When I tried Half-Life: Alyx streaming from a PC to Valve’s new Steam Frame VR headset, I was blown away; thanks to the Frame’s dedicated wireless adapter and a cool trick Valve calls “foveated streaming,” I didn’t detect any latency as I explored an industrial building and fought some head crabs.
But the Frame also has an Arm chip inside, meaning it can run games locally. While I didn’t get to test playing Half-Life: Alyx that way, based on comments Valve gave to other publications, it seems like Valve is optimistic that it might be able to make the game run well when played standalone.
“Half-Life: Alyx is a great experience when streamed from a PC to Steam Frame, and we are looking into making it a good standalone experience as well,” Valve told Digital Foundry. And according to UploadVR, “Valve representatives think they can get Half-Life: Alyx running performant in standalone, but they’re not promising it yet and it’s clear there’s still a lot for them to do.”
Fingers crossed Valve finds a way to make it happen. I’ve actually never played Half-Life: Alyx, and if I get a Steam Frame, I’d definitely want to try playing it standalone.