Valve adds desktop Foveated Rendering to Half-Life: Alyx
The update also adds stencil buffer tagging on Steam Frame and fixes workshop rendering crashes and the 'Gnome Alone' achievement bug.
Valve has released an update for Half-Life: Alyx that adds a Foveated Rendering option on desktop, found under Advanced Performance for supported hardware, according to gamingonlinux.com.
On DirectX, desktop Foveated Rendering supports NVIDIA GTX 16XX and RTX 20XX and newer cards. AMD users must launch the game with the -vulkan flag to use the option.
Valve says best results require eye tracking enabled on the headset. Supported devices listed include Valve Steam Frame via SteamLink, Meta Quest Pro, HTC VIVE Focus Vision and Bigscreen Beyond 2e.
Steam Frame and bug fixes
The update also enables stencil buffer tagging when the game runs natively on Steam Frame, which Valve says improves reprojection quality. In addition, it fixes several rendering crashes common in workshop content.
The patch also resolves the “Gnome Alone” achievement failing to unlock for some players.
Quick answers
How do I enable Foveated Rendering in Half-Life: Alyx?
The option is available on desktop under Advanced Performance for supported hardware. On AMD hardware you need to launch the game with -vulkan.
Which headsets support Foveated Rendering in Half-Life: Alyx?
Valve lists Steam Frame via SteamLink, Meta Quest Pro, HTC VIVE Focus Vision and Bigscreen Beyond 2e. Eye tracking must be enabled for best results.
What else is in the Half-Life: Alyx update?
It enables stencil buffer tagging on Steam Frame, fixes rendering crashes in workshop content and fixes the “Gnome Alone” achievement not unlocking for some users.