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Half-Life: Alyx

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Revision as of 19:54, 22 April 2020 by TremiRodomi (talk | contribs)
Half-Life: Alyx
Half-Life: Alyx cover
Developers
Valve Corporation
Engines
Source 2
Release dates
Windows March 23, 2020
Reception
Metacritic 93
OpenCritic 92
IGDB 93
Taxonomy
Series Half-Life
Half-Life: Alyx on HowLongToBeat
Half-Life: Alyx on IGDB
Half-Life: Alyx on MobyGames
Half-Life: Alyx on Wikipedia
Half-Life mods and fangames (series)
Half-Life 1998
Half-Life: Opposing Force 1999
Half-Life: Blue Shift 2001
Codename: Gordon 2004
Half-Life: Source 2004
Half-Life 2 2004
Half-Life 2: Deathmatch 2004
Half-Life 2: Lost Coast 2005
Half-Life Deathmatch: Source 2006
Half-Life 2: Episode One 2006
Half-Life 2: Episode Two 2007
Portal (series)
Half-Life: Decay (unofficial port) 2008
Half-Life: Alyx 2020

Warnings

This game requires a virtual reality headset (see VR support for details).
Half-Life mods and fangames (series)
Half-Life 1998
Half-Life: Opposing Force 1999
Half-Life: Blue Shift 2001
Codename: Gordon 2004
Half-Life: Source 2004
Half-Life 2 2004
Half-Life 2: Deathmatch 2004
Half-Life 2: Lost Coast 2005
Half-Life Deathmatch: Source 2006
Half-Life 2: Episode One 2006
Half-Life 2: Episode Two 2007
Portal (series)
Half-Life: Decay (unofficial port) 2008
Half-Life: Alyx 2020

General information

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Windows
All versions require Steam DRM.
The game is also bundled with Valve Index (headset only, full set, or just controllers) units indefinitely.

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Use -novid command line argument

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\game\hlvr\cfg\[Note 1]
<path-to-game>\game\hlvr\SAVE\S*\personal.cfg[Note 1]
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/546560/pfx/[Note 2]

Save game data location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\game\hlvr\SAVE\S*\[Note 1]
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/546560/pfx/[Note 2]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
Steam Cloud

Video settings

Performance Options
Performance Options

Template:Video settings

Anti-aliasing (AA)

Use launch parameters to adjust anti-aliasing setting.[1]
  1. See Command line arguments.
  2. Add -console -vconsole +vr_msaa x, while replacing "x" with the desired MSAA sample count (or "0" to disable MSAA entirely).
By default, the game uses 4X MSAA.
As an alternative, "+vr_fxaa 1" can be used to enable FXAA (Alongside "+vr_msaa 0") if a cheaper anti-aliasing solution is desired.
If the -console and -vconsole launch parameters are already being used, there is no need to add those launch parameters again.

Disable volumetric fog

Use launch parameters to adjust volumetric fog setting.[2]
  1. See Command line arguments.
  2. Add -console -vconsole +volume_fog_disable 1 to disable volumetric fog.
By default, volumetric fog is enabled, but this tweak can be used to disable it, for the possibility of increased performance.
If the -console and -vconsole launch parameters are already being used, there is no need to add those launch parameters again.

Disable dynamic resolution scaling

Use launch parameters to adjust resolution settings.[3]
  1. See Command line arguments.
  2. Add -console -vconsole +vr_fidelity_level_auto 0 +vr_fidelity_level 3 to disable dynamic resolution scaling, and set the rendering resolution to the headset's native screen resolution.
If the -console and -vconsole launch parameters are already being used, there is no need to add those launch parameters again.

Spectator window resolution

Use launch parameters to adjust the spectator window resolution.[4]
  1. See Command line arguments.
  2. Add -w <width> -h <height> to adjust the spectator window resolution, replacing <width> with the horizontal resolution, and <height> with the vertical resolution.
This does not affect the internal game resolution, and will crop/scale the in-game view based on the width and height of the window[5]
-window can be used alongside this to force the spectator window into windowed mode.

Input settings

Template:Input settings

Audio settings

Template:Audio settings

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
French
German
Japanese
Korean
Russian
Spanish
Latin American Spanish

VR support

This game requires a virtual reality headset.
Headsets State Notes
SteamVR
Also native Valve Index support.
Oculus VR (LibOVR)
Through SteamVR, no native Oculus SDK support.
Windows Mixed Reality
Through SteamVR.
Devices
Tracked motion controllers
Traditional controller
Keyboard/Mouse
Play area
Seated
Standing
Room-scale

Issues fixed

Subtitles and closed captions not working

Subtitles and closed captions will not be displayed when the selected Steam client language is not supported by the game.
Change Steam language to a supported one[6]
  • Change Steam client's language to one supported by the game, e.g. English.
Copy subtitle file and rename it to match the Steam client's selected language[7]
  1. Navigate to <path-to-game>\game\hlvr\resource\subtitles\
  2. Copy desired language for subtitles e.g. closecaption_english.dat, copy it into same folder and rename it into the Steam client language, e.g. closecaption_finnish.dat if the Steam client language is in Finnish.
  3. Navigate to <path-to-game>\game\hlvr\webui\localization\
  4. Repeat the process, copy e.g. hlvr_english.json and rename copy to e.g. hlvr_finnish.json

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 11
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

Middleware

No middleware information; you can edit this page to add it.

Enabling the console

Command line[8]
  1. See Command line arguments.
  2. Add -console -vconsole.
  3. Open the console by pressing ~.
Using -vconsole will enable Valve's VConsole as opposed to the command console present in Source Engine games. To enable the older command console, just use -console.[9]

Increase movement speed

Use the +hlvr_continuous_normal_speed 200 +hlvr_continuous_combat_speed 200 command line arguments[10]

Notes

hlvr_continuous_normal_speed is the standard movement speed when using continuous movement.
hlvr_continuous_combat_speed is the movement speed during combat when using continuous movement.

Disable weapon muzzle flashes

Use the +muzzleflash_light 0 +r_muzzleflashbrightness 0 command line arguments[11]
This may be useful when the flickering light option is disabled and when the light sensitivity option is enabled, to further reduce the amount of flashing/flickering lights.

System requirements

Windows
Minimum
Operating system (OS) 10
Processor (CPU) Intel Core i5-7500
AMD Ryzen 5 1600
System memory (RAM) 12 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060
AMD Radeon RX 580
6 GB of VRAM
Total size after installation on March 23, 2020 was 68 GB.[12]

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).
  2. 2.0 2.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/546560/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (546560) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

  1. r/WindowsMR: Half-Life Alyx Blurriness - last accessed on 2020-03-29
  2. r/WindowsMR: Half-Life Alyx Blurriness - last accessed on 2020-03-29
  3. r/WindowsMR: Half-Life Alyx Blurriness - last accessed on 2020-03-29
  4. [[missing url] Why Fullscreen? I need Windowed! :: Half-Life: Alyx General Discussions] - last accessed on 2020-03-27
  5. Verified by User:BesuBaru on 2020-03-30
    Spectator window appears more cropped on a 2560x1080 monitor than gameplay videos with 16:9 aspect ratio.
  6. are subtitles working? [FIXED] :: Half-Life: Alyx General Discussion - last accessed on 2020-03-27
  7. Half-Life Alyx: How to Fix Subtitles not working - SteamA - last accessed on 2020-03-27
  8. Streaming and Spectating Guide
  9. Verified by User:BesuBaru on 2020-04-01
    Checked by playing around with launch parameters.
  10. Steam Community :: Guide :: Increase movement speed
  11. Verified by User:BesuBaru on 2020-04-01
    Found by playing around with console commands.
  12. Verified by User:BesuBaru on 2020-03-23
    No official storage requirements, but the Steam installation size for "Half-Life: Alyx" is approximately 68 GB.