Half-Life

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Half-Life

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

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.

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

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.
Green Man Gaming
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 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

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

Half-Life: Game of the Year Edition comes with both the base game and Team Fortress Classic

Half-Life: Dreamcast

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 Mod DB.

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

This fix isn't necessary for the Steam release, as that has no intro videos.

-nointro[citation needed]
Use the -nointro command line argument.

Higher definition models

The High Definition Pack was created by Gearbox and first released alongside with Blue Shift on June 12, 2001. It was released for free on Steam on August 30, 2005, with a fixed version released a year later. This pack replaces most weapon and player/enemy models with higher polygon versions, substantially altering the style of some of them in the process. The option to enable the pack in-game is in the options menu, and the game must be restarted for it to take effect.

For other options follow this guide.

Remade WON Menu

Half-Life's main menu, among other parts, was heavily changed with the game's transition from the WON (World Opponent Network) system to Steam. A mod was released by Reddit user HowardHeyman. It restores the look of the original Half-Life menus, but without text subtitles, animated backgrounds, nor various options windows to keep within the Source Engine's assumed limits. It does add the PlayStation version of Half-Life's music onto the menu itself. An alternate download link can be found here, on GameBanana.

The menu also adds the "Custom Game" feature that was present in the WON version, where the player could select from an in-game menu to switch mods in-game. This feature is disabled by default in the Steam release, as Half-Life doesn't have true native support to allow run time switching, and, according to Alfred, the engineering effort to fix the function is better spent elsewhere.

Menus are 4:3 by default and cannot be stretched to fullscreen. In-game is untouched.

Xash3D

Xash3D is a custom GoldSrc build made from scratch which aims to overcome the limit of the GoldSrc engine and even fix compatibility issues that are present while playing on modern systems. It also brings back most of the features which got removed from the recent update for Half Life through alternative means such as using OpenAL Soft for the 3D sound.

Enabling developer mode

Enabling developer mode will allow use of in-game cheats and various console commands.

Turn on developer mode[citation needed]
Use the developer 1 in console. Notes The developer console can be opened by pressing ~ (Note you may have to turn it on 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

Configuration file(s) location

Template:Game data/rowTemplate:Game data/rowTemplate:Game data/row

System	Location

*.cfg store the configuration.

This game does not follow the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux.

Save game data location

Template:Game data/rowTemplate:Game data/rowTemplate:Game data/row

System	Location

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Steam Cloud

Video settings

In-game video settings (Steam version)

Template:Video settings For a list of console commands:

Field of view (FOV)

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

Field of view[citation needed]
While in game, open the console (~). Type default_fov 106.270273206 and press ↵ Enter.

OpenGL texture filtering

Disable OpenGL texture filtering
By default the filtering is enabled (not in Software rendering mode). Go to <path-to-game>. Create a file called autoexec.cfg. Add new line gl_texturemode gl_nearest. Save the file. Notes Using the line gl_texturemode gl_nearest_mipmap_linear instead will prevent some textures from flickering at a distance.

Overbright lighting

The retail version supports this feature for improved dynamic range of lighting. It is arguably the correct way of displaying the game, as it matches the brightness of the software renderer. Two different intensities (gl_overbright 1, gl_overbright 2) are available. However, getting it to work in the OpenGL renderer can be problematic, as it seems to conflict with multitexturing on most graphics cards. Also, with one of the later patches the settings "1" and "2" yield the same result.
It is easier to get working in Direct3D, though that renderer has its own set of problems. In the Steam version, the feature has been completely regressed since the removal of the Direct3D renderer.

Issues in Direct3D

On certain graphics cards, using the D3D renderer can result in severe input lag, even with disabled VSync. The fix for this is to set gl_d3dflip 1. Other typical issues include missing decals (fixable with gl_polyoffset -0.01) and Z-fighting (may vary depending on graphics hardware, check driver Z-buffer settings if applicable).

Color depth in the retail version

The retail version defaults to 16-bit color depth, presumably to save on performance on contemporary graphics hardware. This can be resolved by running the game with -32bpp argument.

Input settings

In-game key map settings (Steam version)

In-game mouse/joystick settings (Steam version)

Audio settings

In-game audio settings (Steam version)

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
French
German				Censored (enemy soldiers replaced with robots, gore removed). Uncut on the Steam version after April 29, 2017
Italian
Korean
Spanish
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Russian

Network

In-game multiplayer settings (Steam version)

For more information, see the "Half-Life Dedicated Server" section of our GoldSrc article.

Steam Edition actively supported via Steamworks.

Small, but dedicated community.

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
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

Headsets	State	Notes
SteamVR		See VR.
Oculus VR (LibOVR)		See VR.
Windows Mixed Reality		See VR.
OSVR

Devices
Tracked motion controllers
Traditional controller
Keyboard/Mouse
Novint Falcon		The official game-specific 3D Touch Add On is required.

Play area
Seated
Standing
Room-scale

VR

Install Half-Life-VR Mod
Install Half-Life VR Mod into game root. Add -game vr -dev -env -insecure -nomouse -nojoy +sv_lan 1 +sv_maxspeed 125 to launch options Set opengl32.dll to Read-Only in the installation folder. Set game to windowed

Issues fixed

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]
Open Half-Life. Press Ctrl+Esc+⇧ Shift in order to open the Task Manager. Under the Processes tab, find HL.exe and right click it. Set its priority to high.

Missing Voice and Multiplayer Tabs under Options

Replace the liblist.gam file[citation needed]
Make sure you've exited out of Half-Life Download the replacement liblist.gam file from here (Download starts immediately). 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.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	7	Lost with Linux update.
OpenGL	2.1	3DFX MiniGL included (retail version only).
Software renderer

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux

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.

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.

Crosshair

See Half-Life Crosshair Changer.

System requirements

Windows

macOS (OS X)

Linux

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)
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