Thought i just share my "insights" on SteamVR, Half life 2 and the troubles of getting it to work.
So: I you have a monitor with native resolution of 1680x1050 you are out of luck.
I tried to get HL2 to work yesterday evening, but as soon it was to render something on the screen, it went black - i did get the options, sitched to the max resolution of 1680x1050 HL2 gave me due to the fact that my main screen is that resolution - not matter what you do, this is the maximum that shows up. You start the game, get the title and sound, then black screen with sound playing.
Fiddling around with the display options in big picture was not a good idea - as SteamVR in big picture mode will just swap the main screen for you - and due to the fact that the desktop is not shown correctly in the DK2, this gets a mess (Especially trying to revert it, as it will not play in VR anyway).
Today i used another monitor - 16:9 and FullHD. Sure thing, suddenly everything works (options, starting the game) - freaky experience btw. 😛
Anyway, back to my old 22" - no go.
So, if you want to play HL2 and only get black screen with sound, it might be the native resolution of your main screen that is holding you back.
Another sideffect is that steam will not start anymore if your oculus service is set to direct to rift mode. As soon as you set it to extended, it will start again (on the right screen, remembering size and position) - set it back to direct mode, it will not start. "Only" way to fix i found so far, was to reinstall steam (while oculus was set to direct mode?).
I am making a backup of my apps right now and see if i can find a better solution to this instead og reinstalling everything. 🙂
EDIT: You can start steam (desktop version) when oculus runtime is on pause. When it is running, steam will not start.
EDIT2: HL2 works in extended mode, when rift is set as primary screen in windows. 🙂
It's still a no-go for me. Whether from the regular steam client, VR big-picture mode or direct into HL2 from desktop icon, I have the same experience. I get the HL2 menu UI on the rift, in front of a back background, usually defaulting to a low res. I know it when enough to be able to change to the max res it offers, which is something like 1600x900, matching the primary monitor. 1920x1080 is not offered, which would obviously be better for the rift. When I then start a new game or load an in-progess one, I get just a black screen on the rift, thought the game is running, I can hear sound effects etc.
This is one a notebook, Win 7, i7, Intel HD5600 etc. Outside of the rift, it can actually run HL2 at pretty respectable framerates, ~75fps with average details at 1600x900.
Thank you. I'll try finding full hd screen somewhere. I couldn't get Half Life 2 to work either, sometimes it wouldn't even let me enable virtual reality in the video settings. But Team Fortress 2 works when I've manually swapped the main screen to DK2 and then opened it through SteamVR big picture. Without the main screen swap Team Fortress is just black with hud and sound.
