Half-Life 2 gets official support for Oculus Rift VR headset

Valve added support for the Oculus Rift VR headset to its landmark first-person shooter Half-Life 2 in the latest update to the game that also added support for SteamPipe, Steam's new content distribution system.

Joe Ludwig, the Valve programmer who lead development of Oculus Rift support for Team Fortress 2, announced the feature on the Oculus developer forums. The virtual reality option for Half-Life 2 is included in the game's opt-in beta version, and Ludwig says it should ship "to everybody in a few weeks."

"This port is a bit more raw than TF2 was when it shipped," Ludwig explained, "so we would appreciate hearing about any bugs you find. Just like in TF2 this mode is experimental, so we really want to hear what you think."

Ludwig reports a few known issues, including problems with the zoomed-in UI and that the HUD is "dim and hard to read."

Valve introduced support for the Oculus Rift VR headset to Team Fortress 2 in March. Ludwig said at GDC that the developer is still experimenting with implementing the headset into its games, development that comes with challenges related to UI, motion sickness and position of elements like targeting reticules. Support for other Valve titles, like Portal and Left 4 Dead, has also been tested.