Serious question: Why is half life seemingly immune from the “VR Graphics issue” by /u/Dotaproffessional

I understand that the reduced graphics in vr is less “there’s just so much overhead with vr” and more “vr has to hit a much higher frame rate and has to keep it far more consistently than other game formats”, so I don’t mind when games look rather poor.

They’ve been able to do clever things with art design to compensate for the 2010 era graphics.

But the notable exception seems to be half life. And talk about an exception. Its not just like “oh its the best looking vr game ever”. It looks so many times better than any other vr game it isn’t funny.

I know the game doesn’t look as good as it does on a first glance. You can see things like shards of glass despawning, shadows turning lower res after a fixed distance, backdrops that are clearly skyboxes etc. But despite some tweaks, it looks like a 2020 game. Maybe not the BEST looking game of 2020, but a AAA high visual videlity 2020 game. Despite being on vr.

And yeah you could say “because its hard to run” but unlike other games who would put a 1060 as the recommended gpu and have the game barely hit 60 fps on lowest settings 1080p (I’m looking at you red dead 2) valve titles have always performed well on the recommended cards.

So I’ll sum up my question.

Why does half life alyx look SO much better than the rest? I put together a lazy side-by-side of the half life alyx gameplay with the upcoming AAA medal of honor above and beyond vr game (by fucking respawn no less, maker of the fallen order and apex legends). Its not even remotely close. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ie5wE1W5ro