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Watch: Half-Life: Alyx Gets Up And Running In Project North Star AR Headset

Watch: Half-Life: Alyx Gets Up And Running In Project North Star AR Headset

Half-Life: Alyx’s latest impressive feat? Getting up and running inside Leap Motion’s Project North Star open-source AR headset.

The project, created by Nader Shokair, was recently shown off by Bryan Chris Brown, who serves as Community Manager for North Star. He showed Valve’s beloved VR hit running inside the headset. North Star is an open-source device, meaning anyone can iterate on its design, but its lenses already feature a wide field of view. In the video a camera moves from the real world before peering behind the lens to see the world of City 17 stretching out in front of them.

Half-Life: Alyx AR (Sort Of)

It’s hard to tell from the video but the image is translucent; look at when the lenses cover a doorway on the bottom right of the screen towards the end of the video. Brown noted that, if you were to play in the dark, you’d see essentially a full VR image, or you could cover the back of the lenses with a black matte material to get the same effect too.

Currently there’s also a gesture system implemented for hand-control – Leap Motion’s specialty – but that’s not shown off in the video and apparently needs a lot more work. This wouldn’t be the best way to experience Alyx itself, but it’s certainly a fascinating project. It’s also one of the first times we’ve seen North Star in action ever since Ultrahaptics bought Leap Motion last year.

Don’t hold your breath for an AR version of Half-Life: Alyx just yet, then. But if you’re interested in seeing what else Valve’s latest can do, you should definitely check out the influx of mods for the game.

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