw: that grass... Omg, i have seen better grass in 90's games. It is cool how hands work togheter, even the reload of weapons look cool, but HL Alyx cannot avoid the fact that it is the first of its kind, and all need more work and tech to be a full VR experience, because hands are properly (almost) well covered in what their function is about, but the MOVEMENT will require another de vice that does not exist nowadays.
But i give the game a 7 of 10 justo because it's the ONLY true actual true VR experience, even if it is quite boring.

Wait Archie, what are you implying?

I never thought I'd see a global pandemic cascade, let alone create one...