Back in 2013 word of a VR mod for Half-Life 2 began to surface long before the release of VR headsets from Oculus and HTC. As the title suggests it would let players relive one of the greatest shooters of all time, Half-Life 2, in VR. At the time Valve added support for Oculus Rift development kits into Source, but that's where the story ended. Or so we thought.

So the people behind the original mod are looking to finish what they started by adding full VR support into Half-Life 2 for both the Rift and Vive -- with motion controller support. According to those behind the project, and a report over at Roadtovr.com, "The Source engine is DirectX 9 only which does not allow texture sharing and is not supported by any of the new VR APIs." A hurdle that they've managed to overcome through some clever hacks to ensure consumer VR headset support. Their words, not mine. "We hacked that support to gain control over it and using my special rendering code I send the DirectX frames in low latency directly to the VR SDKs. It should be as low latency as native DirectX 11 rendering."

In addition to the Steam Greenlight page, the mod will also include some overall visual improvements to the game.

Modern VR headset support

Motion controller support

Updated effects, textures, models & maps

A 3D, made for VR GUI

Realistic weapon interactions

Multiple VR locomotion methods

Which all sounds great, except that the trailer for the mod seems to be more of a "here's an idea that we have" as opposed to something where we can see progress.



Either way a VR mod for Half-Life 2 sounds like a no-brainer, and something that Valve probably should have released by now. You know, as a kinda sorta still a game development studio.

Could the 80s ever do wrong? Well yes - Perfect Strangers, Full House and Yazz are all perfect examples of things we'd like to forget about the era that also gave us movies like Rad, Thrashin' and Gleaming The Cube, but there's also so much right about it (beyond the aforementioned), and a certain Apple Commercial comes to mind.

Now in the tradition of modern-day homages, Valve have come up with a perfect way to essentially launch their much revered Half-Life 2 as it nears its official release date for Mac OS X (May 26), by way of a 1984 Macintosh ad reimagining. This is the game all Apple owners too loyal to delve into PC or console have been waiting for, and it's all thanks to Steam for Mac. Check out the embedded video below for a bit of modern day nostalgia.

It's no secret that HL2 has been in development for some time now, but it is now (finally) that we'll start to see what Valve have been doing with their new engine and highly anticipated sequel. Rumour has it that the game will be hitting store shelves even sooner than expected, estimates of 6-8 months have been made (keep in mind this is Valve, that could easily double... or triple).

The project's NDA will be lifted on the 28th of this month, with a number of magazines around the globe already preparing to publish their exclusive news, information, previews and interviews on the upcoming game in next months editions.
Unsuprisingly, Half-Life 2 is expected to be shown off at the next E3 (which is right around the corner), Valve have definately planned their schedule right.

For those of you wanting to work up your excitment even further, feel free to check out these teasers... EDGE Magazine & PC Zone! Personally I'm going to be very interested to see how long it takes them to push out TF2 & CS2 after HL2's release, and if Valve will be actively supporting the development team behind DoD (who will shortly have their mod released as a retail Half-Life mutliplayer expansion) if they are considering a port to the new engine.

Update:
- A new foreign magazine cover (PC Gameplay) has been scanned, featuring Freeman with a female companion.
- A brief official statement was just announced by Valve's Doug Lombardi confirming the rumour surrounding HL2's appearance at this years E3...

Half-Life 2 will be shown at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo.