Multi-tool hacking: the sphere puzzle, whole
Half-Life: Alyx · HUD & Gameplay UI
Art style Realistic 3D
About this game
Developer: Valve · Publisher: Valve · Platform: PC (Steam) · Art style: Realistic 3D · Screen type: HUD & Gameplay UI
More Half-Life: Alyx screens in the Gallery
What to study
Alyx's hacking is not a menu or a progress bar: the multi-tool projects the lock as a physical object hanging in the air in front of the machine it belongs to. The whole puzzle can be taken in at once, a glassy blue sphere with a red disc tilted through it, glyph nodes pinned to its surface (a red triangle, yellow sigils, a blue coil), and an arc of nine dotted blue orbs overhead keeping the puzzle's state. Nothing is labelled and nothing is explained in text; each glyph is a shape to be matched and connected by rotating the sphere and reaching into it, so the 'interface' is the object itself, read by handling it. This frame catches the moment just after projection, before the player's hands enter: the puzzle as a piece of industrial design, floating in a concrete corridor in front of the tank it will open. Frame at about 0:09 in the Gameplay 2 video (Steam), manually extracted at 9.0s: the scene-change pass emitted only two frames for this entire video and neither is in this segment.
Patterns
How the screen is arranged.
diegetic-controls node-icons minimal-hud
Screen inventory
- translucent blue sphere filling the right half of the frame
- tilted red disc plane cutting through the sphere
- glyph nodes fixed on the sphere's surface: red triangle node, two yellow glyph nodes, blue coil node
- arc of nine blue dotted orbs floating above the sphere
- multi-tool beam streaking in from the lower left (the tool itself is off-frame)
- concrete corridor and the Combine tank the puzzle is projected from, at left
Top 3 colors
#314136 23%#1d2d25 22%#101e1b 21%
Top three palette colors by share. The remaining colors make up the rest.
Source and credit
© Valve, Half-Life: Alyx screenshot: Half-Life: Alyx Gameplay 1 and Gameplay 2 videos (Steam), shown for design study and commentary. PlayCraft is an unofficial fan project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Valve.
Source tier 2 (publisher-released) · screenshot: Steam store page · Steam page
Source details
Fetched 2026-10-20. verified 2026-10-21: frame manually extracted at 9.0s from the pipeline-downloaded Gameplay 2 video (Steam) and inspected visually at full resolution (1920x1080 native); genuine in-game hacking puzzle confirmed settled and complete in frame (sphere, red disc, glyph nodes and the nine-orb arc all legible); the multi-tool itself is off-frame left and only its beam is visible, flagged here rather than glossed over; no trailer text or watermark overlays the frame
no published policy found (checked 2026-10-21); fair-use study use, takedown honored within 48h
Rights holders: see Copyright & takedown.
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