Difference between revisions of "Half-Life"
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|vr only = false | |vr only = false | ||
|htc vive = hackable | |htc vive = hackable | ||
− | |htc vive notes = See [ | + | |htc vive notes = See [https://www.halflifevr.de/ Half-Life: VR] |
|oculus rift = hackable | |oculus rift = hackable | ||
− | |oculus rift notes = See [ | + | |oculus rift notes = See [https://www.halflifevr.de/ Half-Life: VR]. |
|osvr = false | |osvr = false | ||
|osvr notes = | |osvr notes = | ||
|windows mixed reality = hackable | |windows mixed reality = hackable | ||
− | |windows mixed reality notes = See [ | + | |windows mixed reality notes = See [https://www.halflifevr.de/ Half-Life: VR]. |
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|keyboard-mouse notes = | |keyboard-mouse notes = | ||
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Revision as of 06:56, 1 September 2020
This page is for the original game. For the Source engine port, see Half-Life: Source. For the unofficial remake, see Black Mesa.
Developers | |
---|---|
Valve Corporation | |
Publishers | |
Sierra Entertainment | |
Valve Corporation | |
Engines | |
GoldSrc | |
Release dates | |
Windows | November 19, 1998 |
macOS (OS X) | January 25, 2013 |
Linux | January 25, 2013 |
Reception | |
Metacritic | 96 |
IGDB | 80 |
Taxonomy | |
Modes | Singleplayer, Multiplayer |
Pacing | Real-time |
Perspectives | First-person |
Controls | Direct control |
Genres | Shooter |
Art styles | Realistic |
Themes | North America, Sci-fi |
Series | Half-Life |
⤏ Go to series page | |
Half-Life mods and fangames (series) | |
Half-Life | 1998 |
Half-Life: Opposing Force | 1999 |
Half-Life: Blue Shift | 2001 |
Codename: Gordon | 2004 |
Half-Life: Source | 2004 |
Half-Life 2 | 2004 |
Half-Life 2: Deathmatch | 2004 |
Half-Life 2: Lost Coast | 2005 |
Half-Life Deathmatch: Source | 2006 |
Half-Life 2: Episode One | 2006 |
Half-Life 2: Episode Two | 2007 |
Portal (series) | |
Half-Life: Decay (unofficial port) | 2008 |
Half-Life: Alyx | 2020 |
Warnings
- The macOS (OS X) version of this game does not work on macOS Catalina (version 10.15) or later due to the removal of support for 32-bit-only apps.
General information
- Unofficial Half-Life Wiki
- GitHub Issue Tracker for Half-Life and other GoldSrc-based games
- Steam Community Discussions
Availability
Source | DRM | Notes | Keys | OS |
---|---|---|---|---|
Retail | Disc only needed to play CD music, and in previous versions; authenticate. | |||
Steam |
- All non-Steam releases can be redeemed on Steam.
- Soundtrack is available for free here.
- Steam Edition has been updated to have full OpenGL support with texture filtering and smooth dynamic lighting.
Demos
Half-Life: Uplink
- The official public demo that includes an exclusive chapter (and a training level) with content not found in the full release. It can be downloaded here.
- The demo uses an older version of GoldSrc and may have compatibility issues with modern systems. For full compatibility, the SteamLink mod reworks the demo as a Half-Life mod.
Half-Life: Day One
- A pre-release demo exclusive to OEMs. It contains the chapters from the full release up to and including "We've Got Hostiles" (5 chapters and a training level). It can be downloaded here.
- Note that the demo uses an older version of GoldSrc and may have compatibility issues with modern systems.
Version differences
- Half-Life: Game of the Year Edition comes with both the base game and Team Fortress Classic.
- Half-Life: Dreamcast is an unreleased port of Half-Life to the Sega Dreamcast. It includes various differences from the PC release (ex. modified levels, new models, adjusted difficulty, etc.). A mod that ports the Dreamcast version as a Half-Life mod is available on Mod DB.
Essential improvements
Disable texture resizing
- By default, the game resizes textures to the nearest power of 2. This behavior can be disabled on hardware that supports non-power-of-two textures (most modern GPUs released within the past 15 years support them) by setting
gl_round_down
to0
in the configuration files.
Skip intro videos
- Steam release has no intro videos.
Use -nointro or -novid [citation needed]
|
---|
Game data
Configuration file(s) location
System | Location |
---|---|
Windows | HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Valve\Half-Life\ |
Steam | <path-to-game>/valve/ |
-
*.cfg
files store the configuration.
- This game does not follow the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux.
Save game data location
System | Location |
---|---|
Windows | <path-to-game>\valve\SAVE\[Note 1] |
macOS (OS X) | <path-to-game>/valve/SAVE |
Linux | <path-to-game>/valve/SAVE/ |
The file names follow the pattern:
- autosave.sav
- half-life-000.sav
- half-life-001.sav
- ...
The magic number (the file signature at the beginning of the file, consisting of two or more hexadecimal values) is JSAV
in ISO 8859-1 encoding (4A53 4156
in hexadecimal).
Save game cloud syncing
System | Native | Notes |
---|---|---|
Steam Cloud |
Video
Graphics feature | State | WSGF | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Widescreen resolution | Game is Vert-; see Field of view (FOV) for a workaround. Use Half-Life WON Resolution FOV MP3 Patch for non-Steam versions |
||
Multi-monitor | |||
Ultra-widescreen | Vert-. Increase FOV to compensate. See Field of view (FOV). | ||
4K Ultra HD | Both in-game and menu UI may become too small on displays with a high pixel density, see 4K Ultra HD for various fixes. | ||
Field of view (FOV) | 90 by default. See Field of view (FOV). | ||
Windowed | |||
Borderless fullscreen windowed | Use -window -noborder . |
||
Anisotropic filtering (AF) | 16 samples by default in Steam version. Use gl_ansio X [sic] in the console, with X as number of samples. See OpenGL texture filtering to disable texture filtering altogether. |
||
Anti-aliasing (AA) | 4x MSAA by default in Steam version. Use -nomsaa to force off. |
||
Vertical sync (Vsync) | |||
60 FPS | |||
120+ FPS | Capped at 100 FPS (72 FPS in retail version) by default. See High frame rate. | ||
High dynamic range display (HDR) | See OpenGL overbright lighting to increase the rendering dynamic range. |
- For a list of console commands, see here.
4K Ultra HD
- Assets are designed for 640x480, and UI may be too small at higher resolutions.
Increase font sizes[1][2] |
---|
|
Field of view (FOV)
- FOV adjustment may be necessary at widescreen resolutions.
Field of view[3] |
---|
Notes
|
High frame rate
Use +developer 1 +fps_override 1 +fps_max ### [4]
|
---|
OpenGL texture filtering
- By default the filtering is enabled (not in Software rendering mode).
Disable OpenGL texture filtering[6] |
---|
Notes
|
OpenGL overbright lighting
- Overbright lighting increases the rendering dynamic range, resulting in a primitive "bloom" effect.
- Overbright lighting normally only works on the Direct3D and software renderers.[7]
Nvidia cards: Enable the GL extension limiter[8] |
---|
Notes
|
Input
Keyboard and mouse | State | Notes |
---|---|---|
Remapping | ||
Mouse acceleration | ||
Mouse sensitivity | ||
Mouse input in menus | ||
Mouse Y-axis inversion | ||
Controller | ||
Controller support | Intended for single sticks like a flight stick; controllers like an Xbox 360 Controller will only use the left stick. | |
Full controller support | ||
Controller remapping | ||
Controller sensitivity | ||
Controller Y-axis inversion |
Controller types |
---|
XInput-compatible controllers |
---|
PlayStation controllers |
---|
Tracked motion controllers | Supports Razer Hydra. | |
---|---|---|
Button/gesture prompts |
Generic/other controllers | ||
---|---|---|
Button prompts |
Additional information | ||
---|---|---|
Button prompts | ||
Controller hotplugging | ||
Haptic feedback | ||
Digital movement supported | ||
Simultaneous controller+KB/M |
Audio
Audio feature | State | Notes |
---|---|---|
Separate volume controls | ||
Surround sound | Lost with Linux update.[9] | |
Subtitles | Use Half-Life: Subtitles mod | |
Closed captions | ||
Mute on focus lost | ||
EAX support | A3D 2.0[10][11] and EAX were supported. Both have been removed during the transition to SteamPipe.[12] See MetaAudio for Steam version. |
|
Red Book CD audio | Replaced with MP3 playback in the transition to SteamPipe. |
Localizations
Language | UI | Audio | Sub | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
English | ||||
Simplified Chinese | ||||
Traditional Chinese | ||||
French | ||||
German | Censored (enemy soldiers replaced with robots, gore removed). An uncut DLC was released after BPjM cleared the game, but it has since gone. Players can still play in English, or edit their registry.[13][14] | |||
Italian | ||||
Korean | ||||
Spanish | ||||
Indonesian | Fan translation by IGTC Team, download. |
Network
- For more information, see the "Half-Life Dedicated Server" section of our GoldSrc article.
- Steam Edition actively supported via Steamworks with a small but dedicated community.
Multiplayer types
Type | Native | Players | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Local play | Versus, Co-op Use Universal Split Screen |
|||
LAN play | 32 | Versus, Co-op Use Sven Co-op for co-op (see the FAQ). |
||
Online play | 32 | Versus, Co-op Use Sven Co-op for co-op (see the FAQ). |
Connection types
Type | Native | Notes |
---|---|---|
Matchmaking | ||
Peer-to-peer | ||
Dedicated | Servers are hosted using a separate "hlds.exe," which can be downloaded with SteamCMD. | |
Self-hosting | Only LAN, by default. Use sv_lan 0 in the main menu and, if you have port forwarding set up, others can connect with the connect "ip address" command. |
|
Direct IP | Open the console (~) and use connect followed by the IP and port. |
Ports
Protocol | Port(s) and/or port range(s) |
---|---|
UDP | 6003, 7002, 27010, 27015, 27025 |
- Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.
VR support
3D modes | State | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|
vorpX | G3D User created game profile, (openGL) see vorpx forum profile introduction. Note The profile also works with Half Life Opposing Force, Half Life Blueshift, Half Life Counterstrike (taken from Half Life - Generations). |
Headsets | |||
---|---|---|---|
SteamVR | See Half-Life: VR | ||
Oculus VR (LibOVR) | See Half-Life: VR. | ||
Windows Mixed Reality | See Half-Life: VR. | ||
OSVR |
Devices | |||
---|---|---|---|
Tracked motion controllers | Supports Razer Hydra. See Input for details. |
||
Traditional controller | See Input for details. | ||
Keyboard/Mouse | |||
Novint Falcon | The official game-specific 3D Touch Add On is required. |
Play area | |||
---|---|---|---|
Seated | |||
Standing | |||
Room-scale |
Issues fixed
Run the game at screen refresh rate
- The Direct3D version of the game defaults to 60 Hz in fullscreen mode.
Use the -freq <rate> command line argument[15]
|
---|
|
Missing Blood & Gore on Steam version
- There is an issue with the current Steam release of Half-Life, put short you can end up downloading the censored version regardless of your location.
Download this file to restore the lost gore[citation needed] |
---|
Input Lag in Direct3D
- On certain graphics cards, using the D3D renderer can result in severe input lag, even with disabled VSync.
Set gl_d3dflip 1 in the console[16]
|
---|
Missing Decals in Direct3D
Use gl_polyoffset -0.01 in the console[citation needed]
|
---|
Color depth in the retail version
- The retail version defaults to 16-bit color depth.
Run game with -32bpp argument[citation needed]
|
---|
Fatal Error - Available memory less than 15MB
Run the game in compatibility mode for Windows XP [citation needed]
|
---|
Windows 7/Vista Performance Fix
- In Windows 7 or Vista, some users may experience extremely low frame rates during gameplay, even if their PC can run modern games perfectly.
Set HL.exe to high priority[citation needed] |
---|
|
Missing Voice and Multiplayer Tabs under Options
Replace the liblist.gam file[17] |
---|
|
No music playback in the retail version
Switch from CD playback to MP3[18] |
---|
|
Other information
API
Technical specs | Supported | Notes |
---|---|---|
Direct3D | 7 | Lost with Linux update.[9] |
OpenGL | 2.1 | 3DFX MiniGL included in retail version. |
Software renderer |
Middleware
Middleware | Notes | |
---|---|---|
Audio | Miles Sound System | |
Multiplayer | World Opponent Network, Steamworks | WON for retail, Steamworks for Steam. WON has been shut down on July 31, 2004; fans have since recreated the network as WON2.[21] |
Mods
Xash3D
- Xash3D FWGS is a custom open-source Half-Life-compatible engine, made to overcome the limit of the GoldSrc engine, fixing compatibility issues for the original non-Steam versions too[22]
- It also includes quality of life options fit for modern systems, including HUD scaling.
MetaAudio
- Alternative audio pipeline for GoldSrc. Re-implements 3D audio without replacing entire rendering pipeline. Combines A3D’s HRTF and Occlusion with EAX’s reverb.[23]
- Not compatible with software renderer.[24]
- Must use
-insecure
. Do not use on VAC secured server.
Higher definition models
- The High Definition Pack replaces most weapon and player/enemy models with higher polygon versions. For other options follow this guide.
- The option to enable the pack in-game is in the options menu, and the game must be restarted for it to take effect.
- The effect changes the art style dramatically, and whether or not it's desirable is up to personal preference.
Restoring Original Menu
- Half-Life's main menu was changed with the game's transition from the WON (World Opponent Network) system to Steam. This mod restores the look of the original menus and adds the PlayStation 2 version of the menu music. An alternate GameBanana download link can be found here.
- Menus are 4:3 by default and cannot be stretched to fullscreen. In-game is untouched.
Crosshair
- See Half-Life Crosshair Changer to customize the crosshairs.
Enabling developer mode
- Enabling developer mode will allow use of in-game cheats and various console commands.
Use the developer 1 in console[citation needed]
|
---|
Notes
|
Console commands
- Games running on the GoldSrc engine can utilize GoldSrc Engine Console Commands for various tasks.
- The console is enabled by default in GoldSrc games, press ~ to open it.
System requirements
Windows | ||
---|---|---|
Minimum | Recommended | |
Operating system (OS) | 95 | 98, NT |
Processor (CPU) | Intel Pentium 133 MHz | Intel Pentium 166 MHz |
System memory (RAM) | 24 MB | 32 MB |
Hard disk drive (HDD) | 400 MB | |
Video card (GPU) | SVGA, high color (16-bit) compatible display | 32 MB Open GL or Direct3D compatible 3D accelerator |
Sound (audio device) | Windows-compatible sound card |
macOS (OS X) | ||
---|---|---|
Minimum | ||
Operating system (OS) | 10.6.3 | |
Processor (CPU) | Intel Core 2 Duo | |
System memory (RAM) | 1 GB | |
Hard disk drive (HDD) | 4 GB | |
Video card (GPU) | Nvidia GeForce 8xxx series ATI Radeon X1600 Intel HD 3000 |
Linux | ||
---|---|---|
Minimum | ||
Operating system (OS) | Ubuntu 12.04 | |
Processor (CPU) | 2.8 GHz Dual Core | |
System memory (RAM) | 1 GB | |
Hard disk drive (HDD) | 4 GB | |
Video card (GPU) | Nvidia GeForce 8600/9600 GT ATI/AMD Radeon HD 2600/3600 OpenGL 2.1 compatible |
|
Sound (audio device) | OpenAL Compatible Sound Card | |
Other | Graphic Drivers: Nvidia 310, AMD 12.11 |
Notes
- ↑ When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below
%PROGRAMFILES%
,%PROGRAMDATA%
, or%WINDIR%
might be redirected to%LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore
on Windows Vista and later (more details).
References
- ↑ Increased Fonts For HL1 addon - Half-Life - Mod DB
- ↑ Verified by User:SirYodaJedi on 2020-03-04
- Figured out more vanilla-esque settings
- ↑ https://steamcommunity.com/app/70/discussions/0/620713633859376599/ Is there anyway to change the default F.O.V.? :: Half Life General Discussions
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 How to get 144hz/fps?
- ↑ Steam Community :: Half-Life :: Events
- ↑ How to remove texture filtering in OpenGL
- ↑ VOGONS • View topic - Half-Life overbright compatibility
- ↑ Half-Life with OpenAL (EFX, Surround Sound, and HRTF!) : HalfLife
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Steam HL1 5.1 sound - Steam discussions forums.
- ↑ Tech help: Half-Life - Vortex of Sound (retrieved)
- ↑ Half Life Aureal A3D Fix - Aureal A3D Central
- ↑ Half-Life 1 updated.
- ↑ Half-Life goes uncensored in Germany, two decades after original release - Polygon
- ↑ German version uncensored now? :: Steam Community Discussions
- ↑ Command Line Options - Valve Developer Community
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ "IF you are Missing Voice and Multiplayer Tabs under Options" Steam Users' Forum Thread (retrieved)
- ↑ https://steamcommunity.com/app/70/discussions/0/527274088387899010/ Half-Life WON (CD) does not have music :: Half-Life General Discussions
- ↑ Verified by User:Vetle on 2016-10-22
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 Verified by User:Faalagorn on 2019-11-09
- ↑ WON2 Server Network
- ↑ https://twitter.com/JikissGamer/status/1210634519637876738
- ↑ Half-Life w/ EAX and 3D spatial sound in MetaAudio (OpenAL Soft HRTF) - YouTube
- ↑ Half-Life - 3D spatial sound comparison: Stereo, CMSS-3D, DSOAL, MetaAudio HRTF - YouTube