Halo: Combat Evolved
| Cover image missing, please upload it | |
| Developers | |
|---|---|
| Bungie | |
| Publishers | |
| Microsoft Studios | |
| Engines | |
| Halo Engine | |
| Release dates | |
| Windows | September 30, 2003 |
| macOS (OS X) | December 3, 2003 |
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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.
| Halo | |
|---|---|
| Halo: Combat Evolved | 2003 |
| Halo 2 | 2007 |
| Halo: Spartan (series) | |
| Halo Online | 2015* |
| Halo 5: Forge | 2016 |
| Halo Wars (series) | |
| Halo Recruit | 2017 |
| Halo: The Master Chief Collection (series) | |
| Halo Infinite | 2021 |
Key points
- Modding tools are available as a separate download
- Great console port
- Small community
General information
- Bungie.net - The developer's site
- Halo Nation - A very detailed wiki for everything Halo related
- Halo.Bungie.org - One of the biggest Halo fan sites around
- Halo Maps - A fan site for downloading mods and maps for Halo: Custom Edition
Availability
Versions
Halo: Custom Edition
Halo: Custom Edition allows players to play multiplayer Halo games on user-created maps. There is no singleplayer campaign. In order to play a downloaded user-created map, place the .map file in:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition\maps
Note: this is the path for a default installation on a 64-bit copy of Windows 7. The path may vary. If you downloaded a .zip or other archive, you will need to extract it first. WARNING: Do NOT delete any .map files in the folder by default, ESPECIALLY not ui.map. Halo: Custom Edition and any custom maps can be downloaded from halomaps.org
Improvements
Patch 1.09 (Windows)
- This patch also removes the disk check.
The latest version of the game is 1.09. The game can download the latest patch automatically by clicking Internet in the multiplayer menu. The latest patch can also be downloaded manually:
Game data
Game files location
Save game cloud syncing
Template:Save Game Cloud Syncing
Video settings
Widescreen resolution
To play at a resolution unsupported in the ingame options, right-click a shortcut to the game, select Properties>Shortcut, and you will see a path to halo.exe in quotes in the Target box. Add a space after the end quote and then:
-vidmode x,y,z
where x is the horizontal resolution, y s the vertical resolution, and z is the refresh rate. For example, to play at 1920 by 1080 at 60fps, enter:
-vidmode 1920,1080,60
If z is not specified, the game will default to what is set in the ingame options. The game must be started from the shortcut you modified for the custom resolution to work.
Field of view (FOV)
On widescreen resolutions, Halo compresses its vertical field of view (FOV) instead of stretching its horizontal FOV. To fix this, download the following tools as appropriate to the version you are using
- Halo: Combat Evolved: Widescreen Fixer. When running, an icon should appear in the system tray. Right-click it and select Restore. A window should appear where you can configure various settings. After configuring, minimize the window and launch Halo. Once the main menu appears, press the key you assigned to enable the FOV fix (by default it is bound to *). Press the key again to disable the FOV fix. Widescreen Fixer must be running for the fix to work. The FOV fix does not work for Halo: Custom Edition.
- Halo: Custom Edition 1.09: FOV and ThirdPerson Halo. Open the program and set the hotkeys and FOV to your liking (90 degrees is recommended). Next with the program still running open Halo: Custom Edition and enable the FOV fix with the hotkey you set (Default is *). FOV and ThirdPerson Halo must be running for the fix to work.
Windowed
In the target box of a shortcut, add -windowed to the end.
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Halo does not support Antialiasing (AA). Force-enabling AA in your graphics driver has no effect on Halo: Combat Evolved and in Halo: Custom Edition causes the game to freeze on the loading screen while playing the main menu music in the background. The only way to escape this is by force closing the game with Alt+F4 or the Task Manager. If your graphics card supports it, enable Morphological Antialiasing (MLAA) on ATI cards or Fast Approximate Antialiasing (FXAA) on Nvidia cards to improve image quality and gain an AA-like effect. You may need to update your graphics drivers to gain access to these features. It is recommended that you do not enable MLAA and FXAA globally.
Input settings
Audio settings
Issues unresolved
HUD Stretch
When played at custom resolutions on widescreen monitors, the HUD (Heads Up Display) and all ingame menus will be stretched horizontally. There is currently no fix for this for Halo v 1.09. Read this thread for more information on how to fix HUD stretch in previous versions.
Issues fixed
Enabling EAX on Windows Vista or greater
Environmental Audio Extensions (EAX) applies effects such as echo, reverb, and flange to ingame sounds, making the game sound more realistic, in theory. However, if played on Windows Vista or later, Halo does not support EAX. To fix this, those with Creative sound cards can download Creative ALchemy, those with ASUS sound cards can download GX2.5, and those with Realtek integrated audio can download Realtek 3D SoundBack. All three programs re-enable EAX effects in pre-Vista games by emulating EAX calls in OpenAL. Even with these programs, EAX cannot be used unless you enable it in the ingame audio options. Using these programs, specifically 3D SoundBack, may result in sound clipping and other audio artifacts.
System requirements
| Windows | ||
|---|---|---|
| Minimum | Recommended | |
| Operating system (OS) | Windows 98SE | Windows ME/Windows 2000/Windows XP |
| Processor (CPU) | ||
| System memory (RAM) | ||
| Hard disk drive (HDD) | 1.2 GB free | |
| Video card (GPU) | 32MB/3D T&L capable | |