The Bottles in Half-Life: Alyx Actually Contain Fluid Now

Half-Life: Alyx turned heads when it released. Not only because it was the most recent Half-Life game in several years, but because it was an astounding example of the potential of VR games. And yet, they've pushed that bar even further. The bottles have liquid in them now!

But wait, what the big deal about this?

What is one of the hardest things to simulate in a video game? If you said water, you'd be right. Fluids are tremendously complex in the physical world. To simulate their behavior in a video game is a rather resource-intensive process. This is especially true for containers like cups and bottles. To save on the effort and CPU strain, most games settle for simplified versions of how water works.

This was true for Alyx, too. Or it was until visual effect developer Matthew Wilde posted about his most recent accomplishment on Twitter. Wilde, who worked/is working on Alyx, posted a video showing off a new fluid simulation shader that was added to the game in a recent update.

"Spent a good chunk of lock-down doing this important work. Boozy liquid shader, now available in the latest update for Half-Life: Alyx"

The results are rather impressive. The bottles, now full of liquid, react to the world around them. Flip them over, the air floats to the top. Shake it and it'll slosh around. The liquid conforms to the shape inside so that the volume inside appears to stay the same, regardless of how it's placed. It all comes together to have a fairly realistic representation of how a bottle full of wine might look in real life.

So why is this important again?

To be honest, it isn't really that big a deal. Liquid physics are fun and exciting because they look cool, but in a game like Alyx, it's hardly a game-changer. But it's still worth talking about. This small, unneeded update is a perfect example of how Valve put so much attention to detail on Alyx. Their efforts made the game one of the most popular and recommended VR games for PC. And the fact that this is a post-launch update shows that they care about taking that extra step even after release.

Besides, it a weird time in the world right now. It's nice to forget about all that and just be excited when the bottles of wine go sloshy-sloshy.

Half-Life: Alyx is available now on Steam. It requires a compatible VR headset to play.