Half-Life: Alyx Update 1.4 patch notes added reactive liquid to bottles

In a neat visual update, bottles now feature sloshing liquids in Half-Life: Alyx. New languages are also supported in subtitles and more.

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Half-Life: Alyx is an incredible benchmark for virtual reality game design. The amount of interaction the game provides in puzzle-solving, combat, and just plain environmental interaction is already incredible. Valve did an incredible job, but they aren’t done. A new Update 1.4 just dropped alongside a set of Half-Life: Alyx patch notes, and this one features an interesting new addition of adding sloshing and reactive liquid to bottles.

Half-Life: Alyx Update 1.4 patch notes

Valve launched Half-Life: Alyx Update 1.4 and its patch notes on May 27, 2020. The big headliner here is the new liquids visual feature in bottles and glass containers. As you can see above, when you turn the bottle or shake it around, the liquid moves and reacts to the vessel’s movement. It might not seem like a big deal, but it’s just another way Half-Life: Alyx is going beyond to make the VR world it exhibits feel all the more immersive. Other updates include expanded language options for subtitles and additions to Half-Life: Alyx’s recently opened Steam Workshop, including a Postprocessing Editor, core Lua scripting functionality and example maps for various objects and characters. Check out the full notes just below.

Game Features

  • Added subtitles for: Brazilian, Czech, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Ukrainian, Vietnamese
  • Bottles now appear to have liquid inside them that sloshes around as you shake them.
  • UI appears quicker when returning to Main Menu
  • Improvements to addon management UI

Game Fixes

  • Added checks for users loading a savegame with missing addons (eg. unsubscribed or deleted)
  • Added error message if a game fails to load due to a missing map requested by an addon
  • Various crash fixes
  • Fixed bug where exiting the game by closing SteamVR could generate bad save files

Workshop Features

  • Enabled the Postprocessing Editor (Documentation)
  • Added "Custom Character" example addon (Documentation)
  • Added example maps for:
    • Blind Zombie (a.k.a. Jeff)
    • Hacking and Toner Puzzles
    • Parked Vehicles and other Interactive Prefabs
    • Visibility System (Documentation)
    • Postprocessing Volumes (Documentation)
  • Added core functionality required for Lua scripting and added some Alyx-specific script bindings for querying VR controller input and creating nav mesh paths from entity scripts
  • Enabled live bone constraints in SFM, which can be baked/enabled as procedural bones, like cloth

Workshop Fixes

  • Fixed case where some explicitly specified meshes became hulls. (eg. func_shatterglass will now build in a map without having to enable legacy collision mesh.)
  • Added some meshes that were missing from parked vehicle prefabs.
  • Made SFM UI less Dota-specific in a few places
  • Fixed missing map models (mostly combine stations) in SFM
  • Fixed Import Sequence in SFM to work correctly on sequences with animated root orientation

With such an interesting little addition to the game (not to mention ongoing support and upgrades for the Steam Workshop mod scene), Half-Life: Alyx continues to be one of the coolest things going on in VR gaming. Be sure to check out our Shacknews review if you haven’t already to get the full lowdown on what makes it so good.

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.

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