Proto:SteamVR Performance Test/Half-Life 3

This is a sub-page of Proto:SteamVR Performance Test.

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This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

To do: The Half-Life: Alyx Day One binaries have a lot of assets that pertain to this version of Half-Life 3. s&box has (or had) Half-Life 3 entity icons.

Between late 2012 to early 2014, several developers at Valve worked on a version of Half-Life 3 that was far removed from anything else that had ever been done in the Half-Life series — a procedurally generated roguelike experience where the player would have to break into a house and free citizen hostages from the Combine. Because it was being developed in the buggy infancy of the Source 2 engine, and because there was not enough support for the project at the time due to the workforce having spread out to work on several different projects at the same time (Left 4 Dead 3 and an RPG project), the project was ultimately cancelled.

(Source: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1361700/HalfLife_Alyx__Final_Hours/)

The version of Half-Life 3 present within the Performance Test is just a version of Half-Life 2 that's been modified and converted to an early Source 2 engine. Because of that, most things in the build used Half-Life 2 assets and/or code, the former of which had largely been scrubbed from the build. In spite of this, Half-Life 3 still has its fair share of new content.

Models

Antlion

An imported model of Half-Life 2's antlion model.

D0G

An imported model of Half-Life 2's D0G model.

NPCs

Combine APC

The APC now has a light particle attached to it.

Combine Soldier

Combine soldiers were given the ability to throw smoke grenades.

Ceiling Turret

Ceiling turrets were updated so that the model for their gun could be swapped out.

Invincible Hunter

A brand new NPC and variation of the hunter from Half-Life 2: Episode Two, "npc_hunter_invincible." Its AI is mostly the same, but it has several attributes that make it far more deadly than a regular hunter.

• The hunter is colored red, likely as a placeholder for differentiation.
• If the player gets in close proximity to the hunter, they will start taking poison damage.
• The hunter's completely invulnerable to all forms of damage. It can only "die" in a few circumstances.
  • If the player gets too far from the hunter, or if the hunter cannot physically reach the player, then it will automatically despawn.

Pulse Ceiling Turret

To do: Go more in detail. What does it do when it's functional?

A brand new ceiling turret NPC, "npc_ceilingturretpulse." It doesn't work by default, but when it is functional, the pulse ceiling turret sucks up all nearby props into a vortex, and starts launching each prop individually at its enemies. The pulse ceiling turret is not hostile to the player, and Day One binaries for Half-Life: Alyx indicate that the turret was to be used in the player's safehouse.

Weapons

AR2

The AR2 cannot use its secondary attack, as Combine Balls are not supported in Source 2.

Crowbar Zipline

A zipline that the player can use to traverse gaps. There are console commands (disabled by default) that allow the player to create zipline posts by using the crowbar weapon's secondary attack key. Despite this, though, the crowbar itself is not needed to use the zipline.

Spy Grenade

A grenade where, when thrown, the player's camera follows it. The spy grenade makes an appearance within Half-Life: Alyx, where it remains unused.

Maps

vr_platform_shooter

A test map with a giant sign that says, "Shoot this text to start kill 150 headcrabs." The map is unfortunately broken, but the entities included in the map suggest that you'd fight off waves of headcrabs, headcrab variants, zombies and their variants, and at some point even some striders!

Gameplay Mechanics

All the fancy new gameplay mechanics that came with the breakaway from a traditional linear shooter to a roguelike experience.

Procedural Spawn

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: Procedural generation code and map entities exist.

Citizen Quests

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: The code for this feature still exists. Particles exist for this feature. DOTA 2 has some of the original particles for this as well.

This rendition of Half-Life 3 would have the player come across different citizens, who would have given them quests. Console variables (ConVars) exist for this feature.

quest_citizen_stop_see_player_timeout         2                game
quest_dialog_duration_chars_per_second        20               game
quest_dialog_duration_max                     15               game
quest_dialog_duration_min                     1                game
quest_dialog_text_drop_shadow_depth_offset    0.25             game
quest_dialog_text_drop_shadow_vertical_offset 0.25             game
quest_dialog_text_offset                      80               game
quest_goal_depth                              256              game
quest_goal_num_ticks                          64               client

"Explode Ice" Prop Parameter

A leftover prop parameter presumed to be from Half-Life 2 Episode Three (not to be confused with Half-Life 3!) can be applied to props. When a prop with the "Explode Ice" parameter is destroyed, it freezes everything around it rather than setting them on fire. This parameter can also be found in the Alien Swarm SDK.