Half-Life

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Half-Life
Half-Life Box.jpg
Developers
Publishers
Engines
Release dates
Windows
November 19, 1998
OS X
January 25, 2013
Linux
January 25, 2013
Half-Life at Steam Charts
Half-Life at SteamDB
 Half-Life at Wikipedia
Half-Life
Half-Life 1998
Half-Life: Opposing Force 1999
Half-Life: Blue Shift 2001
Half-Life: Decay (unofficial port/mod) 2001
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
Black Mesa (unofficial mod) 2012

This page is for the original game. For the Source remake, see Half-Life: Source. For the unofficial Source engine mod, see Black Mesa.

Key points

Advantage Runs extremely well on low end hardware.

General information

More information Unofficial Half-Life Wiki
More information GitHub Issue Tracker for Half-Life and other GoldSrc-based games
More information Steam Community Discussions
More information Steam Users' Forums

Availability[edit]

Source DRM Notes Keys
Retail DRM details are not known
Steam Availability Table Icons - Steam.svg
Advantage Soundtrack is available for free in here.
Information All non-Steam releases can be redeemed on Steam.

Demos[edit]

Half-Life: Uplink[edit]

The official public demo for the game, it includes an exclusive chapter (and a training level) with content not found in the full release.

It can be downloaded here.

Note that 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[edit]

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.

Versions[edit]

Half-Life: Dreamcast[edit]

An unreleased port of Half-Life to the Sega Dreamcast, it includes various major and minor 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 ModDB.

Essential improvements[edit]

Skip intro videos[edit]

Fix -nointro

  1. Find Half-Life in your Steam Library
  2. Right-click the game name
  3. Select Properties
  4. Select Set Launch Options...
  5. Input -nointro
  6. Press OK
  7. Launch the game

Higher definition models[edit]

You have multiple options to gain access to higher definition models. One is using the official version of them. For other options follow this guide.

Enabling Developer Mode[edit]

Information Enabling developer mode will allow you to use in-game cheats and various console commands.

Fix Turn on the developer console

  1. Right click Half-Life in your Steam library and open Properties
  2. Open Set Launch Options
  3. Type in -dev
  4. Run Half-Life. Developer mode should now be enabled. You can open it by pressing ~ (Note you may have to turn on the developer console in the in-game settings). You can use the console command sv_cheats 1 to allow the usage of console commands such as god and noclip. Note that you might have to reload a save-game after enabling cheat-mode for certain commands to work.

Game data[edit]

Configuration file(s) location[edit]

  Location 
Windows <path-to-game>\Half-Life\valve\
OS X <path-to-game>/Half-Life/valve/
Linux <path-to-game>/Half-Life/valve/
Information *.cfg store the configuration.
Disadvantage This game does not support the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux.

Save game data location[edit]

  Location 
Windows <path-to-game>\Half-Life\valve\SAVE\
OS X <path-to-game>/Half-Life/valve/SAVE
Linux <path-to-game>/Half-Life/valve/SAVE/

Save game cloud syncing[edit]

System Native Notes
Steam Cloud Native
GameSave Manager Native

Video settings[edit]

In-game video settings.
Graphics option Option WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution Native WSGF WS Silver.svg
Multi-monitor Impossible False icon.svg
Field of view (FOV) Hackable See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed Native
Borderless fullscreen windowed Hackable See Borderless fullscreen windowed.
Anisotropic filtering (AF) Impossible
Anti-aliasing (AA) Impossible
Vertical sync (Vsync) Native
High frame rate Hackable See High frame rate.

Field of view (FOV)[edit]

Information Note that Half-Life: Source includes an FOV slider by default, among other enhancements.

Fix Field of view

Information When running at widescreen-resolutions adjusting the fov is probably necessary.

First Method:

  1. While in game, open the console (~).
  2. Type default_fov 106.270273206 and press ↵ Enter.

Second Method:

  1. Alternatively you can also open config.cfg located in Sierra\Half-Life\Valve\.
  2. Add the following to the bottom of it.

For 16:10: default_fov 100.39487232

For 16:9: default_fov 106.270273206

If the new fov doesn't stick try creating an autoexec.cfg-file in the same folder and adding the line to it.

Borderless fullscreen windowed[edit]

Fix -window -noborder

  1. Find Half-Life in your Steam Library
  2. Right-click the game name
  3. Select Properties
  4. Select Set Launch Options...
  5. Input -window -noborder
  6. Press OK
  7. Launch the game

High frame rate[edit]

Fix Set FPS limit

Information Game is capped at 72 FPS (without Vsync) by default
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\Half-Life\valve\
  2. Create a new file called userconfig.cfg
  3. Add in the following lines: 
fps_max "<desired FPS value>"
fps_override 1
  • The fps_override 1 command disables GoldSrc's arbitrary 100 FPS limit.

4. Save the file and launch the game.

5. Disable Vsync in-game.

Input settings[edit]

In-game key map settings.
In-game mouse/joystick settings.
Keyboard and mouse Native Notes
Remapping Native
Mouse acceleration Native
Mouse input in menus Native
Mouse Y-axis inversion Native
Controller
Controller support Native
Full controller support Impossible
Controller remapping Native
Controller Y-axis inversion Impossible

Audio settings[edit]

In-game audio settings.
Audio options Native Notes
Separate volume controls Native
Surround sound Impossible Lost with Linux update.[1]
Subtitles Impossible
Closed captions Impossible
Mute on focus lost Native
EAX support Native A3D 2.0[2] and EAX were supported.
Both have been removed during the transition to SteamPipe[3]

Localizations

Language UI Audio CC Notes
English Native Native Impossible
French Native Native Impossible
German Native Native Impossible
Italian Native Native Impossible
Korean Native Unknown Impossible
Spanish Native Unknown Impossible
Simplified Chinese Native Unknown Impossible
Traditional Chinese Native Unknown Impossible
Russian Native Unknown Impossible

Network[edit]

In-game multiplayer settings.
Information For more information, see the "Half-Life Dedicated Server" section of our GoldSrc article.

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
LAN play Native 32
Online play Native 32

Connection types

Type Native Notes
Matchmaking Impossible
Peer-to-peer Native
Dedicated Native
Self-hosting Native
Direct IP Hackable Open the console (~) and use connect followed by the IP and port.

Ports

Protocol Port(s) and/or port range(s)
UDP (outbound) 6003, 7002, 27010, 27015, 27025

Issues fixed[edit]

Windows 7/Vista Performance Fix[edit]

In Windows 7 or Vista some users may experience extremely low frame rate during gameplay even if their PC can run other more modern games perfectly.

Follow these instructions to the problem:

Fix Set HL.exe to low priority

  1. Open Half-Life
  2. Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete and open the Task Manager
  3. Go to the Processes tab
  4. Find HL.exe and right click it
  5. Set it as a high priority
The game should now allow you to play at 60FPS.

Missing Voice and Multiplayer Tabs under Options[edit]

Fix Replace the liblist.gam file

  1. Make sure you've exited out of Half-Life
  2. Download the replacement liblist.gam file from here (Download starts immediately).
  3. Extract into the valve folder in the installation folder, replacing the existing file when prompted.
This should bring the Voice and Multiplayer tabs back to your Options menu.[4]

Other information[edit]

API[edit]

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 7 Lost with Linux update.[5]
OpenGL 2.1
Software renderer Native
64-bit executable Native OS X and Linux only.[citation needed]

Middleware[edit]

Middleware Notes
Audio Miles Sound System
Multiplayer WON (retail)
Steamworks (Steam)

Console commands[edit]

Information Games running on the GoldSrc engine can utilize GoldSrc Engine Console Commands for various tasks.
Information The console is enabled by default in GoldSrc games, press ~ to open it.

System requirements[edit]

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)
OS X
Minimum
Operating system (OS) 10.6.3
Processor (CPU) 500 MHz
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) Intel Dual Core 2.8 GHz
AMD Dual Core 2.8 GHz
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

References

  1. ↑ Steam HL1 5.1 sound - Steam discussions forums.
  2. ↑ Tech help: Half-Life - Vortex of Sound (retrieved)
  3. ↑ Half-Life 1 updated.
  4. ↑ "IF you are Missing Voice and Multiplayer Tabs under Options" Steam Users' Forum Thread
  5. ↑ Steam HL1 5.1 sound - Steam discussions forums.