Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Talk about Head Mounted Displays (HMDs), augmented reality, wearable computing, controller hardware, haptic feedback, motion tracking, and related topics here!
Post Reply
Direlight
Binocular Vision CONFIRMED!
Posts: 337
Joined: Mon Jan 21, 2013 12:30 pm

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by Direlight »

Okay, now it launches with Source SDK 2007 installed, but after the Valve splash screen, it makes my multiple monitors blink on and off (with power LED indicating lost sync)
Try single display mode.
adoral84
Binocular Vision CONFIRMED!
Posts: 267
Joined: Sat Jul 28, 2012 5:04 am

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by adoral84 »

Here's the latest video, tried to highlight the tracking better, this is all ravenholm and the gravity gun. The song caused youtube to block it in some countries, so here's a vimeo link as well if you have issues.

https://vimeo.com/59342255

[youtube-hd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHD3Lwll7q8[/youtube-hd]
Last edited by adoral84 on Sun Feb 10, 2013 10:23 am, edited 1 time in total.
geekmaster
Petrif-Eyed
Posts: 2708
Joined: Sat Sep 01, 2012 10:47 pm

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by geekmaster »

Direlight wrote:
Okay, now it launches with Source SDK 2007 installed, but after the Valve splash screen, it makes my multiple monitors blink on and off (with power LED indicating lost sync)
Try single display mode.
I got it working. It was trying to switch to a fullscreen resolution that my 2560x1440 monitors do not like. I played it for a few minutes with all the default antialias settings at full native 2560x1440, and it seemed smooth enough. Not having played Half-Life before, I notice that having anonymous guards all over like that in the introduction phase of the game is rather creepy. Anonymous authority like that tends to rapidly corrupt them toward abusing innocents. I do not like how they cover their faces in real life either...
Zoide
Binocular Vision CONFIRMED!
Posts: 345
Joined: Fri Nov 18, 2011 1:32 am

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by Zoide »

adoral84 wrote:Here's the latest video, tried to highlight the tracking better, this is all ravenholm and the gravity gun.

[youtube-hd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHD3Lwll7q8[/youtube-hd]
WTF!?

"This video contains content from EMI, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds"

:evil:
adoral84
Binocular Vision CONFIRMED!
Posts: 267
Joined: Sat Jul 28, 2012 5:04 am

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by adoral84 »

Apparently the background song I used causes that in some countries, even though youtube said all it would do is just run advertisements. What country are you in out of curiosity?
Zoide
Binocular Vision CONFIRMED!
Posts: 345
Joined: Fri Nov 18, 2011 1:32 am

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by Zoide »

Costa Rica. I did manage to watch your video but only after using a proxy. Cool video by the way :)
User avatar
donkaradiablo
Cross Eyed!
Posts: 145
Joined: Wed Feb 15, 2012 8:58 pm

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by donkaradiablo »

adoral84 wrote:Here's the latest video, tried to highlight the tracking better, this is all ravenholm and the gravity gun.

[youtube-hd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHD3Lwll7q8[/youtube-hd]
oh yeah!!! three thumbs up (I got excited)
Answers
Walking the thin line between Jobs and Kramer
User avatar
yuriythebest
Petrif-Eyed
Posts: 2476
Joined: Mon Feb 04, 2008 12:35 pm
Location: Kiev, ukraine

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by yuriythebest »

I got the same

"This video contains content from EMI, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds. "

(Ukraine)

Image

SOLUTION for all others with this issue:

here is a proxy link that will take you directly to that video:
http://www.yt.g00p.com/watch?v=RHD3Lwll7q8

cheers!
Oculus Rift / 3d Sucks - 2D FTW!!!
adoral84
Binocular Vision CONFIRMED!
Posts: 267
Joined: Sat Jul 28, 2012 5:04 am

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by adoral84 »

I just posted a link to it on vimeo as well. Sorry for the mixup :/

https://vimeo.com/59342255

Also, check out this video of my immersive trip through Black Mesa Source using the mod. Everything wasn't functional but I was able to play through enough to get a feel for what it'll be like as the Rift gets integrated with the source engine broadly.

[youtube-hd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVgcbMWoGpU[/youtube-hd]

Since I had to replace the Black Mesa mod's assemblies to do this, only the headcrabs and barnacles actually loaded, leaving long sections of "Unforseen Consequences" void of any enemies, but honestly it just made it a lot more tense.
User avatar
rhinosix
Cross Eyed!
Posts: 136
Joined: Thu Aug 30, 2012 10:19 am

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by rhinosix »

Looks exciting!

Have you noticed anything which gave you a bad experience (making you feel sick, disjointed, or a loss of control) in the game?
I'm thinking of things such as:

Having the screen fade to black, transitioning between different locations, being stuck on a loading screen, or dropping to the ground from a high ledge.
adoral84
Binocular Vision CONFIRMED!
Posts: 267
Joined: Sat Jul 28, 2012 5:04 am

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by adoral84 »

rhinosix wrote:Looks exciting!

Have you noticed anything which gave you a bad experience (making you feel sick, disjointed, or a loss of control) in the game?
I'm thinking of things such as:

Having the screen fade to black, transitioning between different locations, being stuck on a loading screen, or dropping to the ground from a high ledge.
That sounds like a list side effects from a pharmaceutical commercial :D

Things like a slight fade into and out of a loading screen would help make it less jarring. Dropping from a ledge or even looking over can give you an odd feeling but no different that doing the same thing in real life.

The only thing that gets to me (and only for a second because I've never actually gotten motion sick) is when I accidentally unplug a tracker or something causes it to stop tracking properly. Scenes where your player is stuck in a place but can still look around actually work really well and aren't disorienting at all (HL2 does this a couple of times). My wife is very sensitive to motion sickness and she's fine as long as she doesn't intentionally sway side to side or jerk her head around really fast.
User avatar
yuriythebest
Petrif-Eyed
Posts: 2476
Joined: Mon Feb 04, 2008 12:35 pm
Location: Kiev, ukraine

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by yuriythebest »

Can you post a step-by-step tutorial on how to make that cool gun? Gratitude in advance!
Oculus Rift / 3d Sucks - 2D FTW!!!
adoral84
Binocular Vision CONFIRMED!
Posts: 267
Joined: Sat Jul 28, 2012 5:04 am

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by adoral84 »

yuriythebest wrote:Can you post a step-by-step tutorial on how to make that cool gun? Gratitude in advance!
Step 1: buy a "top shot elite" for xbox 360 (and a wireless adapter for xbox 360 controllers if you don't have one for your pc)
Step 2: tape a hillcrest tracker to it

That's pretty much it :) The mod has a section in the cfg/autoexe.cfg that you'll want to uncomment where it adjusts the joystick axis setup since by default the gun has a strange setup. Aside from that you'll just need to bind your buttons however you want in game and then play.

Once you have a button setup you like you just turn the controller on, start the game and play.
User avatar
yuriythebest
Petrif-Eyed
Posts: 2476
Joined: Mon Feb 04, 2008 12:35 pm
Location: Kiev, ukraine

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by yuriythebest »

adoral84 wrote:
yuriythebest wrote:Can you post a step-by-step tutorial on how to make that cool gun? Gratitude in advance!
Step 1: buy a "top shot elite" for xbox 360 (and a wireless adapter for xbox 360 controllers if you don't have one for your pc)
Step 2: tape a hillcrest tracker to it

That's pretty much it :) The mod has a section in the cfg/autoexe.cfg that you'll want to uncomment where it adjusts the joystick axis setup since by default the gun has a strange setup. Aside from that you'll just need to bind your buttons however you want in game and then play.

Once you have a button setup you like you just turn the controller on, start the game and play.
gratitude~!
Oculus Rift / 3d Sucks - 2D FTW!!!
alekki
Cross Eyed!
Posts: 117
Joined: Sat Aug 04, 2012 3:12 am

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by alekki »

So, is the Razer Hydra support possible at some point? Your mod is something I need to try as soon as I get my Rift, but I wouldn't like to spend a lot of money on a tracker I probably won't need otherwise, as I have a controller with a decent tracker already. But I will get one if it's necessary.

IIRC, you were talking about using FreePie at some point. Anyone know what suitable trackers/controllers are supported?
adoral84
Binocular Vision CONFIRMED!
Posts: 267
Joined: Sat Jul 28, 2012 5:04 am

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by adoral84 »

alekki wrote:So, is the Razer Hydra support possible at some point? Your mod is something I need to try as soon as I get my Rift, but I wouldn't like to spend a lot of money on a tracker I probably won't need otherwise, as I have a controller with a decent tracker already. But I will get one if it's necessary.

IIRC, you were talking about using FreePie at some point. Anyone know what suitable trackers/controllers are supported?
Yeah, I'd like to start working with the Razer Hydra too, I haven't done anything with it yet but assuming it has some nice apis hopefully it won't take long to get up to speed.

I haven't spent much time on FreePIE integration given that brantlew mentioned the wiimote support doesn't provide orientation data and it doesn't have ps move support either. Those were basically the two devices I was hoping to get for free with it. I may get back to that but the next thing will be including support for YEI 3-Space trackers (mine should come in tomorrow!).
SirNikkolas
One Eyed Hopeful
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Feb 10, 2013 8:56 pm

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by SirNikkolas »

YEI 3-Space trackers (mine should come in tomorrow!)
Which one did you get? This is the one that I'm looking to get,

http://tech.yostengineering.com/3-space ... family/usb

Do you have to get anything extra to get it working? I have one of the top shot elites sitting around, and all I needed was to get the tracker and the xbox wireless hookup. I want to get my gun working or at least close to working by the time my rift comes in :D Your HL2 VR mod looks amazing! It was the reason I ordered a rift :)

Thanks!
mscoder610
Cross Eyed!
Posts: 131
Joined: Sat Jan 12, 2013 6:45 pm

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by mscoder610 »

FreePIE already supports the Razer Hydra, so that would be at least one device you'd get almost for free by integrating with it. Looking at the plugin code for it in FreePIE, it looks like the Sixense APIs are pretty straightforward to use directly though.

Eventually I'd like to use this mod with the Rift for headtracking and the Hydra for gun tracking / movement / everything else.
User avatar
brantlew
Petrif-Eyed
Posts: 2221
Joined: Sat Sep 17, 2011 9:23 pm
Location: Menlo Park, CA

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by brantlew »

mscoder610 wrote:FreePIE already supports the Razer Hydra, so that would be at least one device you'd get almost for free by integrating with it. Looking at the plugin code for it in FreePIE, it looks like the Sixense APIs are pretty straightforward to use directly though.

Eventually I'd like to use this mod with the Rift for headtracking and the Hydra for gun tracking / movement / everything else.

I sent adoral84 my code for linking FreePIE to HL2. It's not 100% complete but its a good start in that direction. Unfortunately my new duties keep me too busy to work on FreePIE for the forseeable future, so I won't be able to complete support for this HL2 mod or Wiimote. Somebody should really take up that cause and finish the Wiimote support in FreePIE, since it's not terribly difficult and would benefit many. Avoiding custom support for each tracker for each game is the exact reason that FreePIE exists. In fact - one of the original design intentions of FreePIE was to allow for direct C code linking into a library of tracker interfaces (although the actual implementation of FreePIE strayed from this intent)
Direlight
Binocular Vision CONFIRMED!
Posts: 337
Joined: Mon Jan 21, 2013 12:30 pm

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by Direlight »

Somebody should really take up that cause and finish the Wiimote support in FreePIE,
I'm helping Cybervillian a little with that. I believe playstation move is an option too later on. Wonder how Wiimote is in 6DOF? Never tried it on pc.
adoral84
Binocular Vision CONFIRMED!
Posts: 267
Joined: Sat Jul 28, 2012 5:04 am

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by adoral84 »

SirNikkolas wrote:
YEI 3-Space trackers (mine should come in tomorrow!)
Which one did you get? This is the one that I'm looking to get,

http://tech.yostengineering.com/3-space ... family/usb

Do you have to get anything extra to get it working? I have one of the top shot elites sitting around, and all I needed was to get the tracker and the xbox wireless hookup. I want to get my gun working or at least close to working by the time my rift comes in :D Your HL2 VR mod looks amazing! It was the reason I ordered a rift :)

Thanks!
I'm just starting to work with the YEI apis right now, I have the tracker from your link. I got spoiled by the size of the hillcrest, this one is a bit bigger but shouldn't be a problem to mount on the HMD.
brantlew wrote: I sent adoral84 my code for linking FreePIE to HL2. It's not 100% complete but its a good start in that direction. Unfortunately my new duties keep me too busy to work on FreePIE for the forseeable future, so I won't be able to complete support for this HL2 mod or Wiimote. Somebody should really take up that cause and finish the Wiimote support in FreePIE, since it's not terribly difficult and would benefit many. Avoiding custom support for each tracker for each game is the exact reason that FreePIE exists. In fact - one of the original design intentions of FreePIE was to allow for direct C code linking into a library of tracker interfaces (although the actual implementation of FreePIE strayed from this intent)
Yeah leveraging FreePIE for that purpose will be really helpful in getting these features integrated into new engines. I'm helping a couple of devs I work with get started on a different engine and we plan to do it with freepie from the ground up.
adoral84
Binocular Vision CONFIRMED!
Posts: 267
Joined: Sat Jul 28, 2012 5:04 am

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by adoral84 »

Ok, the YEI 3 space seems to be generally working. I haven't mounted it on my HMD yet since I'm still waiting on a long enough usb cable to actually use it but I should be able to release a version that supports it tomorrow or wednesday if anyone has the YEI and wants to try it out.
Alkapwn
Cross Eyed!
Posts: 171
Joined: Thu Jun 07, 2012 9:28 am

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by Alkapwn »

adoral84 wrote:Ok, the YEI 3 space seems to be generally working. I haven't mounted it on my HMD yet since I'm still waiting on a long enough usb cable to actually use it but I should be able to release a version that supports it tomorrow or wednesday if anyone has the YEI and wants to try it out.
By waiting do you mean ordered and waiting or trying to find? I'd recommend these guys. Takes a while to ship sometimes, but the prices are amazing. And free shipping to most places as well.
http://dx.com/p/usb-to-micro-5-pin-char ... ngth-70419

or monoprice
Mel
Binocular Vision CONFIRMED!
Posts: 287
Joined: Sat Nov 10, 2007 7:45 am

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by Mel »

Alkapwn wrote:
adoral84 wrote:Ok, the YEI 3 space seems to be generally working. I haven't mounted it on my HMD yet since I'm still waiting on a long enough usb cable to actually use it but I should be able to release a version that supports it tomorrow or wednesday if anyone has the YEI and wants to try it out.
By waiting do you mean ordered and waiting or trying to find? I'd recommend these guys. Takes a while to ship sometimes, but the prices are amazing. And free shipping to most places as well.
http://dx.com/p/usb-to-micro-5-pin-char ... ngth-70419

or monoprice
Maybe it's just me, but my experience with cables from monoprice has not been good. I bought several short-length HDMI cables for connecting my various HD devices to my projector, and not one of them lasted more than, say, 10 insertions/removals into my HDMI switcher. The outside 'flange' (for lack of a better description) of the connectors separated from the inner pins, rendering the cables useless. Not one of them survived longer than a month.
3dvison
Diamond Eyed Freakazoid!
Posts: 718
Joined: Sun Oct 24, 2010 7:25 pm

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by 3dvison »

adoral84 wrote:Ok, the YEI 3 space seems to be generally working. I haven't mounted it on my HMD yet since I'm still waiting on a long enough usb cable to actually use it but I should be able to release a version that supports it tomorrow or wednesday if anyone has the YEI and wants to try it out.
Great news adoral84,

As you know I have a Hillcrest and a YEI 3 like yours.
I already have the Hillcreast mounted on the Diy Rift for head tracking. Will I be able to use them together, the Hillcrest for head tracking (since its mounted there) and the YEI3 in my hand as a gun controller ?
adoral84
Binocular Vision CONFIRMED!
Posts: 267
Joined: Sat Jul 28, 2012 5:04 am

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by adoral84 »

3dvison wrote: Great news adoral84,

As you know I have a Hillcrest and a YEI 3 like yours.
I already have the Hillcreast mounted on the Diy Rift for head tracking. Will I be able to use them together, the Hillcrest for head tracking (since its mounted there) and the YEI3 in my hand as a gun controller ?
Hey 3dvision, that's the exact setup I was planning on using as well, so it should work fine. Unfortunately I didn't get any time to actually work on this today though. Do you have some sort of gun controller or are you just going to try it out with the tracker in hand? I did my very first video that way (the one with the tunnels), it's not exactly intuitive but still cool to see the gun moving on the screen.

I just ordered a mag II today just to see how it compares, the build quality seems much better and it has more buttons but it seems like such a missed opportunity that they don't have an api to get the raw sensor data. If anyone has their contact info I'd love to reach out to them. It's on track to get here tomorrow (I love amazon prime:) ) so I'll post an update with thoughts on it for this type of application (I'll effectively be disabling it's built in tracking for now)
3dvison
Diamond Eyed Freakazoid!
Posts: 718
Joined: Sun Oct 24, 2010 7:25 pm

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by 3dvison »

Hi adoral84,

I thought the YEI 3 would be the better of the two trackers to have in my hand because it has two buttons and the Hillcrest has none.
Will I be able to use the YEI buttons for Fire & Alt-fire just like mouse buttons ?

Cyber has contact info for the MAGII I think.
I want to hear your thoughts on it, I would like to buy one.
Spiffy
One Eyed Hopeful
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2013 9:40 am

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by Spiffy »

This is probably going to sound stupid, but what do i do when i start Half-Life VR?

Ive got a HMD set up but no tracking atm, all i want to do is to play on the secondary screen in stereoscopic mode with the screen warp, but i cant see an option to change screens or anything, is it all console commands or should it be set up by default.

Its just normal HL2 as far as i can tell apart from the neck model/HUD and Tracking info that appears in the console.
adoral84
Binocular Vision CONFIRMED!
Posts: 267
Joined: Sat Jul 28, 2012 5:04 am

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by adoral84 »

Spiffy wrote:This is probably going to sound stupid, but what do i do when i start Half-Life VR?

Ive got a HMD set up but no tracking atm, all i want to do is to play on the secondary screen in stereoscopic mode with the screen warp, but i cant see an option to change screens or anything, is it all console commands or should it be set up by default.

Its just normal HL2 as far as i can tell apart from the neck model/HUD and Tracking info that appears in the console.
For screen warping and SBS I'm currently just using the vireio drivers, when the rift apis are released I'll build them directly into the engine. Aside from that, with no trackers plugged in I tried to make the game gracefully degrade back to the normal PC experience so you're right there's not going on.
Mel
Binocular Vision CONFIRMED!
Posts: 287
Joined: Sat Nov 10, 2007 7:45 am

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by Mel »

Spiffy wrote:This is probably going to sound stupid, but what do i do when i start Half-Life VR?

Ive got a HMD set up but no tracking atm, all i want to do is to play on the secondary screen in stereoscopic mode with the screen warp, but i cant see an option to change screens or anything, is it all console commands or should it be set up by default.

Its just normal HL2 as far as i can tell apart from the neck model/HUD and Tracking info that appears in the console.
Hey Spiffy,

This post might be of use to you, too:

http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.p ... ows#p87482
adoral84
Binocular Vision CONFIRMED!
Posts: 267
Joined: Sat Jul 28, 2012 5:04 am

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by adoral84 »

This week has been pretty crazy but I have the 3-space tracker support in and everything set up adding new trackers should be pretty simple moving forward. I've only done a few quick tests so far and only using the built in kalman filtering for sensor fusion but the tracker seems very response to small movements, but with no additional running average or anything else it is quite a bit more jittery than the hillcrest (with the custom sensor fusion). I'd prefer to take advantage of the 1000hz raw IMU data rate anyhow so I'll see how that works out tomorrow. It seems like it'll be a far more responsive tracker once I find the right balance on the smoothing.

The mag II has a nice feel, it feels substantial enough and the button layout is much better than the top shot. The lack of the additional thumbstick on the rear handle is a shame though, I can't use it to do analog turning in addition to the head tracking which was a nice convenience, but I haven't had a chance to play much to see how big a deal that is. It does seem overpriced for what I'm doing given that I'm not able to use the actual built in trackers.
User avatar
drgroove101
Cross Eyed!
Posts: 115
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2013 4:24 pm

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by drgroove101 »

adoral84 wrote:
mscoder610 wrote:
drgroove101 wrote:First off, WOW! Thank you so much for taking the time to make this extremely cool mod, it looks amazing! It was a labor of love I'm sure! I'm very excited to try this out when my dev kit arrives.

A have a few questions with this, I've read most of this thread and haven't found any answers.

Is this mod fully Oculus Rift ready as it stands or do we need to combine this mod with the Vireio Perception drivers? I'm guessing yes, but thought I would ask because I can not get it to run, which leads me to my next question...

I don't have a DIY rift, nor do I have any sort of controller with motion tracking much less a hillcrest taped to a top shot xbox gun, but I wanted to install and fire up the mod just to see what it was like. I installed the mod, and it appears in my steam games list, but when I click play nothing happens (no window then a crash, just absolutley nothing). I have HL2 and episodes 1&2 installed, and the mod installed to the right directory /steam/steamapps/sourcemods/halflife-vr. Not sure what I can do? Is it maybe not launching because I have no controller hooked up?

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help!
The posts on the first page mentioned that SBS / warping aren't included right now, and using Vireio is one way to get that.

The mod launched fine for me without a tracker / Rift. I couldn't do a whole lot in it though - I can hit E to lower the weapon partially, but that's about it. Using the mouse lets me turn left or right, but not aim up or down, which surprised me a little. As I mentioned upthread, I'm hoping to just start with mouse aiming in most games, I think.
If you want to use mouse aim for up/down in addition to yaw I'd probably just use vireio for now with mouse emulation, I've played several games that way before I started this mod and it works well. From all the testing I did with myself and a few others the ability to affect the screen pitch with the mouse (or analog stick) in addition to accurate head tracking was a bit disorienting.

Running this mod without a tracker and rift won't get you much since it's a tracker / headmount integration but if you want the mouse control to return to normal you can run the vr_shutdown command to .. well basically just play HL2 :)

So I found out why when I hit the 'play' button on the "Half-Life VR" mod in Steam nothing happened. This mod requires the Source SDK Base 2007 tool set to be installed in order to run. I found out I needed this to be installed when I downloaded the Black Mesa Mod. Upon uninstalling this, a prompt automatically came up to download the Source SDK Base 2007. I highly recommend you add this same prompt to your installer to alleviate some frustration from some new folks who will most likely be drawn to your mod from your popular YouTube vids and word of mouth.

Also again, thank you so much for creating this cool mod and adding some amazing content for all of us to enjoy when we get our Rift dev kits! I've ordered the top shot gun, and a wireless xbox pc gaming receiver. I still have yet to get a tracker for the gun though.

You mentioned you would like to make this mod accessible to as many people as possible, including those less technically inclined. In this context I cordially petition you to add a prompt to your installer to install the Source SDK Base 2007 with your mod, and also to code in support for more accessible gun tracking such as a Wii Remote. A Wii remote is probably the most accessible device someone can tape to the Top Shot Gun; if they don't already have one, it is easily purchased from many stores such as Walmart, unlike a Hillcrest tracker which is harder for to obtain.

On this note, here is a video you may or may not have seen of rjyap1 using a PS3 Move Sharpshooter + WiiMote + WiiMotion Plus, and a Sony HMZ HMD to obtain similar results to your efforts in games like COD 4, Dead Space 3 and Skyrim. It's pretty cool, and he has a full DIY guide linked from his video description.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnbUsgJpKqs[/youtube]

Again, you rock! Can't wait to get my Rift and play many many hours of HL2! I also hope you nail down integrating the Rift tracking API's into you mod when the SDK it available, and add in some more accessible tracking! If I could donate some cash for your efforts I gladly would!
Alkapwn
Cross Eyed!
Posts: 171
Joined: Thu Jun 07, 2012 9:28 am

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by Alkapwn »

Thanks again for the awesome work that you're putting into this! I just found out today that the Top Shot I ordered has been sitting at the post office for 2 whole days now >.< Can't wait to try it out.

I'm also anxiously awaiting your 3-space in depth review and comparison with the Hillcrest. Gonna hold off on ordering a tracker for the gun until you've given your blessing on one over the other. I think my most anticipated reviewer is gonna be my dad, as he assumes games are still childish and doesn't understand the vast reaches of this tech. Then I can put his Eastern Euro army training to the test and see how he does.
User avatar
drgroove101
Cross Eyed!
Posts: 115
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2013 4:24 pm

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by drgroove101 »

drgroove101 wrote: So I found out why when I hit the 'play' button on the "Half-Life VR" mod in Steam nothing happened. This mod requires the Source SDK Base 2007 tool set to be installed in order to run. I found out I needed this to be installed when I downloaded the Black Mesa Mod. Upon uninstalling this, a prompt automatically came up to download the Source SDK Base 2007. I highly recommend you add this same prompt to your installer to alleviate some frustration from some new folks who will most likely be drawn to your mod from your popular YouTube vids and word of mouth.

Also again, thank you so much for creating this cool mod and adding some amazing content for all of us to enjoy when we get our Rift dev kits! I've ordered the top shot gun, and a wireless xbox pc gaming receiver. I still have yet to get a tracker for the gun though.

You mentioned you would like to make this mod accessible to as many people as possible, including those less technically inclined. In this context I cordially petition you to add a prompt to your installer to install the Source SDK Base 2007 with your mod, and also to code in support for more accessible gun tracking such as a Wii Remote. A Wii remote is probably the most accessible device someone can tape to the Top Shot Gun; if they don't already have one, it is easily purchased from many stores such as Walmart, unlike a Hillcrest tracker which is harder for to obtain.

On this note, here is a video you may or may not have seen of rjyap1 using a PS3 Move Sharpshooter + WiiMote + WiiMotion Plus, and a Sony HMZ HMD to obtain similar results to your efforts in games like COD 4, Dead Space 3 and Skyrim. It's pretty cool, and he has a full DIY guide linked from his video description.

Again, you rock! Can't wait to get my Rift and play many many hours of HL2! I also hope you nail down integrating the Rift tracking API's into you mod when the SDK it available, and add in some more accessible tracking! If I could donate some cash for your efforts I gladly would!
So I watched both rjyap1's and your videos again, and it's clear your gun tracking is far superior! */respect* Still very interested in your thoughts if it's possible to make gun tracking more accessible to people via hardware such as a Wiimote, Playstation move, Razer Hydra ect...
adoral84
Binocular Vision CONFIRMED!
Posts: 267
Joined: Sat Jul 28, 2012 5:04 am

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by adoral84 »

drgroove101 wrote: I highly recommend you add this same prompt to your installer to alleviate some frustration from some new folks who will most likely be drawn to your mod from your popular YouTube vids and word of mouth.
Yeah, I think that's definitely a good idea, originally the only people trying it out were fairly regular followers of the thread where that was mentioned a couple of times but now that's buried and a lot more people are trying it so I'll try to add that soon. Funny, this seems to be a consistent issue with source mods, I saw a lot of forum posts for the cinematic mod regarding the same issue.
drgroove101 wrote: On this note, here is a video you may or may not have seen of rjyap1 using a PS3 Move Sharpshooter + WiiMote + WiiMotion Plus, and a Sony HMZ HMD to obtain similar results to your efforts in games like COD 4, Dead Space 3 and Skyrim. It's pretty cool, and he has a full DIY guide linked from his video description.
...
So I watched both rjyap1's and your videos again, and it's clear your gun tracking is far superior! */respect* Still very interested in your thoughts if it's possible to make gun tracking more accessible to people via hardware such as a Wiimote, Playstation move, Razer Hydra ect...
That video by rjyap1 was the first time I saw a really awesome use of an HMD in an FPS, at that point I was mostly just using mine for flight and racing sims with TrackIR. I ordered my wiimotes and MotionInJoy compatible bluetooth dongle right after watching it :) It actually works quite well, mouse emulation obviously isn't as accurate as absolute orientation from more modern trackers but can still be really enjoyable. The nice thing is the parts necessary to do real head and gun tracking are the same so you can also play games without direct support like rjyap1 does in the video. I'd definitely like to support wiimote and probably psmove for the weapon tracking as long as they work well enough to give people a good experience (I imagine they will).
Alkapwn wrote: I'm also anxiously awaiting your 3-space in depth review and comparison with the Hillcrest. Gonna hold off on ordering a tracker for the gun until you've given your blessing on one over the other. I think my most anticipated reviewer is gonna be my dad, as he assumes games are still childish and doesn't understand the vast reaches of this tech. Then I can put his Eastern Euro army training to the test and see how he does.
I already feel like my accuracy with the gun tracking is already more limited by my own skill than the tracking quality, I think I might need to get someone with some military training to start doing the demos if the 3-space is much better :)
adoral84
Binocular Vision CONFIRMED!
Posts: 267
Joined: Sat Jul 28, 2012 5:04 am

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by adoral84 »

So a quick update, I have the YEI tracker working at it's full 1000hz with the custom sensor fusion and like the hillcrest the results are much better than the onboard fusion. I haven't done any scientific comparisons between the two (I'll try to put something reasonable together) but the 3-space is definitely very responsive, enough to feel a difference when switching between the two. The lack of yaw drift is really nice when playing with another physical point of reference as well, since I also want to work with cockpit style games. I haven't had the chance to play with it in game very much but so far it's exceeded my expectations.

Here's a new build, it should still support hillcrests the same but if you have a YEI tracker right now I've got it only tracking as the gun if you have a hillcrest also plugged in. It also prompts the source sdk installation if not found per @drgroove101's feedback.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/HLVR/halflife-vr-0.9.3.exe
SirNikkolas
One Eyed Hopeful
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Feb 10, 2013 8:56 pm

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by SirNikkolas »

@adoral84

I forgot to ask, but what are your system specs? Did you ever feel like it was laggy at all? I have a pretty good computer, but I want to know if I should upgrade anything before March.

Thanks :)
adoral84
Binocular Vision CONFIRMED!
Posts: 267
Joined: Sat Jul 28, 2012 5:04 am

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by adoral84 »

I'm playing on a system with a intel 3770 3.5ghz, 680 gtx and 16gb of ram so no lag or anything since it's pretty much overkill for anything source engine related. There really isn't that much additional overhead involved with the tracking over normal gameplay.
3dvison
Diamond Eyed Freakazoid!
Posts: 718
Joined: Sun Oct 24, 2010 7:25 pm

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by 3dvison »

adoral84 wrote: Here's a new build, it should still support hillcrests the same but if you have a YEI tracker right now I've got it only tracking as the gun if you have a hillcrest also plugged in. .
https://s3.amazonaws.com/HLVR/halflife-vr-0.9.3.exe
Great News adoral84,

I am near done on my Diy Rift and I think having the better of the two trackers (YEI 3) set to gun is a good idea anyway. Seems that is where you would want the better tracker.
Mel
Binocular Vision CONFIRMED!
Posts: 287
Joined: Sat Nov 10, 2007 7:45 am

Re: Half-Life 2 VR mod with head tracking (download now)

Post by Mel »

Hey @adoral84:

Any chance we (I'm including everyone else in this request without their express permission...forgive me everyone :) ) could talk you into adding a third sensor into your mod that gets mounted at the base of your neck. You could then give us the much needed head location tracking. I think that this, more than anything else right now, is what the Rift truly needs.

Begging is not beneath me, so...Please, please, please. (Pretty please).
Post Reply

Return to “General VR/AR Discussion”