Half-Life 2

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Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2 - cover.jpg
Developers
Engines
 
Release dates
Windows
November 16, 2004
OS X
May 26, 2010
Linux
May 9, 2013
Half-Life 2 at Steam Charts
Half-Life 2 at SteamDB
 Half-Life 2 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

Key points

Advantage Runs on low-end hardware.[1]
Advantage Numerous mods are available for the game, including new levels and completely new game modes.

General information

More information GitHub Issue Tracker for Linux bugs in Half-Life 2 and other Source-based games
More information Steam Community Discussions
More information Steam Users' Forums
More information Unofficial Half-Life Wiki

Availability[edit]

Source DRM Notes Keys
Retail Availability Table Icons - Steam.svg
Steam Availability Table Icons - Steam.svg
Advantage Soundtrack is available for free in here.
Information All versions require Steam.

Essential improvements[edit]

Skip intro videos[edit]

Fix Skip intros

  1. See Command line arguments.
  2. Use -novid

Enabling the console[edit]

Information A list of console commands can be found here.

Fix Command line

  1. See Command line arguments.
  2. Use -console then in the console write bind F2 "toggleconsole"

Fix Options menu

  1. Go to Options, select the Keyboard tab and click on Advanced.
  2. Check Enable the developer console and open the console by using ~.

Notes

Information If ~ doesn't work, push Alt+⇧ Shift in order to switch to a different keyboard layout.

Mods[edit]

Information An extra list of mods can be found here.

Half-Life 2: Survivor[edit]

Advantage An unofficial port of the Japanese arcade version.

Game data[edit]

Save game data location[edit]

  Location 
Steam <path-to-game>/hl2/save/

Configuration file(s) location[edit]

  Location 
Steam <path-to-game>/hl2/cfg/

Save game cloud syncing[edit]

System Native Notes
Steam Cloud Native
GameSave Manager Native

Video settings[edit]

In-game general video settings.
In-game advanced video settings.
Graphics option Option WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution Native WSGF WS Gold.svg
Multi-monitor Native WSGF MM Silver.svg
Ultra-widescreen Native WSGF UW Gold.svg
4K Ultra HD Native WSGF Incomplete.svg The interface scales with the resolution and at 4K can become almost unusable.
Field of view (FOV) Native Between 75° and 90° vertical.[2]
Windowed Native
Borderless fullscreen windowed Hackable See Borderless fullscreen windowed.
Anisotropic filtering (AF) Native
Anti-aliasing (AA) Native
Vertical sync (Vsync) Native
Oculus Rift Native Available under Video Settings. See Oculus Rift for more information.
High frame rate Native No frame rate or refresh rate cap.[3]

Borderless fullscreen windowed[edit]

Fix Instructions

  1. See Command line arguments.
  2. Use -window -noborder

Notes

Information For the Oculus Rift, set vr_force_windowed 1 in the developer console.

Oculus Rift[edit]

Information See the Oculus Rift forums for further instructions.

Input settings[edit]

In-game key map settings.
In-game mouse/gamepad 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 Native

Audio settings[edit]

In-game audio settings.
Audio options Native Notes
Separate volume controls Native Game volume and music slider.
Surround sound Native 4.0, 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound.
Subtitles Native
Closed captions Native
Mute on focus lost Native Under a check box in the Audio menu.

Localizations

Language UI Audio CC Notes
English Native Native Native
Czech Native Unknown Native
Simplified Chinese Native Native Unknown
Traditional Chinese Native Native Unknown
Danish Native Unknown Unknown
Dutch Native Unknown Unknown
Finnish Native Impossible Native
French Native Native Unknown
German Native Native Unknown
Italian Native Native Unknown
Japanese Native Unknown Unknown
Korean Native Native Unknown
Norwegian Native Unknown Unknown
Polish Native Unknown Unknown
Portuguese Native Unknown Unknown
Russian Native Native Unknown
Spanish Native Native Unknown
Swedish Native Unknown Unknown
Thai Native Native Unknown

Network[edit]

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
LAN play Unknown
Online play Hackable 10 Use Synergy.

Connection types

Type Native Notes
Matchmaking Unknown
Peer-to-peer Unknown
Dedicated Native
Self-hosting Native See Documentation: Dedicated Servers.
Direct IP Unknown

Issues unresolved[edit]

Information Many bugs arose with 2009 Orange Box update. Although they are most disregarded by Valve an unofficial patch should address them before the end of 2014

Issues fixed[edit]

Windows[edit]

Information TweakGuides has created a comprehensive guide for fixing issues in this game which can be found here.

Purple and black textures[edit]

Fix Instructions

No lighting after Black Mesa East[edit]

Fix Activate the High Dynamic Range in the Advanced Video Options

Stuck in Black Mesa East[edit]

Fix Walk into the elevator, quick-save (F6 by default) then quick-load (F9 by default).

Not enough space on disk (retail)[edit]

Fix Copy the files

  • Copy all the files from the disc to a new folder, then run setup.exe

Available memory less than 128 MB[edit]

Fix Setting the compatibility mode

  1. See compatibility mode.
  2. Navigate to <path-to-game> and find hl2.exe
  3. Set the executable to run under the Windows XP (Service Pack 3) compatibility mode.

Half-Life 2 stuck on DirectX v8.0[edit]

Fix Command line parameter

  1. See Command line arguments.
  2. Use -dxlevel 95, start the game and configure the desired video settings.
  3. Remove the command line before starting the game again.

Notes

Information Not removing the command line will cause the game to set the options to their default values.

Other information[edit]

API[edit]

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 6, 7, 8, 8.1, 9
OpenGL 2.1 OS X and Linux only.
Shader Model support 2, 3
64-bit executable Native OS X and Linux only.[citation needed]

Middleware[edit]

Middleware Notes
Physics Havok Heavily modified variant.
Audio Miles Sound System
Cutscenes Bink Video

Launch options[edit]

Information A list of command lines can be found here and here.

Fix Instructions

  1. See Command line arguments.
  2. Enter your commands.

System requirements[edit]

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS)
XP, Vista, 7
Processor (CPU)
1.7 GHz
System memory (RAM) 512 MB 1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)
4.6 GB
Video card (GPU) NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700
ATi Radeon 9500
128 MB of VRAM 		NVIDIA GeForce 6800
ATi Radeon X800
OS X
Minimum
Operating system (OS) 10.5.8, 10.6.3
Processor (CPU) 1.7 GHz
System memory (RAM) 1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 4.6 GB
Video card (GPU) NVIDIA GeForce 8
ATI X1600
Intel HD 3000

References

  1. ↑ Tested by Nicereddy.
  2. ↑ Field of View - Valve Developer Community
  3. ↑ New 120Hz Games Report