Meta Quest 3 Unlocks Half-Life: Alyx’s City 17 Scene Wirelessly!

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Summary

  • Fan brought City 17 scene from Half-Life: Alyx to Meta Quest 3
  • Meta Quest 3 is capable of playing VR games wirelessly, with some limitations
  • Developer made Unity version of experience available for Quest 3 owners

A dedicated fan of “Half-Life: Alyx” has accomplished something truly remarkable, managing to recreate the opening City 17 scene from the game exclusively for the Meta Quest 3 VR headset. Although a Meta Quest 3 can already run “Half-Life: Alyx” when connected to a PC, this standalone version allows users to experience the game without needing a PC connection.

The Meta Quest 3 is a remarkable technological invention, but it does have its limitations. Being a wireless, self-contained unit, it lacks the ability to run some graphically demanding VR games without being connected to a PC that handles the intensive processing. Nevertheless, this doesn’t deter enthusiasts from testing the device to its maximum potential, as one user has just demonstrated with Valve’s popular VR title.

Boris Novikov, a developer, astonished many by porting the initial City 17 scene from Half-Life: Alyx to Meta Quest 3. This wasn’t just about getting the game to function on the device without a PC; rather, it involved extracting assets like sound, certain physics interactions, and models from Half-Life: Alyx, and then transferring these into Unity. After rebuilding the scene in Unity, Novikov successfully ran the opening sequence on Meta Quest 3. A short video showcases him strolling through City 17 and interacting with various objects. Although there were occasional frame rate drops, at certain moments, the game operated smoothly with a frame rate of up to 72 FPS.

Could The Meta Quest 3 Play Half-Life Alyx Without a PC?

Novikov investigated this idea due to advancements in technology following the launch of Half-Life: Alyx and the original Oculus Quest. He hypothesized that the XR2 Gen 2 chipset in the upcoming Quest 3 could manage the scene, and it appears his assumption was validated. Meanwhile, there are whispers of Valve introducing a new VR headset with wireless functionality, much like the Quest 3. If these rumors hold true, VR enthusiasts might soon enjoy playing games like Half-Life: Alyx and other demanding VR titles on standalone devices without wires in the not so distant future.

If you own a Quest 3 headset and want to test out its VR experience, Novikov has released the APK file containing the Unity version of the experience. If you’re comfortable with installing custom APK files, feel free to try it out on your device. You can find the link in the YouTube demo video. Unfortunately, this won’t work for those using other Meta Quest devices like the Quest 2 or Quest Pro, as they lack the power of the Quest 3. However, since the chipset and RAM in a potential future Meta Quest 3S are expected to be the same as the Quest 3, it might still function on that device. This experiment suggests that the phone GPUs used by the Quest line are growing increasingly capable, which could bode well for the future of VR technology.

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2025-04-09 04:24