0
Unofficial FAQ
v11.27.1999
By: HQH
E-mail: HQH51
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[TABLE OF CONTENTS]
[1] INTRODUCTION
[1.1] About
[1.2] Accuracy
[1.3] Contact
[1.4] Credits
[1.5] Foreword
[1.6] Notices
[1.6.1] Disclaimer
[1.6.2] Distribution
[1.6.3] Trademark/Copyright
[2] FAQ: HALF-LIFE
[2.1] General
[2.1.1] Audio Music
[2.1.2] CD Key Location
[2.1.3] CD Related
[2.1.4] Configuration
[2.1.5] Console
[2.1.6] Content Control
[2.1.7] Cuts From Game
[2.1.8] Definition Of Half-Life
[2.1.9] Frames Per Second
[2.1.10] Game Engine
[2.1.11] Game of the Year Edition
[2.1.12] Graffiti/Spray paint
[2.1.13] Half-Life Demo
[2.1.14] Half-Life For Mac
[2.1.15] Half-Life Game Launchers
[2.1.16] HL.exe/HLDS.exe
[2.1.17] How Many Levels/Maps
[2.1.18] Linux Version
[2.1.19] Location Damages
[2.1.20] Playing/Recording Demo
[2.1.21] Requirements
[2.1.22] Running Custom Levels
[2.1.23] Screen Shots
[2.1.24] Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP)
[2.1.25] Weapons
[2.1.25.1] About
[2.1.25.2] Descriptions
[2.1.25.3] Gauss Jump/Fall
[2.1.25.4] Secondary
[2.1.25.5] Underwater Usage
[2.1.25.6] Weapon Calling
[2.1.26] What's My Half-Life Version
[2.1.27] When Installing
[2.1.28] Whole New Game
[2.2] Multi-Player
[2.2.1] Bots
[2.2.2] General
[2.2.2.1] Beginners Information
[2.2.2.2] Cheats
[2.2.2.3] Getting Started
[2.2.2.4] Map Cycles
[2.2.2.5] Models/Skins
[2.2.2.6] Observer Mode
[2.2.2.7] Orange Bar
[2.2.2.8] Talk While Playing
[2.2.2.9] WON.Net
[2.2.3] Hosting Server
[2.2.3.1] About
[2.2.3.2] Half-Life Primary Server
[2.2.3.3] Kick Players Off
[2.2.3.4] LAN and Internet players
[2.2.3.5] Linux
[2.2.3.6] Tracking Statistics
[2.2.4] Lag/Latency/Ping
[2.2.4.1] General
[2.2.4.2] Yahn's Explanation I: Latency Vs. Ping
[2.2.4.3] Yahn's Explanation II: Why HL/TFC Slow?
[2.2.4.4] Yahn's Explanation III: Laggers Creating Lag?
[2.2.5] Modes
[2.2.5.1] Co-op
[2.2.5.2] Deathmatch
[2.2.5.3] Teamplay
[2.2.5.4] Team Fortress Classic
[2.2.6] Options
[2.2.6.1] Internet
[2.2.6.2] LAN
[2.2.6.3] Modem To Modem
[2.2.6.4] Serial
[2.2.7] Proxy
[2.2.7.1] Wingate
[2.2.7.2] Winroute
[2.2.8] Team Fortress Classic
[2.2.8.1] Classes
[2.2.8.2] Maps
[2.2.8.3] FAQ
[2.2.9] Testing Multi-Player Maps Offline
[2.3] Single-Player
[2.3.1] 3rd Person View
[2.3.2] Autosave
[2.3.3] Barneys
[2.3.4] Cheats
[2.3.4.1] How To Skip Level
[2.3.5] Fun Things To Do
[2.3.6] High Jump
[2.3.7] Learn How To Play
[2.3.8] Long Jump
[2.3.9] Man In Blue/G-Man
[2.3.10] Preserving Saved Files
[2.3.11] Saved Games
[2.3.12] Walkthrough
[2.3.13] Who You Play As
[3] HALF-LIFE ADD-ONS
[3.1] Commercial
[3.1.1] Opposing Force
[3.1.2] Team Fortress II
[3.2] Modifications
[3.2.1] Action Half-Life
[3.2.2] Classic Capture The Flag
[3.2.3] Cold Ice
[3.2.4] Counter-Strike
[3.2.5] DMPlus
[3.2.6] Firepower
[3.2.7] Jailbreak
[3.2.8] Kenders That Kill
[3.2.9] Lambda Arena
[3.2.10] Oz
[3.2.11] Rocket Crowbar
[3.2.12] Sven Co-op
[3.2.13] Science and Industry
[3.2.14] Team Fortress Classic
[3.3] Total Conversions
[4] HALF-LIFE EDITING
[4.1] CFG Files
[4.2] Creating Custom Levels
[4.3] Crosshairs
[4.4] Pak Files
[4.5] SDK
[4.6] Worldcraft
[4.6.1] General
[4.6.2] Installing
[4.6.3] Mailing List
[4.6.4] Tutorials
[4.6.5] WC Editing FAQ
[5] HALF-LIFE OFFICIAL RELEASES
[5.1] Extras
[5.1.1] Maps
[5.1.2] Models
[5.1.3] Multi-Player Modes
[5.1.4] Valve Multiplayer Package
[5.2] Patches
[5.2.1] v1.0.0.6
[5.2.2] v1.0.0.8
[5.2.3] v1.0.0.9
[5.2.4] v1.0.1.0
[5.2.5] v1.0.1.3
[6] TROUBLESHOOTING
[6.1] Before Getting Started
[6.1.1] Readme.txt
[6.1.2] Scan/Defrag
[6.1.3] Update Files
[6.2] Bugs/Errors
[6.2.1] Icons Being Moved
[6.2.2] Installing/Running Game
[6.2.2.1] Bad Surface Extents
[6.2.2.2] Can not find 'vids:cvid'decompressor
[6.2.2.3] Cbuf_AddText: Overflow
[6.2.2.4] CD Key
[6.2.2.5] Could not exec 3dfx/opengl/joystick.cfg
[6.2.2.6] Crosshair Messes Up
[6.2.2.7] Dial Up Connection
[6.2.2.8] Doesn't Support Raster Operations
[6.2.2.9] Gfx/shell/btns_main.bmp
[6.2.2.10] Got A Velocity Too Low On Gib
[6.2.2.11] Invalid page fault in module HW.DLL
[6.2.2.12] Kb_keys.lst not found
[6.2.2.13] MCI File Playback:### MMSYSTEM ##
[6.2.2.14] Overflow 350 Temporary Ents
[6.2.2.15] SZ_GetSpace
[6.2.2.16] Unable To Validate CD
[6.2.2.17] Your HL Executable Has Been Modified
[6.2.2.18] Your HL Installation Corrupted/Outdated
[6.2.2.19] Z_Malloc: Failed On Allocation Of xxx Bytes
[6.2.3] LAN
[6.2.4] Multi-Player Mode
[6.2.4.1] .hpk has a bogus # of directory entries
[6.2.4.2] Attempting to connect to Won
[6.2.4.3] Bad Protocol
[6.2.4.4] Can't Swim In Water Using Jump Key
[6.2.4.5] Client.dll
[6.2.4.6] Custom file missing wad3 id
[6.2.4.7] File Mechwine Not On Server
[6.2.4.8] Host_Error:CL_Parseserver Message
[6.2.4.9] Pldecal.wad
[6.2.4.10] Stuck On Elevator
[6.2.4.11] Stuck On Ladder
[6.2.4.12] Using Decal ### Without A Name
[6.2.4.13] Warning: U_Remove on full update
[6.2.4.14] Wonau_w95.dll/Woncr_w95.dll
[6.2.4.15] Wsaenotsock
[6.2.5] Patch/Update Half-Life
[6.2.5.1] Corrupted Installation Detected
[6.2.5.2] Not a valid previous version
[6.2.5.3] Your HL Is v1.0.x.x And You Have v1.0.x.x
[6.2.6] Single-Player Mode
[6.2.6.1] Barney Dies
[6.2.6.2] Stuck/Die On Elevator
[6.2.6.3] Uninstalling
[6.2.6.4] Zoom
[6.2.7] Timedemo
[6.2.7.1] Demo Protocol Outdated
[6.3] CD Key
[6.3.1] CD Key In Use
[6.3.2] Editing
[6.3.3] Lost CD Key
[6.4] Copying Half-Life On CD-R/RW
[6.5] Direct X
[6.6] PC Hardware
[6.6.1] CD-ROM
[6.6.1.1] Audio Music
[6.6.2] Controller/Joystick
[6.6.3] CPU
[6.6.3.1] 3DNow!
[6.6.3.2] MMX
[6.6.3.3] SSE
[6.6.4] Modem
[6.6.4.1] WinModem
[6.6.5] Sound
[6.6.5.1] A3D
[6.6.5.2] Audio Music
[6.6.5.3] EAX
[6.6.5.4] Losing Sound During Gameplay
[6.6.5.5] Repeating Sound Loops
[6.6.5.6] Sound Blaster Cards
[6.6.5.7] Stuttering
[6.6.6] Video
[6.6.6.1] 3dfx
[6.6.6.2] 3DWarning
[6.6.6.3] Blue Water
[6.6.6.4] D3D
[6.6.6.5] Decals
[6.6.6.6] Matrox
[6.6.6.7] Multiple 3D Cards
[6.6.6.8] Open GL
[6.6.6.9] Screen Not Aligned
[6.6.6.10] Slow Menu
[6.6.6.11] Nvidia
[6.6.6.12] Video Tearing
[6.6.6.13] Video Too Dark
[6.6.6.14] Visual Enhancements
[6.7] Virus
[7] PERFORMANCE TIPS
[7.1] Enhance Sound Effects
[7.2] Half-Life Tweaks
[7.2.1] Autoexec.cfg
[7.2.2] Multi-Player
[7.2.3] Parameters
[7.3] PC Tweaks
[7.3.1] Bandwidth
[7.3.2] Windows 9x
[7.3.2.1] Defrag
[7.3.2.2] ScanDisk
[7.3.2.3] Turn Them Off
[7.3.2.4] Virtual Memory
[7.4] Updates
[7.4.1] Drivers
[7.4.2] Half-Life
[7.4.3] PC
[8] INTERNET RESOURCES
[8.1] Forums
[8.2] Utilities
[8.3] Web Sites
[9] HISTORY
CHAPTER [1]: INTRODUCTION
[1.1]: About
Welcome to v11.27.1999 of the Unofficial Half-Life FAQ. v11.27.1999 is the
fourteenth revision. 'Unofficial' means that
this FAQ is not supported by Valve nor Sierra. FAQ stands for: (F)requently
(A)sked (Q)uestions.
Revision classification works something like this: it goes by the date. Plain
easy and simple. Forget about v1.xxx to v2.xx. Those are just a hassle to keep
up. I rather use the date as the version of the document. Date versions are
easier to keep up with, because it's easy to tell when it was released and from
what date it was.
This is how it's laid out: v.... Isn't that easy? The version
denotes the date, in which tells you that every information in this FAQ document
is as accurate as possible, up to that date, which is the version.
This HLFAQ is and shall be updated regularly on a regular basis on my terms of
when it should be updated. The only time that this HLFAQ would be necessary to
be updated, would be when a patch for Half-Life would come out. Always expect
the HLFAQ to be updated a few days after the patch is released. I need a few
days after the patch is released because I want to gather as much information or
if there are anything needed to be said about the patch.
This FAQ was done from resources of the U.S. (English) version of Half-Life and
Windows 98. Some parts of this HLFAQ would vary in platforms and countries.
Beware for those of you that do not live in the U.S.A. Some parts may not apply
to your country, nor do I not note about it. Proud to be made in the U.S.A.
Any following updates to this HLFAQ can be access at:
http://members.xoom.com/HQH51/ Please always check to see if there's an updated
version of this HLFAQ as I tend to add more solutions and information about
Half-Life.
[1.2]: Accuracy
I'm trying to be correct and accurate as possible. Please don't hold me for
accuracy, because everybody has to make some mistakes sometime in their lives.
If you have any information, or any further information on what is in here, then
please provide them to me and I'll be sure to place them where they should be
and for accurate future reference.
If you find any instructions wrong or solutions that are incorrect, then please
let me know. I pulled these solutions that were found on the internet and other
resources, so don't hold me for accuracy. These solutions are provided as is.
Also remember that every information found in this HLFAQ is as accurate when the
FAQ was published. So anything found after the HLFAQ's release would not mean
error in the HLFAQ. The HLFAQ just needs to be updated.
[1.3]: Contact
If you have any relevant information to contribute, then please provide me with
the best grammar, and understanding English so that I could place them where
they should be and for accurate future reference. Any submitted information will
be under review and be kept as my own property. Please only send legitimate
answers. I don't want rumors or false solutions in this HLFAQ. Only valid and
correct solutions to the problems.
If you have any questions related to Half-Life and its solutions from this
HLFAQ, I would be sure to answer any, if I can, with my knowledge in certain
parts that is, what is limited to my experiences with the game and its solutions
given. But please try what solutions are given in this HLFAQ first before coming
to me. Don't be surprised if I say that the solution is in the HLFAQ. So, read
this HLFAQ before asking any help from me.
I do not do the following, but not limited to:
-give walkthroughs/help with single player mode, because it's been a long time
since I played it
-give any CD-Keys, so go buy the game
-make any mods/levels for you, so learn how by your own
-send Half-Life to you, so go buy the game
-answer any mods, like TFC, etc... questions, so visit their mod site and bug
the authors
-answer Opposing Force questions, as I do not have the add-on pack
Also, I would not give out "direct" acknowledgements or credits to solutions
given. Please read section 1.4 to find out why. Even if you say 'give me
credits' in any message sent to me, I will not give you direct credits. Don't
bother doing this.
Last but not least, any comments/suggestions for the author is acceptable
(hopefully not a lot of flames/threats). No SPAM please. Also, messages have to
be in English for me to understand of course. Anything other than English will
be trashed.
My e-mail addresses are:
HQH51@aol.com (primary; use this prior to secondary e-mail address)
HQH51@hotmail.com (secondary; if primary address no longer available)
You could also reach me at this newsgroup: alt.games.half-life
For e-mailing me, it is wise to email to both of my accounts to make sure that I
may get your e-mail.
[1.4]: Credits
Credits go to most of the people on alt.games.half-life and many other different
sources on the internet. Also, a big credit goes to Valve for creating a kick
ass game for PC and Sierra On-Line for publishing it. And last but not least,
anybody who contributed to this FAQ.
You see, I can't really give "direct" credits to people who gave me solutions or
help me out on the HLFAQ. Because I'm taking precautions not putting down names,
because if I do, there will be people who would send in solutions already, when
someone else already gave me the solution, and when I do publish the HLFAQ, they
would wonder why they aren't getting the credits that they deserve. So that's
why the above says it all about giving out credits.
All I want for me is credit on gathering all these information and putting it in
the HLFAQ. That's it. I don't want to claim most solutions found in this HLFAQ,
because most of them aren't mine.
[1.5]: Foreword
Please read through the whole HLFAQ if possible. You might not know until you
try something on accident and fix things that make Half-Life all better. You'll
never know until you find out. This HLFAQ is on its fourteenth revision. Also I
might add that around this time, it's Half-Life one year anniversary. An add-on
pack is also released - Opposing Force.
[1.6]: Notices
Just a few words of notices.
[1.6.1]: Disclaimer
The purpose of this FAQ is to aid the public regarding questions about Half-
Life, by Valve. In no way should this promote suicidal, killing others, killing
in any other fashion, or result to violence.
I, the author, claims no responsibility what so ever, if anything from this
HLFAQ corrupts, damages, screws up, faulted with, created errors, or do anything
else that harms your computer, creating data lost, or anything with you or with
the world for all I care, I claim no responsibility!
[1.6.2]: Distribution
I. Sending copies
A. The copies are exact and complete
B. The copies give credit to the author
C. The copies are in the original form
II. Distributing this work
A. Remains original from work and should not be edited
B. Does not charge a fee for copying or distribution
III. Distributed form includes the author's notes and information
A. The distributed form is not in any magazine or within software
(permission may be obtained from author)
If you have any questions about distributing this HLFAQ of any kind, don't wait
on it - contact me. We'll discuss it.
[1.6.3]: Trademark/Copyright
Half-Life:
(c) 1998 Sierra On-Line, Inc. or Valve L.L.C. All rights reserved. (r) and/or
(tm) designate trademarks of, or licensed to Sierra On-Line, Inc., Bellevue, WA
98007. This product contains software technology licensed from id Software, Inc.
("id Technology"). id Technology (c) 1996-1998 id Software, Inc. All rights
reserved.
FAQ:
Me, myself, and I, the author of this FAQ!
CHAPTER [2]: FAQ: HALF-LIFE
If this HLFAQ doesn't provide you the solution you're looking for, you may try
at these websites:
Won.net's Trouble Shooting Guide
Sierra's Tech Support Knowledge Database
PC Game's Half-Life FAQ
[2.1]: General
Half-Life was released around Thanksgiving of 1998. It was named game of the
year. The game is great, especially the single player mode.
[2.1.1]: Audio Music
Half-Life has some cool sound tracks on the CD. Sound tracks are playable from
track 2 through track 28. Most of them are just background sound FXs, but there
are some that are techno like music. Audio tracks 15 and 25 are one of the best
ones. Try those tracks. You'll love them.
[2.1.2]: CD Key Location
If you're looking for the CD Key for Half-Life, the CD Key is on the back of
your Half-Life's jewel CD case. It's a 13 digit
number in this format: xxxx-xxxxx-xxxx. It runs down the side vertically. The CD
Key is printed on a King Quest advertisement. For foreign countries, some are on
a sticker. If you find that you do not have the CD Key anywhere found on the
jewel CD case, return the game back immediately and get yourself a new copy and
this time, you should get one with a CD Key included.
[2.1.3]: CD Related
How many CDs does Half-Life come in?
-Was rumored to be two, but only one CD. Valve compressed the files so that it
can fit all under one CD.
Is there any pirate protection?
-Yes, there are two kinds: CD check and CD Key.
How much space does the game takes up?
-Full installation; about 366 MB on FAT32 or 460 MB on FAT16. There are no other
alternatives. If you don't have at least 500 MB of free space, then you're
doomed and "Shit Out-of Luck" (SOL). I say 500 MB free space, because take the
save games into account, which the save games are over 1 MB per each saved games
and add-on maps in the near future for downloads. See what I mean?
What's installed on my HDD?
-Everything except for the music sound tracks.
Is there any options to cut down the installation? It takes up too much space!
-No. No options are given. Full installation is the only option. But you can
remove some of the movie files that are useless (well, sort of) in the Half-Life
folder. Dig deep in all of the folders in Half-Life and look for any files that
has an extension of .avi or .mpg. Those are the movie files. There should be
about four of those movies taking up a lot of space. Delete them.
Can I share the game with my fellow friends?
-Yes and no. Yes: You can if you want to. No: If you do, and if your friend
tries out the multiplayer part of the game, then you're SOL,because you can't
play because your friend just stole your entire internet access identification
for Half-Life.
Once I install the game, do I need the CD to play?
-Yes, it checks the CD if it's there, and if you're gonna play audio music from
the CD (not sound effects), then you need the CD. The only time that you do not
need the CD is playing multiplayer mode.
Does multiplayer mode require the CD?
-No, you can play without the CD. No patches required to do so.
Is there background music for Half-Life?
-Yes there is, but only at certain times. It doesn't play background music in
loops. Certain spots can only call on the background music, and it won't loop.
So, you will only get to hear it once, and it'll all go quiet again.
[2.1.4]: Configuration
To configure Half-Life, launch Half-Life-> Configurations-> Controls. If you
edit a file called config.cfg (v1.0.0.9+), then do not do it anymore. Half-Life
regenerates that file every time Half-Life is executed. You will lose everything
changed in that file. See section 4.1 for further details.
[2.1.5]: Console
To be able to use the console in Half-Life in single player mode, you must do
one of the following:
1. Start Menu-> Run-> type in: :\\Hl.exe -console
x=HDD
hl dir=Where Half-Life's directory resides in
2. Create a shortcut of Hl.exe, then-> (right click on the created shortcut)
Properties-> Shortcut tab-> Target box-> put in " -console" after hl.exe.
Example: hl.exe -console
3. Update the game to at least v1.0.0.9 and the console option will be listed in
the main menu.
4. Update the game to at least v1.0.0.9 and go to Start Menu-> Programs->
Sierra-> Half-Life-> Half-Life Console.
After enabling the console, you could access the console throughout the game by
pressing the [~] key (near the [Esc] key). In a multiplayer game, the console is
already accessible. Just hit the [~] key and it should bring down the console.
For some foreign country keyboards, try the [`] key, next to the [1] and [Esc]
key.
To get more information on the console, visit:
http://halflife.pcgame.com/console.htm
To assign another key to access the console, issue this command in the console:
bind "" toggleconsole
[2.1.6]: Content Control
Are there people out there that feel that your kids shouldn't be influenced by
all these blood and guts or if you feel that some of the aspects of Half-Life
may not be appropriate, then do the following to reduce the violent visuals in
Half-Life: Launch Half-Life-> Configuration-> Content Control-> Check the box
'Active content control' and put in a password. Make sure you know the password,
or you may need to uninstall the game to remove the content control.
[2.1.7]: Cuts From Game
When Half-Life was released, some of the models and weapons that were found in
reviews on the internet didn't make it. They were cut at the final version, but
still embedded in the game, but not all the way finished. Here's a quick look at
some of what was cut out from the game: http://www.contaminated.net/half-
life/lifeforms3.shtm
[2.1.8]: Definition Of Half-Life
Half-Life can be defined as: the time required for half of a sample of
radioactive atoms to decay. For an example: The radioactive isotope Iodine
([mass]131/[atomic #]53) of 1 gram, has a half-life of 8.07 days period. So,
starting off with 1 gram, there is no half-life (0 day). After one half-life
period (8.07 days), Iodine is now only .5 gram. After two half-life periods
(16.14 days), Iodine is now only .25 gram. This process keeps repeating on and
on... The time increases as the mass of the radioactive isotope shrinks. Half-
life of radioactive ranges from seconds to many years. All radioactive samples
have different half-lives.
[2.1.9]: Frames Per Second
There are a few ways to get frames per second (fps):
1. During mid game, type the following in the console:
developer 1
host_speeds 1
This should provide real-time fps during game play.
2. Use the -gamegauge parameter. Check it out in section 7.2.3 Parameters. It
will tell you how to use it.
3. Record a demo or get one, then within the console, type the following: gg
You do not need to type the demo's name with the three letter extension. Just
the file name, that's it. Check out section 2.1.20 to know how to record your
own demo. You may not need to type in cl_gg 1. Also, when running gg (Game
Gauge), Half-Life will dump a file call fps.txt in the \Half-Life\Valve\
directory. Open that up and it'll tell you your fps records.
4. During mid game, type this in the console: timerefresh. Although to me, this
is very unrealistic number, can't be trusted.
5. Record a demo or get a demo, then type this within the console: timedemo
Do not type the demo's name with the three letter extension. Just the file name,
that's it. Check out section 2.1.20 to know how to record your own demo.
[2.1.10]: Game Engine
Valve originally licensed the source for Quake from id Software and they began
working on that code around October of 1996. Between that time and the time they
finished Half-Life in October of 1998, they modified/removed/created something
like 70% of the code.
[2.1.11] Game of the Year Edition
The only difference with the original version of Half-Life and the Game of the
Year Edtion of Half-Life is the program's version, a redesigned box, the TFC
mod,Edition and the inclusion of Worldcraft v2.1 beta. The program version of
GotYE is at v1.0.0.9, while the original program version is at v1.0.0.5. The
only reason to buy this game is for people who haven't bought the game and save
time downloading a 20 MB patch (you have to do so on the original version,
because it's at v1.0.0.5). The GotYE is patched up to v1.0.0.9, but it doesn't
stop there. You will be required to download other patches if you want to play
multiplayer that is. The current version of Half-Life is at v1.0.1.3.
Note that some versions of Game of the Year maybe at v1.0.1.1. To check what
version you have currently with Half-Life, see section 2.1.26.
[2.1.12]: Graffiti/Spray paint
Is it true?
-Yes it is.
How many times can I spray paint?
-Once per life in multiplayer, then every frag that you get, you can spray paint
again. Also can be spray painted more than once if the server sets the
decalfrequency from its defaulted 30 seconds value. Defaulted every 30 seconds,
you can spray paint again after ever 30 seconds. For single player mode, it's
how much decalfrequency is set to. To check this out, type this in the console:
decalfrequency and whatever number goes after the command is the numbers of
seconds to delay for the next spray paint action to be available.
Example: decalfrequency 1
This means that you can spray paint after every 1 second.
Can I make my own graffiti?
-Yes, please refer to the readme.txt for instructions.
I see people with cool graffities. Can I use their graffities?
-Yes it can. There's a decal ripper that at:
http://www.planetquake.com/dl/dl.asp?half-life/decal-model/drip.zip
Sometimes I spray paint and the image is reversed or flipped upside-down.
-The reasons is how the textures of the wall/floor/ceiling are arranged and
aligned in the game. You got to put up with it. Nothing can be done.
Can I change the time on how long I can spray paint again?
-For single player, just drop down the console and type this in: decalfrequency
xx
Where xx = how many seconds delay do you want it to be before you can spray
paint again. Example: decalfrequency 1 This means that you can spray paint after
every 1 second. For multiplayer, the server can only set how much decalfrequency
can be.
[2.1.13]: Half-Life Demo
There is currently a demo released for Half-Life. The only demo that there is of
Half-Life is Half-Life: Uplink. You can get the demo at the following places:
http://www.planethalflife.com/dl/dl.asp?planethalflife/hluplink.exe
ftp://ftp.sierra.com/pub/demos/pc/hluplink.exe
ftp://ftp.pcgamer.com/demos/hluplink.exe
Please be aware that the demo is about 48.5 MB (about 50,872,079 bytes), and
would consume a lot of time downloading. It is also easy to get the demo
corrupted, so be prepared to re-download it again if it's necessary. The demo
needs less than 100 MB to be used when installed (about 89.1 MB on FAT32).
The demo is done by PCGamer and Valve, and it takes place after Half-Life's main
settings (the retail game that is). Cheats can only be fully usable if you use
the lite (down below) version. For the demo version, there are some cheats that
you can use like getting the weapons that only appear in the version, like the
MP5, etc.
If you're looking for a walkthrough for this demo, here's a link to a
walkthrough for this demo:
http://home.earthlink.net/~thrawn1/Uplink_walk_thru.htm
If you have the full retail version of Half-Life, and want to play the new
levels from the Half-Life: Uplink, then here's a 3.7 MB
download instead of the 48.5 MB (lite version). Note: you must have the full
version or it won't run. Here's the link:
ftp://ftp.game1.com/pub/randy/misc/uplink_lite.exe
Here's the storyline for this demo:
Set 48 hours after the containment failure at the Black Mesa Lab, Half-Life:
Uplink finds Gordon Freeman attempting to manually adjust the uplink tower so he
and some scientists can reach the lower level of the compound. Along the way, he
faces all sorts of horrors...
[2.1.14]: Half-Life For Mac
Bad news. After the announcement of a Macintosh version of Half-Life being
developed, the Mac version of Half-Life has been canceled. Read the original
announcement:
From: Gabe Newell
There's been a lot of speculation about Half-Life for the Macintosh - its
feature set, its compatibility with the PC version, and so on. Andrew Meggs at
Logicware has been doing a good job on the port, and it's mostly done. At this
point we've spent a bunch of money on the Mac product and have spent a lot of
time thinking about what we need to do to make sure Macintosh users are happy
with it when it ships.
Which is why we are canceling the Macintosh version of Half-Life.
When we started Mac Half-Life, there was a lot of optimism about the opportunity
for Macintosh games. As someone who worked on Macintosh software starting in
1983 before the 128K Mac had shipped, it was pretty exciting to think that there
was going to be a resurgence in the Mac gaming market.
However, as we got closer to shipping the product and reality set in, it was
increasingly obvious that in order for us to break even on the Mac version, much
less be profitable, we were going to have to cut some corners. OK - I guess we
won't have Team Fortress Classic available at shipment. Maybe people will accept
it if we update them with TFC later. OK - I guess I understand why we don't have
an automatic update facility. Maybe people will accept that they have to
manually update. OK - I guess I understand why we might carve out a separate
multiplayer space for Mac users from PC users because of the on-going
interoperability issues. Maybe that won't be the disaster I think it will be.
But the more I thought about it, the more I felt that this was nonsense. Our
existing Half-Life customers are really happy with us. They were happy with the
original game, they were happy when we released TFC, they were happy with our
on-going investment in Half-Life, and there's even more coming for them in the
next couple of months. They are happy because we do our best for them, and
that's what they expect from us in the future. Given the realities of the Mac
gaming market, our Mac customers were always going to be mad at us. They were
always going to be second-class customers where we couldn't invest to the same
degree in the Mac version as we did elsewhere. I don't want to be in that
business. I would much rather we just eat the money we've spent so far than take
money from Mac customers and short-change them.
It's disappointing to me on a personal basis that we won't ship Half-Life for
the Mac. Everyone here, and I'm sure the people at Logicware are disappointed.
The Mac gamers who were looking forward to Half-Life are undoubtedly
disappointed as well. However that's a lot less disappointment than what would
have happened if we had tried to get Mac gamers to accept second-class treatment
on an on-going basis.
Gabe
Here's the original announcement of Mac version of Half-Life being developed:
Macintosh Half-Life Press Release
SIERRA STUDIOS TO DELIVER BEST-SELLING HALF-LIFE TO THE MAC
BELLEVUE, WA (April 23, 1999) -- Sierra Studios(tm) announced today their hit
game Half- Life will be available for Macintosh gamers this fall. Originally
developed by Valve Software, the Macintosh version of the game will be developed
by Southern California-based Logicware, recognized for Macintosh gaming
development and well-known for working with some of the top computer game
publishers in the industry. "The PC version has sold nearly one million units
worldwide - bringing Half-Life to the Mac is a natural next step, especially
since there is such unwavering devotion in the Macintosh gaming community," said
Jim Veevaert, director of marketing for Sierra Studios. "We are excited to be
working with a company like Logicware that has such a strong reputation in the
Mac gaming market." Half-Life combines the visceral action of legendary action
games like Quake with great storytelling in the tradition of Stephen King. Named
Game of the Year by 40 publications worldwide, it is by far one of the most
popular first-person action thriller games on the market. More information can
be found at www.gameoftheyear.com.
Logicware was formed in 1995 to create fun, cutting edge games for computers
and console systems. Founded and run by entertainment industry veterans,
Logicware has developed a multitude of original titles and conversions on a
variety of platforms. In late 1997, Logicware began publishing games for the Mac
OS. Logicware is now one of the premiere game publishers for the Macintosh
market. Logicware is located east of Los Angeles in Covina, California. Sierra
On-Line, Inc. is one of the original developers and largest worldwide publishers
of interactive entertainment and productivity software. Sierra is comprised of
five brands: Sierra Attractions(tm), SierraHome(tm), Sierra Sports(tm), Sierra
Studios(tm), and Dynamix(tm), a Sierra Company. Sierra is a division of Havas
Interactive, whose holdings also include Knowledge Adventure(r), Blizzard
Entertainment(r) and WON.net(tm).
[2.1.15]: Half-Life Game Launchers
Here are some game launchers that are offered for Half-Life. Some of these game
launchers contain more special options than others. These are all sorts of
launchers. Be sure to visit all of them to know what they are. Here they are:
http://halflife.gameplex.net/hlfe/
http://prax.halflifehq.com/
http://www.contaminated.net/hlsad/
http://www.planethalflife.com/degraz/
http://www.planethalflife.com/hlgl/
http://www.planethalflife.com/hlhelper/
[2.1.16]: HL.exe/HLDS.exe
HL.EXE = Half-Life main game program that you use to play the game.
HLDS.EXE = (H)alf (L)ife (D)edicated (S)erver for multiplayer hosting program
only.
[2.1.17]: How Many Levels/Maps
Straight off from the CD:
-96 maps for single player mode
-8 maps for multiplayer mode
-7 maps for hazard course mode
Single player levels (17 of them in order):
1. Anomalous Materials
2. Unforeseen Consequences
3. Office Complex
4. We've Got Hostile
5. Blast Pit
6. Power Up
7. On A Rail
8. Apprehension
9. Residue Processing
10. Questionable Ethics
11. Surface Tension
12. Forget About Freeman
13. Lambda Core
14. Xen
15. Gonarch's Lair
16. Interloper
17. Nihilanth
[2.1.18] Linux Version
There is only a Linux version of the server side of Half-Life. No clients have
been available. To check out the server side program for Linux, visit section
2.2.3.5 for further details.
[2.1.19]: Location Damages
Half-Life offers location damage. Head shots counts more and damages more than
any other body parts. It would take less shots to kill if shot in the head.
Shoot anywhere else, it would take more to kill. Location damage are: head,
arms, legs, and chest. Head shot beats the chest shot beats the arms and legs
shots. So aim for the head to take more damage! Head shot counts three times as
much. Everything else to the body is one times the damage. Location damage is
provided in single player and multiplayer mode. So take advantage of the
location damage.
[2.1.20]: Playing/Recording Demo
To record a demo, type this in the console: record . The filename part
is anything you wish to call the demo as. It is best to have it under 8
characters. To play the demo, type this in the console: timedemo
If there's a custom made timedemo that you want to use, then put the timedemo
under the \Half-Life\Valve\ folder and then do the above to play the timedemo.
If you are using the timedemo to tell how much fps your computer is pumping out,
visit section 2.1.9.
For any other mods that the timedemo was recorded in, that's where you find it.
Say, you recorded a timedemo from TFC. The timedemo of the TFC session can be
found under \Half-Life\TFC\.
Any timedemo found on the internet or where ever available, only the timedemo
that was recorded under Half-Life can only be played back under that original
version. Say I recorded a timedemo under v1.0.0.6 for Half-Life. Only v1.0.0.6
can play back that timedemo only. No other version of Half-Life can play them
back.
Any timedemo that was recorded on a analog connection or any connection that has
very high latency on the internet, there will be apparent skips/jumps when
played back. People with very low latency should be able to record fine.
With v1.0.0.8 patch, the timedemo option is corrupted and can't be used. Upon
running the timedemo, at the end of the timedemo, Half-Life would crash, and
dump you back out on the desktop, and perhaps a GPF (General Protection Fault)
error message. So be warned, timedemo won't work with v1.0.0.8 only . Other
versions would work, but not with v1.0.0.8. Getting the latest patch, v1.0.0.9
or higher, the timedemo should work.
With v1.0.1.0 patch, the option to play back single player timedemo is not
available and will return an error stating that the map is different from the
server.
[2.1.21]: Requirements
Minimum:
~~~~~~~~
Windows(r) 95, Windows 98 or Windows NT 4.0
Pentium 133+, 24 MB RAM
SVGA, high color (16-bit)
2x CD-ROM drive
Windows-compatible sound card
Mouse, keyboard
Preferred:
~~~~~~~~~~
Pentium 166+
32 MB RAM
3D accelerator card (Open GL or Direct3D)
Multiplayer:
~~~~~~~~~~~~
32-bit Internet Service Provider (ISP)
28.8+ modem or LAN
[2.1.22]: Running Custom Levels
To run custom made user maps like single player made levels, do the following:
1. Place the .bsp file(s) into :\\Valve\Maps\
Example: C:\Sierra\Half-Life\Valve\Maps\
2. Get into Half-Life's console and type this in: map
Example: map boot_camp
OR
Edit your HL parameter to be like this: hl.exe +map
Example: hl.exe +map crossfire
Note: leave out the .bsp file extension, it's unnecessary.
Note: the maps used in the examples are multiplayer maps. Just use the actual
names of the single player maps. Note 2: when playing the single player made
levels, beware that you may not get the HEV/HUD on your screen. You may actually
need to find the HEV suit somewhere in the level somewhere. But there are levels
made that you may not use the HEV/get HUD.
[2.1.23]: Screen Shots
To take screen shots during mid game in Half-Life, all you need to do is hit the
key [F5]. However, you can take unlimited screen shots depending how much free
space you have where Half-Life is installed. There are pictures that take around
300 KB to a few MBs or so depending on what Half-Life was rendered in. Software
mode provides small file size pictures while Open GL/D3D are big file sized
pictures. You can find the pictures dumped under \Half-Life\ folder.
[2.1.24] Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP)
For those people who runs SMP, Half-Life does not take any advantages. Half-Life
was not coded to take in any SMP instructions.
[2.1.25]: Weapons
Here are some information on the weapons in Half-Life. By the way, there are
reloading action, so there's some realistic to reloading ammunition into these
weapons. If you happen to switch to a different gun when it's out of shells, and
you come back to the weapon again, you got to reload it.
[2.1.25.1]: About
How many weapons are given in the game?
-14 weapons to choose from, to be exact.
What are the weapons?
-357 Magnum
-9mm hand gun
-Crossbow
-Crowbar
-Egon (gluon gun)
-Gauss (tau cannon)
-Hand grenade
-Hornet gun
-MP5
-RPG
-Satchel
-Shotgun
-Snark
-Tripmine
[2.1.25.2]: Descriptions
-357 Magnum: One powerful revolver hand gun
-9mm Hand gun: Basic pistol
-Crossbow: Bows and arrows, felt tipped explosives (multiplayer only)
-Crowbar: What it sounds like and says
-Egon (gluon gun): Bluish hosing lightning gun
-Gauss (tau cannon): Yellow radiation shard shooter - could 'rocket jump', acts
like a rail gun and could shoot through walls
-Hand grenade: What it sounds like and says
-Hornet gun: Shoots out hornets
-MP5: A sub machinegun with grenade (M203) launching capabilities
-RPG: (R)ocket (P)ropelled (G)renade launcher with laser guided assistance
-Satchel: Just like a pipe bomb, and could be detonate anytime
-Shotgun: Pump action shotgun, also a double shotgun, two in one style
-Snark: A small creature that attacks living creatures
-Tripmine: A laser trip mine
[2.1.25.3]: Gauss Jump/Fall
Gauss jump is a term that is given to how the Gauss gun can be used. Just like
the 'rocket jump' from Quake x series, Gauss jump is actually the same thing,
except that it's not done by a rocket launcher, but the Gauss gun instead.
All you have to do, is grab the Gauss gun, charge up the gun by holding down the
alternative fire (secondary fire) key down, letting the gun charge up to 9
cells, look at the floor, and release the payload and up you go! The difference
with Gauss gun, is that you don't really need to jump at all, like the rocket
jump in Quake x series to get even higher elevations.
The Gauss jump can only be used in multiplayer. Beware, the Gauss jump does not
give you damage, like the rocket jump does in Quake x series does. But the only
damage that you're going to get from this Gauss jump is, when you fall down from
that great heights that you just achieved.
Gauss fall just means charge up the gauss gun via secondary fire and when you're
about to fall and hit the ground hard and lose life, you would fire into the
ground, giving you an air break and fall down safely and lose no health.
[2.1.25.4]: Secondary
Here are some secondary firing using these weapons:
-357 Magnum: zooms in (only in multiplayer)
-9mm Hand gun: rapid fire
-Crossbow: zooms in
-Gauss: charge up to 9 cells and fires in straight beam
-Hornet gun: rapid non-heat seeking style
-MP5: grenade (M203) launcher
-RPG: laser guide assistance
-Satchel: lay down another satchel
-Shotgun: double barrel shotgun style
[2.1.25.5]: Underwater Usage
Here are some weapons that work under water:
-9mm hand gun
-Crossbow
-Crowbar
-Hand grenade
-Hornet gun
-RPG
-Satchel
-Tripmine
[2.1.25.6]: Weapon Calling
Weapons are divided into five sections. They are bound to the numbers from 1-5
on the keyboard. The five sections are as followed:
1: Crowbar
2: Pistol; 357 Magnum
3: MP5; Shotgun; Crossbow
4: RPG; Gauss; Egon; Hornet gun
5: Hand grenade; Satchel; Trip mine; Snark
To access the weapons, press the number x amount of times to cycle through the
collection of weapons to select what you want. For an example: If you want to
get the 357 magnum, press the number 2 twice to access the 357 magnum.
[2.1.26]: What's My Half-Life Version
Here are some ways to check what Half-Life version you are running:
1. Go to where HL.exe exists (default at C:\Sierra\Half-Life\). Right click on
the HL.exe and select Properties. Select the Version tab. In the Item name box,
select the Product version. It will then display the version number to the right
box under Value.
2. Go into the console of Half-Life and type in: version
3. In the console up in the right hand corner, it will tell the version of the
game.
4. In the main menu down in the lower right hand corner, it will tell the
version of the game's version. (v1.0.1.3+)
Note: If you bought the original Half-Life, the version is at v1.0.0.5. If you
bought Half-Life: Game of the Year, the version is at either v1.0.0.9 or
v1.0.1.1.
[2.1.27]: When Installing
Check out section 6.2.2 for information on installing Half-Life.
[2.1.28]: Whole New Game
The game could be played over again by extracting out a file called skill.cfg
from the pak0.pak. Get the editor that would extract this file at:
http://www.planetquake.com/qped/. Getting this file would allow you to change
the damage and the health of all the weapons and enemies in the whole game.
[2.2]: Multi-Player
Here are some multiplayer information.
[2.2.1]: Bots
Bots, shorten from robots, are AI (artificial intelligence) controlled by the
computer. These are virtual opponents that you can play against in multiplayer
mode offline (not being on the Internet). This means that you can play
multiplayer mode without being on the Internet, since you now have virtual
players to play against. For now, currently, the bots available are only known
to work for deathmatch. No mods (like TFC, Counter-Strike, etc...) have bots
yet.
There are currently some bots. Here are the site to get these bots:
http://www.contaminated.net/phineas/ - The Phineas bot
http://www.telefragged.com/thefatal/jumblow.shtml - The Jumbot bot
To check out on the developers of bots, check out these sites:
http://www.botepidemic.com/bots/halflife.shtml
http://www.contaminated.net/hlbc/
[2.2.2]: General
Here are some general information about multiplayer mode for Half-Life.
[2.2.2.1]: Beginners Information
It is advised that you venture through Half-Life multiplayer menu and set up
your configurations. Also, using the Quick Start for Internet Games can be
useful for the first few times before you advance to using the in game server
browser.
[2.2.2.2]: Cheats
You can cheat in multiplayer mode, granted that you're hosting your own server.
You need to enter in sv_cheats 1 before starting the game, or switch maps to
take the cheats into affect. You can use the regular cheat codes for single
player mode in multiplayer mode. The only codes that won't work would be the god
mode and noclip mode.
[2.2.2.3]: Getting Started
To get started for multiplayer mode, it is advised that you go through the Half-
Life multiplayer menus and set up your configurations. Also, create a cfg that
has some multiplayer tweaks for online. See section 7.2.2 for multiplayer
tweaks.
[2.2.2.4]: Map Cycles
There is a file called mapcycle.txt in your \Half-Life\Valve\ directory.
Whenever hosting, edit this file and put in whatever maps you want it to rotate
after a certain limit of the level to end going to the next map.
[2.2.2.5]: Models/Skins
Bundled with Half-Life, Half-Life offers you five choices to pick which models
should represent you in multiplayer: Scientist, HGrunt, Helmet, Gordon, or Gina.
The default is on Gordon or Helmet. To pick others, make sure you hit
previous/next to see what you like to pick.
A model is like a human being. A skin is like the clothes for the human being.
Models are edited and change its polygons around. A skin is just like some
clothes for the models. So try not to confuse the two. A model is a few hundred
KBs big, and the skins a few KBs.
If you downloaded models, and use them in multiplayer, then youneed to know
this: if other people have the model that you have and currently using, then
they can see you. If the opponents don't have the model that you got, then they
see you as some other kind of model, replaced by the five originals if they
don't got the model that you're using.
To manually install models/skins, create a directory named after the model/skin
under \Half-Life\Valve\Player\
To know how to make skins, then go to http://www.contaminated.net/wavelength/
To view the models from a program instead of doing a test run in a LAN game, go
here and get the program:
http://www.swissquake.ch/chumbalum-soft/hlmv/index.html.
If you want to learn how to create models, go to
http://www.planethalflife.com/coldfusion/tutorials/intro.htm
By the way, you'll be required to have some 3D program, especially 3D Studio Max
(More than $3000). But if you don't have 3D Studio Max, then you can get
Milkshape 3D at: http://www.swissquake.ch/chumbalum-soft/
[2.2.2.6]: Observer Mode
The only way to be in observer mode is to have the server to set the command
"mp_forcerespawn 0" (no quotes, and it's a zero). If the command is set to 0,
then all you need to do to get into observer is to die. After dying, don't press
anything. You will then be shifted to an observer view. There's no way to move
throughout the map, so you're stuck in one spot to view action.
[2.2.2.7] Orange Bar
That orange bar that you see under your health when first time logging into the
server to play means that you're downloading other people's decals. You can
disable by going to section 7.2.2 and check it out.
[2.2.2.8]: Talk While Playing
Here are two great programs to use during gameplay:
1. Roger Wilco: http://www.resounding.com
2. BattleCom: http://www.shadowfactor.com
These two programs add new strategies to online gaming. This allows you and your
buddies talk while playing, transmitting voice and hear the warnings faster than
typing the warning messages out. Provided that you have a blazing fast
connection, then it's worth the download to try out these programs. A warning
for those who have less than a 56k modem: don't even think about getting it.
Sending the voice takes away at least 1KB of your uploading bandwidth. Now when
playing and talking, expect to lag like hell if there are more than 2 people on
the server. These programs should be used on high bandwidth connections. But
like I said, this is a warning for you low bandwidths people who want to try
this thing out.
[2.2.2.9] WON.Net
People have mistakenly to have thought that when they get connected to the
internet and launch Half-Life, and when they log onto a server, they think that
they're actually playing on WON.Net's server. This is very false. When you try
to connect to the server, you only log onto WON.Net's authentication server so
that your CD Key can be checked. After it's authenticated, you are then
disconnected from WON.Net's authentication server and then onto your real server
that you wish to be on. Read section 2.2.4.2 for further details on the
explanation.
[2.2.3]: Hosting Server
Here are some words about hosting a server.
[2.2.3.1] About
Please keep in mind that for folks out there that have less than an ISDN who
decides to host and knows nothing about bandwidth and serving a server should
not host. Most people out there who thinks a 56k modem can handle more than 1-2
clients is wanting a slap in the face. Please don't try to run a server with a
56k modem, except that you just want to host it between you and your friend,
then that's fine. But if you decide to host with a 56k modem running a server
with 2+ clients on your server, on the internet, then don't even think about it.
Let those who have higher bandwidth do it. 56k modem doesn't have the bandwidth
on what it got to require to hold more than 2 clients. If you do decide to host
with your 56k modem and wonder why your client(s) have such a high latency and
you have such low latency, then you really need a slap. I'm sorry to say, but
you would really need a slap.
A minimum ideal spec of a PC server would be the following:
CPU: Pentium II
RAM: 64MB of RAM
Bandwidth: ISDN speed or higher
The above is just for minimal serving server, like for 2-4 players. Any higher,
and the requirements for a good server with many clients will shoot straight up.
Whenever hosting a server, like on the internet, beware that your server and
your IP address will be broadcast all over the world in seconds. Yes, this is
true. Your server will be enlisted in Half-Life's own built in server browser.
Anybody can join in at will.
The only way to keep the server private between your friends, you would have to
make a password for the server. You'll see the password option when you're going
to host, if you do it in the Half-Life menu. They will have to enter the
password and it'll be limited to you and your friends. Make sure your friend
knows the password, because when they do connect to your server, Half-Life will
prompt them with the password box and needs the password to connect to your
server.
When hosting, all you need to know, is your own IP address. You can get your IP
address by going to Start Menu-> Run. Type in: winipcfg. From there, it'll give
you your IP address. Now, write down that number and give it to your friends.
After giving the IP address to your friends, all they have to do now is just
drop down their console, type in:
connect xxxxxxxxx
Where xxxxxxxxx = your IP address
You wouldn't need to worry about the port number, like 27015 or whatever after
your IP address. Half-Life should take care of that. Your friends should connect
after typing in connect xxxxxxxxx.
A good site to get some more information about hosting a server is at:
http://www.contaminated.net/server/ . This site has commands and tips to make
your life easier hosting a Half-Life server.
Http://halflife.pcgame.com/console/server.htm is a site that has a list of
server commands. Also, here's a site for FAQ Server:
http://www.contaminated.net/server/archives/faq1.html
If you're running HLDS.exe (Half Life Dedicated Server program), and you want to
play on your own server, you need to add this command to HL.exe: -port 27016
This will allow you to connect to your own dedicated server. If you don't use
this parameter command, then you will not be able to connect to your own
dedicated server. This command changes what the dedicated server listens on what
port. Default is 27015.
One easy way to run a server is go to this site: http://hlman.stomped.com/. This
site provides a program for you to use and to configure the server easier. If
people are having problems connecting to your server, try adding "sv_validate 0"
(no quotes) to \Sierra\Half-Life\valve\server.cfg and add "setmaster none" to
your \Sierra\Half-Life\valve\autoexec.cfg. You can now log on to the server
without validation.
If you host a Half-Life server, like say at work, and you go home and play on
your work's server, you can also set aadministration password for the remote
server. At the work's Half-Life server, type: rcon_password ""
and at home on your computer type:rcon_password "". If you
want to change something, like the map, all you have to do is type: rcon
"" to change the settings for your server. Example: rcon map datacore
[2.2.3.2] Half-Life Primary Server
There's a free serving program for people who would like to make a Half-Life
server without buying the game. This is only the server side and not playable.
The downloadable file link is: http://ftp.won.net/pub/half-
life/hlserver4013.exe. Get that program. It is v4.0.1.3 (the latest, Valve
decided to change the first digit to not confuse with client patch, instead of
1, it's now going to be a 4). Beware, this is only a server side program (you
can't play) and the program is very big when downloading. The program is about
87,111,918 Bytes (85,070 KB or 83 MB).
There's a mailing list for people interested in discussion about Half-Life/TFC
dedicated server issues, for Win32. To join the list, mail
majordomo@lists.caitiff.com with "subscribe hlds" in the body. If you have
install questions or problems, email the mailing list: hlds@lists.caitiff.com.
[2.2.3.3] Kick Players Off
If you have some corrupted people making an ass out of themselves, and you don't
like them on the server, you can do the following things to get rid of them:
1. Kick them off your server: To do this, pull down the console, and type kick
. Ex: kick Jack
2. If they come back repeatedly on your server and abuse the server, you can ban
those S.O.B.s by the following: bring down the console, and type status. Write
down the username's IP address. Now, still in the console, type in addip 0 . Addip is the command to invoke banning a certain IP address. Following
the command addip is the number zero. Zero means banned permanently from the
server. Change the number (the number is in minutes) other than zero to let the
person come back on for a certain amount of minutes you specified.
is the IP address that you wrote down when you typed in status in the console.
Input the IP address that you want to banish that person off your server. After
issuing the addip command, confirm the banning of an IP address by typing in the
console listip. After this, kick the player off once more and then that would be
the last that you would ever see that jerk on your server.
If you have a player using the ~ or ` anywhere in the name, then there's another
way to kick them off instead trying to hit the ~ or ` key and end up pulling
down the console. Do the following:
1. Bring down the console and type in: status
2. Scroll up/down the console and find the appropriate player that you want to
kick off via their id #.
3. After finding the player, type this into the console: banid 0 kick
Banid is the usuage of using id to ban, the 0 is for how many minutes they can
join back in, which is never, , and kick is the command
to kick them off while you ban them.
[2.2.3.4] LAN and Internet players
If you want to host a server over the internet and want your LAN to play on the
server with you, do the following things from the console:
sv_lan 0 (to allow internet opponents to join)
sv_lan 1 (to allow LAN opponents to join)
Note: if you put sv_lan to 0 (zero), then only the internet people can join the
game. If any LAN players want to join in the game, then you need to set it to
sv_lan 1. But if you do set it to sv_lan 1, then no internet players can join
until you put it to 0 (zero).
[2.2.3.5] Linux
For those who runs a Linux OS, and would like to run a Half-Life server side
only (not playable, exactly like Half-Life Primary Server, but just for Linux),
then you're in luck. The link to the Linux version is:
http://ftp.won.net/pub/half-life/linux1010b.tar.gz. There's a mailing list for
people interested in discussion about Half-Life/TFC dedicated server issues, for
Linux. To join the list, mail majordomo@lists.caitiff.com with "subscribe hlds"
in the body. If you have install questions or problems, email the mailing list:
hlds@lists.caitiff.com. There's a GUI program to control Linux HLDS. You can
check it out at http://linuxhlds.halflife.org/.
If you want to run at least two or more HLDS, go to
http://www.fileplanet.com/index.asp?section=209&file=29184 and download the file
and check it out.
[2.2.3.6]: Tracking Statistics
There are programs out there that would track your server with frag statistics
and other goodies and log them to the file/web for view of player frags and
other goodies depending on the program being used. Here are a few programs to
check out: http://aeons.gametown.de/AEstats/ (Linux only)
http://www.uwm.edu/~zachkarp/halfStats (Linux only)
http://vector.remotepoint.com
http://www.davisn8.freeserve.co.uk/
There is also a program that came with Half-Life v1.0.1.3, that can track TFC
statistics. Review the TFC manual for this option.
[2.2.4]: Lag/Latency/Ping
Here are some information about lag/latency/ping.
[2.2.4.1]: General
Latency, which is measured in milliseconds on average packets sent, and a single
packet message sent to the server and back is called ping. It is best to keep
this ping/latency low if possible. You do not want a high number.
Lag is created from two things: your computer components and the internet. The
faster your computer, the lower the latency. The faster and bette quality of
your internet connection, the lower the latency. Get the point?
It might not be your hardware or connection device holding you behind and
creating lag, but it could be your ISP. Poor ISP is the leading cause of high
latency. If you're one of the people who uses major ISPs, like AOL, tough luck.
You're gonna need it, because their routers and connections are terrible. Major
ISPs are not made for gaming, but for fancy on-line surfing on the web types
(like AOL). Ditch your ISP and go for local ones. Local ones should cost less
than the major ISPs and offer more quality data transfer and less lag!
To kill lag as much as possible, check out section 7. Get your computer up to
speed as much as possible with those tips.
People with pings less than 150ms are usually referred to as 'Low Ping Bastard'
(LPB), usually use high quality connections, like digital connections such as
ISDN, cable modems, T1s, etc... People with pings higher than 150ms are usually
referred to as 'High Ping Bastard' (HPB) or 'High Ping Warrior' (HPW), usually
use analog modems. Playable range can be considerable from anywhere of 0ms to
400ms. Any higher than the playable range, you're lagging like hell.
Sometimes, people call each other 'campers'. Campers are people who sitsin a
respawn area of any kind - either weapons or the places where people respawn
once they die, and get a 'cheap' kill with one good blow from a good weapon to
get a quick frag. Frag is a term to use for 'kills'. So that means that if you
kill someone, then that means that you just got one frag. You could see your
latency during a multiplayer game by pressing the [Tab] key (defaulted key to
produce a chart showing who is playing, the latency, the frags, and the deaths).
If you got another key assigned for the multiplayer result chart, then press
that key.
If you want to try and improve your latency, visit section 7.2 to check out what
you can do.
[2.2.4.2]: Yahn's Explanation I: Latency Vs. Ping
Yahn from Valve wrote entitled 'Latency vs. Ping':
"The way Half-Life determines the 'latency' value shown in its scoreboard is
different than what users generally call 'ping'. The word latency is a
deliberate decision to emphasize that the value shown is a better representation
of actual network play than a mere ping. How is ping calculated and how is
latency different.
Ping is a simple round trip time for a message from one computer to another. It
is independent of whether the machine is playing a game etc. It generally is a
best case communication round-trip time.
In Half-Life, the server tracks round trip times for packets that it sends to
the client. The problem that arises is that the client, if it is not running at
a high framerate, can have the message sitting in its network queue for a
significant amount of time. For instance, a client that is chugging along at 10
fps ( yuck! ) is using about 100 milliseconds to process each frame. The
scenario goes like this, on average, you can assume that a message arrives some
time during that 100 ms. window. If you assume it can arrive anywhere in that
time frame, it's quite possible that the client has already read messages from
the network for that frame. If so, then you have to wait 100 ms. until the next
time the message queue is read. Then the client must act on the messages.
Finally, the client sends its next movement command to the server. When the
server receives this movement command, it looks at when it sent out the message
that the movement command corresponds to and computes the latency based on that
round trip time. If the server is not running at a high frame rate, or even it
it's running at 40 fps or so, then it's message queue can lead to inflation of
the round trip time as the client's reply sits in that message queue. These
numbers are somewhat exaggerated, but you see the point. The server computes the
ping over the last 64 messages it received from the client ( ignoring dropped
packets ). If the client sees any kind of transient network backlog, or low
framerate, it can really skew the overall average latency that is reported.
So the road to better latency values involves trying to improve your framerate
as much as possible, as well as playing on servers that are running at decent
tic rates. ( Such things as video mode, max number of decals, and other settings
can have a huge impact on framerate ).
This brings up another misconception about benchmarking HL performance. In HL,
the timedemo and playdemo commands do not work the same way as in other
Quake/Quake2 engine games. In particular, demos always try to play back in the
same amount of time it took to record them. Thus a demo that is 10 seconds long
and has 240 frames will always play back in roughly 10 seconds. It could be that
less frames are rendered on a slow playback machine. But, at most, 240 frames
will be rendered ( in this example ). The bottom line is not to use HL demos for
any benchmarking. Much better is to use "timerefresh" in a known spot ( or
several of them ) to get an idea of your framerate. Or to run with host_speeds
set to 1 -- which prints out the current frames per second to the notification
area at the top of the screen. These provide a useable benchmark.
Finally, some folks are wondering about how the HL front-end determines network
speed ( number of green or red dots ). In particular, there is a misconception
that those numbers somehow reflect the round-trip message time between the
WON.net master server and the particular server listed. This is simply not the
case. The protocol works like this. A quick connection is made to the WON.net
master server by your machine to request a raw list of IP addresses for all
currently running servers. Once you get this list, you don't talk to WON.net
anymore. Instead, your machine then contacts each server it has an IP address
for. The time you send out a message to that server is marked and when you get a
response is also marked. The difference in time is used to determine the network
speed. It's really that simple.
In 1.0.0.8, however, we try to get a more accurate number by sending ten simple
'ping' requests to each server and waiting for responses to each one. We count
the number of responses received, and each of the round trip times for any
responses. These numbers are averaged to arrive at a more accurate round trip
time. But these numbers do not reflect the framerate dependencies that I
describe above for the 'in-game' experience. If you run hl.exe with -
numericping, then the green dots are replaced with two numbers, the round trip
time in milliseconds and the percentage of packets that did not generate a
response to the 'ping' request. In v1.0.0.8, we added a way for server operators
to broadcast certain information about the quality of their servers. We don't do
this by default, as some server operators might not want such information
exposed to users. But if the server operator runs the server and sets the cvar
'sv_type' to 1, then when the server is queried by the HL front-end, GameSpy,
PingTool, or some other server querying program, then the value of sv_type
returned will include the type of operating system being used by the server (
e.g., Win32 or Linux -- note, the Linux server has not been released yet ), the
CPU MHz of the server ( e.g., 450 ), and whether the server is a listen server (
'hl.exe' ) or a dedicated server ( 'hlds.exe' ). Of course, the best experiences
occur on dedicated server running at high speed using Linux. The only
information we don't have at our disposal is the servers bandwidth ( e.g., T1,
etc. )."
[2.2.4.3]: Yahn's Explanation II: Why HL/TFC Slow?
Yahn from Valve wrote this to counter someone's question of why HL/TFC is slow
and network code is crap:
"A thing to remember about higher pings in general is that for most users TFC
runs at a lower framerate than QW ever did. We have a lot of cool technology in
there fighting for CPU bandwidth (our animation system and higher polygon count
models, 16 bit color, realtime DSP of the sound information, more complex/time
consuming game .dll code, overlayed client.dll HUD elements). All of these
things lower framerate a bit compared to the somewhat older and definitely
simpler technology displayed in QW. If your framerate (or the server's) is
lower, then there is more "dead" time where the network layer has received
messages but the machine cannot process them because it is off doing something
else like rendering a frame. This leads to increased "ping" values, as you
mention.
The other thing to remember that can cause poor net performance is bandwidth
usage. We've made some significant steps in this direction, but we still want to
improve (i.e., lower) our bandwidth usage even more. In fact, we want to lower
bandwidth usage quite drastically. The reason why is that if a client on a modem
is receiving too much data for their connection, they start to fall behind on
the relentless flow of data coming in. They quickly get more and more backlogged
and eventually they get flooded out (1000+ ping, e.g.). This is especially
prevalent in the following conditions:
Client framerate too high: In the current TFC release, each frame the client
renders results in a request for the server to send an update packet. This is
exactly the same networking model as QW. However, today's machines are so much
faster than the ones around when QW rolled out the door that it's quite
conceivable to request too much data from the server (especially when there are
a lot of players in your PVS or there is a lot of entity traffic in the area).
You can mitigate this by capping your framerate at a reasonable number (e.g.,
fps_lan or fps_modem 20 or 30). In addition, you must have the proper rate
setting for your machine. It's okay to choke a lot of packets at times, but it's
never okay to flood yourself out by not having the rate setting right for your
connection. This is an area where we are making a lot of changes in future
technology to eliminate the need for framerate capping and to smooth out the
server to client update stream.
Rate setting incorrect. We have code in the engine and client to meter the
amount of data being sent over the wire to avoid the backlogged "ping of death"
condition above. Currently, however, this relies on a user's ability to choose /
tweak the correct rate setting. We've considered schemes to automatically adapt
the rate setting based on packet loss and choked packets (among other
parameters), but coming up with a solution that works in all cases is tricky.
Again, we are doing a lot of research into these issues right now.
Pushlatency set to the wrong value. This really only goes to the perception of
lag on your movements, but generally you'll want to fully compensate for your
latency by keeping this value substantially negative (e.g., -1000). Note that if
pushlatency is set to higher than your latency in the negative, we just ignore
the part that goes past your actual latency, so you don't have to try to "tune"
this number that carefully if you want full prediction of movements. Just set it
far enough negative and you won't have to worry about it. The whole set it to
"minus one half of your latency" guideline is a bit too esoteric for me, you
might as well use prediction to it's fullest and set it to minus some big number
and let prediction predict all of your movements up to the current time.
Bandwith usage: Half-Life's entity system is just way more complicated than QW's
ever was. Remember, most of the entity system in Half-Life was initially
instituted to support single player Half-Life. Of course, in the single player
game there was zero latency and no bandwidth constraint. For any of our future
games having a heavy multiplayer component, this system has some problems. We
will be spending a lot of time investing in technology that lowers the bandwidth
needed to replicate entity state information and interesting visual effects over
the network. The fruits of this research should show up in our products soon.
Prediction: Predicting things on the client requires a reasonable balance
between how much game-specific code and state information you want to have on
the client and a few other considerations. In the future, we are going to want
to be able to predict things on the client fairly robustly. As I mentioned
earlier, we're looking into opening up player physics to MOD authors so that the
client and server can do the right thing and allow prediction to work better
than it has in the past. This will translate into much smoother player movement
in our games."
[2.2.4.4]: Yahn's Explanation III: Laggers Creating Lag?
I asked this question to Yahn: "There are some people that stated that if
someone with high latency on a server is playing, it lags other clients as well.
Is this true on TCP/IP? IPX/SPX is known for this... But TCP/IP? Bunch of LPBs
(low ping b@st@rds) complain about this every time someone with high latency
joins in on the server. This is yet one of those myths/facts that is needed to
be cleared up on the internet. I don't know the answer, but it would help if you
explained it." and he replied with the following:
"I'm pretty skeptical that there is any veracity to this. The only thing that
makes sense is that the additional player increases the CPU load on the server
because that guy is now a physical object interacting with the world. However,
one player shouldn't make much of a difference, so that seems a bit unlikely. As
far as the UDP/IP layer goes, there should be no difference. The new player
appears to the server just like any one else connected does. So I think it's
just a misperception (possibly intentional), but if someone can quantify it with
a repeatable case, I'd be highly interested. Barring that, I think this also
could be low-ping folks trying to keep the "easy kill" high-pingers off their
machines (of course, there are a lot of high-ping players who can still play
extremely effectively against the low-pingers)."
[2.2.5]: Modes
Here are some Half-Life multiplayer modes.
[2.2.5.1]: Co-op
I am sorry to say that Half-Life does not support Co-op, even though it had the
co-op command. But there's a way around it, although it is not hassle free and
have a few bugs: http://planethalflife.com/aftershock/coop/.
[2.2.5.2]: Deathmatch
Deathmatch is what it sounds like - free for all (basically). The objective is
to go around and stay alive and start killing. You want to die less and kill
more.
[2.2.5.3]: Teamplay
After the v1.0.0.8 patch release for Half-Life, Team Play is introduced.
Teamplay is almost like deathmatch, although you play as a team. How this work
is, teams are determined by what models you choose. Say you be a scientist.
Doesn't matter what color you are, but whoever else on the server that plays on
the Teamplay server, that is a scientist, would be on your team. And not matter
how much rounds you dump into your team mate, he/she probably won't die, unless
the server sets mp_friendlyfire to 1. How the score goes, works like this: of
all that is on your teammate, which would be all the scientists, would all
combine their scores and yours, to a total of a team consists of scientists. It
would show 'Scientists' and then the combinations of all your frags, deaths, and
the average latency of your entire team.
The fastest way to switch teams is to pull down the console and type this in:
model . Where would be the models provided with
Half-Life like Gordon, Gina, Scientist, Helmet, or HGrunt. Make sure you type in
the correct name of the models/skins, or you just created a misspelled team name
and defaulted your skin to any of the five original models and you would be the
only one on that team.
Also for team play, you can talk to your own teams, without the other people on
different teams see what is intended for your own team members. Defaulted is the
'u' key, enabling you to talk only with your team members. If you bind the 'u'
key to some other function, then type this in the console: bind x
"messagemode2". Where x is the key that you wanted to be pressed to access the
talk-to-team-member mode. Also, make sure you have the quotes around the
messagemode2.
Additional teamplay options, teamplay lets you drop weapons to your teammate. To
do this, bind a key to "drop". Example: bind x "drop". Where x = any key. This
cool option drops your current weapon that you have in your hands. Say you have
a MP5 in your hands. You execute the drop command. You would then drop your MP5
and all the associate ammo for the weapon. The dropped item would then appear as
a green cylinder pack just like the regular ones in the deathmatch mode when you
kill people and out ejects the green cylinder pack. This option is best used
with your teammate when they don't have ammo/weapon.
So to recap all that is Teamplay, just pick a model and that's how you either
change teams or create a team. Beware, that you're playing Teamplay mode, and
sometimes, you can't kill your teammate, hence don't be saying, "someone's
cheating, and I can't kill him/her!"
[2.2.5.4]: Team Fortress Classic
Team Fortress Classic (TFC) is Valve's new add-on for Half-Life that combines
the thrilling first-person multiplayer gameplay of the original Team Fortress
with Half-Life's leading edge technology. In Team Fortress Classic, you play one
of nine roles or classes, such as Medic, Soldier, or Engineer, and then join
your teammates online or over a LAN to battle against enemy teams. Each class
has unique weapons, items, abilities, and style of play. Check out section 2.2.8
for more information.
[2.2.6]: Options
Here are some options provided for Half-Life multiplayer connections.
[2.2.6.1]: Internet
To play on the internet, first of all, you need to connect to the internet
somehow. After that, you need to get the latest patch for Half-Life, which is
v1.0.1.3 so that it can allow you to play, or you won't be able to play because
most of the servers are v1.0.1.3. For beginners, launch Half-Life-> Multiplayer-
> Internet Games.
[2.2.6.2]: LAN
After the v1.0.0.8 patch release, Half-Life now supports these two protocols
that can be used for LAN games: IPX and TCP/IP. To play TCP/IP, each PC would
need to be assigned unique different IP address, with the same subnet mask. A
max of 5 users can use the same CD Key in LAN mode (not playing on the
internet). If you're new to LAN, then please visit this site to know what to do
about LAN games: http://www.lanparty.com. If you're having problems with LAN,
check out section 6.2.3 for some solutions to try. For any beginners, visit the
above link to know how to set up a LAN game first.
[2.2.6.3]: Modem To Modem
With 2 PCs with modem calling each other over phone lines, go here:
http://www.zipworld.com.au/~otser/modem.htm. This is a guide for Quake games,
but it is still the same technique to use modem to modem games.
[2.2.6.4]: Serial
With 2 PCs with a null modem/serial cable, go here:
http://ukq2ng.quake2.co.uk/pages/serial.html.
[2.2.7]: Proxy
Here are some information about proxies, with the usage of Wingate and Winroute.
When v1.0.1.0 patch was released (Mar 27, 1999) for Half-Life, Valve and WON.net
decided to change the authentication server port 7001 to 7002. Make sure the
port is changed or it won't work.
[2.2.7.1]: Wingate
Wingate can be used to try and play through proxies/firewalls. You can get it
at: http://www.wingate.net. Detailed proxy setup for Half-Life:
http://people.ne.mediaone.net/lmhansen/Games/HalfLife/
http://lmhansen.tzo.com/HalfLife/proxy1.html
For Wingate 2.1d and 3.0 (you can get 2.1d from the above URLs):
Half-Life Auth Server: TCP 7002 -> half-life.east.won.net:7002
Half-Life WON Server: TCP 6003 -> half-life.east.won.net:6003
Half-life Server Master: UDP 27010 -> half-life.east.won.net:27010
Half-Life Game Server1: UDP xxx -> ip.address.of.game.server:270xx
Half-Life Game Server2: UDP 27015 -> another.game.server:27015
Then connect to the game using the console: Connect wingate:27015
Also for Wingate 3.0:
Editing the file called hosts located in the C:\windows directory and put in the
IP of your Wingate machine followed by the
half-life.east/won.net. like this:
-- Hosts --
half-life.east.won.net
- or -
half-life.west.won.net
[2.2.7.2]: Winroute
Here's a web site that will tell you how to set up the game with WinRoute:
http://members.tripod.com/taniswolf/. The site to get WinRoute is:
http://www.winroute.com.
[2.2.8]: Team Fortress Classic
You can get Team Fortress Classic with patch v1.0.0.9 or higher for Half-Life.
Half-Life v1.0.0.9 or higher includes the TFC mod. Below are some information on
TFC.
[2.2.8.1]: Classes
Here are brief details. You can get further details by accessing the TFC manual.
Here are the nine classes listed with information:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#1: SCOUT Details:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WEAPONS:
#1 Crowbar
#2 Shotgun
#4 Nailgun
GRENADES:
Primary: Concussion
Secondary: Caltrop
SPECIAL SKILL:
Display Flag Status.
Further info: This is mainly for offense. Use this guy to go and get flags/keys.
The scout has great speed, and the fastest out of all the classes, so that's his
main advantage.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#2: SNIPER Details:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WEAPONS:
#1 Crowbar
#2 Sniper Rifle
#3 Auto Rifle
#4 Nailgun
GRENADE:
Primary: Hand Grenade
SPECIAL SKILL:
Toggle Rifle Zoom
Further info: This is mainly for defense. Use this guy to snipe out easy targets
in the open battlefield. If you hold down the primary fire key while using the
sniper rifle, your rifle would charge up, and your laser would brighten up a
lot, indicating the fully charged rifle. Charge it up for more power in the
killing rifle bullet for more damage.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#3: SOLDIER Details:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WEAPONS:
#1 Crowbar
#2 Shotgun
#3 Super Shotgun
#5 Rocket Launcher
GRENADES:
Primary: Hand Grenade
Secondary: Nail Grenade
SPECIAL SKILL:
Reload
Further notes: This guy can be on offense or defense position. Average all
around, but slow. You can rocket jump with the soldier. Just make sure you have
enough life so you don't kill yourself in the process.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#4: DEMOLITION MAN Details:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WEAPONS:
#1 Crowbar
#2 Shotgun
#4 Grenade Launcher
#5 Pipebomb Launcher
GRENADES:
Primary: Hand Grenade
Secondary: MIRV Grenade
SPECIAL SKILL:
Detonate Pipebombs
OTHER:
Set Detpack : +det5,+det20,+det50
Further notes: This guy can be on offense or defense position. Use pipebombs to
set traps, or go berserk with the grenade launcher. The grenade launcher are
blue grenades, and the pipebomb launcher are yellowish/green grenades. Max of 8
pipebombs permitted at one time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#5: MEDIC Details:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WEAPONS:
#1 Medikit/BioWeapon
#2 Shotgun
#3 Super Shotgun
#5 Super Nailgun
GRENADES:
Primary: Hand Grenade
Secondary: Concussion Grenade
SPECIAL SKILL:
Select Medikit
Further notes: This guy is mainly for defense. The medic is used to heal wounds
of your injured teammates. Also can regenerate health in a few seconds, gaining
2% each. Can also heal itself when poisoned, so no need to call for another
medic to cure. It is fun when using the medikit and run at the opposing side and
try to heal them. Instead of healing the opposing side, you actually infect them
with poison. They will die very slowly, health decreases slowly. The infected
can run around, and if touch by any other person would get infected.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#6: HEAVY WEAPONS GUY Details:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WEAPONS:
#1 Crowbar
#2 Shotgun
#3 Super Shotgun
#5 Assault Cannon
GRENADES:
Primary: Hand Grenade
Secondary: MIRV Grenade
SPECIAL SKILL:
Select Assault Cannon
Further notes: This guy is mainly for defense. Here's a great tip: don't fire
too long, or you'll get, um... Find out for yourself if you're that curious.
Moves very slowly, when firing the assault cannon.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#7: PYRO Details:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WEAPONS:
#1 Crowbar
#2 Shotgun
#4 Flamethrower
#5 Incendiary Cannon
GRENADES:
Primary: Hand Grenade
Secondary: Napalm Grenade
SPECIAL SKILL:
Select Flamethrower
Further notes: This guy can be on offense or defense position. If you torched
the opponent, the opponent will still be on fire for a few seconds.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#8: SPY Details:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WEAPONS:
#1 Knife
#2 Tranquilizer Gun
#3 Super Shotgun
#4 Nailgun
GRENADES:
Primary: Hand Grenade
Secondary: Hallucinogenic Grenade
SPECIAL SKILL:
Open Disguise menu
Further notes: This guy is mainly used for offense. The funniest class that I
enjoy using. You can disguise yourself as the other team and run around acting
like you're on their side. Although you can be detected, just by the opponents
laying the cursor and try to I.D. you, they would know. If you are being
I.D.'ed, it will report the opponent's name and so they'll know it's a spy. By
the way, when tricking someone to be on their team, and they accept the
knowledge, when they turn their back on you, pull out that knife and knife them
in the back! Back stabber.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#9: ENGINEER Details:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WEAPONS:
#1 Spanner
#2 RailGun
#3 Super Shotgun
GRENADES:
Primary: Hand Grenade
Secondary: EMP Grenade
SPECIAL SKILL:
Open Build menu
Further notes: This guy can be on offense and defense. The engineer can build a
sentry gun, higher up the sentry gun's level, and just walk off and attack.
[2.2.8.2]: Maps
Here are the six official released maps for TFC:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2 Fortresses - Capture The Flag
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Map file name: 2fort.bsp
OBJECTIVE: Enter the enemy Base and make your way to where their Flag resides in
the Basement. Grab it and bring it back to your Battlements. Place it on the
raised square to Capture it.
SCORING: 10 points per Capture.
OTHER NOTES: Flag carriers drop the Flag when they die. Dropped flags return to
their Base after 60 seconds.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Canalzone 2 - Territorial Control
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Map file name: cz2.bsp
OBJECTIVE: Take Flags from your Base and place them on the Command Points
situated throughout the map. Use the map in your base to see who owns each
territory.
SCORING: 1 point for every 30 seconds you hold a Command Point.
OTHER NOTES: Flag carriers move at half-speed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hunted - Assassination/Escort
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Map file name: hunted.bsp
OBJECTIVE: The Hunted must reach the truck alive. The Assassins need to kill The
Hunted. The Bodyguards need to protect The Hunted.
SCORING: If The Hunted dies, the Assassins get 25 points. If The Hunted reaches
the truck, he and the Bodyguards get 50 points.
OTHER NOTES: Whenever The Hunted dies or makes it to the truck, all players are
moved back to their starting positions.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Push - Football
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Map file name: push.bsp
OBJECTIVE: Grab the ball from the warehouse in the center of the field. Run it
into the ENEMY base and place it on the raised square to score a goal.
SCORING: 10 points per goal.
OTHER NOTES: Ball carriers drop the ball when they die. Dropped balls stay where
they are. All players are reset whenever a goal is scored.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Rock - Capture The Flag Variant
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Map file name: rock2.bsp
OBJECTIVE: Steal the Keycard from the enemy Warden's office. Take it across to
the other side of the enemy Base and hit the switch to release the Gas. Don't
bring the Keycard back to your own Base.
SCORING: 15 points to each Gas Release.
OTHER NOTES: To survive the Gas, get a protective suit from behind the marked
doors, or hide under the water.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Well - Capture The Flag
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Map file name: well.bsp
OBJECTIVE: Enter the enemy Base and make your way to where their Flag resides in
the Tower. Grab it and bring it back to the base of your Tower. Place it on the
raised square to Capture it. The flag will then return to the enemy Base.
SCORING: 10 points per Capture.
OTHER NOTES: Flag carriers drop the Flag when they die. Dropped flags return to
their Base after 60 seconds.
[2.2.8.3]: FAQ
If this FAQ doesn't answer any questions, then visit
http://www.halflifehq.com/independent/tfc/Official.html for another FAQ for TFC.
On August 24th, there were presents all over the server(s) that I've joined in
on. What gives?
-It's Team Fortress's anniversary.
I finally got the TFC patch. When I go into the multiplayer options, I don't see
any models to choose from. What gives?
-You don't choose your model in the multiplayer options. You actually make your
choice inside the game when playing. You'll be able to choose from nine classes
in the middle of the game. So just join a game and a menu will be presented to
you to choose a class upon entering the game.
I'm playing and then suddenly I see someone using my online name. Tell them to
stop using my name!
-That may not be the case. They're maybe spies. Spies may use your name to try
and disguise on your team. For example, you're the only engineer on your team.
If the spy picks to disguise as an engineer, then the spy will take your name.
But if there are several engineers on your team, then Half-Life will randomly
pick one from your team of engineers. If there are no engineer classes on your
team, then Half-Life randomly picks a name from your team. Go ahead, see if
anyone else is using your name! Pull down the scoreboard and see if there's
anyone besides you with your name.
How can I detect a spy?
-Well, there's a lot of ways, but here are two ways:
1. A scout comes near the spy and it will reveal that the spy who tried to fool
your team by disguising as your teammate will return as a normal spy and the spy
will be revealed who's true team the spy is on.
2. Pull out your shotgun and shoot at the person. If the person is on your team,
then your teammate won't bleed. If you see the person bleeding when upon
shooting, start chasing after that opponent! He's a spy!
I'm slowly losing life, and I see a gas mask on my HUD. What do I do?
-You are being poisoned by the bioweapon of the opposing team's medic. What you
can do is call a medic on your team to come and heal your poison.
How come when I play TFC, the other team seems to have an advantage like hurting
me more, etc...?
-Because of these two variables:
tfc_balance_scores 1 (enable score balancing)
tfc_balance_teams 1 (enable team balancing)
If set to one, then the losing team gets a boost to catch up and try to match
the other team's score. It's just trying to balance out and help out the losing
team to make it a fair game.
I can't hear footsteps in the game! How come?
-The option is defaulted off on the server side. So it's the server host that
would need to change it to on to enable the footsteps.
In the Hunted mod of TFC, I see the president play as an assassin/bodyguard. Is
this cheating?
-This is just a bug/glitch in TFC. However, it can also mean that someone cheat,
but not as always.
How do I build a sentry/dispenser?
-Press the "special" key to access the menu. From there, you can build what it
lists.
How do you put ammo in the sentry gun?
-Put out your spanner (wrench looking weapon) and hit your sentry gun with it.
It will then give you a menu.
How do I fix my sentry gun?
-Use your spanner or wrench looking weapon, and hit the sentry gun. A menu would
provide you with an option to fix your sentry gun.
Is it possible to rocket jump?
-Yes, it is possible to rocket jump. Pick the soldier class, look down, fire the
rocket while jumping, and you should jump very high.
What are the classes?
-Check out section 2.2.8.1 for more information.
When using the demolition man, how come I can't set the detpack (C4) for more
than 5 seconds, even though it says that it can set up to 50 seconds?
-You need to bind a key. Here's the examples with 3 timings given:
bind "+det5" (5 seconds)
bind "+det20" (20 seconds)
bind "+det50" (50 seconds)
On The Hunted map, why can't there be more Assassins?
-The map limited it to a maximum of 5 assassins.
What are the objectives of the maps?
-Each map have their own distinctive objectives. Check out section 2.2.8.2 for
more information.
Is there a way to execute my autoexec.cfg/x.cfg files under TFC?
-Yes, place your autoexec.cfg/x.cfg under \Half-Life\Valve\TFC\
directory and do what you usually do how to enable your cfg file.
Is there other information about TFC?
-There are some in this FAQ, so scroll down further. Also, read the TFC manual
that came with v1.0.0.9+ patch. Upon installing v1.0.0.9+ patch, you did check
the box that says to put a link on your desktop for the TFC manual did you? It's
also in the Start Menu under Sierra program group. Another great site with great
expanded information is: http://www.planethalflife/modcentral/tfc/tfc.htm. It's
ModCentral's Guide to TFC. Check it out if you got the time.
[2.2.9]: Testing Multi-Player Maps Offline
To play multiplayer maps, there are three ways:
1. Get into Half-Life's console and type this in: map
Example: map boot_camp
Note: you might need to issue the command "deathmatch 1" (no quotes) prior the
map command
2. Edit your HL parameter to be like this: hl.exe +map
Example: hl.exe +map crossfire +deathmatch 1
3. Go through the Half-Life Multiplayer Menu and selecting the map would be the
easiest way, but the slowest way.
[2.3]: Single-Player
Half-Life offers three modes to play in:
Easy: Monsters are weak and are easy to kill.
Normal: Monsters are strong and are easy to kill.
Difficult: Monsters are strong and are difficult to kill.
[2.3.1]: 3rd Person View
The game lets you play like Tomb Raider style, where you get to see yourself in
action. Bring down the console and type in this: "thirdperson" or "chase_active
1" (no quotes).
To change position of seeing your character, type this in the console:
cam_idealyaw 0 (see the model from behind)
cam_idealyaw 180 (see the model from the front)
cam_idealdist 64 (sets the preferred distance from the player model for the
chase cam)
cam_idealpitch 0 (sets the preferred pitch for the chase cam)
chase_back 100 (sets the preferred cam distance from the player when backing
up)
chase_right 0 (sets the preferred offset to the side for the chase cam)
chase_up 16 (sets the preferred offset up for the chase cam)
To disable the 3rd person view, type in this: "firstperson" or "chase_active 0"
(no quotes).
Be careful when you play 3rd person view. Here are the reasons
why you should play 3rd person view if you:
1. Don't mind about not seeing the HUD. (health, armor, ammo)
2. Don't mind about not being able to aim correctly. Basically, no crosshair.
3. Don't mind about not being able to hear what the HEV announces.
4. Don't mind seeing where you get hit. (red signs)
Note: You can't use 3rd person view in multiplayer. You can only use it if the
server sets sv_cheats to 1, then you can use it.
[2.3.2]: Autosave
This is a built in feature of the levels that you play in Half-Life. Nothing can
be done about it. It requires to edit the levels, which is never going to be
done. Live with it. No patch will disable this feature. Maybe annoying feature,
but that's how it is.
[2.3.3]: Barneys
In the single player mode, you get to use the Barney(s) to assist your goals and
mow down enemies. Some people wonder how many can be used at one time to assist
with your goals. Well, the answer is unlimited. But the problem with more than
two is that if you happen to pass a doorway or a tight corridor or something
narrow space, then some of the Barney(s) will get stuck and freeze up. Then you
have to talk them one by one to get them through.
If you are wondering where they get the name Barney from, it's from a show
called Andy Griffen Show. Barney is a cop in that show, so they just took that
name and plug it into the nameless security guard and now known as Barney.
[2.3.4]: Cheats
To be able to cheat in Half-Life, you must run the game with this command: -
console. Add this command after HL.exe. You could do the following things to
achieve it:
1. Start Menu-> Run-> type in: :\\Hl.exe -console
x=HDD
hl dir=Where Half-Life's directory resides in
2. Create a shortcut of Hl.exe-> (right click) Properties-> Shortcut tab->
Target box-> put in -console after hl.exe
3. Half-Life to be at least v1.0.0.9 and the console option will appear in the
main menu.
After enabling the console, you could access the console throughout the game by
pressing the [~] key (near the [Esc] key). After that, to be able to start
cheating, bring down the console and type this in: sv_cheats 1. Now, pass one
loading point of the game, and the cheating option should be enabled. You can
reload a saved game to access temporary cheats, but not all cheats will be
enabled. Some cheats will work if a level isn't loaded. Other cheats will not
work until you pass a loading point of a level and it will be enabled (like
impulse 101). You must pass a loading point to enable it.
To cheat, bring down the console by pressing the [~] key, type in the following
things and press enter afterwards):
god (type in god again to turn off god mode)
noclip (type in noclip again to turn off noclip mode)
impulse 101 (this gives almost everything)
/give item_antidote
/give item_battery
/give item_healthkit
/give item_longjump
/give item_sodacan
/give item_suit
/give ammo_357
/give ammo_9mmclip
/give ammo_buckshot
/give ammo_crossbow
/give ammo_egonclip
/give ammo_gaussclip
/give ammo_mp5clip
/give ammo_mp5grenades
/give ammo_rpgclip
/give weapon_357
/give weapon_9mmhandgun
/give weapon_crossbow
/give weapon_crowbar
/give weapon_egon
/give weapon_gauss
/give weapon_handgrenade
/give weapon_hornetgun
/give weapon_mp5
/give weapon_rpg
/give weapon_satchel
/give weapon_shotgun
/give weapon_snark
/give weapon_tripmine
map xxxx
xxxx=
c0a0 c0a0a c0a0b c0a0c c0a0d c0a0e
c1a0 c1a0a c1a0b c1a0c c1a0d c1a0e
c1a1 c1a1a c1a1b c1a1c c1a1d c1a1f
c1a2 c1a2a c1a2b c1a2c c1a2d
c1a3 c1a3a c1a3b c1a3c c1a3d
c1a4 c1a4b c1a4d c1a4e c1a4f c1a4g c1a4i c1a4j c1a4k
c2a1 c2a1a c2a1b
c2a2 c2a2a c2a2b1 c2a2b2 c2a2c c2a2d c2a2e c2a2f c2a2g c2a2h
c2a3 c2a3a c2a3b c2a3c c2a3d c2a3e
c2a4 c2a4a c2a4b c2a4c c2a4d c2a4e c2a4f c2a4g
c2a5 c2a5a c2a5b c2a5c c2a5d c2a5e c2a5f c2a5g c2a5w c2a5x
c3a1 c3a1a c3a1b
c3a2 c3a2a c3a2b c3a2c c3a2d c3a2e c3a2f
c4a1 c4a1a c4a1b c4a1c c4a1d c4a1e c4a1f
c4a2 c4a2a c4a2b c4a3
c5a1
[2.3.4.1]: How To Skip Level
To do a level skip, you must do the following:
1. Enable the console.
2. Enable the cheat codes by "sv_cheats 1".
3. Do a quicksave where you're currently at if you haven't done so.
4. Do a quickload. Now, the important part here is to pay attention to what the
console displays. Look for the following context: cxax. Where x could be any
numbers. The cxax is the name of the level that you maybe on. There would be a
few of these displayed in the console, so pick one of them, and enter a number
higher than it is. For an example: you see c1a0 in the console. If you want to
skip the current map, you need to then type in the console: map c1a1. To know if
the map is available, look in section 2.3.4 (above this section) to see if
there's a valid map. If not, go onto the next higher one.
[2.3.5]: Fun Things To Do
Here are some fun things to do on your first day at the job (Anomalous Materials
level in the beginning of the game):
-To the left of the main entrance (the lobby where the reception desk is), there
is a deactivated computer console. You can see partial edge of the computer
console on top of a shelving area next to the collection of TV screens. Go to it
and activate it.
-At the reception desk where the guard is at the main entrance, go to the back
side of the desk and there should be a button near the guard's keyboard. Press
it.
-In the scientist lounge room area (where there's two soda machines are and a
scientist sitting at a table and another roaming within the place trying to get
a soda), go to the microwave and press the button for less than 10 times (you'll
hear an increase high pitched sound FX each time you press the button).
-In the room (near the MIB talking to a scientist) that has three scientists
(one at the drawing board, one at a laptop, and one just walking around). To the
left of the entrance door, there's a light switch. Press the switch.
[2.3.6]: High Jump
To do a high jump, simply jump. While jumping, press the crouch key, and from
this, it would make your character tuck their legs in while jumping in mid air.
This would enable you to jump on crates that you can't get on if you do a
regular jump. If this can't help you, see section 2.3.7 for details.
[2.3.7]: Learn How To Play
Half-Life offers a tutorial mode for players who wants to get use to Half-Life's
offerings, or for people who just bought their first FPS ((F)irst (P)erson
(S)hooting) game. You go through almost everything that you got to know before
playing the game. From Half-Life Main Menu, click on Hazard Course and you're on
the way to learn how to do some cool stuff and learn a couple of movements of
Half-Life's offerings, especially the long jump move that everybody gets
confused of.
[2.3.8]: Long Jump
To do a long jump, you must move forward. While moving forward, simply press the
crouch key, and then press the jump key right after crouching, and that should
launch you very far. To get a better learning of this, see section 2.3.7 for
details.
[2.3.9]: Man In Blue/G-Man
Here comes the MIB... It's that MIB! I see him! Well, for you all who wonder who
he is, or what is he, from the past, shooting him, trying to kill him with
anyway possible, but seems to be immune to all attacks, you will soon find out.
Beat the game, and you should find out who he is and why you see him through out
the game.
He is also called "G-Man". You can also play as the G-Man model under
multiplayer. Go to this site:
http://www.planethalflife.com/dl/dl.asp?planethalflife/HLMPC.zip and download
the Valve Multiplayer Package and there are additional multiplayer things with
this package.
As I wonder, one day in social studies class, there was a video shown and what
caught my attention was a word mentioned "G-Men". As I thought about it, it
actually does fit in somewhat. G-Men were government agents - working in
conjunction of the FBI and to crack down crimes. I don't know where the crime
fits in, but it sure makes a lot of sense where the word G-Man came from and how
it surely describes the MIB as some government agent. Wow, it sure showed that I
did learn something in school.
There is something weird about his briefcase. If you cheated, and use the
'noclip' command, go into his brief case and be confused what you see in the
briefcase. It is recommended that you do this at the end of the game just for
the hell of it.
[2.3.10]: Preserving Saved Files
When reinstalling/removing Half-Life, all you need to keep the saved files is to
copy the directory \Half-Life\Valve\Save\ and put it somewhere safe. After
reinstalling Half-Life, put that directory back and you should have all your
saved games back safely and be able to play where you last left off.
[2.3.11] Saved Games
There are three saving techniques for Half-Life:
1. Autosave: automatically saves between each important events during the level
2. Quicksave: pressing the defaulted [F6] for quick save; [F7] for quickload.
3. Manualsave: going through the menus and access the save menu.
Note: When updating Half-Life (patching), there is no worry about incompatible
versions. The saved games will work under any current version of Half-Life.
[2.3.12]: Walkthrough
http://pcgame.svwh.net/randy/fullwalkthru.htm
http://www.gamespot.com/features/halflife_gg/
http://www.gameguides.com/guides/halflife/
http://www.won.net/guides/prima/halflife/
[2.3.13]: Who You Play As
You play as Gordon Freeman, a new employee at Black Mesa in New Mexico. More
details are given at the beginning of the single player mode introduction of the
train ride to work. By the way, you're late for work.
CHAPTER [3]: HALF-LIFE ADD-ONS
[3.1]: Commercial
Here are some commercial products to be released for Half-Life related.
[3.1.1]: Opposing Force
Half-Life just got word that it will have an add-on: Opposing Force. Visit
http://www.opposingforce.net to find more about Opposing Force. Opposing Force
gone gold on November 10, 1999, and then released on Friday, Novermber 19, 1999.
Here's a link to an Opposing Force FAQ: http://sol.wctownhall.com/OpFor/. When
getting Opposing Force, it is required that you have the retail version of Half-
Life, at least v1.0.0.9.
[3.1.2]: Team Fortress II
Team Fortress II was going to be an add-on for Half-Life. But, the creators
decided to change the add-on part and make it a stand-alone product, which it is
a new game to be installed on the HDD. You are going to pay this product at a
full game retail price, just like Half-Life. The official name of the product
is Team Fortress II: Brotherhood of Arms. Here are some links for TF2:
http://www.tf2.com
http://www.planetfortress.com
http://www.fortress2.com
[3.2]: Modifications
Below, I listed the mods currently available for download, even if it's in beta.
Go to http://www.planethalflife.com/modcentral/ to get more info on other mods
that are not listed below. You can also use the 'Custom Game' option from Half-
Life's main menu to see other mods available for download.
[3.2.1]: Action Half-Life
http://ahl.telefragged.com/
[3.2.2]: Classic Capture The Flag
http://www.planethalflife.com/aftershock/cctf/
[3.2.3]: Cold Ice
http://www.planethalflife.com/coldice/
[3.2.4]: Counter-Strike
http://www.counter-strike.net/
[3.2.5]: DMPlus
http://www.planethalflife.com/dmplus/
[3.2.6]: Firepower
http://members.aol.com/FPower01/
[3.2.7]: Jailbreak
http://contaminated.net/jailbreak/
[3.2.8]: Kenders That Kill
http://www.converted2.com/ktk/main.shtml
[3.2.9]: Lambda Arena
http://www.planethalflife.com/la/
[3.2.10]: Oz
http://www.planethalflife.com/aftershock/oz/
[3.2.11]: Rocket Crowbar
http://www.geocities.com/Pipeline/Ramp/1901/
[3.2.12]: Sven Co-op
http://www.contaminated.net/aftershock/coop/
[3.2.13]: Science and Industry
http://www.contaminated.net/si/
[3.2.14]: Team Fortress Classic
Valve decided to release TFC, for Half-Life, which is ported from Quake to Half-
Life. The release date was 4/6/99. Check section 2.2.8 for more information on
TFC. Here's a link to check out TFC officially:
http://www.sierrastudios.com/games/tfclassic/.
[3.3]: Total Conversions
Here's a list to total conversions being made:
http://www.contaminated.net/wavelength/tclist.htm.
CHAPTER [4]: HALF-LIFE EDITING
General editing information can be found at
http://www.planethalflife.com/wavelength/.
[4.1]: CFG Files
Autoexec.cfg is an automatic start up configuration file for Half-Life. You can
create this file easily, by creating a blank text file, and rename it, giving it
the last three file extensions ".cfg", hence the file "autoexec.cfg". This file
is very useful if you keep on typing in the commands that you often use. Putting
those commands that you use every time you play Half-Life, it would
automatically execute the command(s) into Half-Life's configuration and you
should never touch that command again, unless you want to change the current
value of the command. Any commands that can be used within the console of Half-
Life can be placed in this autoexec.cfg. To get autoexec.cfg to execute itself
regularly upon Half-Life's start up, place the autoexec.cfg into the directory
\Half-Life\Valve\. But to make sure that it works, execute it upon every change
you make to the autoexec.cfg to ensure that the commands are accepted. Bring
down the console and type in: exec autoexec.cfg.
For those who edit the config.cfg, do not edit it any further, because what you
just put in there will not be used. Half-Life regenerates that file every time
Half-Life is executed. Put it in a self name cfg file or in the autoexec.cfg so
that it can be executed when Half-Life starts automatically. That's why
sometimes you wonder why those commands that you just put in the config.cfg
don't work.
To make it easy on you, here's a link to create an autoexec.cfg, or actually
commands to be put into the autoexec.cfg:
http://www.voodooextreme.com/tweak3d/autoexec/halflife/. Remember, autoexec.cfg
is a based text file, and is also needed to be created from scratch. Just create
a blank text file, like autoexec.txt, then placing commands in the text file,
and then rename it to autoexec.cfg.
Any other .cfg can be executed by just entering this in the console:
exec .cfg
That should execute a custom made cfg. Make sure that the custom cfg is where it
should be, like for examples:
For regular Half-Life DM and Teamplay, put the cfg in \Half-Life\Valve\
For Half-Life TFC, put the cfg in \Half-Life\TFC\
When creating any cfg, make sure to put a carriage return (an empty line) at the
end of the file. Error symptoms are Barneys (security guards) dying without any
indication of harmful effects done to them.
When installing the game, only D3D.cfg exists, but opengl.cfg does not. D3D.cfg
could be found in \Half-Life\Valve\hw\ directory. You have to create opengl.cfg
manually and place it in \Half-Life\Valve\hw\.
To know what are the best commands to put in your D3D.cfg/Opengl.cfg, please
refer to:
Shockwave: http://www.voodooextreme.com/reverend/flash/Main.html
Regular: http://www.voodooextreme.com/reverend/Main.html
It has a lot of command explanations that helps you decide if the gl_x commands
are worth using.
[4.2]: Creating Custom Levels
Worldcraft is the only necessary program to create custom made levels for Half-
Life. See section 4.6 for more on Worldcraft. There are also other programs than
Worldcraft that can create custom levels for Half-Life. Here are a three of
them:
QERadiant: http://halflife.qeradiant.com/
Qoole: http://www.qoole.com/
Quark: http://www.planetquake.com/quark/
[4.3]: Crosshairs
You can edit the color of the crosshairs in Half-Life or even how they look.
Visit this site to find out how: http://members.aol.com/rjdriver/bullseye.htm.
[4.4]: Pak Files
To view all the goodies that Half-Life uses, like the models and sound FXs to
the maps that are used in the game, just go to:
http://www.planetquake.com/qped/ and download the QpedII program. This is a pak
viewer and it could extract files from the pak0.pak that came with Half-Life.
Another pak viewer is Pak Explorer, at http://quakestuff.telefragged.com/. By
using any of these two programs, you can also extract anything found in the
pak0.pak.
[4.5]: SDK
Stands for (S)oftware (D)eveloper's (K)it. You can download the SDK at
http://ftp.won.net/pub/half-life/sdk/. There are two flavors to download - the
standard (largest file, around 13MB) or minimal (smaller than the standard,
about 11MB). To get started on programming the mod that you intended, here's a
couple of links with some tutorials to help you: http://hlpp.cjb.net/ and
http://www.planethalflife.com/wavelength/.
[4.6]: Worldcraft
Here are some Worldcraft topics. I am not going to cover Worldcraft specifically
in this HLFAQ. There's a WCFAQ already, so read that instead. Below are some
general broad topics brought up for Worldcraft that I can handle. More
technical/complex information about Worldcraft should be read in the WCFAQ. Two
links are given in section 4.6.5.
[4.6.1]: General
Is Worldcraft included with Half-Life?
-Yes.
Where could it be found?
-Only on Half-Life CD, which should be at the root directory of your CD-ROM
drive. The file name is wc20full.exe.
Is Worldcraft shareware or full version?
-Full version.
What version is Worldcraft?
-v2.0 beta from Half-Life CD. It is now up to v2.1 beta.
Where can I get Worldcraft news?
-http://halflife.gamedesign.net
What is the link to WC v2.1 beta upgrade?
-http://halflife.gamedesign.net/resources/wc21_info.shtml
Can Worldcraft that came with Half-Life be used to build other game levels, say
like Quake, etc...?
-Almost impossible. The only Worldcraft that is compatible with other games, you
need to use the old Worldcraft v1.6.
Can Worldcraft create TFC maps?
-Yes. Go get the WC v2.1 beta and you should have the option to do so.
Does Worldcraft offer any manuals and/or technical help?
-No manuals included with the editor and/or technical help. It is because this
editor is in a beta stage. But it does offer a basic tutorial. It is under Help
menu.
How to install Worldcraft so that I could avoid any mishaps?
-Check out section 4.6.2.
How to set up Worldcraft?
-http://halflife.gamedesign.net/resources/worldcraft2_setup.shtml
Can Worldcraft open up the maps/levels that Valve did?
-Well, sort of. But this requires several steps to achieve this goal. First, you
need to get a program that can open up .pak format. You can get one by going to
section 4.2 and get QpedII. Then after getting that, open up the pak0.pak from
\Half-Life\Valve\ and go under Map directory of the pak0.pak. You will then see
*.bsp. Extract what map/level you want and export it. After exporting, you need
to get a program called WinBSPC, which converts .bsp formats to .map format,
which Worldcraft would understand. WinBSPC can be found at:
http://www.botepidemic.com/gladiator/download.shtml. Go to that page and scroll
down to "WinBSPC". Download the appropriate file. Use WinBSPC to convert the
.bsp format to .map format, and then open up the .map format with Worldcraft,
and there you go, you have successfully ripped one of Valve's map/level.
[4.6.2]: Installing
When some people installed Worldcraft, some of the textures and other things
were corrupted when using WC. To fix this, try installing WC without any
spacing, and in the same hard drive as Half-Life. When WC installs, it included
a space. Removing the extra space would fix the corruption (i.e.: Program
Files). To avoid any mishaps, follow the installation guides found at:
http://www.contaminated.net/wavelength/levels/resources/setupwc.html
http://halflife.gamedesign.net/resources/worldcraft2_setup.shtml
[4.6.3] Mailing List
This is for those who wants to join on a mailing list about Worldcraft 2.x
announcements:
"Something many people request is to be emailed when something new is happening
with Worldcraft. This is pretty hard to do without a mailing list. So, now,
there is a mailing list. :) To subscribe, send mail to:
listadmin@valvesoftware.com and in the first line of the email, put the line:
subscribe wc_announce Don't worry about the email's subject line, and don't put
anything else in the message body. A little while after sending that, you should
be emailed asking for confirmation to be added to the list. Reply to that email
with the confirmation number, and you're finished. This is strictly an
annoucement mailing list - you will not be able to post to it. When any new
information is available about the status of Worldcraft 2.x, I will post it to
the mailing list."
Well, not much of a mailing list, but it's good for those who are into
Worldcraft announcements and so forth.
[4.6.4]: Tutorials
Here are some that could be found here:
http://www.gamecraft.com
http://www.planetquake.com/worldcraft/
http://www.contaminated.net/wavelength/
http://halflife.gamedesign.net/
[4.6.5]: WC Editing FAQ
If you have questions about editing or running Worldcraft, then here's a couple
of links that you don't want to miss:
http://halflife.gamedesign.net/resources/faq.shtml
http://www.gamedesign.net/half-life/half-life_faq.shtml
CHAPTER [5]: HALF-LIFE OFFICIAL RELEASES
A listing of official releases from Valve and only from Valve.
[5.1]: Extras
Here are some things to consider checking them out as they're from Valve only.
[5.1.1]: Maps
1. Crossfire (v1.0.0.8+ patch update)
2. Double Cross
(http://www.planethalflife.com/dl/dl.asp?planethalflife/doublecross.zip)
3. Frenzy (v1.0.0.8+ patch update)
4. Rust Mill
(http://www.planethalflife.com/dl/dl.asp?planethalflife/rustmill.zip)
5. Team9 (Valve Multiplayer Package)
[5.1.2]: Models
1. Barney (v1.0.0.8+ patch update)
2. Cannibal (Valve Multiplayer Package)
3. G-Man (Valve Multiplayer Package)
4. Recon (Valve Multiplayer Package)
5. Robot (v1.0.0.8+ patch update)
6. Santa Claus (http://halflife.gameplex.net/hlinc/files/santa.zip)
7. Skeleton (Valve Multiplayer Package)
8. Too Much Coffee Man (ftp://ftp.pcgamer.com/tmcm.exe)
9. Zombie (v1.0.0.8+ patch update)
[5.1.3]: Multi-Player Modes
There are currently three multi-player modes that you can choose from in Half-
Life that comes standard to Half-Life patches:
1. Deathmatch: Plain killing
2. Teamplay: Plain killing, but with teams (v1.0.0.8+)
3. Team Fortress Classic: Objectives with teams (v1.0.0.9+)
[5.1.4]: Valve Multiplayer Package
http://www.planethalflife.com/dl/dl.asp?planethalflife/HLMPC.zip
The contents are:
1. G-Man multiplayer model - the infamous guy with a briefcase. Ted Backman,
modeler.
2. Recon grunt multiplayer model - the human military commander. Ted Backman,
modeler.
3. Cannibal multiplayer model - a humorous comic book character from Chuck
Jones' twisted childhood.
4. Skeleton multiplayer model - low visibility, low contrast model. Hard to play
against. Steve Theodore/Chuck Jones, modeler.
5. New decals - collection of multiplayer decals including flags, political
parties, barnyard animals and other images from, yes, you guessed it, Chuck
Jones' twisted childhood.
6. Team9.bsp - a new team map intended for 4 on 4 competition. Developed by Doug
Wood, who did the Bounce map.
[5.2]: Patches
Here's the list of the current patches released for Half-Life, and containing
the list that it fixes for each of the patches. You can get the latest patch by
running the Sierra Utilities and select the AutoUpdate option. The current
version of Half-Life right now is v1.0.1.3. It is always a good idea to run
Sierra's AutoUpdate utility to get the latest Half-Life version.
When using the AutoUpdate feature, the patches that are downloaded for Half-Life
are stored under \Half-Life\~SIGSpat\. Just rename the files to exe extension
and you can store it somewhere else to reuse it at a later time.
You can manually download patches for Half-Life. Here are the official places
that you can get them:
US versions only:
ftp://ftp.sierra.com/pub/patches/pc/ (west coast of US)
ftp://ftp2.sierra.com/pub/patches/pc/ (east coast of US)
All foreign/US versions only:
http://ftp.won.net/pub/half-life/ (via FTP)
Note: for the foreign version, select the appropriate folder for your country's
version.
http://www.won.net/channels/action/half-life/downloads.html (website links)
[5.2.1]: v1.0.0.6
Date released: ??, 1998
Update v1.0.0.6 addresses:
1. Disabled the music track check in CD Authentication. One problem that some
people faced was that they have CD-ROM drives that either can't play the music
tracks or they have disabled CD audio on that device. We've disabled the portion
of the CD authentication that checked for the music tracks since it was tripping
up legitimate customers. Of course they still won't hear the music until they
get their CD audio fixed, but they would have that with any game that uses CD
music.
2. Adjusted the default configuration for multiplayer to be more appropriate for
people with lower speed modems or with high ping/bad packet loss.
3. The default rate for LAN games is now set to 9999. Previously the LAN rate
was being set to the be the same as the Internet rate.
4. Removed the WON authentication attempts for LAN games. LAN games are limited
to a single Class B address range.
5. Fixed an uninstall issue that may affect custom locations.
6. Fixed an A3D underwater sound bug.
[5.2.2]: v1.0.0.8
Date released: January 13, 1999
Update v1.0.0.8 addresses:
1. Improved multiplayer performance through bandwidth optimizations and better
prediction. Modem users will see less apparent lag as a result.
2. Added support for IPX based LANs.
3. Added teamplay option for multiplayer games.
4. Added option to limit total number of decals you can see in multiplayer. Try
setting 'r_decals 500' if you're experiencing slowdowns after long periods of
game play.
5. Joysticks can now be used to move at the same time a mouse is used to look.
6. The server ping can now be shown as a numeric value instead of green dots.
Use the "-numericping" command line option when launching hl.exe.
7. Improved ladder performance in multiplayer.
8. Added EAX 4 speaker support.
9. Fixed bug that allowed bypassing of ammo reloading.
10. Fixed bug where train sounds and rocket sounds would play repeatedly in
multiplayer games.
11. Increased number of regional multiplayer servers.
12. Increased accuracy of ping calculations in the Internet Games menu.
13. More accurate latency score in game for other players.
14. Fixed bug preventing climbing ladders when playing with a joystick.
15. Added 3 new player models (Security guard, military robot, zombie) and 2
multiplay maps (frenzy.bsp, crossfire.bsp).
[5.2.3]: v1.0.0.9
Date released: April 7, 1999
Update v1.0.0.9 addresses:
1. This update will install Team Fortress Classic. Launch Half-Life as normal
and click on the 'Custom Game' button. Click on the 'Activate' button to load
Team Fortress Classic as the currently selected game.
2. Launcher now supports downloading of custom modifications for Half-Life.
Clicking on the custom game button will bring up a list of the current games on
the Half-Life modification sever.
3. Launcher now shows if a server is a dedicated, listen, or Linux server.
4. Launcher detects if servers are running the same version of Half-Life as you.
5. Support for pinging multiple master servers added.
6. Sorting options are now more robust in the launcher.
7. Server passwords are checked before game engine is started.
8. Dedicated server logging added.
9. Dedicated server will now echo all client talking to the dedicated server
console.
10. Open GL multitexturing optimized.
11. Open GL decal usage optimized.
12. Single player game will no longer open up a Dial-Up connection box for
Internet Explorer 4.0 users.
13. Fixed 'Used Decal # without a name problem.
14. Decal downloading streamlined.
15. Fixed timedemo/demo playback problems.
[5.2.4]: v1.0.1.0
Date released: May 27, 1999
Update v1.0.1.0 addresses:
1. Dedicated server is now a console application, making remote administration
easier.
2. Server browser downloads server information based on bandwidth.
3. Reduced data sent on server updates, making updates faster.
4. Dedicated server optimized.
5. Team Fortress game code optimized.
6. Invalid authentication after attempting to join a full server bug fixed.
7. Empty sever list on low-bandwidth connection fixed.
8. Water prediction code optimized.
9. DNS lookup on LAN servers fixed.
10. Latency values are more accurate in launcher.
[5.2.5] v1.0.1.3
Date released: August 18, 1999
Update v1.0.1.3 addresses:
1. Mod browser now supports .zip file compression.
2. TF Stats included with this update. This will take server log files and
create a webpage with the results of the match. Refer to
\halflife\tfc\TFStats.htm for instructions.
3. Server now allows banning by userid. Refer to TFCServer.htm located in your
\halflife\tfc\manual folder.
4. Updated TFC manual with information on running a TFC server.
5. Fixed problem where too many packets were being sent at signon that was
causing problems for cable modem users.
6. Team 4 can now score on 4 player TFC maps.
7. Fixed soldier's nail grenades in TFC.
8. Demo Playback fixed.
9. Userinfo overrun fixed.
10. Spies feigning in doorways will no longer drop all clients on server.
11. Grenades will no longer detonate if you change teams.
12. Dedicated server no longer requires hw.dll for authentication.
13. Dedicated server will heartbeat with +map in the command line.
CHAPTER [6]: TROUBLESHOOTING
[6.1]: Before Getting Started
Here are some suggested ideas to take into consideration.
[6.1.1]: Readme.txt
Why is it that almost some percentage of people who buy software or any other
products don't read the freaking 'readme.txt'??? This file here, is your
solution friend and could solve most of the complaints that are produced! Please
take an advantage and go and read the 'readme.txt' file located at the base of
Half-Life directory.
[6.1.2]: Scan/Defrag
It is recommended that you use ScanDisk to scan for HDD errors and use Disk
Defragmenter to defragment your HDD. Visit section 7.3.2.1 for defragmentation
information, and section 7.3.2.2 for ScanDisk information.
[6.1.3]: Update Files
It is best to have the most updated drivers for your components of your
computer.
-Video Card
-Sound Card
-OS (Win9x/WinNT patches)
-CD-ROM
-Mouse
The patches/drivers can solve problems that are currently present on your
system. It can also boost performance and fix glitches. Another thing to take
into consideration, are the updates on Half-Life itself. Currently from the
release of this HLFAQ, Half-Life is already up to v1.0.1.3.
To get updates on Half-Life, see section 5.2 for further details about getting
updates/patches for Half-Life. Please note that when you install patches, get
the correct ones if you download them from sites, other than using the Sierra
Utilities. Make sure you get the correct one. v1.0.0.5 is the CD release
version. If you want to know prior getting the patches and what the patches
offer, please go to section 5.2.
[6.2]: Bugs/Errors
There's an unofficial bug list out on the internet. If you want to see a list of
bugs of Half-Life, then the URL is: http://www.halflife.org/bugs/. My advise is
to update all your drivers and see if any of the solutions found in this HLFAQ
would help you out before searching in that bugs list. To me, that bugs list
don't tell much. Also, that bug list has been discontinued and getting old. Not
much useful now.
[6.2.1]: Icons Being Moved
Go get a program called WinTidy95 from www.pcmag.com or www.winmag.com and all
your problems will be solved. Stops desktop icons from getting screwed up and
moved on the desktop.
[6.2.2]: Installing/Running Game
When you get ready to install Half-Life, please keep in mind about these things:
-Make sure you have at least 366 MB (FAT32) to 460 MB (FAT16) of HDD space to
install the game. After that, make sure you have at least another good 40 MB to
80 MB of HDD space for Virtual Memory (Win9x handles it, unless you specify).
-Get the latest version of Half-Life to get rid of some bugs. The latest version
when this HLFAQ was released is v1.0.1.3.
-Get the latest drivers for your video card. Most problems are caused because of
old drivers not being updated. Sierra will give you a html form listing video
card manufactures. Please use it to update your video card drivers. You get the
list of manufactures after installing Half-Life and also gives an option in the
game menu. Getting reference drivers are the way to go. Forget getting the
manufacture that made the video card. Go to the chipset's manufacture. They
would probably offer more stable drivers. Reference drivers are mostly newer
than the one from your video card's manufacture.
-Get the latest drivers for your sound card.
-Close down all other programs that runs in the background except for Explorer
and Systray. This should be a must do priority.
-Before installing, scan your HDD/memory for any viruses. CIH virus is the
common virus that disables Half-Life to be played. See section 6.7 for tips on
getting rid of viruses.
-Put your background color depth to 16-bit hi color mode. You can try 32-bit hi
color mode later, but you need at least v1.0.0.9 patch though. 16-bit hi color
mode is the minimum. So switch whatever mode to 16-bit mode to see if Half-Life
can run. After that, you can go from 16-bit to 32-bit color modes. To enable 32-
bit color mode, see section 7.2.3 and look for the parameter "-32bbp". There
will be an explanation about it.
-"Your Half-Life installation has become corrupt or out of date" error message:
check section 6.2.2.18.
If there are problems installing the game, try these few suggestions:
Go to My Computer-> (right click) Properties-> Manager Device-> CD-ROM-> -> Properties
1. Uncheck if it's checked on the box DMA. If it is uncheck, then check the box
for DMA. Now accept the change and reboot.
2. If suggestion #1 does not work, then uncheck the box Sync Data. If it's
uncheck, then check the box. Now accept the change and reboot.
3. Mix up the combinations of these two and see if it works for the last resort.
4. If those suggestions doesn't work, take it over to a friend's house or
someone with a computer and install it on their computer and see if it works. If
it does, then you have a corrupted CD-ROM drive.
5. If taking over to a friend's house doesn't work, return the defective product
and get a new one.
It's usually due to DMA or/and Sync Data that causes the errors or problems for
installing Half-Life or running the CD.
After installing Half-Life, and you can't play the game, please look up these
sections to fix the problem:
-Section 6.7: Virus
-Section 6: Troubleshooting
-Section 6.2.2.7: Dial Up Connection
-"Your Half-Life Executable has been modified. Please check your system for
viruses and then re-install Half-Life" error message: check out section
6.2.2.17.
-"Your Half-Life installation is corrupted or out of date" error message: check
out section 6.2.2.18.
-If you get the black "Loading" screen, you may need to update your video card
drivers.
If you get some General Fault errors, then it can be what you run in the
background, so close down all programs that may interrupt installation. Also,
another thing that would lead to GF errors would be your CD-ROM drivers. Hunt
down new drivers for it and update it to see if you can get to install it.
[6.2.2.1]: Bad Surface Extents
If you get this error, try lowering/changing your resolution. If it doesn't
work, try reinstalling the game.
[6.2.2.2]: Can not find 'vids:cvid'decompressor
You get this error when Half-Life starts up. It's because it's trying to play
the two introduction videos for Half-Life. Not much of an importance, but to fix
it, you can download the latest Windows Media Player 6.1+. Not only you get a
great player, but your video codecs are up to date and the latest.
[6.2.2.3] Cbuf_AddText: Overflow
Using the parameter -zone xxxx should fix this problem. Go to section 7.2.3 to
learn more about it and how to use it if necessary.
[6.2.2.4]: CD Key
Before first when playing, Half-Life requires you to input the CD key for Half-
Life. The CD key is located on the back of your Half-Life CD case. You should be
given like this: xxxx-xxxxx-xxxx Where x=corresponding and respective numbers
found on the back of the CD case.
If it tells you that you have an invalid CD key, try it again. If it still does
it, try putting in the - character in between the numbers. If all fails, then
you probably have a key that is probably created by error when distributing. All
I could say is bring it back to the store and trade in another copy. Check out
section 6.3 for further CD Key solutions.
[6.2.2.5] Could not exec 3dfx/opengl/joystick.cfg
Do not worry about these missing cfg files. They were not available when you
installed the game. You are actually to create one if you need to. Other than
that, it is unnecessary and should be ignored.
If you decide to create one of the cfg files, put them under \Half-Life\Hw\
directory. Be sure to check out section 4.1 to know what to do about the cfg
files.
[6.2.2.6]: Crosshair Messes Up
There were problems reported that when getting some patches, like the 3DNow! or
the Open GL/Mini drivers screws up the crosshair in the game. To fix this, try
this command from the console:
gl_flipmatrix 1
[6.2.2.7]: Dial Up Connection
This bug blocks Half-Life from running. If you have your speakers on, you would
here a Windows 'ping' sound, which Half-Life would crash and the game only shows
a black screen. This bug, tries to connect you to the internet, when not needed.
If you alt-tab, you would see the DUN trying to connect you to the internet. To
disable this bug, go to Start Menu-> Run. Type this in:
:\\hl.exe -noip
HDD=Hard Drive HL is on
HL Dir=HL's directory
Another way to try and disable this bug, is load up Internet Explorer 4.0->
View-> Internet Options-> Connections tab. Now, find the option where it asks
you for 'Connection'. It should list two radio button choices:
-Connect to the Internet using a modem
-Connect to the Internet using a local area network
What you want to choose, is the 'connect to the internet using a local area
network'. Choose it, click OK.
For Internet Explorer 5.0, load it up-> Tools-> Internet Options-> Connections
tab. Select the "Never dial a connection". You can also go through the "Use the
Connection Wizard to connect your computer to the Internet" and click the Setup
button. After launching it, select that you want to connect through LAN (third
radio button choice).
[6.2.2.8] Doesn't Support Raster Operations
If you get the error "Your video card does not support the necessary raster
operations...", Then try this solution: On the Desktop (right click)->
Properties-> Settings tab-> Advanced...-> Performance tab. In the Performance
tab, slide the pointer left to decrease the usage of your video card. It may
enable you to play the game and not crash. Slide it even more if it doesn't
work. Keep on sliding it down more until you get to none, which would be your
last chance of getting it to work.
If that does not fix the problem, then the problem maybe your video card
drivers. See if you could update your video card drivers and see if it works.
If all fails, then you're doomed to getting this game to work correctly.
[6.2.2.9]: Gfx/shell/btns_main.bmp
This error: Could not open bitmap file 'gfx/shell/btns_main.bmp' is produced by
when installing the game. The only way to fix this is to free a lot of space on
your HDD!!! What it means is that, the game is trying to inflate a file called
pak0.pak that is compressed on the CD, to 295,809 KB, in which it's almost about
300 MB needed. So, free your HDD space, giving the file some room to fit on your
HDD. Remember, the whole game needs at least 366-460 MB to be installed onto the
HDD. 500 MB is recommended for saved games. 366 MB (FAT32) is the minimum free
space on your target HDD to be installed to.
If you don't have 460+ MB free on your HDD, delete files that are not in use. If
this can't be accomplished, then you can't install the game and play it. Reason
number two is that pak0.pak was never or was not completely installed. Check to
see if it's completely there under \Half-Life\Valve\ folder. Remember, the
pak0.pak must be there and be around 295,809 KB or else you need to re-install
the game again. If re-installing still gives you a corrupt pak0.pak, check below
for reason number five.
Reason number three is that this error comes up would mean something is
accessing the pak0.pak. I ran into this problem when I had QpedII opening up
pak0.pak and Half-Life running. It wouldn't permit QpedII editing pak0.pak or
exploring it if Half-Life is going to be running. Close anything that could have
access to this pak0.pak file and it wouldn't give you this error anymore.
Reason number four could be that there can be a bad or loose IDE cable. This can
be possible. Also, uninstall and reinstall Direct X 6 can also help try to solve
this solution.
Reason number five could be your CD-ROM/DVD drive. Sometimes, this error happens
a lot because of the CD-ROM/DVD drives suck or defective. Check out section
6.2.2.
[6.2.2.10]: Got A Velocity Too Low On Gib
You only get this message when a gib may fall through infinite space in the
level. Just ignore this or if you just can't stand reading the error, don't use
the developer mode (-dev or developer 1) and turn it off by removing -dev or
input developer 0.
[6.2.2.11] Invalid page fault in module HW.DLL
If you get this error, there is currently no exact solution at all. The only
suggestions that I can give you is to:
1. Install the latest version of Half-Life
2. Update all of your hardware drivers, like video card, sound card, etc...
3. It's because you installed other softwares, for instance, if you have
Internet Explorer 5.0, it maybe the cause for it. Some reported that if upon
removal of IE5.0, then they don't get the error any more.
The problem lies in the OS, softwares, and drivers currently loaded on your PC.
That is all I can say about this error. If you get this error while playing
single player, then I suggest you skip that level (level warp) and go on to the
next one. But you need to do the cheat codes though. I am sorry, but it's the
only way if you want to continue of the problem persists.
If you get this when playing multiplayer mode, and it suddenly crashes and gives
you that error, I don't know what to tell you but try again whatever you tried
to do if necessary.
[6.2.2.12] Kb_keys.lst not found
Error: kb_keys.lst not found. This error usually comes after this error: Could
not open bitmap file 'gfx/shell/btns_main.bmp'. This usually means that the
pak0.pak is not all there. There maybe an installation problem. Reinstall the
game. Check out section 6.2.2.9 for the solution.
Another thing that can trigger this error is the removal or modifying the
pak0.pak. This will then require you to reinstall the game.
[6.2.2.13]: MCI File Playback:### MMSYSTEM ##
If you get any error like "MCI File Playback:### MMSYSTEM ## Unable to play file
on specified device, file may be corrupt or in incorrect format", then you may
not have the correct video compression codec driver. To fix this, you should go
to http://developer.intel.com/ial/indeo/video/driver.htm. Get v5.1 Codec from
Intel.
Another fix is to visit this site:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q178/3/07.asp
Another fix is to visit this site: http://members.xoom.com/tdp/mmsystem296.htm
Other than that, it's just that the video codec file types are screwed up/edited
in the registry. So don't worry if you can't view the two intro movies. It's not
special anyhow. So this error isn't holding you back on playing Half-Life
anyhow.
[6.2.2.14]: Overflow 350 Temporary Ents
If you get this error, it just means that there are too much entities rendered
in current screen. Just ignore this or if you just can't stand reading the
error, don't use the developer mode (-dev or developer 1) and turn it off by
removing -dev or input developer 0.
[6.2.2.15]: SZ_GetSpace
This error happens when you're running Half-Life, over stuffing a .cfg file.
This happens because the .cfg is too big. Shrink the size down as far as you
can. You can try to avoid this by adding -zone xxxx after hlds.exe or hl.exe.
For example, Start Menu-> Run. Type in: C:\SIERRA\Half-Life\hl.exe -zone 1024
It means that it would give about extra 1 KB memory into the cfg's.
[6.2.2.16]: Unable To Validate CD
Sometimes, this error would come up, saying that you need the CD. It's pretty
much straight forward: put the original legit Half-Life CD in and let it satisfy
the checking. There are a couple of reasons that this error comes up:
1. You have a warez game
2. You don't have the CD
3. You created a screwed up CD-R/RW backup of the game
4. It checks for the music tracks on your Half-Life CD, but your PC's CD-ROM
drive somehow doesn't get the operation or acknowledge that it's there
5. You have more than one CD-ROM drive
To fix problem one, simply buy the game. To fix problem two, either get the CD
back from someone you lend to, find the CD, or buy the game if you're pirating
the software. To fix problem three, please refer to the section about "Burning
Half-Life On CD-R/RW". To fix problem four, get and install v1.0.0.6 patch or
later. It disables the audio music track authentication check and should allow
you to play. To fix problem five, just make sure you put the CD in your primary
CD-ROM drive or disable your second CD-ROM drive.
[6.2.2.17]: Your HL Executable Has Been Modified
As soon as you run Half-Life (or the Half-Life dedicated server HLDS.exe), Half-
Life checks itself to determine if the Half-Life executable you are running has
been damaged or altered in any way. The most likely causes of such damage are:
1. computer viruses (very common)
2. corrupt portions of a user's hard disk drive (rare)
For number 1, visit section 6.7 will show you how to proceed. For number 2, just
run ScanDisk to check errors on your HDD. You may need to reinstall Half-Life.
[6.2.2.18]: Your HL Installation Corrupted/Outdated
There are two reasons why for this to happen:
1. Virus (very common)
2. Half-Life version needs to be updated (sometimes common)
To take care of reason 1, see section 6.7 to know how to take care of it. To
take care of reason 2, you just need to download the latest Half-Life patch. You
may get this error if you tried to update your Half-Life. If so, then that means
that you got a virus. Check out section 6.7.
[6.2.2.19] Z_Malloc: Failed On Allocation Of xxx Bytes
To fix this error, use the -zone xxxx parameter. Check out section 7.2.3 on how
to use the parameter. The cause of this error maybe caused by oversized cfg
files. Cut down the size and you might eliminate the problem.
[6.2.3]: LAN
There are some people out there that reported some problems running a LAN game
of Half-Life. Try these solutions below.
1. When trying LAN hosting, but you get a black screen, [Alt]+[Tab] and you
would probably see the DUN box. Close it down. That's your problem right there.
2. Problem is that when running LAN, the console stops at IPX protocol. The
solution is to disable DNS configuration. To do so, go to Start Menu-> Settings-
> Control Panel-> Network-> TCP/IP Dial-UP Adapter-> Properties-> DNS
Configuration-> Disable DNS. Make sure you write down your DNS if there is one.
3. Try hitting the Esc key.
4. Make sure that Internet Explorer sets itself to connect to the internet via
LAN. To do so, launch IE4-> View-> Internet Options-> Connection tab-> Connect
to the Internet using a local area network
5. Problem is WON Authentication. Go here and get a small utility (27 KB):
http://www.planetfortress.com/downloads/mirror.asp?tfc/wontool.zip
All this program do is adjust the file hosts.sam in the \Windows\ directory. If
you know what to edit, then do it. Make sure it has "127.0.0.1 localhost" (no
quotes) and nothing else.
6. Could not get IPX socket name. IPX disable. Reason: WSAENOTSOCK. If you get
this error, try and see if you could use solution number 2 above and see if it
works. You also need to enable IPX/SPX from the Network via Control Panel.
If you're running a LAN and have multiple computers sharing one IP address, and
want to connect to the internet to play, considering that you have working
separate CD Keys, then try this solution: Create Half-Life shortcut to give
Half-Life a parameter of this: -port 270xx
Example:
Computer 1: hl.exe -port 27025
Computer 2: hl.exe -port 27035
Computer 3: hl.exe -port 27045
This should work, considering how servers do it, but no guarantees.
[6.2.4]: Multi-Player Mode
Here are some known fixes for errors/bugs in MP mode.
[6.2.4.1]: .hpk has a bogus # of directory entries
If you have this problem, all you need to do is delete a file called custom.hpk.
It can be found under \Sierra\Half-Life\Valve\ directory.
[6.2.4.2] Attempting to connect to Won
When upon joining on a server, and it hangs on the command 'Attempting to
connect to Won', then that means that WON.Net's authenticating server must be
down. Check back in a little while and see if you can try play. Another thing to
try is to restart your computer in case of a bad connection with your PC on the
internet.
[6.2.4.3]: Bad Protocol
When trying to connect to any server, and happens to give you this message, "bad
protocol", that means that you have a different Half-Life version than the
server that you're trying to connect. Either the server is hosting with an
outdated Half-Life version, or you don't have the latest Half-Life version. Just
run Sierra's Utilities-> AutoUpdate to get the latest Half-Life version.
[6.2.4.4]: Can't Swim In Water Using Jump Key
If you are having trouble swimming up when you are standing on the ground
underwater, try setting fps_lan to a number less than it is currently set to at
the console. To check what is set to, type this in the console: fps_lan.
[6.2.4.5]: Client.dll
If you get an error saying that you're running a different client.dll, then
here's the solution: All you need to do is uninstall Half-Life, and then go and
delete the remaining folder of Half-Life, even though nothing seems to be in
them. Once deleting the folder(s) associated with Half-Life, then reinstall the
game and it should work fine.
Another quick fix is to copy the client.dll from \Sierra\Half-
life\valve\cl_dlls\ and paste it in \Sierra\Half-life\tfc\cl_dlls and that
should work. If not, then do the long way solution above instead.
[6.2.4.6] Custom file missing wad3 id
To fix this problem, delete the custom.hpk file found under any of \Half-Life\
directory, like for example, there's one under \Half-Life\Valve\. This should
fix the error.
[6.2.4.7]: File Mechwine Not On Server
It is an error in Crossfire. It basically means that in the level, Half Life
couldn't find the file "mechwine.wav". It's an ambient sound contained in the
pack file (pak0.pak). Just ignore this error. It won't cause any problems.
[6.2.4.8] Host_Error:CL_Parseserver Message
Error: Host_Error:CL_Parseserver Message:Bad server message. Here are two
solutions that I can come up with and possibly an explanation:
1. Quit out of Half-Life; restart Half-Life back up again and try to log on the
server.
2. Reboot or shutdown and restart the PC. then see if you can connect to the
server.
I can't really point in a general lead, but this error usually ends up on the
server side. Some times it can be the client's fault. Something maybe wrong with
Half-Life when loaded up. This error happened to me quite a few times,
especially if the server is running the map Doublecross. But also, if I restart
Half-Life or reboot my PC, then I can finally bypass that error. This is one
strange error.
[6.2.4.9] Pldecal.wad
Don't worry about too much of this file. If it can't write to it, then it's
okay. This file only holds the decals (spray paints) that may have been
downloaded, or tried to download decals and write to the file, but you disabled
downloading the decals.
[6.2.4.10]: Stuck On Elevator
There were some people who reported that when going up the elevator, it gets
stuck and rubber bands you around. The solution to this bug is simply: Duck.
Crawl way from it. It should work. I know it, because I got stuck a few times,
and ducking would solve the problem. For future warnings, don't stand close to
the edges of the elevator. Stand in the middle if possible so that this problem
will not occur.
[6.2.4.11]: Stuck On Ladder
If you are getting stuck on the top of the ladder in a multiplayer game, make
sure that the server you are on does not have the variable sv_airaccelerate set
to zero. Any value other than zero will work properly.
[6.2.4.12]: Using Decal ### Without A Name
Getting v1.0.0.9 or higher patch should fix this problem. But if the patch
fails, then all you need to do is delete every thing in this folder:
\Sierra\Half-Life\Logo\ and that should get rid of the error. If you made a
custom decal for yourself, make sure you don't delete it and leave it in the
folder.
If you recorded a demo during a deathmatch online, then I suggest that you allow
your computer to download the custom decals from the opponents on that server or
you would probably get this error. So leave the download of decals on to try and
avoid this error. If you get this error when trying to playback the recorded
demo, I don't know what to say, but that demo is worthless and nothing can be
done about it.
[6.2.4.13]: Warning: U_Remove on full update
This message is given because you lagged big time (major data loss). You can
also try another solution, that may work. Use this command: cl_nodelta 1. It
worked for some people, so give it a try. But be warned: it can add additional
lag, because I've tried it before, and it makes lag worse than before. But if it
cures this problem, then be my guest on using it.
The only way to cure this annoying problem is to have a clear connection to the
internet as possible. You only get this error when you lag. This can contribute
by having call waiting. Disable call waiting if you can. I hate it when someone
tries to call, because it would lag and the connection would most likely be out
of sync and it probably disconnect from the internet or takes a moment to re-
sync with the game.
Anything else that causes interruption to your internet session can cause this
too. Line noise, background popups, downloads, whatever, can cause it.
[6.2.4.14]: Wonau_w95.dll/Woncr_w95.dll
Error: A required .DLL file, WONAU_W95.DLL was not found! You get this error
because when installing the patch, the file names were truncated and renamed
them as DOS filenames. You'll find those two files (if one is missing, the other
is bound to be the same) in your \Sierra\Half-Life\ folder. It is named
wonau_~1.dll. Rename it to wonau_w95.dll. The second one that is woncr_~1.dll
Rename that to woncr_w95.dll. It should now be fixed.
[6.2.4.15] Wsaenotsock
Error: could not get IPX Socket name. IPX disabled. Reason: Wsaenotsock. If you
get this error, it means that IPX/SPX is diabled. Enable it through the Network
from Control Panel and/or remove the -noipx parameter from HL.exe if you put it
there. There's nothing wrong with this error unless you want to use IPX to play
on LAN servers that don't want to use TCP/IP.
[6.2.5]: Patch/Update Half-Life
The only problem with patches that I notice are that either you downloaded them
and perhaps tried to resume/got disconnect and tried to resume it will end up
corrupting them (highly possible). So you're gonna need to download the patches
non-stop without interruptions. HL patches are highly sensitive to the CRCs and
easily corrupt.
Also, there was a wide spread problem with patch v1.0.1.0, stating that you
tried to apply the v1.0.1.0 patch over v1.0.0.6, in which you really have
v1.0.0.9. Check out section 6.2.5.3 for the instructions how to take care of
this problem.
[6.2.5.1] Corrupted Installation Detected
It maybe:
1. The patch that you just downloaded is corrupted. Go and re-download it again.
2. Your Half-Life game is corrupted. Scan for a virus first (make sure you're
using a good virus detector to really make sure that you don't have a virus on
your PC.). If no virus are found, uninstall the game, delete the remaining
folders that couldn't be removed from the un-installation program, and reboot.
Then re-install it.
[6.2.5.2] Not a valid previous version
You may get this error because you downloaded the wrong patch (wrong version for
your game's version). You need to know first and check to see that you are
getting the correct update patch for your version. Be sure to get the right
patch, like for the US game or for foreign game versions. There are separate
patches for different languages.
[6.2.5.3]: Your HL is v1.0.x.x and you have v1.0.x.x
If you happen to run across this kind of scenario; this started to spread with
v1.0.1.0 patch: I've downloaded a patch for my outdated Half-Life, which is at
v1.0.x.x and the patch I got is v1.0.x.x. It reports that my Half-Life version
is even lower than it is, and I know that I got the correct patch for my current
version of Half-Life. When it updates, it says that the patch is incorrect to
update your Half-Life version. I know that I got the correct patch for my Half-
Life version. Well, here's the solution:
1. Locate the file named sierra.inf
2. Open it up and scroll down until you run into something like this:
; Version is the version of the application. This is also used by
; EREG to identify the product
Version=1.0.0.5
PatchVersion=1.0.x.x
3. Change PatchVersion=1.0.x.x to whatever your current patched version of Half-
Life is at. Replace the x's with the actual numbers of your current Half-Life
version.
Another good solution, is to download the full update file to Half-Life. Take
for example - get the patch 10051013.exe. This will update your Half-Life CD
version to the latest version which would be v1.0.1.3. This would mean hours of
download (on a slow connection of course). It is suggested to try the above
solution first before getting the full patch.
[6.2.6]: Single-Player Mode
Single-player mode bugs/errors that are widely known are listed below.
[6.2.6.1]: Barney Dies
No, not the purple dinosaur. I'm talking about NPC, you know, the security
guards that help you during the game. Sometimes, they just die straight out
(don't confuse this with the scripting of some Barneys dying because they're
suppose to). Well, this is a bug. To fix this bug, make sure to put a carriage
return (an empty line) at the end of the opengl.cfg/d3d.cfg/x.cfg file(s). Error
symptoms are Barneys (security guards) dying without any indication of harmful
effects done to them.
[6.2.6.2]: Stuck/Die On Elevator
Just like the level We've Got Hostile, sometimes in the game, you would just get
stuck for no reason at all and perhaps lose life slowly. The only cure that
would be reasonable to try is to duck and then crawl. So just duck, and go
forward while crouching! It should free you from the sticky bug. Next time, just
stand in the middle of the elevator platform and avoid standing near the edges
of the elevator platform.
[6.2.6.3]: Uninstalling
There's a little malfunction with Half-Life's uninstall program with the out of
the box version (the one straight from the CD without any patches). If you
attempt to uninstall, it would wipe out all and everything that is contained in
the parameters of Half-Life. Say you installed Half-Life like this:
C:\games\Half-Life\ If you do, and you uninstall, then it would wipe out Half-
Life and also the directory of \games\. So, if I were you, I'd keep Half-Life
simple in it's own directory, or patch the game up to at least v1.0.0.6 to
remove the little mishap with the un-installation program.
[6.2.6.4]: Zoom
This cheap-zoom-in feature can be used with almost any weapons in the game. All
you have to do, is put out a crossbow. Now, hit the secondary fire mode. This
would zoom in. Now, hit 'F6' for quicksave, and then do a quickload 'F7', and
this should bring you to a zoom in bug feature. Now, just switch to any weapon
and you'll stay in that zoom bug almost forever, although using any other
weapons, the movement is a little jerky. To undo this bug, just switch back to
the crossbow, and hit the secondary fire mode and this should zoom out.
[6.2.7]: Timedemo
Any known errors about timedemos for Half-Life. To be sure that timedemos can be
ran, know what version it was compiled under which Half-Life version, as it
can't run on any other version of Half-Life than the one that was created from.
[6.2.7.1]: Demo Protocol Outdated
If you get this error, it is because you ran the timedemo on the wrong version
of Half-Life. By that, it means that say the timedemo was created on v1.0.0.5 of
Half-Life. You can only run the timedemo at v1.0.0.5 only. You can not run on
any other version of Half-Life. Find another timedemo for your current Half-Life
version.
[6.3]: CD Key
Some information about CD Key below. If you can't find the CD-Key, visit section
2.1.2.
[6.3.1]: CD Key In Use
If you bought a legit Half-Life game, and it happens that someone is using your
CD Key, then you need to contact Sierra so that they can terminate the current
CD Key and re-issue you a new one. Go to one of Sierra's web site with the
appropriate country and send them an e-mail about the problem. Here are the
sites:
Internet USA: http://www.sierra.com (support@sierra.com)
Internet United Kingdom: http://www.sierra-online.co.uk
Internet France: http://www.sierra.fr
Internet Germany: http://www.sierra.de
From those internet sites, go there and go under Tech Support.
[6.3.2]: Editing CD Key
If you're one of those people who installed the Half-Life warez game, or
borrowed your friend's CD, and then went out and bought your own, and now want
to use your own CD Key, then here's a way to remove your old CD Key: Start Menu-
> Run. Type in regedit. Go to this registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Valve\Half-Life\Settings. Look for the header KEY.
Delete this registry data, and then run Half-Life again, and it'll ask you for
the CD Key again.
There seems another place for the CD Key than the above. Here's the second
location to check: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\.default\Software\Valve\Half-Life\Settings.
Again, look for the header KEY. Delete this registry data and run Half-Life.
[6.3.3]: Lost CD Key
There are three thing you can do:
1. Exchange the game for another from where you got it from.
2. Send the game to the following address and once they get it, they will send
you another copy (U.S. residents only):
Sierra On-Line Exchanges/Returns
4100 West 190th Street
Torrance, CA 90504
3. Make a photo copy of the back of the CD case, Top of the CD itself and a copy
of the sales receipt and fax it to 1-425-644-7697 with the subject ATTN: Tech
support Adventure. Once they get it, they will send you a code (U.S. residents
only).
If you have any further questions just reply to this e-mail or feel free to
contact them at support@sierra.com (US only). You can also find further
information at:
Internet USA: http://www.sierra.com
Internet United Kingdom: http://www.sierra-online.co.uk
Internet France: http://www.sierra.fr
Internet Germany: http://www.sierra.de
From those internet sites, go there and go under Tech Support. Little bit edited
from a Sierra Technical Support e-mail to fit readers, so it doesn't sound like
it's meant to someone else. No other information was left out that is considered
important. Everything here is what needed. Note that parts are only for US
residents only. Please visit the correct web site link to get the correct email
address for Sierra's support.
[6.4]: Copying Half-Life On CD-R/RW
I've seen people complaining that they can't do copies of Half-Life on CD-R/RW
discs. Let me say this: yes, it can be done, but there's one problem: foreign
Half-Life games, like German, French, etc. are bigger in format size. That's the
bad news. You'll need to find some CD-R/RW that could hold a little bit more
than 650 MB to duplicate Half-Life entirely. For the United States version,
making duplicates of the game should be no problem.
In order to burn exact duplicates of Half-Life, you need to burn the game by
"tracks"-some what format like what audio CD music go by. On the United States
version, I can confirm that there are 28 tracks that are needed to copy in order
to have the full exact duplicate of the original master legit copy of Half-Life.
Why can I confirm it? Because I already made a duplicate back up copy for my own
personal use. It took about an hour and a few minutes to duplicate the game
(using a 2x writer, HP 7200i+ CD-RW). For the foreign Half-Life game, I can't,
because I don't have any version of it. I don't know how big, but some said that
the CD contained a little bit more extra. So you're gonna have to find a bigger
CD-R/RW disc to duplicate Half-Life.
I used the Adaptec's Copy CDs program. I don't know about any other programs,
because I don't know any and all I know is that this program did the trick for
me. Just find any program out there or get any program that would allow you to
duplicate CDs by tracks or perhaps mirror the whole CD. For CDs that are much
larger than the typical 650MB CD (for foreign copies of Half-Life), just copy
the data part of the game. Leave out the audio tracks. That will save a lot of
space. But you will need to patch the game up to at least v1.0.0.6 to work. But
you will have no audio CD if you do it like this. Be warned: I haven't tested
this yet.
By the way, after copying Half-Life, and testing to see if the CD-R/RW copy
works, and you get an error that says that the CD is invalid, or Half-Life
requires CD, all you need to do is patch your Half-Life game up to at least to
v1.0.0.6 to get rid of the audio authentication crap. I don't know what's left
off when burning Half-Life, but anyway, that's how you fix the problem.
[6.5]: Direct X
The latest, Microsoft release Direct X 6.1. DX 6.0 is on the Half-Life CD. You
can get the latest version of Direct X via: http://www.microsoft.com/directx/.
If you have any trouble with Direct X x.x, then you can remove Direct X x.x by
getting a program at: http://www.ebrink.com/dxun/Direct.htm.
[6.6]: PC Hardware
Here are some PC hardware troubleshooting solutions and some information. Make
sure that you read these sections carefully. Some solutions are placed where the
subject fits, but can fit in some other places. So be careful on reading some of
these solutions.
[6.6.1]: CD-ROM
Having at least a 2x CD-ROM drive is good enough, because the only use of the
CD-ROM is playing music during the game, which it doesn't need to be like 24x or
so. Also, updating your CD-ROM drivers would generally help. Go to your CD-ROM
manufacture's web site and download any new released drivers for your CD-ROM
drives. If there are problems installing the game, try these few suggestions:
Go to My Computer-> (right click) Properties-> Manager Device-> CD-ROM-> -> Properties
1. Uncheck if it's checked on the box DMA. If it is uncheck, then check the box
for DMA. Now accept the change and reboot.
2. If suggestion #1 does not work, then uncheck the box Sync Data. If it's
uncheck, then check the box. Now accept the change and reboot.
3. Mix up the combinations of these two and see if it works for the last resort.
4. If those suggestions doesn't work, take it over to a friend's house or
someone with a computer and install it on their computer and see if it works. If
it does, then you have a corrupted CD-ROM drive.
5. If taking over to a friend's house doesn't work, return the defective product
and get a new one.
[6.6.1.1]: Audio Music
If for some reason, you don't hear music, then it's:
1. CD music cable
2. CD music is off
3. CD music volume is off
To fix problem one, you need to open up your PC and check to see if the CD-ROM
drive has a digital cable running to your sound card from your CD-ROM drive. To
fix problem two, try this: Start Menu-> Settings-> Control Panel-> Multimedia->
CD Music tab. From here, make sure you select your CD-ROM drive that would play
the audio music and make sure you check the box at the bottom so that it could
play digital music, and make sure the volume slider is all the to right so that
the volume is to the highest.
For problem three, you can check the volume just like above, or also from the
Volume Control, where you see the yellow horn near your clock in the task bar.
Load it up and see if your CD audio volume is up high. If you don't have Volume
Control, then go and grab your Windows 9x CD-ROM, stick it into your drive, Go
to Start Menu-> Settings-> Control Panel-> Add/Remove Programs-> Windows Setup->
Multimedia-> Volume Control (check it)-> Apply.
If nothing works, see if your CD-ROM could play the music from Half-Life CD. Use
MS's Media Player or any audio CD player and see if you could play any sound
tracks from 2 through 28. If you can't play any, then your CD-ROM don't support
the music.
[6.6.2]: Controller/Joystick
There are some information referring to some controllers in the readme.txt.
Please read the readme.txt for some information. For the best result, upgrade
your controller's drivers to the latest date available.
When using a joystick and you encounter a crosshair problem, try the following:
Start Menu-> Settings-> Control Panel. Select the Advanced
tab in Game Controllers. For the "Port Driver", make sure that "Poll with
interrupts enabled" is not checked.
[6.6.3]: CPU
Half-Life should support most of the CPUs out there today. Half-Life officially
supports MMX and unofficial 3DNow! CPU instructions. No word yet on SSE
instructions.
[6.6.3.1]: 3DNow!
There is a patch out there, that enables support of AMD's 3DNow! instructions
for only the K-6-2 processors. The link are:
http://www.amd.com/products/cpg/k623d/drivers.html (3dfx)
http://www.3dnow.net/ (3dfx and Rendition)
Please be aware that the 3DNow! drivers can only work with Rendition or Voodoo2
video cards. These are not official 3DNow! patch for Half-Life.
After downloading/unzipping, copy the file 3dfxglam.dll into \Half-Life\gldvr\
and go to section 6.6.6.8 and follow those instructions on how to use this
3DNow! driver. It's the same procedure on how to install the driver just as that
section talks about Open GL driver. Just replace opengl32.dll with 3dfxglam.dll.
After following those instructions, make sure that you do select the 3DNow!
drivers from the video menu. This instruction is only for 3dfx Voodoo2 cards.
For the Rendition, download it at the second link and follow the readme.txt. It
provides instructions in there for 3dfx and Rendition.
If you get the blue screen of death, and the error message is FXMEMMAP.VXD
related, then here's the solution: In the QuakeII 3DNow! package, there's a file
called fxmemap.vxd. Copy that file and place it under \Windows\System\. It may
be older, but it may fix your error. Please back up the original before copying
the older version if so. This file can only be found in the first link of the
3DNow! patch.
Note: if you use these hacked drivers, be warned that your crosshair may go
corrupt and be out of order on your HUD screen. To fix the problem with your
crosshair location, bring down the console and type this in: gl_flipmatrix 1.
[6.6.3.2]: MMX
Half-Life may not enable MMX support. To enable MMX support, type this in the
console: r_mmx 1.
[6.6.3.3]: SSE
The only use of SSE instructions may be found in Direct X 6.1 and perhaps your
video card drivers. So download those to have maximum performance out of your
Pentium III.
[6.6.4]: Modem
Always update your modem drivers to the latest. Having a 14.4 modem to play this
game is not recommended. You will lag when there's a lot of people on the server
that you would play. 28.8 is minimum, but a 56k non-window modem is recommended
to get best performance.
[6.6.4.1]: WinModem
Winmodem is not the best choice for online gaming. In fact, they just plain out
suck. The reason is that Winmodem relies on the CPU to do most of it's job.
That's a major no-no, and a small performance hit to your overall PC speed.
Avoid getting a Winmodem at all cost. Don't care if it's a low price. Get cheap
stuff, suffer cheap stuff's consequences. Go and buy a regular modem, and make
sure it's not a Winmodem.
[6.6.5]: Sound
There are some information referring to some sound stuff in the readme.txt.
Please read the readme.txt for some information. For the best result, upgrade
your sound card's drivers to the latest date available. Half-Life takes
advantages of the following two major APIs: Creative's Environmental Audio (EAX)
or Aureal's A3D (A3D).
[6.6.5.1]: A3D
Half-Life supports A3D Vortex 1 & 2 chipset. Get the v2.xx A3D drivers in order
for A3D to function correctly with Half-Life or else your A3D enhancements will
not exist. If using your A3D sound card sounds crappy, like low noise, and some
bad environmental noise mixes, then try these values into the console:
s_distance 18
s_2dvolume 0.88
s_verbwet 0.15
s_min_distance 8
s_refgain 0.34
If turning on A3D, and you get a big performance hit, losing some fps, then use
this command: s_geometry 0. You may lose some of the positional sounds, but not
much quality hit, but at least it should give back some fps for faster
performances. Make sure you have at least v1.0.0.8+ for Half-Life. Also download
the latest sound card drivers for your A3D sound card. Always install the
reference drivers if your sound card manufacture hasn't updated their drivers.
You can get the latest drivers at http://www.a3d.com/html/download/drivers/ Once
you downloaded the latest drivers, delete the a3dapi.dll file in the Half-Life
directory, only the copy in \windows\system\ is needed. The one in Half-Life's
directory is kind of old.
[6.6.5.2]: Audio Music
If for some reason, you don't hear music, then it's:
1. CD music not enabled in the game
2. CD music is off
3. CD music volume is off
To fix problem one, go through the configuration and into audio and check the
box Play CD Music. To fix problem two, try this: Start Menu-> Settings-> Control
Panel-> Multimedia-> CD Music tab. From here, make sure you select your CD-ROM
drive that would play the audio music and make sure you check the box at the
bottom so that it could play digital music, and make sure the volume slider is
all the to right so that the volume is to the highest.
For problem three, you can check the volume just like above, or also from the
Volume Control, where you see the yellow horn near your clock in the task bar.
Load it up and see if your CD audio volume is up high. If you don't have Volume
Control, then go and grab your Windows 9x CD-ROM, stick it into your drive, Go
to Start Menu-> Settings-> Control Panel-> Add/Remove Programs-> Windows Setup->
Multimedia-> Volume Control (check it)-> Apply.
If nothing works, see if your CD-ROM could play the music from Half-Life CD. Use
MS's Media Player or any audio CD player and see if you could play any sound
tracks from 2 through 28. If you can't play any, then your CD-ROM don't support
the music.
[6.6.5.3]: EAX
4 speakers 360 degrees sound is supported after v1.0.0.8 patch. You will need to
get the v1.0.0.8 patch or higher to enable full 360 degrees of sound with 4
speaker support. If not, you would only get 180 degrees 2 speaker support (you
can hear from the rear, but will sound the same as your 2 front speakers would),
which would suck.
[6.6.5.4]: Losing Sound During Gameplay
If you lose sound during gameplay, then you can try this quick fix to see if you
can get it back: Hit Esc key during gameplay. Then hit Resume Game option once
in the menu. If your PC is nice enough, it might give you sound back. Works for
many people who loses sound if they Alt-Tab out of the game. If that doesn't
work, then you might need to terminate your current game and load it back up.
Update your sound card drivers is highly advised if there are any.
[6.6.5.5]: Repeating Sound Loops
If for some reason, the sound FXs loop and replays through the whole event, say
the explosion sound FX gets looped and played again and again and again, making
your ears hurt and have to restart Half-Life, then I got the cure for you. To
stop the looping sound FX, type this in the console: stopsound. That should stop
any sound FX that is currently played. Everything else should go back to normal
after it's executed.
[6.6.5.6]: Sound Blaster Cards
If you have a SoundBlaster sound card, you will find that the sound skips and
sounds horrible. To try and solve this problem, right click on "My Computer"
icon. Select "properties". Click the "+" sign next to the "Sound, video and
games controllers" listing. Double click the . Click the "Settings" tab. Make sure the
"Allow Full-Duplex operation" check box is checked. Click "OK". Reboot.
Another thing to try is bring down the console. Type this in: snd_noextraupdate
1. This fixes the Sound Blaster 64 AWE, letting the users to leave it on high
sound quality. I don't know if it'll work on other Sound Blaster x cards, but
give it a try. If it still stutter, make sure you try out section 6.6.5.7
section in this HLFAQ. Also, fiddle around with the checking the boxes in the
settings of your sound card interface stuff. Take a look around. If you have
Sound Blaster Live!, it is recommended that you should update your SBL! drivers.
[6.6.5.7]: Stuttering
Try these solutions and see if they could cure your stuttering problems with the
game:
1. Bring up the console and type this in: _snd_mixahead x.xxx
Where xx.xxx=any number, like 0.145. Try different numbers if it doesn't work.
Fiddle with the number until it improves.
2. From the Start Menu-> Run, type in this:
:\\hl.exe -wavonly
x=HDD; HL dir=HL's directory
3. Bring up the console and type this in: snd_noextraupdate 1
[6.6.6]: Video
There are some information referring to some video stuff in the readme.txt.
Please read the readme.txt for some information. For the best result, update
your video card's drivers to the latest drivers available. Half-Life takes
advantages of the following two major APIs: Open GL or Direct 3D. Half-Life
could also be run under software mode, but it does not take advantage of 3D
accelerator cards. Just uses a lot of CPU MHz power to render the game.
If you happen to run Half-Life, and it would just crash, then try this solution:
On the Desktop (right click)-> Properties-> Settings tab-> Advanced...->
Performance tab In the Performance tab, slide the pointer left to decrease the
usage of your video card. It may enable you to play the game and not crash. Keep
on sliding it more left if you still got problems until you reach none. After
reaching none, and you see no improvements, then you're SOL.
[6.6.6.1]: 3dfx
Half-Life supports 3dfx cards by Open GL via Mini GL. Please also update your
3dfx video card drivers. You could get both drivers for your 3dfx cards at
http://www.3dfx.com. You will be greeted by a choose your location page. After
choosing the appropriate location, pick the link Drivers on the next page. Then
choose the appropriate video card that you have and get the drivers. Remember to
get the drivers for your video card and Mini GL (they are two different set of
drivers).
Whatever you do, when you run Half-Life, go through the menu first so that you
can pick how Half-Life can be run under which hardware acceleration. When you
get to the Video options menu, pick what drivers should be used under Open GL,
do not pick 'default'. It's slow. Pick the other choice given, which would be
3dfx Mini Driver. Note: you must update your Mini GL drivers if necessary. See
the above paragraph for the information. If you try to run the game without
updating the Mini GL driver, you will get a black screen and may say 'Loading',
and it won't go further. This means that the Mini GL that you have is out dated
on your PC. Go and get the latest Mini GL.
If you have a Voodoo1 and get this error: 'Expected VXD version V1.2, got V1.1',
then that means that you need to update your Voodoo1 drivers. They are outdated
on your machine. Go grab the latest at http://www.3dfx.com. If you get this
error: "Mutual exclusion prohibits this", then this means that there are two
programs try to use the Voodoo2 card at the same time. Do Ctrl+Alt+Del to see if
any program that can be using your Voodoo2 card. Also try getting the latest
reference drivers for your Voodoo2 at http://www.3dfx.com might help solve the
problem. It maybe sometimes be the drivers' fault for that error.
Some people have been experiencing problems with their gamma settings with 3dfx
cards and the v1.0.1.0 patch. The gamma settings for your 3dfx card with
v1.0.1.0 patch are decided by the 3dfx control panel installed with your card's
drivers. This was a change to allow users of some 3dfx hardware to set their
gamma to a higher setting than was allowed in the Half-Life game, as the game
was too dark. To allow your gamma settings on 3dfx hardware to be decided by the
Half-Life game, run Half-Life with this command line parameter: -3dfxgamma
If you have a Voodoo2 card, and want to squeeze extra speed out of it, you would
want to overclock it. To find out how, go to:
http://www.tweak3d.net/tweak/v2oc/.
[6.6.6.2]: 3DWarning
For the first time when running Half-Life, and decide to choose the hardware
mode, like D3D or Open GL, a warning message comes up. If it keeps coming up,
then you could disable it. Follow these instructions: Start Menu-> Run. Type
regedit and hit OK. Go to this registry setting: HKEY_USERS-> .DEFAULT->
SOFTWARE-> Valve-> Half-Life-> Settings. Change the 3DWarning key: Right click
on 3DWarning-> Modify. Change the 0 (zero) into a 1. After all this, press OK.
Now it shouldn't give you any more hassle about the 3D Warning crap. Make sure
you don't screw up in the registry. If you do, then you're doomed and you have
to reinstall Windows and everything else you got on your computer.
[6.6.6.3]: Blue Water
If you finally encounter water, and you jump in, and all the sudden, it goes all
blue, then you've got a problem. The problem is this: it's your video card or
video card drivers. You need to get updated video card drivers and see if that
could cure the glitch with rendering underwater scenes. If getting an updated
driver won't fix your blues, then you can use a quick workaround -switch to
software mode, get where you need to go and get out of the water, and then
switch back to your original hardware rendering style. This blue water mostly
happens with D3D hardware rendering.
[6.6.6.4]: D3D
Direct3D Input sometimes seems lagged. If your input seems to lag behind the
visual display on occasion, type this in the console: gl_d3dflip 1.
If you use D3D as your hardware rendering for Half-Life, and you see textures as
'grayed out', only black boxes, etc, then there maybe a big problem. The problem
is that your video card, perhaps your video card drivers too, are either too old
or can't handle D3D. The first thing you could do is to update your video card
drivers. This may solve the problem. If updating your video card drivers won't
help, then that only means that your video card can not handle D3D rendering
(a.k.a. your video card sucks). Only one solution exists for this kind of
problem: dump the current video card and go buy one that can do it. 3dfx's
Voodoo x and nVidia's TNTx/GeForce video cards are good ones to go on.
[6.6.6.5]: Decals
Some video cards out there, have problems creating/placing decals (blood, bullet
holes, etc...). Some could only view from a specific angle, some disappears if
close, reappears if far way. To fix this problem, type this in the console:
gl_polyoffset xx
Where xx=any number, fiddle around with the numbers until you get it right. Try
these values: 0.1,-0.1, 1, -1, 20, or -20. .001 fixes i740 video cards, 20 fixes
TNT video cards.
[6.6.6.6]: Matrox
If you can't see underwater other than in software mode, then you need to get
the latest patch for your video card. Go to http://www.matrox.com and get the
latest patch/drivers for your video card and it should correct your mishap with
underwater adventures. Try the beta drivers to see if they work.
[6.6.6.7]: Multiple 3D Cards
Go to http://www.3dfiles.com/utility/ and go under Multiple Video Cards section.
Click the link and it should give you multiple programs to choose from to let
you switch from 3D cards, like the TNT/Voodoo x for an example.
[6.6.6.8]: Open GL
Please visit your video card manufacturer's web site and see if your video card
supports it. If it does, find your video card drivers for Open GL, may also be
called ICD. After getting any essential Open GL files from your manufacturer's
web site, install them to enable Open GL support for your video card.
Some video cards just install supporting drivers and use their own Open GL
coding, Installable Client Drivers (ICD). For instance, 3dfx's Open GL file is
called 3dfxogl.dll (this file can be renamed as opengl32.dll). But you can use a
generic Open GL called opengl32.dll, should be about 753,808 bytes big (about
736 to 737 KB). It can be found under C:\Windows and C:\Windows\System\. If you
don't have the generic Open GL file, then here's the link to get it:
ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/softlib/mslfiles/opengl95.exe.
PCs older than Win95 OSR 2 should get that file linked above to fix the Open GL
and upgrade the file. Get this file, because it's a fix. This is v1.1 of Open
GL. Some video cards rely on this generic Open GL driver. In order to use the
generic Open GL driver, you must install your video card drivers that supports
Open GL first. There are some video card manufactures that support Open GL by
just updating your video card drivers and then just download a file for Open GL,
which would usually be opengl32.dll. This for sure was done by ATI for their
Rage Pro (started for GLQuake). If you are given the file opengl32.dll, it is
needed to be placed it where Half-Life would detect it and so that you could
play using hardware rendering. Copy the opengl32.dll into C:\SIERRA\Half-
Life\gldrv\ (assuming that's the installation default directory).
After copying the opengl32.dll, you need to edit a file to make Half-Life see
the file. The file should be drvmap.txt within C:\SIERRA\Half-Life\gldrv\ the
same directory. Open it up with a text editor. Now, it should have something
like this:
Default Default
3dfxgl.dll 3dfx Mini Driver
Now, to make Half-Life see the opengl32.dll file, type this in:
opengl32.dll Open GL
So it should look like this within the file:
Default Default
3dfxgl.dll 3dfx Mini Driver
opengl32.dll Open GL
^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^
File's name and name to see listed in the game. Now, save the file and Half-Life
should let you run Open GL. So, start up Half-Life, and go to Configuration->
Video Mode selection. Now, select Open GL. To the left, it should give you a box
listing several choices. The box is left on Default if it's not messed with.
Now, click the down button arrow and choose Open GL, or whatever you named it
back in the drvmap.txt. Hint: It's not going to be the choices Default or 3dfx
Mini Driver. It should be what you named it in the drvmap.txt. Now run the game
and it should be accelerated in Open GL.
[6.6.6.9]: Screen Not Aligned
Whenever you play, and you start up the game, the viewing area screen slides
like an inch off from the regular windows setting, and you need to re-adjust the
screen. Well, it may have to do with your refresh rate. People with two video
cards, like a primary 2D card and a 3D card, would likely to see this problem.
It is because two of the video cards are using the same refresh rate. To try and
fix this problem, you need to assign one of the video card a different refresh
rate.
[6.6.6.10] Slow Menu
If the in game menu slows down so much, try this solution: Start Menu-> Run->
Type in regedit-> Find the key CPUMHZ under:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Valve\Half-Life\Settings\. Open up the CPUMHZ key and
edit the value from 0 (zero) to 1. That should make the menu fly by quicker.
Reverse the number if it ends up doing the opposite.
[6.6.6.11]: Nvidia
Please get the reference drivers (Detonator) for your TNT boards. The URL is:
http://www.nvidia.com/Products.nsf/htmlmedia/software_drivers.html so that the
game would work at its best for your Open GL hardware rendering.
There's a site out there that have TNT tweaks, especially for Half-Life:
http://www.voodooextreme.com/tweak3d/tweak/rivatnt/.
When switching between Open GL and D3D with a TNT card, decals may not display
correctly. To fix this, type this in the console: gl_polyoffset 4.
If you are having unreadable text when using TNT, then do the following: Right
click Desktop-> Properties-> Riva TNT-> Additional Properties-> Direct3D. Set
auto-mipmap to trilinear, mipmap detail to best image quality. Then go to
advanced and enable fog table emulation.
For the TNT2, it is advised to use the reference drivers off of Nvidia's web
site. Check it out at http://www.nvidia.com and download the latest drivers for
your TNT2. Note: TNT2 can use TNT drivers (some of them).
[6.6.6.12]: Video Tearing
When running the game under hardware rendering, sometimes, there are tearing and
lines cut from here to there. There are several reasons why:
1. Fast refresh rate
2. V-Sync enabled
3. Old non-up-to-date video drivers
4. The game itself
To fix problem one, lower the refresh rate, by right click on Desktop->
Properties. To solved problem two, disable V-Sync. To solve problem three, get
updated drivers from your video manufacturer's web site. To fix problem four,
enter this in the console (only if you're running D3D or Open GL hardware
acceleration mode): gl_keeptjunctions 1.
[6.6.6.13]: Video Too Dark
If the video settings are too dark and you can't see anything, then you can try
and up the brightness on your monitor's settings. If that doesn't help, then try
these two commands in the console:
gamma #
brightness #
# = any number from 0 through whatever. 0 = dark, 5 = 5x brighter, etc... Do not
try double digits/triple digits until you tried up to 9 and still say it's
dark...
If you have a 3dfx card and updated Half-Life v1.0.1.0 or higher, then there's a
command that will let you follow how gamma is set up from your video card
properties found when right click on desktop. The command is a parameter to be
used with Half-Life. It's -3dfxgamma. Go to section 7.2.3 to check out the
information about the usage of the parameter.
[6.6.6.14]: Visual Enhancements
Anthony "Reverend" Tan, devoted some of his time to create a good guide, of
telling what variables are good for your PC and to enjoy the game to be used
with Half-Life. Better known as 'tweaks', which are to find the best
configurations and to take advantages of their usage to make the game a better
way to play it than before. Based on Voodoo2 results. It'll work with other
video cards, but results will vary. HALF-LIFE Visuals Tweak Guide at:
Shockwave: http://www.voodooextreme.com/reverend/flash/Main.html
Regular: http://www.voodooextreme.com/reverend/Main.html
[6.7]: Virus
This one word makes the computer go nuts! Okay, I've seen a few problems. Some
of the problems, like can't upgrade to v1.0.0.8 or can't run game because
hlds.exe is incorrect version, etc... This is a result of a virus on your
computer. Yes. There is a virus on your computer. Don't doubt me. But if your
current virus scanner don't see any virus whatsoever, you should get one that is
the latest. You can get a good virus checker at: http://www.avp.com. Here's a
quicker and faster way to get rid of the WinCIH virus if you know you got this
one: http://www.pspl.com/download/cleancih.htm. Go there and it will have
instructions on how to use the cleancih.exe to clean out all the WinCIH viruses.
Please be aware, that this is the main cause of why it gives you that message
that hlds.exe is corrupted or incorrect version, etc. The virus that you may be
looking for is the WinCIH virus. It alters program files and changes the file
not to resemble itself anymore. The programs will continue to work, but it is
best to remove this WinCIH virus ASAP. This CIH virus can be cleaned. Other than
that, there can be other viruses that can affect Half-Life. Here's a short
information on the WinCIH virus: There are three variants (1.2, 1.3 and 1.4) of
Win95.CIH virus. These variants can be identified from the text string present
in the virus code. The variants 1.2 and 1.4 are reported to be in the wild and
spreading. Win95.CIH.1.2 and 1.3 do the damage on 26th of April only and
Win95.CIH.1.4 does it on the 26th every month. Win95.CIH.1.4 is also the most
frequently reported variant.
[7]: PERFORMANCE TIPS
[7.1]: Enhance Sound Effects
Okay, this isn't none of those hidden stuff that Microsoft slapped into their OS
or is this trick new. It's been there forever, so it's not new. You can try to
get 3D sound by going to Start Menu-> Programs-> Accessories-> Entertainment->
Volume Control-> Advanced. Under Advanced Controls for Volume Control, go under
the 'Other controls' and it should have a box and have an option for "3D Effect
Enable". Check this box and get ready to be amazed like I did. Some other sound
cards have different options, but be sure to check it out what it got to offer.
If you don't have Volume Control, then go and grab your Windows 9x CD-ROM, stick
it into your drive, Go to Start Menu-> Settings-> Control Panel-> Add/Remove
Programs-> Windows Setup-> Multimedia-> Volume Control (check it)-> Apply. Some
sound cards may give you this option, so it's all up to your sound card. If you
don't see the 3D Effect Enable option, then that means that your sound card
can't do 3D effects, or somewhat.
[7.2]: Half-Life Tweaks
Here are some Half-Life tweaks to try out. Here's a link for Half-Life tweaks:
http://www.tweak3d.net/tweak/hl/. Try that link out if anything below doesn't
make sense.
[7.2.1]: Autoexec.cfg
It is recommended that you should create a cfg file, let it be autoexec.cfg so
that it can load some of tweaking commands or anything for Half-Life. This would
save your butt from typing repeated commands that you always want to use when
playing Half-Life. Take a look at section 4.1. There's also an automated
autoexec creator for people who needs some visual to help them make an
autoexec.cfg. Here's the link: http://www.tweak3d.net/autoexec/halflife/.
[7.2.2]: Multi-Player
Here are some tips and tweaks to get some improvements out of MP online:
To see what's your lag, in a graph format, access the console (follow section
2.1.5, to find out how to get it). Now, type this in the console: r_netgraph 1.
Green represents lag. The higher the green lines go, it shows how long data
packets get to your PC. You actually want short green lines. Red represents data
lost/data dropped. You do not want red lines. If you get too much of these,
you'll see opponents skipping around. Yellow represents too much data for your
connection. You need to raise your rate xxxx to see if you can eliminate the
yellow lines. Other than that, you have a limited bandwidth connection. Blue
means corrupted data. To turn off the net graph, type in this: r_netgraph 0.
R_netgraph has other settings too. If you use r_netgraph 2 or 3, it displays
more in depth information about your network stats. Here is what Yahn has to say
about it: "r_netgraph 3 allows you to monitor bandwidth usage over the server to
client channel. I wouldn't worry about r_netgraph 2, as r_netgraph 3 has all of
the additional information in it. Here's how it works: The green hashes up the
side of the HUD represent 50 bytes each of data each. As the graph moves from
right to left, each vertical column represents a message from the server that
the client received (or dropped, or was choked, or was invalid). The way to read
the part above the white divider is as follows: the yellow chunk is player data,
the purple is entity data (non-player entities), the blue is temporary entities
info, and the green is sounds. The full message size is indicated with a little
gray dot. For our future games (and possibly for future updates to Half-Life /
TFC multiplayer), we expect to see substantial decreases in the yellow and
purple parts and we believe we can almost completely eliminate the blue and
green lines. To see why this is important, fire up a game of HLDM, turn on
netgraph 3 and fire the shotgun with the alternate fire key (i.e., fire both
barrels). Look at the netgraph when you do this, there's a lot of data (~100
bytes) created to get all of the shotgun effects over to the client (sound,
bullet decals, shell ejections, muzzleflash, punching the clients view, etc.).
This data flow is not an issue in single player, but a big issue in multiplayer.
We're investing a lot of research into technologies that will save us bandwidth
in this area. What this will translate to is a much better play experience on a
28.8 or 56K modem (less lag, etc.), something that we think is critical to the
continued on-line success of Half-Life / TFC, and any of our future titles."
To mess around with your bandwidth connection, access the console. Now type this
in the console: rate xxxx. Where xxxx=any four digit number, prefer around 2600-
4800 for analog modem users, and 4800+ for higher/quality/digital connections
like ISDNs, T1s, etc. 2600=28.8 modem, 4800=56k modem. If the rate is set lower
than your connection is at, say if you have a 56k modem, it is unwise to put
rate at 2600. You got twice the 28.8 modem connection, so put rate as 4800. If
you do set the rate lower, then that means that there's a possibility that
you're going to get yellow lines in the netgraph. To reduce yellow lines, raise
the rate xxxx higher than it is. Just think as the digits as number of
characters (or bytes) per second your connection can handle. If your rate is set
higher than 5000, then you will then need to switch over to using the command
fps_lan xx instead.
To add more to the rate xxxx command, there's a command to try and stop "ice
skating" across the whole level because the result of lag. Bring down the
console, and type this in: pushlatency -xxx. Where -xxx=any digit number, prefer
1/10th of your rate xxxx. Example: in game rate 4800. Put the -xxx to 480. So
this is what the command would look like this in the console: pushlatency -480.
Others insist on a negative number half of your latency while in game. You can
try that too, but I didn't see good results when I went under -480. But it
depends on you, so you decide which is the best.
To limit how much data would be sent to you, there's a command to limit how much
should be sent. The command in console is: fps_modem xx. Where xx=any double
digit number, designed for how much fps you should get to have a good game. Put
it to 20 or something. Remember, whatever number you put, that's how much fps
you are going to get. And that's the limit fps you're going to see. If you put
10 for the fps_modem, then you're going to get maximum of 10 fps for the
duration of your game play. Don't be stupid and assign the number like 100. If
you do, don't be surprised if your ping jumps up (for some reason, if I jack
this number very high, nothing happens, but it's a warning that it might
happen). The lower the number, the lower the lag.
Another thing that is very good, is to disable pretty looking graffities. Yes,
I'm talking about the ones that you have to download, especially when you just
enter the game, and then find out that you are downloading other people's
decals, which lagged and bogged your connection down. To disable this annoying
feature, then type this into the console: r_decals 0. But, if you want to see
some decals, it's best to set r_decals to a low number. I have mine set to
r_decals 256, meaning that the game will only allow a maximum of 256 decals to
be present in the game at the whole time. If decals reach the max, then they
will clear from the memory and would just keep cycling through and through. Kind
of like if you run out of memory, then it will remove the first decal and let
the latest decal appear - kind of like chronological order. You must have at
least v1.0.0.8 to do this if you want to set a limit on decals.
The last and best thing to stop lag, especially just connecting to the server is
use this command: cl_download_ingame "0". This disables all decal downloads.
It's that little orange bar that is under your health, that downloads decals,
which is annoying and lags you to death if you're just joining the game, or
someone who just joined the game. If you want to try and tweak your connection
quality, please take a visit to section 7.3.1 for Bandwidth. This would be the
last thing to do before you go crazy.
[7.2.3]: Parameters
How to use these parameters are easy. To do this, for example: Start Menu-> Run.
Type in: C:\Sierra\Half-Life\hl.exe -
Example: C:\Sierra\Half-Life\hl.exe -noip
Here are the current available parameters/flags to use:
-32bpp
This enables 32-bit true color mode rendering of the game. You must have
v1.0.0.9+ patch for Half-Life in order to do this. Also make sure that gl_dither
is set to 0 (zero) (example: gl_dither 0).
-3dfxgamma
This allows your gamma settings on 3dfx hardware to be decided by the Half-Life
game.
-console
This enables the usage of the console, where commands can be used and to tweak
some commands that can alter the game to be more efficient or degrade to he||.
This also skips the two short movie introductions.
-d3d
This enables Direct3D hardware rendering mode. This command is only available
from v1.0.0.9+ patches.
-dev
This is "developer" mode. It just prints out a lot of developer debug messages.
Not recommended to use it, because it eats up some CPU power to display those
commands when you don't really need to see it. So don't use this command unless
you want to troubleshoot Half-Life.
-full
This runs Half-Life in full screen mode.
-game
This is to enable Half-Life to play modification games other than to go through
the menu to select them. This is a shortcut. An example to this command would be
TFC. So it'll look like this: -game tfc. Don't bother doing this if you're
playing the normal Half-Life game.
-gamegauge
This runs the demo in Game Gauge mode. This is a benchmark utility that runs a
demo as fast as possible and stores the framerate in a file called fps.txt in
the Half-Life directory. Where is the demo that you used to record
during a gamin session or downloaded off he internet. When typing in the part, leave out the three letter extension.
-gl
This enables Open GL hardware rendering mode. Use the -gldrv command too if
using this command.
-gldrv
This selects the Open GL driver. The two choices are "Default", "3dfxgl.dll" and
any other driver(s) listed in the drvmap.txt.
-heapsize x
Where x is how much RAM you got in KB. Say you got 32 MB of RAM. Replace x with
16384. Don't be foolish and replace the x with more than what you got in RAM.
People with more than 64 MB of RAM sometimes feel that it's not using the RAM
being supplied. Well, they're right. This command invokes to show Half-Life all
the RAM that you have and it can be used. The reason with half of the RAM you
got, because Windows would already used half your RAM for it's OS. Putting it to
32768 wouldn't do anything.
-nointro
This is to skip the two avi's in the beginning.
-noip
This is useful when you get that D.U.N. box to go away and to give you no IP
address. Remove this command whenever playing on the internet. If not, then you
will fail to connect to any servers.
-noipx
This is only to remove that annoying IPX error crap whenever starting up Half-
Life all the time. Put this in and you don't have to see the IPX error any more.
This just disables IPX network protocol.
-numericping
This is very useful and great. Instead of the in game Half-Life server browser's
green dots used, it will then instead be replaced by numbers of latency, as in
pings. Only available in v1.0.0.8 or later versions of Half-Life.
-particles
This is useful for those who build levels for Half-Life. This is useful to
search for leaks in the maps. The is to set aside some buffer space.
-port 27016
Use this with HL.exe. This allows you to play on your own server after running
HLDS.exe. This assigns HL.exe port 27016, so that it won't conflict with
HLDS.exe's port 27016 (defaulted). Use this whenever you want to play on your
own dedicated server.
-soft
This enables Half-Life to be rendered in software mode.
-startwindowed
This enables Half-Life to start in a window mode, instead of fullscreen.
-toconsole
When this is used, upon launching Half-Life, it would bring you to the console
the first thing, no intro movies or the menu, just the console.
-w
This sets the video mode display width. Where is the width in pixels of
desired video mode display.
-wavonly
This disables Direct Sound and plays SFX in wav files. A fix for some sound
cards that have stuttering problems. Also removes that annoying "no directsound
driver" error message when loading up Half-Life. Use this command if you get
that error message, besides, you don't have directsound drivers, so just use
this command. Beware: there's a bug with this command. It will cause the
resolution to be locked at 320 by 240 on start up on the games. You will need to
change the resolution in the menu every time upon launching Half-Life.
-win
This enables Half-Life to start in a window mode, instead of fullscreen.
-zone
This allocates more memory to scripting files, like autoexec.cfg and so forth.
Replace with any number, preferred the number that the error gives when
scripts are too big.
[7.3]: PC Tweaks
Here are some tips/tricks on how to speed up your PC before you go out and spend
a fortune to upgrade to get more speed out of your PC.
[7.3.1]: Bandwidth
Here's a good link to a site that have some good internet tweaks and information
for you:
http://www.voodooextreme.com/3Fingers/stuff/nettweak.htm. Visit it, and it
should get you going about internet tweaks to make your connection
better/faster, although not guaranteed. But it's worth a try. Even though this
web page is meant for cable modem tweaks, it can also be used for other high
bandwidth connections. Here are some sites:
http://home.tampabay.rr.com/philip1/cable.htm
http://www.speedguide.net/Cable_modems/
Be warned when trying those tweaks above. Some people reported good downloading
speeds, but Half-Life became choppy. Make sure you back-up your registry before
trying any of those tweaks.
Here are some web pages that has some modem tweaks that you can try out:
http://www.tweak3d.net/tweak/modem/
http://www.spy.net/%7Edustin/modem/
http://home.inreach.com/echevarr/pingpage.htm
[7.3.2]: Windows 9x
Here are some quick PC performances at the last moment to speed things up before
you go insane. For even more tweaks, visit these site:
http://www.pcvelocity.com/apps/tweaks/win9x/tweaks.shtml
http://www.tweak3d.net
[7.3.2.1]: Defrag
Defrag is going to be your favorite word. If you don't know what this word
means, take a dictionary and look up the word 'defragment'. But if you can't
find the word, look for 'fragment' and take the opposite of that word and you
should find out what I mean. To get to the point, do the following: Start Menu->
Programs-> Accessories-> System Tools-> Disk Defragmenter This would rearrange
files to a big piece so that the files aren't spread everywhere on the HDD,
shortening the HDD's life span. Make sure you do 'full defragmentation' if you
decide to go into Options. If you have two HDD, then go to the section 7.3.2.4
to find out a tip.
[7.3.2.2]: ScanDisk
Before doing anything else, first let's clean off any errors on your HDD before
doing other things. You need to clean off errors before doing anything else
because the errors would still exist after you do anything else. So, let's use
ScanDisk, found at: Start Menu-> Programs-> Accessories-> System Tools->
ScanDisk. After loading ScanDisk, make sure you select the option 'Standard'
under 'Type of Test'. Also, make sure you check every HDD listed in the box.
Now, click the button 'Advanced...' and enable the following recommended
options:
1. Display Summary: Always
2. Log File: No Log
3. Cross-Linked Files: Delete
4. Lost File Fragments: Free
5. Check Files For: Invalid File Names, Invalid Dates And Times, and Duplicate
Names.
Run ScanDisk with those options enabled and fix any errors that are given.
Always delete cross-linked files, always free up lost file fragments, and always
fix invalid things. Most of these errors are useless to bring them back, so do
what's best for your HDD(s).
[7.3.2.3]: Turn Them Off
In no way should any other programs run in the background when playing any
games. It is ridiculous, unless you want it to and take up valuable resources
and speed away from the game. You want everything dedicated to your game and
only your game. So shut down everything in the background, even your desktop
wallpaper - yes, those take up memory. Put the background to none should do the
trick. To shut down anything that runs in the background, give it the three
finger salute: [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[Del]. Close everything except Explorer and Systray.
[7.3.2.4]: Virtual Memory
Virtual Memory is the next in line if your RAM fails to hold the information.
This is kind of a bad thing. Virtual Mem. is slow, because it is cached on your
HDD. But another bad thing is that Microsoft programmed it to resize it whenever
it thinks it needs more room.
To take care of your Virtual Mem., create a solid file for it to use. Do the
following: My Computer-> (right click) Properties-> Performance tab-> Virtual
Memory-> Let me specify my own virtual memory settings.
For the Hard disk, if you have two, select where the swap file should be. To
make this decision easier, put it on the HDD that is not the one running your
game. If you have one, you have no choice, but to leave it as C drive. For the
Minimum and Maximum variable, put it as the same number for both. It depends on
how much free space you have on the HDD that you're putting the swap file on.
Putting 200 MB worth and dedicated to VM would be nice. Do it if you can. If you
can't, 80 to 100 should do it. A minimum of 40 would do it, but it might spring
up an error message saying that there are none left for VM, so put at least 80
MB of VM.
For you people that have more than one HDD, defrag the HDD that would be the
source of the VM swap file. To do this, change your swap file to the other HDD.
This would clear any obstacles stopping the speeding access of the VM swap file.
[7.4]: Updates
Some update suggestions.
[7.4.1]: Drivers
It is always wise to update old and outdated drivers with the newest and latest
drivers if possible. It is always a solution if something doesn't work. Drivers
do fix glitches and may speed up the hardware(s) associated with the drivers,
especially video cards. That's where you see drivers affect the most.
[7.4.2]: Half-Life
It's always wise to update Half-Life. It's recommended that you update Half-Life
to at least v1.0.0.8 if you're just only playing single-player mode. For those
who plays on the internet, then that that would mean that you are required to
get the latest patch, which is v1.0.1.3.
[7.4.3]: PC
Well, this is all opinion right here. It's the deciding factor for games to run
better and smoother if you got the budget to do so. Upgrading your computer is a
nice thing, with new hardware to run the latest games. If you have a low budget,
consider a RAM update, and then a video card update, considering if you have at
least a Pentium MMX that is.
To me, a decent video card, like a Voodoo or TNT card would do fine. Having at
least 64 MB of RAM should also be a must. For the CPU, it should be more than a
Pentium 200 MMX to get some juice out of the game. It's not recommended to have
A3D sound card to accelerate sound FXs, because it takes some % of CPU power to
give you good sound FXs. So turn the off or avoid getting them, if you have a
low end PC. Now, if you have a monster speeding PC, then that's another story.
[8]: INTERNET RESOURCES
[8.1]: Forums
alt.games.half-life
-newsgroup for Half-Life
alt.games.half-life.editing
-newsgroup for Half-Life editing related
alt.games.half-life.tfclassic
-newsgroup for Half-Life: Team Fortress Classic
alt.binaries.games.half-life
-newsgroup for Half-Life binary files
http://forums.planethalflife.com/
-forum for planethalflife web site
http://marcus.sierra.com/forums/half/
-official Half-Life forum from Sierra
[8.2]: Utilities
http://www.egnus.com
-EGN: Game ping/list program
http://www.gamespy.com
-GameSpy: Game ping/list program
http://www.icq.com
-ICQ: A message/pager/chat program, used to keep in touch with friends
http://www.pingtool.com
-PingTool: Pinging program
[8.3]: Web Sites
Here are some of the websites that you can start off looking for Half-Life
information. Not all sites are listed:
http://decyber.solgames.com/halflife
-dedicated to Half-Life maps
http://halflife.gamedesign.net
-dedicated to building Half-Life maps
http://halflife.gamegurus.net/map/tutorials
-Half-Life tutorials for creating maps
http://halflife.gameplex.net
-dedicated to Half-Life
http://halflife.pcgame.com
-Once as I.AM.Half-Life site
http://www.contaminated.net
-dedicated to Half-Life, site a.k.a. www.planethalflife.com
http://www.contaminated.net/coldfusion
-models for Half-Life multiplayer
http://www.contaminated.net/radium
-dedicated to SP and MP maps for Half-Life
http://www.contaminated.net/repository
-spray painting (graffities)
http://www.halflife.org
-dedicated to Half-Life with up-to-date news
http://www.halflife.net
-dedicated to Half-Life
http://www.planetfortress.com/radium
-dedicated to Team Fortress Classic maps
http://www.sierrastudios.com/games/half-life
-official Half-Life site
CHAPTER [9]: HISTORY
v.11.27.1999 - Fourteenth version released.
v9.4.1999 - Thirteenth version released. Once text based, now HTML.
v8.22.1999 - Twelfth version released.
v6.1.1999 - Eleventh version released.
v5.9.1999 - Tenth version released
v4.24.1999 - Ninth version released.
v4.10.1999 - Eighth version released.
v2.27.1999 - Seventh version released.
v2.1.1999 - Sixth version released.
v1.23.1999 - Fifth version released.
v1.16.1999 - Fourth version released.
v1.9.1999 - Third version released.
v1.1.1999 - Second version released.
v12.22.1998 - First version released.
(c) 1998, 1999 and beyond, HQH. All rights reserved.
v11.27.1999
By: HQH
E-mail: HQH51
Format: HTML
Viewing area: Maximized window, 640x480 or higher
Searching: For quick result(s) for your desired information(s), use the Find
command in your text viewer and search for it or find the info by looking for
the section number(s) in the table of contents and click on the section
number(s) to lead you to your desired information(s).
[TABLE OF CONTENTS]
[1] INTRODUCTION
[1.1] About
[1.2] Accuracy
[1.3] Contact
[1.4] Credits
[1.5] Foreword
[1.6] Notices
[1.6.1] Disclaimer
[1.6.2] Distribution
[1.6.3] Trademark/Copyright
[2] FAQ: HALF-LIFE
[2.1] General
[2.1.1] Audio Music
[2.1.2] CD Key Location
[2.1.3] CD Related
[2.1.4] Configuration
[2.1.5] Console
[2.1.6] Content Control
[2.1.7] Cuts From Game
[2.1.8] Definition Of Half-Life
[2.1.9] Frames Per Second
[2.1.10] Game Engine
[2.1.11] Game of the Year Edition
[2.1.12] Graffiti/Spray paint
[2.1.13] Half-Life Demo
[2.1.14] Half-Life For Mac
[2.1.15] Half-Life Game Launchers
[2.1.16] HL.exe/HLDS.exe
[2.1.17] How Many Levels/Maps
[2.1.18] Linux Version
[2.1.19] Location Damages
[2.1.20] Playing/Recording Demo
[2.1.21] Requirements
[2.1.22] Running Custom Levels
[2.1.23] Screen Shots
[2.1.24] Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP)
[2.1.25] Weapons
[2.1.25.1] About
[2.1.25.2] Descriptions
[2.1.25.3] Gauss Jump/Fall
[2.1.25.4] Secondary
[2.1.25.5] Underwater Usage
[2.1.25.6] Weapon Calling
[2.1.26] What's My Half-Life Version
[2.1.27] When Installing
[2.1.28] Whole New Game
[2.2] Multi-Player
[2.2.1] Bots
[2.2.2] General
[2.2.2.1] Beginners Information
[2.2.2.2] Cheats
[2.2.2.3] Getting Started
[2.2.2.4] Map Cycles
[2.2.2.5] Models/Skins
[2.2.2.6] Observer Mode
[2.2.2.7] Orange Bar
[2.2.2.8] Talk While Playing
[2.2.2.9] WON.Net
[2.2.3] Hosting Server
[2.2.3.1] About
[2.2.3.2] Half-Life Primary Server
[2.2.3.3] Kick Players Off
[2.2.3.4] LAN and Internet players
[2.2.3.5] Linux
[2.2.3.6] Tracking Statistics
[2.2.4] Lag/Latency/Ping
[2.2.4.1] General
[2.2.4.2] Yahn's Explanation I: Latency Vs. Ping
[2.2.4.3] Yahn's Explanation II: Why HL/TFC Slow?
[2.2.4.4] Yahn's Explanation III: Laggers Creating Lag?
[2.2.5] Modes
[2.2.5.1] Co-op
[2.2.5.2] Deathmatch
[2.2.5.3] Teamplay
[2.2.5.4] Team Fortress Classic
[2.2.6] Options
[2.2.6.1] Internet
[2.2.6.2] LAN
[2.2.6.3] Modem To Modem
[2.2.6.4] Serial
[2.2.7] Proxy
[2.2.7.1] Wingate
[2.2.7.2] Winroute
[2.2.8] Team Fortress Classic
[2.2.8.1] Classes
[2.2.8.2] Maps
[2.2.8.3] FAQ
[2.2.9] Testing Multi-Player Maps Offline
[2.3] Single-Player
[2.3.1] 3rd Person View
[2.3.2] Autosave
[2.3.3] Barneys
[2.3.4] Cheats
[2.3.4.1] How To Skip Level
[2.3.5] Fun Things To Do
[2.3.6] High Jump
[2.3.7] Learn How To Play
[2.3.8] Long Jump
[2.3.9] Man In Blue/G-Man
[2.3.10] Preserving Saved Files
[2.3.11] Saved Games
[2.3.12] Walkthrough
[2.3.13] Who You Play As
[3] HALF-LIFE ADD-ONS
[3.1] Commercial
[3.1.1] Opposing Force
[3.1.2] Team Fortress II
[3.2] Modifications
[3.2.1] Action Half-Life
[3.2.2] Classic Capture The Flag
[3.2.3] Cold Ice
[3.2.4] Counter-Strike
[3.2.5] DMPlus
[3.2.6] Firepower
[3.2.7] Jailbreak
[3.2.8] Kenders That Kill
[3.2.9] Lambda Arena
[3.2.10] Oz
[3.2.11] Rocket Crowbar
[3.2.12] Sven Co-op
[3.2.13] Science and Industry
[3.2.14] Team Fortress Classic
[3.3] Total Conversions
[4] HALF-LIFE EDITING
[4.1] CFG Files
[4.2] Creating Custom Levels
[4.3] Crosshairs
[4.4] Pak Files
[4.5] SDK
[4.6] Worldcraft
[4.6.1] General
[4.6.2] Installing
[4.6.3] Mailing List
[4.6.4] Tutorials
[4.6.5] WC Editing FAQ
[5] HALF-LIFE OFFICIAL RELEASES
[5.1] Extras
[5.1.1] Maps
[5.1.2] Models
[5.1.3] Multi-Player Modes
[5.1.4] Valve Multiplayer Package
[5.2] Patches
[5.2.1] v1.0.0.6
[5.2.2] v1.0.0.8
[5.2.3] v1.0.0.9
[5.2.4] v1.0.1.0
[5.2.5] v1.0.1.3
[6] TROUBLESHOOTING
[6.1] Before Getting Started
[6.1.1] Readme.txt
[6.1.2] Scan/Defrag
[6.1.3] Update Files
[6.2] Bugs/Errors
[6.2.1] Icons Being Moved
[6.2.2] Installing/Running Game
[6.2.2.1] Bad Surface Extents
[6.2.2.2] Can not find 'vids:cvid'decompressor
[6.2.2.3] Cbuf_AddText: Overflow
[6.2.2.4] CD Key
[6.2.2.5] Could not exec 3dfx/opengl/joystick.cfg
[6.2.2.6] Crosshair Messes Up
[6.2.2.7] Dial Up Connection
[6.2.2.8] Doesn't Support Raster Operations
[6.2.2.9] Gfx/shell/btns_main.bmp
[6.2.2.10] Got A Velocity Too Low On Gib
[6.2.2.11] Invalid page fault in module HW.DLL
[6.2.2.12] Kb_keys.lst not found
[6.2.2.13] MCI File Playback:### MMSYSTEM ##
[6.2.2.14] Overflow 350 Temporary Ents
[6.2.2.15] SZ_GetSpace
[6.2.2.16] Unable To Validate CD
[6.2.2.17] Your HL Executable Has Been Modified
[6.2.2.18] Your HL Installation Corrupted/Outdated
[6.2.2.19] Z_Malloc: Failed On Allocation Of xxx Bytes
[6.2.3] LAN
[6.2.4] Multi-Player Mode
[6.2.4.1] .hpk has a bogus # of directory entries
[6.2.4.2] Attempting to connect to Won
[6.2.4.3] Bad Protocol
[6.2.4.4] Can't Swim In Water Using Jump Key
[6.2.4.5] Client.dll
[6.2.4.6] Custom file missing wad3 id
[6.2.4.7] File Mechwine Not On Server
[6.2.4.8] Host_Error:CL_Parseserver Message
[6.2.4.9] Pldecal.wad
[6.2.4.10] Stuck On Elevator
[6.2.4.11] Stuck On Ladder
[6.2.4.12] Using Decal ### Without A Name
[6.2.4.13] Warning: U_Remove on full update
[6.2.4.14] Wonau_w95.dll/Woncr_w95.dll
[6.2.4.15] Wsaenotsock
[6.2.5] Patch/Update Half-Life
[6.2.5.1] Corrupted Installation Detected
[6.2.5.2] Not a valid previous version
[6.2.5.3] Your HL Is v1.0.x.x And You Have v1.0.x.x
[6.2.6] Single-Player Mode
[6.2.6.1] Barney Dies
[6.2.6.2] Stuck/Die On Elevator
[6.2.6.3] Uninstalling
[6.2.6.4] Zoom
[6.2.7] Timedemo
[6.2.7.1] Demo Protocol Outdated
[6.3] CD Key
[6.3.1] CD Key In Use
[6.3.2] Editing
[6.3.3] Lost CD Key
[6.4] Copying Half-Life On CD-R/RW
[6.5] Direct X
[6.6] PC Hardware
[6.6.1] CD-ROM
[6.6.1.1] Audio Music
[6.6.2] Controller/Joystick
[6.6.3] CPU
[6.6.3.1] 3DNow!
[6.6.3.2] MMX
[6.6.3.3] SSE
[6.6.4] Modem
[6.6.4.1] WinModem
[6.6.5] Sound
[6.6.5.1] A3D
[6.6.5.2] Audio Music
[6.6.5.3] EAX
[6.6.5.4] Losing Sound During Gameplay
[6.6.5.5] Repeating Sound Loops
[6.6.5.6] Sound Blaster Cards
[6.6.5.7] Stuttering
[6.6.6] Video
[6.6.6.1] 3dfx
[6.6.6.2] 3DWarning
[6.6.6.3] Blue Water
[6.6.6.4] D3D
[6.6.6.5] Decals
[6.6.6.6] Matrox
[6.6.6.7] Multiple 3D Cards
[6.6.6.8] Open GL
[6.6.6.9] Screen Not Aligned
[6.6.6.10] Slow Menu
[6.6.6.11] Nvidia
[6.6.6.12] Video Tearing
[6.6.6.13] Video Too Dark
[6.6.6.14] Visual Enhancements
[6.7] Virus
[7] PERFORMANCE TIPS
[7.1] Enhance Sound Effects
[7.2] Half-Life Tweaks
[7.2.1] Autoexec.cfg
[7.2.2] Multi-Player
[7.2.3] Parameters
[7.3] PC Tweaks
[7.3.1] Bandwidth
[7.3.2] Windows 9x
[7.3.2.1] Defrag
[7.3.2.2] ScanDisk
[7.3.2.3] Turn Them Off
[7.3.2.4] Virtual Memory
[7.4] Updates
[7.4.1] Drivers
[7.4.2] Half-Life
[7.4.3] PC
[8] INTERNET RESOURCES
[8.1] Forums
[8.2] Utilities
[8.3] Web Sites
[9] HISTORY
CHAPTER [1]: INTRODUCTION
[1.1]: About
Welcome to v11.27.1999 of the Unofficial Half-Life FAQ. v11.27.1999 is the
fourteenth revision. 'Unofficial' means that
this FAQ is not supported by Valve nor Sierra. FAQ stands for: (F)requently
(A)sked (Q)uestions.
Revision classification works something like this: it goes by the date. Plain
easy and simple. Forget about v1.xxx to v2.xx. Those are just a hassle to keep
up. I rather use the date as the version of the document. Date versions are
easier to keep up with, because it's easy to tell when it was released and from
what date it was.
This is how it's laid out: v.... Isn't that easy? The version
denotes the date, in which tells you that every information in this FAQ document
is as accurate as possible, up to that date, which is the version.
This HLFAQ is and shall be updated regularly on a regular basis on my terms of
when it should be updated. The only time that this HLFAQ would be necessary to
be updated, would be when a patch for Half-Life would come out. Always expect
the HLFAQ to be updated a few days after the patch is released. I need a few
days after the patch is released because I want to gather as much information or
if there are anything needed to be said about the patch.
This FAQ was done from resources of the U.S. (English) version of Half-Life and
Windows 98. Some parts of this HLFAQ would vary in platforms and countries.
Beware for those of you that do not live in the U.S.A. Some parts may not apply
to your country, nor do I not note about it. Proud to be made in the U.S.A.
Any following updates to this HLFAQ can be access at:
http://members.xoom.com/HQH51/ Please always check to see if there's an updated
version of this HLFAQ as I tend to add more solutions and information about
Half-Life.
[1.2]: Accuracy
I'm trying to be correct and accurate as possible. Please don't hold me for
accuracy, because everybody has to make some mistakes sometime in their lives.
If you have any information, or any further information on what is in here, then
please provide them to me and I'll be sure to place them where they should be
and for accurate future reference.
If you find any instructions wrong or solutions that are incorrect, then please
let me know. I pulled these solutions that were found on the internet and other
resources, so don't hold me for accuracy. These solutions are provided as is.
Also remember that every information found in this HLFAQ is as accurate when the
FAQ was published. So anything found after the HLFAQ's release would not mean
error in the HLFAQ. The HLFAQ just needs to be updated.
[1.3]: Contact
If you have any relevant information to contribute, then please provide me with
the best grammar, and understanding English so that I could place them where
they should be and for accurate future reference. Any submitted information will
be under review and be kept as my own property. Please only send legitimate
answers. I don't want rumors or false solutions in this HLFAQ. Only valid and
correct solutions to the problems.
If you have any questions related to Half-Life and its solutions from this
HLFAQ, I would be sure to answer any, if I can, with my knowledge in certain
parts that is, what is limited to my experiences with the game and its solutions
given. But please try what solutions are given in this HLFAQ first before coming
to me. Don't be surprised if I say that the solution is in the HLFAQ. So, read
this HLFAQ before asking any help from me.
I do not do the following, but not limited to:
-give walkthroughs/help with single player mode, because it's been a long time
since I played it
-give any CD-Keys, so go buy the game
-make any mods/levels for you, so learn how by your own
-send Half-Life to you, so go buy the game
-answer any mods, like TFC, etc... questions, so visit their mod site and bug
the authors
-answer Opposing Force questions, as I do not have the add-on pack
Also, I would not give out "direct" acknowledgements or credits to solutions
given. Please read section 1.4 to find out why. Even if you say 'give me
credits' in any message sent to me, I will not give you direct credits. Don't
bother doing this.
Last but not least, any comments/suggestions for the author is acceptable
(hopefully not a lot of flames/threats). No SPAM please. Also, messages have to
be in English for me to understand of course. Anything other than English will
be trashed.
My e-mail addresses are:
HQH51@aol.com (primary; use this prior to secondary e-mail address)
HQH51@hotmail.com (secondary; if primary address no longer available)
You could also reach me at this newsgroup: alt.games.half-life
For e-mailing me, it is wise to email to both of my accounts to make sure that I
may get your e-mail.
[1.4]: Credits
Credits go to most of the people on alt.games.half-life and many other different
sources on the internet. Also, a big credit goes to Valve for creating a kick
ass game for PC and Sierra On-Line for publishing it. And last but not least,
anybody who contributed to this FAQ.
You see, I can't really give "direct" credits to people who gave me solutions or
help me out on the HLFAQ. Because I'm taking precautions not putting down names,
because if I do, there will be people who would send in solutions already, when
someone else already gave me the solution, and when I do publish the HLFAQ, they
would wonder why they aren't getting the credits that they deserve. So that's
why the above says it all about giving out credits.
All I want for me is credit on gathering all these information and putting it in
the HLFAQ. That's it. I don't want to claim most solutions found in this HLFAQ,
because most of them aren't mine.
[1.5]: Foreword
Please read through the whole HLFAQ if possible. You might not know until you
try something on accident and fix things that make Half-Life all better. You'll
never know until you find out. This HLFAQ is on its fourteenth revision. Also I
might add that around this time, it's Half-Life one year anniversary. An add-on
pack is also released - Opposing Force.
[1.6]: Notices
Just a few words of notices.
[1.6.1]: Disclaimer
The purpose of this FAQ is to aid the public regarding questions about Half-
Life, by Valve. In no way should this promote suicidal, killing others, killing
in any other fashion, or result to violence.
I, the author, claims no responsibility what so ever, if anything from this
HLFAQ corrupts, damages, screws up, faulted with, created errors, or do anything
else that harms your computer, creating data lost, or anything with you or with
the world for all I care, I claim no responsibility!
[1.6.2]: Distribution
I. Sending copies
A. The copies are exact and complete
B. The copies give credit to the author
C. The copies are in the original form
II. Distributing this work
A. Remains original from work and should not be edited
B. Does not charge a fee for copying or distribution
III. Distributed form includes the author's notes and information
A. The distributed form is not in any magazine or within software
(permission may be obtained from author)
If you have any questions about distributing this HLFAQ of any kind, don't wait
on it - contact me. We'll discuss it.
[1.6.3]: Trademark/Copyright
Half-Life:
(c) 1998 Sierra On-Line, Inc. or Valve L.L.C. All rights reserved. (r) and/or
(tm) designate trademarks of, or licensed to Sierra On-Line, Inc., Bellevue, WA
98007. This product contains software technology licensed from id Software, Inc.
("id Technology"). id Technology (c) 1996-1998 id Software, Inc. All rights
reserved.
FAQ:
Me, myself, and I, the author of this FAQ!
CHAPTER [2]: FAQ: HALF-LIFE
If this HLFAQ doesn't provide you the solution you're looking for, you may try
at these websites:
Won.net's Trouble Shooting Guide
Sierra's Tech Support Knowledge Database
PC Game's Half-Life FAQ
[2.1]: General
Half-Life was released around Thanksgiving of 1998. It was named game of the
year. The game is great, especially the single player mode.
[2.1.1]: Audio Music
Half-Life has some cool sound tracks on the CD. Sound tracks are playable from
track 2 through track 28. Most of them are just background sound FXs, but there
are some that are techno like music. Audio tracks 15 and 25 are one of the best
ones. Try those tracks. You'll love them.
[2.1.2]: CD Key Location
If you're looking for the CD Key for Half-Life, the CD Key is on the back of
your Half-Life's jewel CD case. It's a 13 digit
number in this format: xxxx-xxxxx-xxxx. It runs down the side vertically. The CD
Key is printed on a King Quest advertisement. For foreign countries, some are on
a sticker. If you find that you do not have the CD Key anywhere found on the
jewel CD case, return the game back immediately and get yourself a new copy and
this time, you should get one with a CD Key included.
[2.1.3]: CD Related
How many CDs does Half-Life come in?
-Was rumored to be two, but only one CD. Valve compressed the files so that it
can fit all under one CD.
Is there any pirate protection?
-Yes, there are two kinds: CD check and CD Key.
How much space does the game takes up?
-Full installation; about 366 MB on FAT32 or 460 MB on FAT16. There are no other
alternatives. If you don't have at least 500 MB of free space, then you're
doomed and "Shit Out-of Luck" (SOL). I say 500 MB free space, because take the
save games into account, which the save games are over 1 MB per each saved games
and add-on maps in the near future for downloads. See what I mean?
What's installed on my HDD?
-Everything except for the music sound tracks.
Is there any options to cut down the installation? It takes up too much space!
-No. No options are given. Full installation is the only option. But you can
remove some of the movie files that are useless (well, sort of) in the Half-Life
folder. Dig deep in all of the folders in Half-Life and look for any files that
has an extension of .avi or .mpg. Those are the movie files. There should be
about four of those movies taking up a lot of space. Delete them.
Can I share the game with my fellow friends?
-Yes and no. Yes: You can if you want to. No: If you do, and if your friend
tries out the multiplayer part of the game, then you're SOL,because you can't
play because your friend just stole your entire internet access identification
for Half-Life.
Once I install the game, do I need the CD to play?
-Yes, it checks the CD if it's there, and if you're gonna play audio music from
the CD (not sound effects), then you need the CD. The only time that you do not
need the CD is playing multiplayer mode.
Does multiplayer mode require the CD?
-No, you can play without the CD. No patches required to do so.
Is there background music for Half-Life?
-Yes there is, but only at certain times. It doesn't play background music in
loops. Certain spots can only call on the background music, and it won't loop.
So, you will only get to hear it once, and it'll all go quiet again.
[2.1.4]: Configuration
To configure Half-Life, launch Half-Life-> Configurations-> Controls. If you
edit a file called config.cfg (v1.0.0.9+), then do not do it anymore. Half-Life
regenerates that file every time Half-Life is executed. You will lose everything
changed in that file. See section 4.1 for further details.
[2.1.5]: Console
To be able to use the console in Half-Life in single player mode, you must do
one of the following:
1. Start Menu-> Run-> type in: :\\Hl.exe -console
x=HDD
hl dir=Where Half-Life's directory resides in
2. Create a shortcut of Hl.exe, then-> (right click on the created shortcut)
Properties-> Shortcut tab-> Target box-> put in " -console" after hl.exe.
Example: hl.exe -console
3. Update the game to at least v1.0.0.9 and the console option will be listed in
the main menu.
4. Update the game to at least v1.0.0.9 and go to Start Menu-> Programs->
Sierra-> Half-Life-> Half-Life Console.
After enabling the console, you could access the console throughout the game by
pressing the [~] key (near the [Esc] key). In a multiplayer game, the console is
already accessible. Just hit the [~] key and it should bring down the console.
For some foreign country keyboards, try the [`] key, next to the [1] and [Esc]
key.
To get more information on the console, visit:
http://halflife.pcgame.com/console.htm
To assign another key to access the console, issue this command in the console:
bind "" toggleconsole
[2.1.6]: Content Control
Are there people out there that feel that your kids shouldn't be influenced by
all these blood and guts or if you feel that some of the aspects of Half-Life
may not be appropriate, then do the following to reduce the violent visuals in
Half-Life: Launch Half-Life-> Configuration-> Content Control-> Check the box
'Active content control' and put in a password. Make sure you know the password,
or you may need to uninstall the game to remove the content control.
[2.1.7]: Cuts From Game
When Half-Life was released, some of the models and weapons that were found in
reviews on the internet didn't make it. They were cut at the final version, but
still embedded in the game, but not all the way finished. Here's a quick look at
some of what was cut out from the game: http://www.contaminated.net/half-
life/lifeforms3.shtm
[2.1.8]: Definition Of Half-Life
Half-Life can be defined as: the time required for half of a sample of
radioactive atoms to decay. For an example: The radioactive isotope Iodine
([mass]131/[atomic #]53) of 1 gram, has a half-life of 8.07 days period. So,
starting off with 1 gram, there is no half-life (0 day). After one half-life
period (8.07 days), Iodine is now only .5 gram. After two half-life periods
(16.14 days), Iodine is now only .25 gram. This process keeps repeating on and
on... The time increases as the mass of the radioactive isotope shrinks. Half-
life of radioactive ranges from seconds to many years. All radioactive samples
have different half-lives.
[2.1.9]: Frames Per Second
There are a few ways to get frames per second (fps):
1. During mid game, type the following in the console:
developer 1
host_speeds 1
This should provide real-time fps during game play.
2. Use the -gamegauge parameter. Check it out in section 7.2.3 Parameters. It
will tell you how to use it.
3. Record a demo or get one, then within the console, type the following: gg
You do not need to type the demo's name with the three letter extension. Just
the file name, that's it. Check out section 2.1.20 to know how to record your
own demo. You may not need to type in cl_gg 1. Also, when running gg (Game
Gauge), Half-Life will dump a file call fps.txt in the \Half-Life\Valve\
directory. Open that up and it'll tell you your fps records.
4. During mid game, type this in the console: timerefresh. Although to me, this
is very unrealistic number, can't be trusted.
5. Record a demo or get a demo, then type this within the console: timedemo
Do not type the demo's name with the three letter extension. Just the file name,
that's it. Check out section 2.1.20 to know how to record your own demo.
[2.1.10]: Game Engine
Valve originally licensed the source for Quake from id Software and they began
working on that code around October of 1996. Between that time and the time they
finished Half-Life in October of 1998, they modified/removed/created something
like 70% of the code.
[2.1.11] Game of the Year Edition
The only difference with the original version of Half-Life and the Game of the
Year Edtion of Half-Life is the program's version, a redesigned box, the TFC
mod,Edition and the inclusion of Worldcraft v2.1 beta. The program version of
GotYE is at v1.0.0.9, while the original program version is at v1.0.0.5. The
only reason to buy this game is for people who haven't bought the game and save
time downloading a 20 MB patch (you have to do so on the original version,
because it's at v1.0.0.5). The GotYE is patched up to v1.0.0.9, but it doesn't
stop there. You will be required to download other patches if you want to play
multiplayer that is. The current version of Half-Life is at v1.0.1.3.
Note that some versions of Game of the Year maybe at v1.0.1.1. To check what
version you have currently with Half-Life, see section 2.1.26.
[2.1.12]: Graffiti/Spray paint
Is it true?
-Yes it is.
How many times can I spray paint?
-Once per life in multiplayer, then every frag that you get, you can spray paint
again. Also can be spray painted more than once if the server sets the
decalfrequency from its defaulted 30 seconds value. Defaulted every 30 seconds,
you can spray paint again after ever 30 seconds. For single player mode, it's
how much decalfrequency is set to. To check this out, type this in the console:
decalfrequency and whatever number goes after the command is the numbers of
seconds to delay for the next spray paint action to be available.
Example: decalfrequency 1
This means that you can spray paint after every 1 second.
Can I make my own graffiti?
-Yes, please refer to the readme.txt for instructions.
I see people with cool graffities. Can I use their graffities?
-Yes it can. There's a decal ripper that at:
http://www.planetquake.com/dl/dl.asp?half-life/decal-model/drip.zip
Sometimes I spray paint and the image is reversed or flipped upside-down.
-The reasons is how the textures of the wall/floor/ceiling are arranged and
aligned in the game. You got to put up with it. Nothing can be done.
Can I change the time on how long I can spray paint again?
-For single player, just drop down the console and type this in: decalfrequency
xx
Where xx = how many seconds delay do you want it to be before you can spray
paint again. Example: decalfrequency 1 This means that you can spray paint after
every 1 second. For multiplayer, the server can only set how much decalfrequency
can be.
[2.1.13]: Half-Life Demo
There is currently a demo released for Half-Life. The only demo that there is of
Half-Life is Half-Life: Uplink. You can get the demo at the following places:
http://www.planethalflife.com/dl/dl.asp?planethalflife/hluplink.exe
ftp://ftp.sierra.com/pub/demos/pc/hluplink.exe
ftp://ftp.pcgamer.com/demos/hluplink.exe
Please be aware that the demo is about 48.5 MB (about 50,872,079 bytes), and
would consume a lot of time downloading. It is also easy to get the demo
corrupted, so be prepared to re-download it again if it's necessary. The demo
needs less than 100 MB to be used when installed (about 89.1 MB on FAT32).
The demo is done by PCGamer and Valve, and it takes place after Half-Life's main
settings (the retail game that is). Cheats can only be fully usable if you use
the lite (down below) version. For the demo version, there are some cheats that
you can use like getting the weapons that only appear in the version, like the
MP5, etc.
If you're looking for a walkthrough for this demo, here's a link to a
walkthrough for this demo:
http://home.earthlink.net/~thrawn1/Uplink_walk_thru.htm
If you have the full retail version of Half-Life, and want to play the new
levels from the Half-Life: Uplink, then here's a 3.7 MB
download instead of the 48.5 MB (lite version). Note: you must have the full
version or it won't run. Here's the link:
ftp://ftp.game1.com/pub/randy/misc/uplink_lite.exe
Here's the storyline for this demo:
Set 48 hours after the containment failure at the Black Mesa Lab, Half-Life:
Uplink finds Gordon Freeman attempting to manually adjust the uplink tower so he
and some scientists can reach the lower level of the compound. Along the way, he
faces all sorts of horrors...
[2.1.14]: Half-Life For Mac
Bad news. After the announcement of a Macintosh version of Half-Life being
developed, the Mac version of Half-Life has been canceled. Read the original
announcement:
From: Gabe Newell
There's been a lot of speculation about Half-Life for the Macintosh - its
feature set, its compatibility with the PC version, and so on. Andrew Meggs at
Logicware has been doing a good job on the port, and it's mostly done. At this
point we've spent a bunch of money on the Mac product and have spent a lot of
time thinking about what we need to do to make sure Macintosh users are happy
with it when it ships.
Which is why we are canceling the Macintosh version of Half-Life.
When we started Mac Half-Life, there was a lot of optimism about the opportunity
for Macintosh games. As someone who worked on Macintosh software starting in
1983 before the 128K Mac had shipped, it was pretty exciting to think that there
was going to be a resurgence in the Mac gaming market.
However, as we got closer to shipping the product and reality set in, it was
increasingly obvious that in order for us to break even on the Mac version, much
less be profitable, we were going to have to cut some corners. OK - I guess we
won't have Team Fortress Classic available at shipment. Maybe people will accept
it if we update them with TFC later. OK - I guess I understand why we don't have
an automatic update facility. Maybe people will accept that they have to
manually update. OK - I guess I understand why we might carve out a separate
multiplayer space for Mac users from PC users because of the on-going
interoperability issues. Maybe that won't be the disaster I think it will be.
But the more I thought about it, the more I felt that this was nonsense. Our
existing Half-Life customers are really happy with us. They were happy with the
original game, they were happy when we released TFC, they were happy with our
on-going investment in Half-Life, and there's even more coming for them in the
next couple of months. They are happy because we do our best for them, and
that's what they expect from us in the future. Given the realities of the Mac
gaming market, our Mac customers were always going to be mad at us. They were
always going to be second-class customers where we couldn't invest to the same
degree in the Mac version as we did elsewhere. I don't want to be in that
business. I would much rather we just eat the money we've spent so far than take
money from Mac customers and short-change them.
It's disappointing to me on a personal basis that we won't ship Half-Life for
the Mac. Everyone here, and I'm sure the people at Logicware are disappointed.
The Mac gamers who were looking forward to Half-Life are undoubtedly
disappointed as well. However that's a lot less disappointment than what would
have happened if we had tried to get Mac gamers to accept second-class treatment
on an on-going basis.
Gabe
Here's the original announcement of Mac version of Half-Life being developed:
Macintosh Half-Life Press Release
SIERRA STUDIOS TO DELIVER BEST-SELLING HALF-LIFE TO THE MAC
BELLEVUE, WA (April 23, 1999) -- Sierra Studios(tm) announced today their hit
game Half- Life will be available for Macintosh gamers this fall. Originally
developed by Valve Software, the Macintosh version of the game will be developed
by Southern California-based Logicware, recognized for Macintosh gaming
development and well-known for working with some of the top computer game
publishers in the industry. "The PC version has sold nearly one million units
worldwide - bringing Half-Life to the Mac is a natural next step, especially
since there is such unwavering devotion in the Macintosh gaming community," said
Jim Veevaert, director of marketing for Sierra Studios. "We are excited to be
working with a company like Logicware that has such a strong reputation in the
Mac gaming market." Half-Life combines the visceral action of legendary action
games like Quake with great storytelling in the tradition of Stephen King. Named
Game of the Year by 40 publications worldwide, it is by far one of the most
popular first-person action thriller games on the market. More information can
be found at www.gameoftheyear.com.
Logicware was formed in 1995 to create fun, cutting edge games for computers
and console systems. Founded and run by entertainment industry veterans,
Logicware has developed a multitude of original titles and conversions on a
variety of platforms. In late 1997, Logicware began publishing games for the Mac
OS. Logicware is now one of the premiere game publishers for the Macintosh
market. Logicware is located east of Los Angeles in Covina, California. Sierra
On-Line, Inc. is one of the original developers and largest worldwide publishers
of interactive entertainment and productivity software. Sierra is comprised of
five brands: Sierra Attractions(tm), SierraHome(tm), Sierra Sports(tm), Sierra
Studios(tm), and Dynamix(tm), a Sierra Company. Sierra is a division of Havas
Interactive, whose holdings also include Knowledge Adventure(r), Blizzard
Entertainment(r) and WON.net(tm).
[2.1.15]: Half-Life Game Launchers
Here are some game launchers that are offered for Half-Life. Some of these game
launchers contain more special options than others. These are all sorts of
launchers. Be sure to visit all of them to know what they are. Here they are:
http://halflife.gameplex.net/hlfe/
http://prax.halflifehq.com/
http://www.contaminated.net/hlsad/
http://www.planethalflife.com/degraz/
http://www.planethalflife.com/hlgl/
http://www.planethalflife.com/hlhelper/
[2.1.16]: HL.exe/HLDS.exe
HL.EXE = Half-Life main game program that you use to play the game.
HLDS.EXE = (H)alf (L)ife (D)edicated (S)erver for multiplayer hosting program
only.
[2.1.17]: How Many Levels/Maps
Straight off from the CD:
-96 maps for single player mode
-8 maps for multiplayer mode
-7 maps for hazard course mode
Single player levels (17 of them in order):
1. Anomalous Materials
2. Unforeseen Consequences
3. Office Complex
4. We've Got Hostile
5. Blast Pit
6. Power Up
7. On A Rail
8. Apprehension
9. Residue Processing
10. Questionable Ethics
11. Surface Tension
12. Forget About Freeman
13. Lambda Core
14. Xen
15. Gonarch's Lair
16. Interloper
17. Nihilanth
[2.1.18] Linux Version
There is only a Linux version of the server side of Half-Life. No clients have
been available. To check out the server side program for Linux, visit section
2.2.3.5 for further details.
[2.1.19]: Location Damages
Half-Life offers location damage. Head shots counts more and damages more than
any other body parts. It would take less shots to kill if shot in the head.
Shoot anywhere else, it would take more to kill. Location damage are: head,
arms, legs, and chest. Head shot beats the chest shot beats the arms and legs
shots. So aim for the head to take more damage! Head shot counts three times as
much. Everything else to the body is one times the damage. Location damage is
provided in single player and multiplayer mode. So take advantage of the
location damage.
[2.1.20]: Playing/Recording Demo
To record a demo, type this in the console: record . The filename part
is anything you wish to call the demo as. It is best to have it under 8
characters. To play the demo, type this in the console: timedemo
If there's a custom made timedemo that you want to use, then put the timedemo
under the \Half-Life\Valve\ folder and then do the above to play the timedemo.
If you are using the timedemo to tell how much fps your computer is pumping out,
visit section 2.1.9.
For any other mods that the timedemo was recorded in, that's where you find it.
Say, you recorded a timedemo from TFC. The timedemo of the TFC session can be
found under \Half-Life\TFC\.
Any timedemo found on the internet or where ever available, only the timedemo
that was recorded under Half-Life can only be played back under that original
version. Say I recorded a timedemo under v1.0.0.6 for Half-Life. Only v1.0.0.6
can play back that timedemo only. No other version of Half-Life can play them
back.
Any timedemo that was recorded on a analog connection or any connection that has
very high latency on the internet, there will be apparent skips/jumps when
played back. People with very low latency should be able to record fine.
With v1.0.0.8 patch, the timedemo option is corrupted and can't be used. Upon
running the timedemo, at the end of the timedemo, Half-Life would crash, and
dump you back out on the desktop, and perhaps a GPF (General Protection Fault)
error message. So be warned, timedemo won't work with v1.0.0.8 only . Other
versions would work, but not with v1.0.0.8. Getting the latest patch, v1.0.0.9
or higher, the timedemo should work.
With v1.0.1.0 patch, the option to play back single player timedemo is not
available and will return an error stating that the map is different from the
server.
[2.1.21]: Requirements
Minimum:
~~~~~~~~
Windows(r) 95, Windows 98 or Windows NT 4.0
Pentium 133+, 24 MB RAM
SVGA, high color (16-bit)
2x CD-ROM drive
Windows-compatible sound card
Mouse, keyboard
Preferred:
~~~~~~~~~~
Pentium 166+
32 MB RAM
3D accelerator card (Open GL or Direct3D)
Multiplayer:
~~~~~~~~~~~~
32-bit Internet Service Provider (ISP)
28.8+ modem or LAN
[2.1.22]: Running Custom Levels
To run custom made user maps like single player made levels, do the following:
1. Place the .bsp file(s) into :\\Valve\Maps\
Example: C:\Sierra\Half-Life\Valve\Maps\
2. Get into Half-Life's console and type this in: map
Example: map boot_camp
OR
Edit your HL parameter to be like this: hl.exe +map
Example: hl.exe +map crossfire
Note: leave out the .bsp file extension, it's unnecessary.
Note: the maps used in the examples are multiplayer maps. Just use the actual
names of the single player maps. Note 2: when playing the single player made
levels, beware that you may not get the HEV/HUD on your screen. You may actually
need to find the HEV suit somewhere in the level somewhere. But there are levels
made that you may not use the HEV/get HUD.
[2.1.23]: Screen Shots
To take screen shots during mid game in Half-Life, all you need to do is hit the
key [F5]. However, you can take unlimited screen shots depending how much free
space you have where Half-Life is installed. There are pictures that take around
300 KB to a few MBs or so depending on what Half-Life was rendered in. Software
mode provides small file size pictures while Open GL/D3D are big file sized
pictures. You can find the pictures dumped under \Half-Life\ folder.
[2.1.24] Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP)
For those people who runs SMP, Half-Life does not take any advantages. Half-Life
was not coded to take in any SMP instructions.
[2.1.25]: Weapons
Here are some information on the weapons in Half-Life. By the way, there are
reloading action, so there's some realistic to reloading ammunition into these
weapons. If you happen to switch to a different gun when it's out of shells, and
you come back to the weapon again, you got to reload it.
[2.1.25.1]: About
How many weapons are given in the game?
-14 weapons to choose from, to be exact.
What are the weapons?
-357 Magnum
-9mm hand gun
-Crossbow
-Crowbar
-Egon (gluon gun)
-Gauss (tau cannon)
-Hand grenade
-Hornet gun
-MP5
-RPG
-Satchel
-Shotgun
-Snark
-Tripmine
[2.1.25.2]: Descriptions
-357 Magnum: One powerful revolver hand gun
-9mm Hand gun: Basic pistol
-Crossbow: Bows and arrows, felt tipped explosives (multiplayer only)
-Crowbar: What it sounds like and says
-Egon (gluon gun): Bluish hosing lightning gun
-Gauss (tau cannon): Yellow radiation shard shooter - could 'rocket jump', acts
like a rail gun and could shoot through walls
-Hand grenade: What it sounds like and says
-Hornet gun: Shoots out hornets
-MP5: A sub machinegun with grenade (M203) launching capabilities
-RPG: (R)ocket (P)ropelled (G)renade launcher with laser guided assistance
-Satchel: Just like a pipe bomb, and could be detonate anytime
-Shotgun: Pump action shotgun, also a double shotgun, two in one style
-Snark: A small creature that attacks living creatures
-Tripmine: A laser trip mine
[2.1.25.3]: Gauss Jump/Fall
Gauss jump is a term that is given to how the Gauss gun can be used. Just like
the 'rocket jump' from Quake x series, Gauss jump is actually the same thing,
except that it's not done by a rocket launcher, but the Gauss gun instead.
All you have to do, is grab the Gauss gun, charge up the gun by holding down the
alternative fire (secondary fire) key down, letting the gun charge up to 9
cells, look at the floor, and release the payload and up you go! The difference
with Gauss gun, is that you don't really need to jump at all, like the rocket
jump in Quake x series to get even higher elevations.
The Gauss jump can only be used in multiplayer. Beware, the Gauss jump does not
give you damage, like the rocket jump does in Quake x series does. But the only
damage that you're going to get from this Gauss jump is, when you fall down from
that great heights that you just achieved.
Gauss fall just means charge up the gauss gun via secondary fire and when you're
about to fall and hit the ground hard and lose life, you would fire into the
ground, giving you an air break and fall down safely and lose no health.
[2.1.25.4]: Secondary
Here are some secondary firing using these weapons:
-357 Magnum: zooms in (only in multiplayer)
-9mm Hand gun: rapid fire
-Crossbow: zooms in
-Gauss: charge up to 9 cells and fires in straight beam
-Hornet gun: rapid non-heat seeking style
-MP5: grenade (M203) launcher
-RPG: laser guide assistance
-Satchel: lay down another satchel
-Shotgun: double barrel shotgun style
[2.1.25.5]: Underwater Usage
Here are some weapons that work under water:
-9mm hand gun
-Crossbow
-Crowbar
-Hand grenade
-Hornet gun
-RPG
-Satchel
-Tripmine
[2.1.25.6]: Weapon Calling
Weapons are divided into five sections. They are bound to the numbers from 1-5
on the keyboard. The five sections are as followed:
1: Crowbar
2: Pistol; 357 Magnum
3: MP5; Shotgun; Crossbow
4: RPG; Gauss; Egon; Hornet gun
5: Hand grenade; Satchel; Trip mine; Snark
To access the weapons, press the number x amount of times to cycle through the
collection of weapons to select what you want. For an example: If you want to
get the 357 magnum, press the number 2 twice to access the 357 magnum.
[2.1.26]: What's My Half-Life Version
Here are some ways to check what Half-Life version you are running:
1. Go to where HL.exe exists (default at C:\Sierra\Half-Life\). Right click on
the HL.exe and select Properties. Select the Version tab. In the Item name box,
select the Product version. It will then display the version number to the right
box under Value.
2. Go into the console of Half-Life and type in: version
3. In the console up in the right hand corner, it will tell the version of the
game.
4. In the main menu down in the lower right hand corner, it will tell the
version of the game's version. (v1.0.1.3+)
Note: If you bought the original Half-Life, the version is at v1.0.0.5. If you
bought Half-Life: Game of the Year, the version is at either v1.0.0.9 or
v1.0.1.1.
[2.1.27]: When Installing
Check out section 6.2.2 for information on installing Half-Life.
[2.1.28]: Whole New Game
The game could be played over again by extracting out a file called skill.cfg
from the pak0.pak. Get the editor that would extract this file at:
http://www.planetquake.com/qped/. Getting this file would allow you to change
the damage and the health of all the weapons and enemies in the whole game.
[2.2]: Multi-Player
Here are some multiplayer information.
[2.2.1]: Bots
Bots, shorten from robots, are AI (artificial intelligence) controlled by the
computer. These are virtual opponents that you can play against in multiplayer
mode offline (not being on the Internet). This means that you can play
multiplayer mode without being on the Internet, since you now have virtual
players to play against. For now, currently, the bots available are only known
to work for deathmatch. No mods (like TFC, Counter-Strike, etc...) have bots
yet.
There are currently some bots. Here are the site to get these bots:
http://www.contaminated.net/phineas/ - The Phineas bot
http://www.telefragged.com/thefatal/jumblow.shtml - The Jumbot bot
To check out on the developers of bots, check out these sites:
http://www.botepidemic.com/bots/halflife.shtml
http://www.contaminated.net/hlbc/
[2.2.2]: General
Here are some general information about multiplayer mode for Half-Life.
[2.2.2.1]: Beginners Information
It is advised that you venture through Half-Life multiplayer menu and set up
your configurations. Also, using the Quick Start for Internet Games can be
useful for the first few times before you advance to using the in game server
browser.
[2.2.2.2]: Cheats
You can cheat in multiplayer mode, granted that you're hosting your own server.
You need to enter in sv_cheats 1 before starting the game, or switch maps to
take the cheats into affect. You can use the regular cheat codes for single
player mode in multiplayer mode. The only codes that won't work would be the god
mode and noclip mode.
[2.2.2.3]: Getting Started
To get started for multiplayer mode, it is advised that you go through the Half-
Life multiplayer menus and set up your configurations. Also, create a cfg that
has some multiplayer tweaks for online. See section 7.2.2 for multiplayer
tweaks.
[2.2.2.4]: Map Cycles
There is a file called mapcycle.txt in your \Half-Life\Valve\ directory.
Whenever hosting, edit this file and put in whatever maps you want it to rotate
after a certain limit of the level to end going to the next map.
[2.2.2.5]: Models/Skins
Bundled with Half-Life, Half-Life offers you five choices to pick which models
should represent you in multiplayer: Scientist, HGrunt, Helmet, Gordon, or Gina.
The default is on Gordon or Helmet. To pick others, make sure you hit
previous/next to see what you like to pick.
A model is like a human being. A skin is like the clothes for the human being.
Models are edited and change its polygons around. A skin is just like some
clothes for the models. So try not to confuse the two. A model is a few hundred
KBs big, and the skins a few KBs.
If you downloaded models, and use them in multiplayer, then youneed to know
this: if other people have the model that you have and currently using, then
they can see you. If the opponents don't have the model that you got, then they
see you as some other kind of model, replaced by the five originals if they
don't got the model that you're using.
To manually install models/skins, create a directory named after the model/skin
under \Half-Life\Valve\Player\
To know how to make skins, then go to http://www.contaminated.net/wavelength/
To view the models from a program instead of doing a test run in a LAN game, go
here and get the program:
http://www.swissquake.ch/chumbalum-soft/hlmv/index.html.
If you want to learn how to create models, go to
http://www.planethalflife.com/coldfusion/tutorials/intro.htm
By the way, you'll be required to have some 3D program, especially 3D Studio Max
(More than $3000). But if you don't have 3D Studio Max, then you can get
Milkshape 3D at: http://www.swissquake.ch/chumbalum-soft/
[2.2.2.6]: Observer Mode
The only way to be in observer mode is to have the server to set the command
"mp_forcerespawn 0" (no quotes, and it's a zero). If the command is set to 0,
then all you need to do to get into observer is to die. After dying, don't press
anything. You will then be shifted to an observer view. There's no way to move
throughout the map, so you're stuck in one spot to view action.
[2.2.2.7] Orange Bar
That orange bar that you see under your health when first time logging into the
server to play means that you're downloading other people's decals. You can
disable by going to section 7.2.2 and check it out.
[2.2.2.8]: Talk While Playing
Here are two great programs to use during gameplay:
1. Roger Wilco: http://www.resounding.com
2. BattleCom: http://www.shadowfactor.com
These two programs add new strategies to online gaming. This allows you and your
buddies talk while playing, transmitting voice and hear the warnings faster than
typing the warning messages out. Provided that you have a blazing fast
connection, then it's worth the download to try out these programs. A warning
for those who have less than a 56k modem: don't even think about getting it.
Sending the voice takes away at least 1KB of your uploading bandwidth. Now when
playing and talking, expect to lag like hell if there are more than 2 people on
the server. These programs should be used on high bandwidth connections. But
like I said, this is a warning for you low bandwidths people who want to try
this thing out.
[2.2.2.9] WON.Net
People have mistakenly to have thought that when they get connected to the
internet and launch Half-Life, and when they log onto a server, they think that
they're actually playing on WON.Net's server. This is very false. When you try
to connect to the server, you only log onto WON.Net's authentication server so
that your CD Key can be checked. After it's authenticated, you are then
disconnected from WON.Net's authentication server and then onto your real server
that you wish to be on. Read section 2.2.4.2 for further details on the
explanation.
[2.2.3]: Hosting Server
Here are some words about hosting a server.
[2.2.3.1] About
Please keep in mind that for folks out there that have less than an ISDN who
decides to host and knows nothing about bandwidth and serving a server should
not host. Most people out there who thinks a 56k modem can handle more than 1-2
clients is wanting a slap in the face. Please don't try to run a server with a
56k modem, except that you just want to host it between you and your friend,
then that's fine. But if you decide to host with a 56k modem running a server
with 2+ clients on your server, on the internet, then don't even think about it.
Let those who have higher bandwidth do it. 56k modem doesn't have the bandwidth
on what it got to require to hold more than 2 clients. If you do decide to host
with your 56k modem and wonder why your client(s) have such a high latency and
you have such low latency, then you really need a slap. I'm sorry to say, but
you would really need a slap.
A minimum ideal spec of a PC server would be the following:
CPU: Pentium II
RAM: 64MB of RAM
Bandwidth: ISDN speed or higher
The above is just for minimal serving server, like for 2-4 players. Any higher,
and the requirements for a good server with many clients will shoot straight up.
Whenever hosting a server, like on the internet, beware that your server and
your IP address will be broadcast all over the world in seconds. Yes, this is
true. Your server will be enlisted in Half-Life's own built in server browser.
Anybody can join in at will.
The only way to keep the server private between your friends, you would have to
make a password for the server. You'll see the password option when you're going
to host, if you do it in the Half-Life menu. They will have to enter the
password and it'll be limited to you and your friends. Make sure your friend
knows the password, because when they do connect to your server, Half-Life will
prompt them with the password box and needs the password to connect to your
server.
When hosting, all you need to know, is your own IP address. You can get your IP
address by going to Start Menu-> Run. Type in: winipcfg. From there, it'll give
you your IP address. Now, write down that number and give it to your friends.
After giving the IP address to your friends, all they have to do now is just
drop down their console, type in:
connect xxxxxxxxx
Where xxxxxxxxx = your IP address
You wouldn't need to worry about the port number, like 27015 or whatever after
your IP address. Half-Life should take care of that. Your friends should connect
after typing in connect xxxxxxxxx.
A good site to get some more information about hosting a server is at:
http://www.contaminated.net/server/ . This site has commands and tips to make
your life easier hosting a Half-Life server.
Http://halflife.pcgame.com/console/server.htm is a site that has a list of
server commands. Also, here's a site for FAQ Server:
http://www.contaminated.net/server/archives/faq1.html
If you're running HLDS.exe (Half Life Dedicated Server program), and you want to
play on your own server, you need to add this command to HL.exe: -port 27016
This will allow you to connect to your own dedicated server. If you don't use
this parameter command, then you will not be able to connect to your own
dedicated server. This command changes what the dedicated server listens on what
port. Default is 27015.
One easy way to run a server is go to this site: http://hlman.stomped.com/. This
site provides a program for you to use and to configure the server easier. If
people are having problems connecting to your server, try adding "sv_validate 0"
(no quotes) to \Sierra\Half-Life\valve\server.cfg and add "setmaster none" to
your \Sierra\Half-Life\valve\autoexec.cfg. You can now log on to the server
without validation.
If you host a Half-Life server, like say at work, and you go home and play on
your work's server, you can also set aadministration password for the remote
server. At the work's Half-Life server, type: rcon_password ""
and at home on your computer type:rcon_password "". If you
want to change something, like the map, all you have to do is type: rcon
"" to change the settings for your server. Example: rcon map datacore
[2.2.3.2] Half-Life Primary Server
There's a free serving program for people who would like to make a Half-Life
server without buying the game. This is only the server side and not playable.
The downloadable file link is: http://ftp.won.net/pub/half-
life/hlserver4013.exe. Get that program. It is v4.0.1.3 (the latest, Valve
decided to change the first digit to not confuse with client patch, instead of
1, it's now going to be a 4). Beware, this is only a server side program (you
can't play) and the program is very big when downloading. The program is about
87,111,918 Bytes (85,070 KB or 83 MB).
There's a mailing list for people interested in discussion about Half-Life/TFC
dedicated server issues, for Win32. To join the list, mail
majordomo@lists.caitiff.com with "subscribe hlds" in the body. If you have
install questions or problems, email the mailing list: hlds@lists.caitiff.com.
[2.2.3.3] Kick Players Off
If you have some corrupted people making an ass out of themselves, and you don't
like them on the server, you can do the following things to get rid of them:
1. Kick them off your server: To do this, pull down the console, and type kick
. Ex: kick Jack
2. If they come back repeatedly on your server and abuse the server, you can ban
those S.O.B.s by the following: bring down the console, and type status. Write
down the username's IP address. Now, still in the console, type in addip 0 . Addip is the command to invoke banning a certain IP address. Following
the command addip is the number zero. Zero means banned permanently from the
server. Change the number (the number is in minutes) other than zero to let the
person come back on for a certain amount of minutes you specified.
is the IP address that you wrote down when you typed in status in the console.
Input the IP address that you want to banish that person off your server. After
issuing the addip command, confirm the banning of an IP address by typing in the
console listip. After this, kick the player off once more and then that would be
the last that you would ever see that jerk on your server.
If you have a player using the ~ or ` anywhere in the name, then there's another
way to kick them off instead trying to hit the ~ or ` key and end up pulling
down the console. Do the following:
1. Bring down the console and type in: status
2. Scroll up/down the console and find the appropriate player that you want to
kick off via their id #.
3. After finding the player, type this into the console: banid 0 kick
Banid is the usuage of using id to ban, the 0 is for how many minutes they can
join back in, which is never, , and kick is the command
to kick them off while you ban them.
[2.2.3.4] LAN and Internet players
If you want to host a server over the internet and want your LAN to play on the
server with you, do the following things from the console:
sv_lan 0 (to allow internet opponents to join)
sv_lan 1 (to allow LAN opponents to join)
Note: if you put sv_lan to 0 (zero), then only the internet people can join the
game. If any LAN players want to join in the game, then you need to set it to
sv_lan 1. But if you do set it to sv_lan 1, then no internet players can join
until you put it to 0 (zero).
[2.2.3.5] Linux
For those who runs a Linux OS, and would like to run a Half-Life server side
only (not playable, exactly like Half-Life Primary Server, but just for Linux),
then you're in luck. The link to the Linux version is:
http://ftp.won.net/pub/half-life/linux1010b.tar.gz. There's a mailing list for
people interested in discussion about Half-Life/TFC dedicated server issues, for
Linux. To join the list, mail majordomo@lists.caitiff.com with "subscribe hlds"
in the body. If you have install questions or problems, email the mailing list:
hlds@lists.caitiff.com. There's a GUI program to control Linux HLDS. You can
check it out at http://linuxhlds.halflife.org/.
If you want to run at least two or more HLDS, go to
http://www.fileplanet.com/index.asp?section=209&file=29184 and download the file
and check it out.
[2.2.3.6]: Tracking Statistics
There are programs out there that would track your server with frag statistics
and other goodies and log them to the file/web for view of player frags and
other goodies depending on the program being used. Here are a few programs to
check out: http://aeons.gametown.de/AEstats/ (Linux only)
http://www.uwm.edu/~zachkarp/halfStats (Linux only)
http://vector.remotepoint.com
http://www.davisn8.freeserve.co.uk/
There is also a program that came with Half-Life v1.0.1.3, that can track TFC
statistics. Review the TFC manual for this option.
[2.2.4]: Lag/Latency/Ping
Here are some information about lag/latency/ping.
[2.2.4.1]: General
Latency, which is measured in milliseconds on average packets sent, and a single
packet message sent to the server and back is called ping. It is best to keep
this ping/latency low if possible. You do not want a high number.
Lag is created from two things: your computer components and the internet. The
faster your computer, the lower the latency. The faster and bette quality of
your internet connection, the lower the latency. Get the point?
It might not be your hardware or connection device holding you behind and
creating lag, but it could be your ISP. Poor ISP is the leading cause of high
latency. If you're one of the people who uses major ISPs, like AOL, tough luck.
You're gonna need it, because their routers and connections are terrible. Major
ISPs are not made for gaming, but for fancy on-line surfing on the web types
(like AOL). Ditch your ISP and go for local ones. Local ones should cost less
than the major ISPs and offer more quality data transfer and less lag!
To kill lag as much as possible, check out section 7. Get your computer up to
speed as much as possible with those tips.
People with pings less than 150ms are usually referred to as 'Low Ping Bastard'
(LPB), usually use high quality connections, like digital connections such as
ISDN, cable modems, T1s, etc... People with pings higher than 150ms are usually
referred to as 'High Ping Bastard' (HPB) or 'High Ping Warrior' (HPW), usually
use analog modems. Playable range can be considerable from anywhere of 0ms to
400ms. Any higher than the playable range, you're lagging like hell.
Sometimes, people call each other 'campers'. Campers are people who sitsin a
respawn area of any kind - either weapons or the places where people respawn
once they die, and get a 'cheap' kill with one good blow from a good weapon to
get a quick frag. Frag is a term to use for 'kills'. So that means that if you
kill someone, then that means that you just got one frag. You could see your
latency during a multiplayer game by pressing the [Tab] key (defaulted key to
produce a chart showing who is playing, the latency, the frags, and the deaths).
If you got another key assigned for the multiplayer result chart, then press
that key.
If you want to try and improve your latency, visit section 7.2 to check out what
you can do.
[2.2.4.2]: Yahn's Explanation I: Latency Vs. Ping
Yahn from Valve wrote entitled 'Latency vs. Ping':
"The way Half-Life determines the 'latency' value shown in its scoreboard is
different than what users generally call 'ping'. The word latency is a
deliberate decision to emphasize that the value shown is a better representation
of actual network play than a mere ping. How is ping calculated and how is
latency different.
Ping is a simple round trip time for a message from one computer to another. It
is independent of whether the machine is playing a game etc. It generally is a
best case communication round-trip time.
In Half-Life, the server tracks round trip times for packets that it sends to
the client. The problem that arises is that the client, if it is not running at
a high framerate, can have the message sitting in its network queue for a
significant amount of time. For instance, a client that is chugging along at 10
fps ( yuck! ) is using about 100 milliseconds to process each frame. The
scenario goes like this, on average, you can assume that a message arrives some
time during that 100 ms. window. If you assume it can arrive anywhere in that
time frame, it's quite possible that the client has already read messages from
the network for that frame. If so, then you have to wait 100 ms. until the next
time the message queue is read. Then the client must act on the messages.
Finally, the client sends its next movement command to the server. When the
server receives this movement command, it looks at when it sent out the message
that the movement command corresponds to and computes the latency based on that
round trip time. If the server is not running at a high frame rate, or even it
it's running at 40 fps or so, then it's message queue can lead to inflation of
the round trip time as the client's reply sits in that message queue. These
numbers are somewhat exaggerated, but you see the point. The server computes the
ping over the last 64 messages it received from the client ( ignoring dropped
packets ). If the client sees any kind of transient network backlog, or low
framerate, it can really skew the overall average latency that is reported.
So the road to better latency values involves trying to improve your framerate
as much as possible, as well as playing on servers that are running at decent
tic rates. ( Such things as video mode, max number of decals, and other settings
can have a huge impact on framerate ).
This brings up another misconception about benchmarking HL performance. In HL,
the timedemo and playdemo commands do not work the same way as in other
Quake/Quake2 engine games. In particular, demos always try to play back in the
same amount of time it took to record them. Thus a demo that is 10 seconds long
and has 240 frames will always play back in roughly 10 seconds. It could be that
less frames are rendered on a slow playback machine. But, at most, 240 frames
will be rendered ( in this example ). The bottom line is not to use HL demos for
any benchmarking. Much better is to use "timerefresh" in a known spot ( or
several of them ) to get an idea of your framerate. Or to run with host_speeds
set to 1 -- which prints out the current frames per second to the notification
area at the top of the screen. These provide a useable benchmark.
Finally, some folks are wondering about how the HL front-end determines network
speed ( number of green or red dots ). In particular, there is a misconception
that those numbers somehow reflect the round-trip message time between the
WON.net master server and the particular server listed. This is simply not the
case. The protocol works like this. A quick connection is made to the WON.net
master server by your machine to request a raw list of IP addresses for all
currently running servers. Once you get this list, you don't talk to WON.net
anymore. Instead, your machine then contacts each server it has an IP address
for. The time you send out a message to that server is marked and when you get a
response is also marked. The difference in time is used to determine the network
speed. It's really that simple.
In 1.0.0.8, however, we try to get a more accurate number by sending ten simple
'ping' requests to each server and waiting for responses to each one. We count
the number of responses received, and each of the round trip times for any
responses. These numbers are averaged to arrive at a more accurate round trip
time. But these numbers do not reflect the framerate dependencies that I
describe above for the 'in-game' experience. If you run hl.exe with -
numericping, then the green dots are replaced with two numbers, the round trip
time in milliseconds and the percentage of packets that did not generate a
response to the 'ping' request. In v1.0.0.8, we added a way for server operators
to broadcast certain information about the quality of their servers. We don't do
this by default, as some server operators might not want such information
exposed to users. But if the server operator runs the server and sets the cvar
'sv_type' to 1, then when the server is queried by the HL front-end, GameSpy,
PingTool, or some other server querying program, then the value of sv_type
returned will include the type of operating system being used by the server (
e.g., Win32 or Linux -- note, the Linux server has not been released yet ), the
CPU MHz of the server ( e.g., 450 ), and whether the server is a listen server (
'hl.exe' ) or a dedicated server ( 'hlds.exe' ). Of course, the best experiences
occur on dedicated server running at high speed using Linux. The only
information we don't have at our disposal is the servers bandwidth ( e.g., T1,
etc. )."
[2.2.4.3]: Yahn's Explanation II: Why HL/TFC Slow?
Yahn from Valve wrote this to counter someone's question of why HL/TFC is slow
and network code is crap:
"A thing to remember about higher pings in general is that for most users TFC
runs at a lower framerate than QW ever did. We have a lot of cool technology in
there fighting for CPU bandwidth (our animation system and higher polygon count
models, 16 bit color, realtime DSP of the sound information, more complex/time
consuming game .dll code, overlayed client.dll HUD elements). All of these
things lower framerate a bit compared to the somewhat older and definitely
simpler technology displayed in QW. If your framerate (or the server's) is
lower, then there is more "dead" time where the network layer has received
messages but the machine cannot process them because it is off doing something
else like rendering a frame. This leads to increased "ping" values, as you
mention.
The other thing to remember that can cause poor net performance is bandwidth
usage. We've made some significant steps in this direction, but we still want to
improve (i.e., lower) our bandwidth usage even more. In fact, we want to lower
bandwidth usage quite drastically. The reason why is that if a client on a modem
is receiving too much data for their connection, they start to fall behind on
the relentless flow of data coming in. They quickly get more and more backlogged
and eventually they get flooded out (1000+ ping, e.g.). This is especially
prevalent in the following conditions:
Client framerate too high: In the current TFC release, each frame the client
renders results in a request for the server to send an update packet. This is
exactly the same networking model as QW. However, today's machines are so much
faster than the ones around when QW rolled out the door that it's quite
conceivable to request too much data from the server (especially when there are
a lot of players in your PVS or there is a lot of entity traffic in the area).
You can mitigate this by capping your framerate at a reasonable number (e.g.,
fps_lan or fps_modem 20 or 30). In addition, you must have the proper rate
setting for your machine. It's okay to choke a lot of packets at times, but it's
never okay to flood yourself out by not having the rate setting right for your
connection. This is an area where we are making a lot of changes in future
technology to eliminate the need for framerate capping and to smooth out the
server to client update stream.
Rate setting incorrect. We have code in the engine and client to meter the
amount of data being sent over the wire to avoid the backlogged "ping of death"
condition above. Currently, however, this relies on a user's ability to choose /
tweak the correct rate setting. We've considered schemes to automatically adapt
the rate setting based on packet loss and choked packets (among other
parameters), but coming up with a solution that works in all cases is tricky.
Again, we are doing a lot of research into these issues right now.
Pushlatency set to the wrong value. This really only goes to the perception of
lag on your movements, but generally you'll want to fully compensate for your
latency by keeping this value substantially negative (e.g., -1000). Note that if
pushlatency is set to higher than your latency in the negative, we just ignore
the part that goes past your actual latency, so you don't have to try to "tune"
this number that carefully if you want full prediction of movements. Just set it
far enough negative and you won't have to worry about it. The whole set it to
"minus one half of your latency" guideline is a bit too esoteric for me, you
might as well use prediction to it's fullest and set it to minus some big number
and let prediction predict all of your movements up to the current time.
Bandwith usage: Half-Life's entity system is just way more complicated than QW's
ever was. Remember, most of the entity system in Half-Life was initially
instituted to support single player Half-Life. Of course, in the single player
game there was zero latency and no bandwidth constraint. For any of our future
games having a heavy multiplayer component, this system has some problems. We
will be spending a lot of time investing in technology that lowers the bandwidth
needed to replicate entity state information and interesting visual effects over
the network. The fruits of this research should show up in our products soon.
Prediction: Predicting things on the client requires a reasonable balance
between how much game-specific code and state information you want to have on
the client and a few other considerations. In the future, we are going to want
to be able to predict things on the client fairly robustly. As I mentioned
earlier, we're looking into opening up player physics to MOD authors so that the
client and server can do the right thing and allow prediction to work better
than it has in the past. This will translate into much smoother player movement
in our games."
[2.2.4.4]: Yahn's Explanation III: Laggers Creating Lag?
I asked this question to Yahn: "There are some people that stated that if
someone with high latency on a server is playing, it lags other clients as well.
Is this true on TCP/IP? IPX/SPX is known for this... But TCP/IP? Bunch of LPBs
(low ping b@st@rds) complain about this every time someone with high latency
joins in on the server. This is yet one of those myths/facts that is needed to
be cleared up on the internet. I don't know the answer, but it would help if you
explained it." and he replied with the following:
"I'm pretty skeptical that there is any veracity to this. The only thing that
makes sense is that the additional player increases the CPU load on the server
because that guy is now a physical object interacting with the world. However,
one player shouldn't make much of a difference, so that seems a bit unlikely. As
far as the UDP/IP layer goes, there should be no difference. The new player
appears to the server just like any one else connected does. So I think it's
just a misperception (possibly intentional), but if someone can quantify it with
a repeatable case, I'd be highly interested. Barring that, I think this also
could be low-ping folks trying to keep the "easy kill" high-pingers off their
machines (of course, there are a lot of high-ping players who can still play
extremely effectively against the low-pingers)."
[2.2.5]: Modes
Here are some Half-Life multiplayer modes.
[2.2.5.1]: Co-op
I am sorry to say that Half-Life does not support Co-op, even though it had the
co-op command. But there's a way around it, although it is not hassle free and
have a few bugs: http://planethalflife.com/aftershock/coop/.
[2.2.5.2]: Deathmatch
Deathmatch is what it sounds like - free for all (basically). The objective is
to go around and stay alive and start killing. You want to die less and kill
more.
[2.2.5.3]: Teamplay
After the v1.0.0.8 patch release for Half-Life, Team Play is introduced.
Teamplay is almost like deathmatch, although you play as a team. How this work
is, teams are determined by what models you choose. Say you be a scientist.
Doesn't matter what color you are, but whoever else on the server that plays on
the Teamplay server, that is a scientist, would be on your team. And not matter
how much rounds you dump into your team mate, he/she probably won't die, unless
the server sets mp_friendlyfire to 1. How the score goes, works like this: of
all that is on your teammate, which would be all the scientists, would all
combine their scores and yours, to a total of a team consists of scientists. It
would show 'Scientists' and then the combinations of all your frags, deaths, and
the average latency of your entire team.
The fastest way to switch teams is to pull down the console and type this in:
model . Where would be the models provided with
Half-Life like Gordon, Gina, Scientist, Helmet, or HGrunt. Make sure you type in
the correct name of the models/skins, or you just created a misspelled team name
and defaulted your skin to any of the five original models and you would be the
only one on that team.
Also for team play, you can talk to your own teams, without the other people on
different teams see what is intended for your own team members. Defaulted is the
'u' key, enabling you to talk only with your team members. If you bind the 'u'
key to some other function, then type this in the console: bind x
"messagemode2". Where x is the key that you wanted to be pressed to access the
talk-to-team-member mode. Also, make sure you have the quotes around the
messagemode2.
Additional teamplay options, teamplay lets you drop weapons to your teammate. To
do this, bind a key to "drop". Example: bind x "drop". Where x = any key. This
cool option drops your current weapon that you have in your hands. Say you have
a MP5 in your hands. You execute the drop command. You would then drop your MP5
and all the associate ammo for the weapon. The dropped item would then appear as
a green cylinder pack just like the regular ones in the deathmatch mode when you
kill people and out ejects the green cylinder pack. This option is best used
with your teammate when they don't have ammo/weapon.
So to recap all that is Teamplay, just pick a model and that's how you either
change teams or create a team. Beware, that you're playing Teamplay mode, and
sometimes, you can't kill your teammate, hence don't be saying, "someone's
cheating, and I can't kill him/her!"
[2.2.5.4]: Team Fortress Classic
Team Fortress Classic (TFC) is Valve's new add-on for Half-Life that combines
the thrilling first-person multiplayer gameplay of the original Team Fortress
with Half-Life's leading edge technology. In Team Fortress Classic, you play one
of nine roles or classes, such as Medic, Soldier, or Engineer, and then join
your teammates online or over a LAN to battle against enemy teams. Each class
has unique weapons, items, abilities, and style of play. Check out section 2.2.8
for more information.
[2.2.6]: Options
Here are some options provided for Half-Life multiplayer connections.
[2.2.6.1]: Internet
To play on the internet, first of all, you need to connect to the internet
somehow. After that, you need to get the latest patch for Half-Life, which is
v1.0.1.3 so that it can allow you to play, or you won't be able to play because
most of the servers are v1.0.1.3. For beginners, launch Half-Life-> Multiplayer-
> Internet Games.
[2.2.6.2]: LAN
After the v1.0.0.8 patch release, Half-Life now supports these two protocols
that can be used for LAN games: IPX and TCP/IP. To play TCP/IP, each PC would
need to be assigned unique different IP address, with the same subnet mask. A
max of 5 users can use the same CD Key in LAN mode (not playing on the
internet). If you're new to LAN, then please visit this site to know what to do
about LAN games: http://www.lanparty.com. If you're having problems with LAN,
check out section 6.2.3 for some solutions to try. For any beginners, visit the
above link to know how to set up a LAN game first.
[2.2.6.3]: Modem To Modem
With 2 PCs with modem calling each other over phone lines, go here:
http://www.zipworld.com.au/~otser/modem.htm. This is a guide for Quake games,
but it is still the same technique to use modem to modem games.
[2.2.6.4]: Serial
With 2 PCs with a null modem/serial cable, go here:
http://ukq2ng.quake2.co.uk/pages/serial.html.
[2.2.7]: Proxy
Here are some information about proxies, with the usage of Wingate and Winroute.
When v1.0.1.0 patch was released (Mar 27, 1999) for Half-Life, Valve and WON.net
decided to change the authentication server port 7001 to 7002. Make sure the
port is changed or it won't work.
[2.2.7.1]: Wingate
Wingate can be used to try and play through proxies/firewalls. You can get it
at: http://www.wingate.net. Detailed proxy setup for Half-Life:
http://people.ne.mediaone.net/lmhansen/Games/HalfLife/
http://lmhansen.tzo.com/HalfLife/proxy1.html
For Wingate 2.1d and 3.0 (you can get 2.1d from the above URLs):
Half-Life Auth Server: TCP 7002 -> half-life.east.won.net:7002
Half-Life WON Server: TCP 6003 -> half-life.east.won.net:6003
Half-life Server Master: UDP 27010 -> half-life.east.won.net:27010
Half-Life Game Server1: UDP xxx -> ip.address.of.game.server:270xx
Half-Life Game Server2: UDP 27015 -> another.game.server:27015
Then connect to the game using the console: Connect wingate:27015
Also for Wingate 3.0:
Editing the file called hosts located in the C:\windows directory and put in the
IP of your Wingate machine followed by the
half-life.east/won.net. like this:
-- Hosts --
half-life.east.won.net
- or -
half-life.west.won.net
[2.2.7.2]: Winroute
Here's a web site that will tell you how to set up the game with WinRoute:
http://members.tripod.com/taniswolf/. The site to get WinRoute is:
http://www.winroute.com.
[2.2.8]: Team Fortress Classic
You can get Team Fortress Classic with patch v1.0.0.9 or higher for Half-Life.
Half-Life v1.0.0.9 or higher includes the TFC mod. Below are some information on
TFC.
[2.2.8.1]: Classes
Here are brief details. You can get further details by accessing the TFC manual.
Here are the nine classes listed with information:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#1: SCOUT Details:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WEAPONS:
#1 Crowbar
#2 Shotgun
#4 Nailgun
GRENADES:
Primary: Concussion
Secondary: Caltrop
SPECIAL SKILL:
Display Flag Status.
Further info: This is mainly for offense. Use this guy to go and get flags/keys.
The scout has great speed, and the fastest out of all the classes, so that's his
main advantage.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#2: SNIPER Details:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WEAPONS:
#1 Crowbar
#2 Sniper Rifle
#3 Auto Rifle
#4 Nailgun
GRENADE:
Primary: Hand Grenade
SPECIAL SKILL:
Toggle Rifle Zoom
Further info: This is mainly for defense. Use this guy to snipe out easy targets
in the open battlefield. If you hold down the primary fire key while using the
sniper rifle, your rifle would charge up, and your laser would brighten up a
lot, indicating the fully charged rifle. Charge it up for more power in the
killing rifle bullet for more damage.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#3: SOLDIER Details:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WEAPONS:
#1 Crowbar
#2 Shotgun
#3 Super Shotgun
#5 Rocket Launcher
GRENADES:
Primary: Hand Grenade
Secondary: Nail Grenade
SPECIAL SKILL:
Reload
Further notes: This guy can be on offense or defense position. Average all
around, but slow. You can rocket jump with the soldier. Just make sure you have
enough life so you don't kill yourself in the process.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#4: DEMOLITION MAN Details:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WEAPONS:
#1 Crowbar
#2 Shotgun
#4 Grenade Launcher
#5 Pipebomb Launcher
GRENADES:
Primary: Hand Grenade
Secondary: MIRV Grenade
SPECIAL SKILL:
Detonate Pipebombs
OTHER:
Set Detpack : +det5,+det20,+det50
Further notes: This guy can be on offense or defense position. Use pipebombs to
set traps, or go berserk with the grenade launcher. The grenade launcher are
blue grenades, and the pipebomb launcher are yellowish/green grenades. Max of 8
pipebombs permitted at one time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#5: MEDIC Details:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WEAPONS:
#1 Medikit/BioWeapon
#2 Shotgun
#3 Super Shotgun
#5 Super Nailgun
GRENADES:
Primary: Hand Grenade
Secondary: Concussion Grenade
SPECIAL SKILL:
Select Medikit
Further notes: This guy is mainly for defense. The medic is used to heal wounds
of your injured teammates. Also can regenerate health in a few seconds, gaining
2% each. Can also heal itself when poisoned, so no need to call for another
medic to cure. It is fun when using the medikit and run at the opposing side and
try to heal them. Instead of healing the opposing side, you actually infect them
with poison. They will die very slowly, health decreases slowly. The infected
can run around, and if touch by any other person would get infected.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#6: HEAVY WEAPONS GUY Details:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WEAPONS:
#1 Crowbar
#2 Shotgun
#3 Super Shotgun
#5 Assault Cannon
GRENADES:
Primary: Hand Grenade
Secondary: MIRV Grenade
SPECIAL SKILL:
Select Assault Cannon
Further notes: This guy is mainly for defense. Here's a great tip: don't fire
too long, or you'll get, um... Find out for yourself if you're that curious.
Moves very slowly, when firing the assault cannon.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#7: PYRO Details:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WEAPONS:
#1 Crowbar
#2 Shotgun
#4 Flamethrower
#5 Incendiary Cannon
GRENADES:
Primary: Hand Grenade
Secondary: Napalm Grenade
SPECIAL SKILL:
Select Flamethrower
Further notes: This guy can be on offense or defense position. If you torched
the opponent, the opponent will still be on fire for a few seconds.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#8: SPY Details:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WEAPONS:
#1 Knife
#2 Tranquilizer Gun
#3 Super Shotgun
#4 Nailgun
GRENADES:
Primary: Hand Grenade
Secondary: Hallucinogenic Grenade
SPECIAL SKILL:
Open Disguise menu
Further notes: This guy is mainly used for offense. The funniest class that I
enjoy using. You can disguise yourself as the other team and run around acting
like you're on their side. Although you can be detected, just by the opponents
laying the cursor and try to I.D. you, they would know. If you are being
I.D.'ed, it will report the opponent's name and so they'll know it's a spy. By
the way, when tricking someone to be on their team, and they accept the
knowledge, when they turn their back on you, pull out that knife and knife them
in the back! Back stabber.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#9: ENGINEER Details:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WEAPONS:
#1 Spanner
#2 RailGun
#3 Super Shotgun
GRENADES:
Primary: Hand Grenade
Secondary: EMP Grenade
SPECIAL SKILL:
Open Build menu
Further notes: This guy can be on offense and defense. The engineer can build a
sentry gun, higher up the sentry gun's level, and just walk off and attack.
[2.2.8.2]: Maps
Here are the six official released maps for TFC:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2 Fortresses - Capture The Flag
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Map file name: 2fort.bsp
OBJECTIVE: Enter the enemy Base and make your way to where their Flag resides in
the Basement. Grab it and bring it back to your Battlements. Place it on the
raised square to Capture it.
SCORING: 10 points per Capture.
OTHER NOTES: Flag carriers drop the Flag when they die. Dropped flags return to
their Base after 60 seconds.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Canalzone 2 - Territorial Control
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Map file name: cz2.bsp
OBJECTIVE: Take Flags from your Base and place them on the Command Points
situated throughout the map. Use the map in your base to see who owns each
territory.
SCORING: 1 point for every 30 seconds you hold a Command Point.
OTHER NOTES: Flag carriers move at half-speed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hunted - Assassination/Escort
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Map file name: hunted.bsp
OBJECTIVE: The Hunted must reach the truck alive. The Assassins need to kill The
Hunted. The Bodyguards need to protect The Hunted.
SCORING: If The Hunted dies, the Assassins get 25 points. If The Hunted reaches
the truck, he and the Bodyguards get 50 points.
OTHER NOTES: Whenever The Hunted dies or makes it to the truck, all players are
moved back to their starting positions.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Push - Football
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Map file name: push.bsp
OBJECTIVE: Grab the ball from the warehouse in the center of the field. Run it
into the ENEMY base and place it on the raised square to score a goal.
SCORING: 10 points per goal.
OTHER NOTES: Ball carriers drop the ball when they die. Dropped balls stay where
they are. All players are reset whenever a goal is scored.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Rock - Capture The Flag Variant
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Map file name: rock2.bsp
OBJECTIVE: Steal the Keycard from the enemy Warden's office. Take it across to
the other side of the enemy Base and hit the switch to release the Gas. Don't
bring the Keycard back to your own Base.
SCORING: 15 points to each Gas Release.
OTHER NOTES: To survive the Gas, get a protective suit from behind the marked
doors, or hide under the water.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Well - Capture The Flag
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Map file name: well.bsp
OBJECTIVE: Enter the enemy Base and make your way to where their Flag resides in
the Tower. Grab it and bring it back to the base of your Tower. Place it on the
raised square to Capture it. The flag will then return to the enemy Base.
SCORING: 10 points per Capture.
OTHER NOTES: Flag carriers drop the Flag when they die. Dropped flags return to
their Base after 60 seconds.
[2.2.8.3]: FAQ
If this FAQ doesn't answer any questions, then visit
http://www.halflifehq.com/independent/tfc/Official.html for another FAQ for TFC.
On August 24th, there were presents all over the server(s) that I've joined in
on. What gives?
-It's Team Fortress's anniversary.
I finally got the TFC patch. When I go into the multiplayer options, I don't see
any models to choose from. What gives?
-You don't choose your model in the multiplayer options. You actually make your
choice inside the game when playing. You'll be able to choose from nine classes
in the middle of the game. So just join a game and a menu will be presented to
you to choose a class upon entering the game.
I'm playing and then suddenly I see someone using my online name. Tell them to
stop using my name!
-That may not be the case. They're maybe spies. Spies may use your name to try
and disguise on your team. For example, you're the only engineer on your team.
If the spy picks to disguise as an engineer, then the spy will take your name.
But if there are several engineers on your team, then Half-Life will randomly
pick one from your team of engineers. If there are no engineer classes on your
team, then Half-Life randomly picks a name from your team. Go ahead, see if
anyone else is using your name! Pull down the scoreboard and see if there's
anyone besides you with your name.
How can I detect a spy?
-Well, there's a lot of ways, but here are two ways:
1. A scout comes near the spy and it will reveal that the spy who tried to fool
your team by disguising as your teammate will return as a normal spy and the spy
will be revealed who's true team the spy is on.
2. Pull out your shotgun and shoot at the person. If the person is on your team,
then your teammate won't bleed. If you see the person bleeding when upon
shooting, start chasing after that opponent! He's a spy!
I'm slowly losing life, and I see a gas mask on my HUD. What do I do?
-You are being poisoned by the bioweapon of the opposing team's medic. What you
can do is call a medic on your team to come and heal your poison.
How come when I play TFC, the other team seems to have an advantage like hurting
me more, etc...?
-Because of these two variables:
tfc_balance_scores 1 (enable score balancing)
tfc_balance_teams 1 (enable team balancing)
If set to one, then the losing team gets a boost to catch up and try to match
the other team's score. It's just trying to balance out and help out the losing
team to make it a fair game.
I can't hear footsteps in the game! How come?
-The option is defaulted off on the server side. So it's the server host that
would need to change it to on to enable the footsteps.
In the Hunted mod of TFC, I see the president play as an assassin/bodyguard. Is
this cheating?
-This is just a bug/glitch in TFC. However, it can also mean that someone cheat,
but not as always.
How do I build a sentry/dispenser?
-Press the "special" key to access the menu. From there, you can build what it
lists.
How do you put ammo in the sentry gun?
-Put out your spanner (wrench looking weapon) and hit your sentry gun with it.
It will then give you a menu.
How do I fix my sentry gun?
-Use your spanner or wrench looking weapon, and hit the sentry gun. A menu would
provide you with an option to fix your sentry gun.
Is it possible to rocket jump?
-Yes, it is possible to rocket jump. Pick the soldier class, look down, fire the
rocket while jumping, and you should jump very high.
What are the classes?
-Check out section 2.2.8.1 for more information.
When using the demolition man, how come I can't set the detpack (C4) for more
than 5 seconds, even though it says that it can set up to 50 seconds?
-You need to bind a key. Here's the examples with 3 timings given:
bind "+det5" (5 seconds)
bind "+det20" (20 seconds)
bind "+det50" (50 seconds)
On The Hunted map, why can't there be more Assassins?
-The map limited it to a maximum of 5 assassins.
What are the objectives of the maps?
-Each map have their own distinctive objectives. Check out section 2.2.8.2 for
more information.
Is there a way to execute my autoexec.cfg/x.cfg files under TFC?
-Yes, place your autoexec.cfg/x.cfg under \Half-Life\Valve\TFC\
directory and do what you usually do how to enable your cfg file.
Is there other information about TFC?
-There are some in this FAQ, so scroll down further. Also, read the TFC manual
that came with v1.0.0.9+ patch. Upon installing v1.0.0.9+ patch, you did check
the box that says to put a link on your desktop for the TFC manual did you? It's
also in the Start Menu under Sierra program group. Another great site with great
expanded information is: http://www.planethalflife/modcentral/tfc/tfc.htm. It's
ModCentral's Guide to TFC. Check it out if you got the time.
[2.2.9]: Testing Multi-Player Maps Offline
To play multiplayer maps, there are three ways:
1. Get into Half-Life's console and type this in: map
Example: map boot_camp
Note: you might need to issue the command "deathmatch 1" (no quotes) prior the
map command
2. Edit your HL parameter to be like this: hl.exe +map
Example: hl.exe +map crossfire +deathmatch 1
3. Go through the Half-Life Multiplayer Menu and selecting the map would be the
easiest way, but the slowest way.
[2.3]: Single-Player
Half-Life offers three modes to play in:
Easy: Monsters are weak and are easy to kill.
Normal: Monsters are strong and are easy to kill.
Difficult: Monsters are strong and are difficult to kill.
[2.3.1]: 3rd Person View
The game lets you play like Tomb Raider style, where you get to see yourself in
action. Bring down the console and type in this: "thirdperson" or "chase_active
1" (no quotes).
To change position of seeing your character, type this in the console:
cam_idealyaw 0 (see the model from behind)
cam_idealyaw 180 (see the model from the front)
cam_idealdist 64 (sets the preferred distance from the player model for the
chase cam)
cam_idealpitch 0 (sets the preferred pitch for the chase cam)
chase_back 100 (sets the preferred cam distance from the player when backing
up)
chase_right 0 (sets the preferred offset to the side for the chase cam)
chase_up 16 (sets the preferred offset up for the chase cam)
To disable the 3rd person view, type in this: "firstperson" or "chase_active 0"
(no quotes).
Be careful when you play 3rd person view. Here are the reasons
why you should play 3rd person view if you:
1. Don't mind about not seeing the HUD. (health, armor, ammo)
2. Don't mind about not being able to aim correctly. Basically, no crosshair.
3. Don't mind about not being able to hear what the HEV announces.
4. Don't mind seeing where you get hit. (red signs)
Note: You can't use 3rd person view in multiplayer. You can only use it if the
server sets sv_cheats to 1, then you can use it.
[2.3.2]: Autosave
This is a built in feature of the levels that you play in Half-Life. Nothing can
be done about it. It requires to edit the levels, which is never going to be
done. Live with it. No patch will disable this feature. Maybe annoying feature,
but that's how it is.
[2.3.3]: Barneys
In the single player mode, you get to use the Barney(s) to assist your goals and
mow down enemies. Some people wonder how many can be used at one time to assist
with your goals. Well, the answer is unlimited. But the problem with more than
two is that if you happen to pass a doorway or a tight corridor or something
narrow space, then some of the Barney(s) will get stuck and freeze up. Then you
have to talk them one by one to get them through.
If you are wondering where they get the name Barney from, it's from a show
called Andy Griffen Show. Barney is a cop in that show, so they just took that
name and plug it into the nameless security guard and now known as Barney.
[2.3.4]: Cheats
To be able to cheat in Half-Life, you must run the game with this command: -
console. Add this command after HL.exe. You could do the following things to
achieve it:
1. Start Menu-> Run-> type in: :\\Hl.exe -console
x=HDD
hl dir=Where Half-Life's directory resides in
2. Create a shortcut of Hl.exe-> (right click) Properties-> Shortcut tab->
Target box-> put in -console after hl.exe
3. Half-Life to be at least v1.0.0.9 and the console option will appear in the
main menu.
After enabling the console, you could access the console throughout the game by
pressing the [~] key (near the [Esc] key). After that, to be able to start
cheating, bring down the console and type this in: sv_cheats 1. Now, pass one
loading point of the game, and the cheating option should be enabled. You can
reload a saved game to access temporary cheats, but not all cheats will be
enabled. Some cheats will work if a level isn't loaded. Other cheats will not
work until you pass a loading point of a level and it will be enabled (like
impulse 101). You must pass a loading point to enable it.
To cheat, bring down the console by pressing the [~] key, type in the following
things and press enter afterwards):
god (type in god again to turn off god mode)
noclip (type in noclip again to turn off noclip mode)
impulse 101 (this gives almost everything)
/give item_antidote
/give item_battery
/give item_healthkit
/give item_longjump
/give item_sodacan
/give item_suit
/give ammo_357
/give ammo_9mmclip
/give ammo_buckshot
/give ammo_crossbow
/give ammo_egonclip
/give ammo_gaussclip
/give ammo_mp5clip
/give ammo_mp5grenades
/give ammo_rpgclip
/give weapon_357
/give weapon_9mmhandgun
/give weapon_crossbow
/give weapon_crowbar
/give weapon_egon
/give weapon_gauss
/give weapon_handgrenade
/give weapon_hornetgun
/give weapon_mp5
/give weapon_rpg
/give weapon_satchel
/give weapon_shotgun
/give weapon_snark
/give weapon_tripmine
map xxxx
xxxx=
c0a0 c0a0a c0a0b c0a0c c0a0d c0a0e
c1a0 c1a0a c1a0b c1a0c c1a0d c1a0e
c1a1 c1a1a c1a1b c1a1c c1a1d c1a1f
c1a2 c1a2a c1a2b c1a2c c1a2d
c1a3 c1a3a c1a3b c1a3c c1a3d
c1a4 c1a4b c1a4d c1a4e c1a4f c1a4g c1a4i c1a4j c1a4k
c2a1 c2a1a c2a1b
c2a2 c2a2a c2a2b1 c2a2b2 c2a2c c2a2d c2a2e c2a2f c2a2g c2a2h
c2a3 c2a3a c2a3b c2a3c c2a3d c2a3e
c2a4 c2a4a c2a4b c2a4c c2a4d c2a4e c2a4f c2a4g
c2a5 c2a5a c2a5b c2a5c c2a5d c2a5e c2a5f c2a5g c2a5w c2a5x
c3a1 c3a1a c3a1b
c3a2 c3a2a c3a2b c3a2c c3a2d c3a2e c3a2f
c4a1 c4a1a c4a1b c4a1c c4a1d c4a1e c4a1f
c4a2 c4a2a c4a2b c4a3
c5a1
[2.3.4.1]: How To Skip Level
To do a level skip, you must do the following:
1. Enable the console.
2. Enable the cheat codes by "sv_cheats 1".
3. Do a quicksave where you're currently at if you haven't done so.
4. Do a quickload. Now, the important part here is to pay attention to what the
console displays. Look for the following context: cxax. Where x could be any
numbers. The cxax is the name of the level that you maybe on. There would be a
few of these displayed in the console, so pick one of them, and enter a number
higher than it is. For an example: you see c1a0 in the console. If you want to
skip the current map, you need to then type in the console: map c1a1. To know if
the map is available, look in section 2.3.4 (above this section) to see if
there's a valid map. If not, go onto the next higher one.
[2.3.5]: Fun Things To Do
Here are some fun things to do on your first day at the job (Anomalous Materials
level in the beginning of the game):
-To the left of the main entrance (the lobby where the reception desk is), there
is a deactivated computer console. You can see partial edge of the computer
console on top of a shelving area next to the collection of TV screens. Go to it
and activate it.
-At the reception desk where the guard is at the main entrance, go to the back
side of the desk and there should be a button near the guard's keyboard. Press
it.
-In the scientist lounge room area (where there's two soda machines are and a
scientist sitting at a table and another roaming within the place trying to get
a soda), go to the microwave and press the button for less than 10 times (you'll
hear an increase high pitched sound FX each time you press the button).
-In the room (near the MIB talking to a scientist) that has three scientists
(one at the drawing board, one at a laptop, and one just walking around). To the
left of the entrance door, there's a light switch. Press the switch.
[2.3.6]: High Jump
To do a high jump, simply jump. While jumping, press the crouch key, and from
this, it would make your character tuck their legs in while jumping in mid air.
This would enable you to jump on crates that you can't get on if you do a
regular jump. If this can't help you, see section 2.3.7 for details.
[2.3.7]: Learn How To Play
Half-Life offers a tutorial mode for players who wants to get use to Half-Life's
offerings, or for people who just bought their first FPS ((F)irst (P)erson
(S)hooting) game. You go through almost everything that you got to know before
playing the game. From Half-Life Main Menu, click on Hazard Course and you're on
the way to learn how to do some cool stuff and learn a couple of movements of
Half-Life's offerings, especially the long jump move that everybody gets
confused of.
[2.3.8]: Long Jump
To do a long jump, you must move forward. While moving forward, simply press the
crouch key, and then press the jump key right after crouching, and that should
launch you very far. To get a better learning of this, see section 2.3.7 for
details.
[2.3.9]: Man In Blue/G-Man
Here comes the MIB... It's that MIB! I see him! Well, for you all who wonder who
he is, or what is he, from the past, shooting him, trying to kill him with
anyway possible, but seems to be immune to all attacks, you will soon find out.
Beat the game, and you should find out who he is and why you see him through out
the game.
He is also called "G-Man". You can also play as the G-Man model under
multiplayer. Go to this site:
http://www.planethalflife.com/dl/dl.asp?planethalflife/HLMPC.zip and download
the Valve Multiplayer Package and there are additional multiplayer things with
this package.
As I wonder, one day in social studies class, there was a video shown and what
caught my attention was a word mentioned "G-Men". As I thought about it, it
actually does fit in somewhat. G-Men were government agents - working in
conjunction of the FBI and to crack down crimes. I don't know where the crime
fits in, but it sure makes a lot of sense where the word G-Man came from and how
it surely describes the MIB as some government agent. Wow, it sure showed that I
did learn something in school.
There is something weird about his briefcase. If you cheated, and use the
'noclip' command, go into his brief case and be confused what you see in the
briefcase. It is recommended that you do this at the end of the game just for
the hell of it.
[2.3.10]: Preserving Saved Files
When reinstalling/removing Half-Life, all you need to keep the saved files is to
copy the directory \Half-Life\Valve\Save\ and put it somewhere safe. After
reinstalling Half-Life, put that directory back and you should have all your
saved games back safely and be able to play where you last left off.
[2.3.11] Saved Games
There are three saving techniques for Half-Life:
1. Autosave: automatically saves between each important events during the level
2. Quicksave: pressing the defaulted [F6] for quick save; [F7] for quickload.
3. Manualsave: going through the menus and access the save menu.
Note: When updating Half-Life (patching), there is no worry about incompatible
versions. The saved games will work under any current version of Half-Life.
[2.3.12]: Walkthrough
http://pcgame.svwh.net/randy/fullwalkthru.htm
http://www.gamespot.com/features/halflife_gg/
http://www.gameguides.com/guides/halflife/
http://www.won.net/guides/prima/halflife/
[2.3.13]: Who You Play As
You play as Gordon Freeman, a new employee at Black Mesa in New Mexico. More
details are given at the beginning of the single player mode introduction of the
train ride to work. By the way, you're late for work.
CHAPTER [3]: HALF-LIFE ADD-ONS
[3.1]: Commercial
Here are some commercial products to be released for Half-Life related.
[3.1.1]: Opposing Force
Half-Life just got word that it will have an add-on: Opposing Force. Visit
http://www.opposingforce.net to find more about Opposing Force. Opposing Force
gone gold on November 10, 1999, and then released on Friday, Novermber 19, 1999.
Here's a link to an Opposing Force FAQ: http://sol.wctownhall.com/OpFor/. When
getting Opposing Force, it is required that you have the retail version of Half-
Life, at least v1.0.0.9.
[3.1.2]: Team Fortress II
Team Fortress II was going to be an add-on for Half-Life. But, the creators
decided to change the add-on part and make it a stand-alone product, which it is
a new game to be installed on the HDD. You are going to pay this product at a
full game retail price, just like Half-Life. The official name of the product
is Team Fortress II: Brotherhood of Arms. Here are some links for TF2:
http://www.tf2.com
http://www.planetfortress.com
http://www.fortress2.com
[3.2]: Modifications
Below, I listed the mods currently available for download, even if it's in beta.
Go to http://www.planethalflife.com/modcentral/ to get more info on other mods
that are not listed below. You can also use the 'Custom Game' option from Half-
Life's main menu to see other mods available for download.
[3.2.1]: Action Half-Life
http://ahl.telefragged.com/
[3.2.2]: Classic Capture The Flag
http://www.planethalflife.com/aftershock/cctf/
[3.2.3]: Cold Ice
http://www.planethalflife.com/coldice/
[3.2.4]: Counter-Strike
http://www.counter-strike.net/
[3.2.5]: DMPlus
http://www.planethalflife.com/dmplus/
[3.2.6]: Firepower
http://members.aol.com/FPower01/
[3.2.7]: Jailbreak
http://contaminated.net/jailbreak/
[3.2.8]: Kenders That Kill
http://www.converted2.com/ktk/main.shtml
[3.2.9]: Lambda Arena
http://www.planethalflife.com/la/
[3.2.10]: Oz
http://www.planethalflife.com/aftershock/oz/
[3.2.11]: Rocket Crowbar
http://www.geocities.com/Pipeline/Ramp/1901/
[3.2.12]: Sven Co-op
http://www.contaminated.net/aftershock/coop/
[3.2.13]: Science and Industry
http://www.contaminated.net/si/
[3.2.14]: Team Fortress Classic
Valve decided to release TFC, for Half-Life, which is ported from Quake to Half-
Life. The release date was 4/6/99. Check section 2.2.8 for more information on
TFC. Here's a link to check out TFC officially:
http://www.sierrastudios.com/games/tfclassic/.
[3.3]: Total Conversions
Here's a list to total conversions being made:
http://www.contaminated.net/wavelength/tclist.htm.
CHAPTER [4]: HALF-LIFE EDITING
General editing information can be found at
http://www.planethalflife.com/wavelength/.
[4.1]: CFG Files
Autoexec.cfg is an automatic start up configuration file for Half-Life. You can
create this file easily, by creating a blank text file, and rename it, giving it
the last three file extensions ".cfg", hence the file "autoexec.cfg". This file
is very useful if you keep on typing in the commands that you often use. Putting
those commands that you use every time you play Half-Life, it would
automatically execute the command(s) into Half-Life's configuration and you
should never touch that command again, unless you want to change the current
value of the command. Any commands that can be used within the console of Half-
Life can be placed in this autoexec.cfg. To get autoexec.cfg to execute itself
regularly upon Half-Life's start up, place the autoexec.cfg into the directory
\Half-Life\Valve\. But to make sure that it works, execute it upon every change
you make to the autoexec.cfg to ensure that the commands are accepted. Bring
down the console and type in: exec autoexec.cfg.
For those who edit the config.cfg, do not edit it any further, because what you
just put in there will not be used. Half-Life regenerates that file every time
Half-Life is executed. Put it in a self name cfg file or in the autoexec.cfg so
that it can be executed when Half-Life starts automatically. That's why
sometimes you wonder why those commands that you just put in the config.cfg
don't work.
To make it easy on you, here's a link to create an autoexec.cfg, or actually
commands to be put into the autoexec.cfg:
http://www.voodooextreme.com/tweak3d/autoexec/halflife/. Remember, autoexec.cfg
is a based text file, and is also needed to be created from scratch. Just create
a blank text file, like autoexec.txt, then placing commands in the text file,
and then rename it to autoexec.cfg.
Any other .cfg can be executed by just entering this in the console:
exec .cfg
That should execute a custom made cfg. Make sure that the custom cfg is where it
should be, like for examples:
For regular Half-Life DM and Teamplay, put the cfg in \Half-Life\Valve\
For Half-Life TFC, put the cfg in \Half-Life\TFC\
When creating any cfg, make sure to put a carriage return (an empty line) at the
end of the file. Error symptoms are Barneys (security guards) dying without any
indication of harmful effects done to them.
When installing the game, only D3D.cfg exists, but opengl.cfg does not. D3D.cfg
could be found in \Half-Life\Valve\hw\ directory. You have to create opengl.cfg
manually and place it in \Half-Life\Valve\hw\.
To know what are the best commands to put in your D3D.cfg/Opengl.cfg, please
refer to:
Shockwave: http://www.voodooextreme.com/reverend/flash/Main.html
Regular: http://www.voodooextreme.com/reverend/Main.html
It has a lot of command explanations that helps you decide if the gl_x commands
are worth using.
[4.2]: Creating Custom Levels
Worldcraft is the only necessary program to create custom made levels for Half-
Life. See section 4.6 for more on Worldcraft. There are also other programs than
Worldcraft that can create custom levels for Half-Life. Here are a three of
them:
QERadiant: http://halflife.qeradiant.com/
Qoole: http://www.qoole.com/
Quark: http://www.planetquake.com/quark/
[4.3]: Crosshairs
You can edit the color of the crosshairs in Half-Life or even how they look.
Visit this site to find out how: http://members.aol.com/rjdriver/bullseye.htm.
[4.4]: Pak Files
To view all the goodies that Half-Life uses, like the models and sound FXs to
the maps that are used in the game, just go to:
http://www.planetquake.com/qped/ and download the QpedII program. This is a pak
viewer and it could extract files from the pak0.pak that came with Half-Life.
Another pak viewer is Pak Explorer, at http://quakestuff.telefragged.com/. By
using any of these two programs, you can also extract anything found in the
pak0.pak.
[4.5]: SDK
Stands for (S)oftware (D)eveloper's (K)it. You can download the SDK at
http://ftp.won.net/pub/half-life/sdk/. There are two flavors to download - the
standard (largest file, around 13MB) or minimal (smaller than the standard,
about 11MB). To get started on programming the mod that you intended, here's a
couple of links with some tutorials to help you: http://hlpp.cjb.net/ and
http://www.planethalflife.com/wavelength/.
[4.6]: Worldcraft
Here are some Worldcraft topics. I am not going to cover Worldcraft specifically
in this HLFAQ. There's a WCFAQ already, so read that instead. Below are some
general broad topics brought up for Worldcraft that I can handle. More
technical/complex information about Worldcraft should be read in the WCFAQ. Two
links are given in section 4.6.5.
[4.6.1]: General
Is Worldcraft included with Half-Life?
-Yes.
Where could it be found?
-Only on Half-Life CD, which should be at the root directory of your CD-ROM
drive. The file name is wc20full.exe.
Is Worldcraft shareware or full version?
-Full version.
What version is Worldcraft?
-v2.0 beta from Half-Life CD. It is now up to v2.1 beta.
Where can I get Worldcraft news?
-http://halflife.gamedesign.net
What is the link to WC v2.1 beta upgrade?
-http://halflife.gamedesign.net/resources/wc21_info.shtml
Can Worldcraft that came with Half-Life be used to build other game levels, say
like Quake, etc...?
-Almost impossible. The only Worldcraft that is compatible with other games, you
need to use the old Worldcraft v1.6.
Can Worldcraft create TFC maps?
-Yes. Go get the WC v2.1 beta and you should have the option to do so.
Does Worldcraft offer any manuals and/or technical help?
-No manuals included with the editor and/or technical help. It is because this
editor is in a beta stage. But it does offer a basic tutorial. It is under Help
menu.
How to install Worldcraft so that I could avoid any mishaps?
-Check out section 4.6.2.
How to set up Worldcraft?
-http://halflife.gamedesign.net/resources/worldcraft2_setup.shtml
Can Worldcraft open up the maps/levels that Valve did?
-Well, sort of. But this requires several steps to achieve this goal. First, you
need to get a program that can open up .pak format. You can get one by going to
section 4.2 and get QpedII. Then after getting that, open up the pak0.pak from
\Half-Life\Valve\ and go under Map directory of the pak0.pak. You will then see
*.bsp. Extract what map/level you want and export it. After exporting, you need
to get a program called WinBSPC, which converts .bsp formats to .map format,
which Worldcraft would understand. WinBSPC can be found at:
http://www.botepidemic.com/gladiator/download.shtml. Go to that page and scroll
down to "WinBSPC". Download the appropriate file. Use WinBSPC to convert the
.bsp format to .map format, and then open up the .map format with Worldcraft,
and there you go, you have successfully ripped one of Valve's map/level.
[4.6.2]: Installing
When some people installed Worldcraft, some of the textures and other things
were corrupted when using WC. To fix this, try installing WC without any
spacing, and in the same hard drive as Half-Life. When WC installs, it included
a space. Removing the extra space would fix the corruption (i.e.: Program
Files). To avoid any mishaps, follow the installation guides found at:
http://www.contaminated.net/wavelength/levels/resources/setupwc.html
http://halflife.gamedesign.net/resources/worldcraft2_setup.shtml
[4.6.3] Mailing List
This is for those who wants to join on a mailing list about Worldcraft 2.x
announcements:
"Something many people request is to be emailed when something new is happening
with Worldcraft. This is pretty hard to do without a mailing list. So, now,
there is a mailing list. :) To subscribe, send mail to:
listadmin@valvesoftware.com and in the first line of the email, put the line:
subscribe wc_announce Don't worry about the email's subject line, and don't put
anything else in the message body. A little while after sending that, you should
be emailed asking for confirmation to be added to the list. Reply to that email
with the confirmation number, and you're finished. This is strictly an
annoucement mailing list - you will not be able to post to it. When any new
information is available about the status of Worldcraft 2.x, I will post it to
the mailing list."
Well, not much of a mailing list, but it's good for those who are into
Worldcraft announcements and so forth.
[4.6.4]: Tutorials
Here are some that could be found here:
http://www.gamecraft.com
http://www.planetquake.com/worldcraft/
http://www.contaminated.net/wavelength/
http://halflife.gamedesign.net/
[4.6.5]: WC Editing FAQ
If you have questions about editing or running Worldcraft, then here's a couple
of links that you don't want to miss:
http://halflife.gamedesign.net/resources/faq.shtml
http://www.gamedesign.net/half-life/half-life_faq.shtml
CHAPTER [5]: HALF-LIFE OFFICIAL RELEASES
A listing of official releases from Valve and only from Valve.
[5.1]: Extras
Here are some things to consider checking them out as they're from Valve only.
[5.1.1]: Maps
1. Crossfire (v1.0.0.8+ patch update)
2. Double Cross
(http://www.planethalflife.com/dl/dl.asp?planethalflife/doublecross.zip)
3. Frenzy (v1.0.0.8+ patch update)
4. Rust Mill
(http://www.planethalflife.com/dl/dl.asp?planethalflife/rustmill.zip)
5. Team9 (Valve Multiplayer Package)
[5.1.2]: Models
1. Barney (v1.0.0.8+ patch update)
2. Cannibal (Valve Multiplayer Package)
3. G-Man (Valve Multiplayer Package)
4. Recon (Valve Multiplayer Package)
5. Robot (v1.0.0.8+ patch update)
6. Santa Claus (http://halflife.gameplex.net/hlinc/files/santa.zip)
7. Skeleton (Valve Multiplayer Package)
8. Too Much Coffee Man (ftp://ftp.pcgamer.com/tmcm.exe)
9. Zombie (v1.0.0.8+ patch update)
[5.1.3]: Multi-Player Modes
There are currently three multi-player modes that you can choose from in Half-
Life that comes standard to Half-Life patches:
1. Deathmatch: Plain killing
2. Teamplay: Plain killing, but with teams (v1.0.0.8+)
3. Team Fortress Classic: Objectives with teams (v1.0.0.9+)
[5.1.4]: Valve Multiplayer Package
http://www.planethalflife.com/dl/dl.asp?planethalflife/HLMPC.zip
The contents are:
1. G-Man multiplayer model - the infamous guy with a briefcase. Ted Backman,
modeler.
2. Recon grunt multiplayer model - the human military commander. Ted Backman,
modeler.
3. Cannibal multiplayer model - a humorous comic book character from Chuck
Jones' twisted childhood.
4. Skeleton multiplayer model - low visibility, low contrast model. Hard to play
against. Steve Theodore/Chuck Jones, modeler.
5. New decals - collection of multiplayer decals including flags, political
parties, barnyard animals and other images from, yes, you guessed it, Chuck
Jones' twisted childhood.
6. Team9.bsp - a new team map intended for 4 on 4 competition. Developed by Doug
Wood, who did the Bounce map.
[5.2]: Patches
Here's the list of the current patches released for Half-Life, and containing
the list that it fixes for each of the patches. You can get the latest patch by
running the Sierra Utilities and select the AutoUpdate option. The current
version of Half-Life right now is v1.0.1.3. It is always a good idea to run
Sierra's AutoUpdate utility to get the latest Half-Life version.
When using the AutoUpdate feature, the patches that are downloaded for Half-Life
are stored under \Half-Life\~SIGSpat\. Just rename the files to exe extension
and you can store it somewhere else to reuse it at a later time.
You can manually download patches for Half-Life. Here are the official places
that you can get them:
US versions only:
ftp://ftp.sierra.com/pub/patches/pc/ (west coast of US)
ftp://ftp2.sierra.com/pub/patches/pc/ (east coast of US)
All foreign/US versions only:
http://ftp.won.net/pub/half-life/ (via FTP)
Note: for the foreign version, select the appropriate folder for your country's
version.
http://www.won.net/channels/action/half-life/downloads.html (website links)
[5.2.1]: v1.0.0.6
Date released: ??, 1998
Update v1.0.0.6 addresses:
1. Disabled the music track check in CD Authentication. One problem that some
people faced was that they have CD-ROM drives that either can't play the music
tracks or they have disabled CD audio on that device. We've disabled the portion
of the CD authentication that checked for the music tracks since it was tripping
up legitimate customers. Of course they still won't hear the music until they
get their CD audio fixed, but they would have that with any game that uses CD
music.
2. Adjusted the default configuration for multiplayer to be more appropriate for
people with lower speed modems or with high ping/bad packet loss.
3. The default rate for LAN games is now set to 9999. Previously the LAN rate
was being set to the be the same as the Internet rate.
4. Removed the WON authentication attempts for LAN games. LAN games are limited
to a single Class B address range.
5. Fixed an uninstall issue that may affect custom locations.
6. Fixed an A3D underwater sound bug.
[5.2.2]: v1.0.0.8
Date released: January 13, 1999
Update v1.0.0.8 addresses:
1. Improved multiplayer performance through bandwidth optimizations and better
prediction. Modem users will see less apparent lag as a result.
2. Added support for IPX based LANs.
3. Added teamplay option for multiplayer games.
4. Added option to limit total number of decals you can see in multiplayer. Try
setting 'r_decals 500' if you're experiencing slowdowns after long periods of
game play.
5. Joysticks can now be used to move at the same time a mouse is used to look.
6. The server ping can now be shown as a numeric value instead of green dots.
Use the "-numericping" command line option when launching hl.exe.
7. Improved ladder performance in multiplayer.
8. Added EAX 4 speaker support.
9. Fixed bug that allowed bypassing of ammo reloading.
10. Fixed bug where train sounds and rocket sounds would play repeatedly in
multiplayer games.
11. Increased number of regional multiplayer servers.
12. Increased accuracy of ping calculations in the Internet Games menu.
13. More accurate latency score in game for other players.
14. Fixed bug preventing climbing ladders when playing with a joystick.
15. Added 3 new player models (Security guard, military robot, zombie) and 2
multiplay maps (frenzy.bsp, crossfire.bsp).
[5.2.3]: v1.0.0.9
Date released: April 7, 1999
Update v1.0.0.9 addresses:
1. This update will install Team Fortress Classic. Launch Half-Life as normal
and click on the 'Custom Game' button. Click on the 'Activate' button to load
Team Fortress Classic as the currently selected game.
2. Launcher now supports downloading of custom modifications for Half-Life.
Clicking on the custom game button will bring up a list of the current games on
the Half-Life modification sever.
3. Launcher now shows if a server is a dedicated, listen, or Linux server.
4. Launcher detects if servers are running the same version of Half-Life as you.
5. Support for pinging multiple master servers added.
6. Sorting options are now more robust in the launcher.
7. Server passwords are checked before game engine is started.
8. Dedicated server logging added.
9. Dedicated server will now echo all client talking to the dedicated server
console.
10. Open GL multitexturing optimized.
11. Open GL decal usage optimized.
12. Single player game will no longer open up a Dial-Up connection box for
Internet Explorer 4.0 users.
13. Fixed 'Used Decal # without a name problem.
14. Decal downloading streamlined.
15. Fixed timedemo/demo playback problems.
[5.2.4]: v1.0.1.0
Date released: May 27, 1999
Update v1.0.1.0 addresses:
1. Dedicated server is now a console application, making remote administration
easier.
2. Server browser downloads server information based on bandwidth.
3. Reduced data sent on server updates, making updates faster.
4. Dedicated server optimized.
5. Team Fortress game code optimized.
6. Invalid authentication after attempting to join a full server bug fixed.
7. Empty sever list on low-bandwidth connection fixed.
8. Water prediction code optimized.
9. DNS lookup on LAN servers fixed.
10. Latency values are more accurate in launcher.
[5.2.5] v1.0.1.3
Date released: August 18, 1999
Update v1.0.1.3 addresses:
1. Mod browser now supports .zip file compression.
2. TF Stats included with this update. This will take server log files and
create a webpage with the results of the match. Refer to
\halflife\tfc\TFStats.htm for instructions.
3. Server now allows banning by userid. Refer to TFCServer.htm located in your
\halflife\tfc\manual folder.
4. Updated TFC manual with information on running a TFC server.
5. Fixed problem where too many packets were being sent at signon that was
causing problems for cable modem users.
6. Team 4 can now score on 4 player TFC maps.
7. Fixed soldier's nail grenades in TFC.
8. Demo Playback fixed.
9. Userinfo overrun fixed.
10. Spies feigning in doorways will no longer drop all clients on server.
11. Grenades will no longer detonate if you change teams.
12. Dedicated server no longer requires hw.dll for authentication.
13. Dedicated server will heartbeat with +map in the command line.
CHAPTER [6]: TROUBLESHOOTING
[6.1]: Before Getting Started
Here are some suggested ideas to take into consideration.
[6.1.1]: Readme.txt
Why is it that almost some percentage of people who buy software or any other
products don't read the freaking 'readme.txt'??? This file here, is your
solution friend and could solve most of the complaints that are produced! Please
take an advantage and go and read the 'readme.txt' file located at the base of
Half-Life directory.
[6.1.2]: Scan/Defrag
It is recommended that you use ScanDisk to scan for HDD errors and use Disk
Defragmenter to defragment your HDD. Visit section 7.3.2.1 for defragmentation
information, and section 7.3.2.2 for ScanDisk information.
[6.1.3]: Update Files
It is best to have the most updated drivers for your components of your
computer.
-Video Card
-Sound Card
-OS (Win9x/WinNT patches)
-CD-ROM
-Mouse
The patches/drivers can solve problems that are currently present on your
system. It can also boost performance and fix glitches. Another thing to take
into consideration, are the updates on Half-Life itself. Currently from the
release of this HLFAQ, Half-Life is already up to v1.0.1.3.
To get updates on Half-Life, see section 5.2 for further details about getting
updates/patches for Half-Life. Please note that when you install patches, get
the correct ones if you download them from sites, other than using the Sierra
Utilities. Make sure you get the correct one. v1.0.0.5 is the CD release
version. If you want to know prior getting the patches and what the patches
offer, please go to section 5.2.
[6.2]: Bugs/Errors
There's an unofficial bug list out on the internet. If you want to see a list of
bugs of Half-Life, then the URL is: http://www.halflife.org/bugs/. My advise is
to update all your drivers and see if any of the solutions found in this HLFAQ
would help you out before searching in that bugs list. To me, that bugs list
don't tell much. Also, that bug list has been discontinued and getting old. Not
much useful now.
[6.2.1]: Icons Being Moved
Go get a program called WinTidy95 from www.pcmag.com or www.winmag.com and all
your problems will be solved. Stops desktop icons from getting screwed up and
moved on the desktop.
[6.2.2]: Installing/Running Game
When you get ready to install Half-Life, please keep in mind about these things:
-Make sure you have at least 366 MB (FAT32) to 460 MB (FAT16) of HDD space to
install the game. After that, make sure you have at least another good 40 MB to
80 MB of HDD space for Virtual Memory (Win9x handles it, unless you specify).
-Get the latest version of Half-Life to get rid of some bugs. The latest version
when this HLFAQ was released is v1.0.1.3.
-Get the latest drivers for your video card. Most problems are caused because of
old drivers not being updated. Sierra will give you a html form listing video
card manufactures. Please use it to update your video card drivers. You get the
list of manufactures after installing Half-Life and also gives an option in the
game menu. Getting reference drivers are the way to go. Forget getting the
manufacture that made the video card. Go to the chipset's manufacture. They
would probably offer more stable drivers. Reference drivers are mostly newer
than the one from your video card's manufacture.
-Get the latest drivers for your sound card.
-Close down all other programs that runs in the background except for Explorer
and Systray. This should be a must do priority.
-Before installing, scan your HDD/memory for any viruses. CIH virus is the
common virus that disables Half-Life to be played. See section 6.7 for tips on
getting rid of viruses.
-Put your background color depth to 16-bit hi color mode. You can try 32-bit hi
color mode later, but you need at least v1.0.0.9 patch though. 16-bit hi color
mode is the minimum. So switch whatever mode to 16-bit mode to see if Half-Life
can run. After that, you can go from 16-bit to 32-bit color modes. To enable 32-
bit color mode, see section 7.2.3 and look for the parameter "-32bbp". There
will be an explanation about it.
-"Your Half-Life installation has become corrupt or out of date" error message:
check section 6.2.2.18.
If there are problems installing the game, try these few suggestions:
Go to My Computer-> (right click) Properties-> Manager Device-> CD-ROM-> -> Properties
1. Uncheck if it's checked on the box DMA. If it is uncheck, then check the box
for DMA. Now accept the change and reboot.
2. If suggestion #1 does not work, then uncheck the box Sync Data. If it's
uncheck, then check the box. Now accept the change and reboot.
3. Mix up the combinations of these two and see if it works for the last resort.
4. If those suggestions doesn't work, take it over to a friend's house or
someone with a computer and install it on their computer and see if it works. If
it does, then you have a corrupted CD-ROM drive.
5. If taking over to a friend's house doesn't work, return the defective product
and get a new one.
It's usually due to DMA or/and Sync Data that causes the errors or problems for
installing Half-Life or running the CD.
After installing Half-Life, and you can't play the game, please look up these
sections to fix the problem:
-Section 6.7: Virus
-Section 6: Troubleshooting
-Section 6.2.2.7: Dial Up Connection
-"Your Half-Life Executable has been modified. Please check your system for
viruses and then re-install Half-Life" error message: check out section
6.2.2.17.
-"Your Half-Life installation is corrupted or out of date" error message: check
out section 6.2.2.18.
-If you get the black "Loading" screen, you may need to update your video card
drivers.
If you get some General Fault errors, then it can be what you run in the
background, so close down all programs that may interrupt installation. Also,
another thing that would lead to GF errors would be your CD-ROM drivers. Hunt
down new drivers for it and update it to see if you can get to install it.
[6.2.2.1]: Bad Surface Extents
If you get this error, try lowering/changing your resolution. If it doesn't
work, try reinstalling the game.
[6.2.2.2]: Can not find 'vids:cvid'decompressor
You get this error when Half-Life starts up. It's because it's trying to play
the two introduction videos for Half-Life. Not much of an importance, but to fix
it, you can download the latest Windows Media Player 6.1+. Not only you get a
great player, but your video codecs are up to date and the latest.
[6.2.2.3] Cbuf_AddText: Overflow
Using the parameter -zone xxxx should fix this problem. Go to section 7.2.3 to
learn more about it and how to use it if necessary.
[6.2.2.4]: CD Key
Before first when playing, Half-Life requires you to input the CD key for Half-
Life. The CD key is located on the back of your Half-Life CD case. You should be
given like this: xxxx-xxxxx-xxxx Where x=corresponding and respective numbers
found on the back of the CD case.
If it tells you that you have an invalid CD key, try it again. If it still does
it, try putting in the - character in between the numbers. If all fails, then
you probably have a key that is probably created by error when distributing. All
I could say is bring it back to the store and trade in another copy. Check out
section 6.3 for further CD Key solutions.
[6.2.2.5] Could not exec 3dfx/opengl/joystick.cfg
Do not worry about these missing cfg files. They were not available when you
installed the game. You are actually to create one if you need to. Other than
that, it is unnecessary and should be ignored.
If you decide to create one of the cfg files, put them under \Half-Life\Hw\
directory. Be sure to check out section 4.1 to know what to do about the cfg
files.
[6.2.2.6]: Crosshair Messes Up
There were problems reported that when getting some patches, like the 3DNow! or
the Open GL/Mini drivers screws up the crosshair in the game. To fix this, try
this command from the console:
gl_flipmatrix 1
[6.2.2.7]: Dial Up Connection
This bug blocks Half-Life from running. If you have your speakers on, you would
here a Windows 'ping' sound, which Half-Life would crash and the game only shows
a black screen. This bug, tries to connect you to the internet, when not needed.
If you alt-tab, you would see the DUN trying to connect you to the internet. To
disable this bug, go to Start Menu-> Run. Type this in:
:\\hl.exe -noip
HDD=Hard Drive HL is on
HL Dir=HL's directory
Another way to try and disable this bug, is load up Internet Explorer 4.0->
View-> Internet Options-> Connections tab. Now, find the option where it asks
you for 'Connection'. It should list two radio button choices:
-Connect to the Internet using a modem
-Connect to the Internet using a local area network
What you want to choose, is the 'connect to the internet using a local area
network'. Choose it, click OK.
For Internet Explorer 5.0, load it up-> Tools-> Internet Options-> Connections
tab. Select the "Never dial a connection". You can also go through the "Use the
Connection Wizard to connect your computer to the Internet" and click the Setup
button. After launching it, select that you want to connect through LAN (third
radio button choice).
[6.2.2.8] Doesn't Support Raster Operations
If you get the error "Your video card does not support the necessary raster
operations...", Then try this solution: On the Desktop (right click)->
Properties-> Settings tab-> Advanced...-> Performance tab. In the Performance
tab, slide the pointer left to decrease the usage of your video card. It may
enable you to play the game and not crash. Slide it even more if it doesn't
work. Keep on sliding it down more until you get to none, which would be your
last chance of getting it to work.
If that does not fix the problem, then the problem maybe your video card
drivers. See if you could update your video card drivers and see if it works.
If all fails, then you're doomed to getting this game to work correctly.
[6.2.2.9]: Gfx/shell/btns_main.bmp
This error: Could not open bitmap file 'gfx/shell/btns_main.bmp' is produced by
when installing the game. The only way to fix this is to free a lot of space on
your HDD!!! What it means is that, the game is trying to inflate a file called
pak0.pak that is compressed on the CD, to 295,809 KB, in which it's almost about
300 MB needed. So, free your HDD space, giving the file some room to fit on your
HDD. Remember, the whole game needs at least 366-460 MB to be installed onto the
HDD. 500 MB is recommended for saved games. 366 MB (FAT32) is the minimum free
space on your target HDD to be installed to.
If you don't have 460+ MB free on your HDD, delete files that are not in use. If
this can't be accomplished, then you can't install the game and play it. Reason
number two is that pak0.pak was never or was not completely installed. Check to
see if it's completely there under \Half-Life\Valve\ folder. Remember, the
pak0.pak must be there and be around 295,809 KB or else you need to re-install
the game again. If re-installing still gives you a corrupt pak0.pak, check below
for reason number five.
Reason number three is that this error comes up would mean something is
accessing the pak0.pak. I ran into this problem when I had QpedII opening up
pak0.pak and Half-Life running. It wouldn't permit QpedII editing pak0.pak or
exploring it if Half-Life is going to be running. Close anything that could have
access to this pak0.pak file and it wouldn't give you this error anymore.
Reason number four could be that there can be a bad or loose IDE cable. This can
be possible. Also, uninstall and reinstall Direct X 6 can also help try to solve
this solution.
Reason number five could be your CD-ROM/DVD drive. Sometimes, this error happens
a lot because of the CD-ROM/DVD drives suck or defective. Check out section
6.2.2.
[6.2.2.10]: Got A Velocity Too Low On Gib
You only get this message when a gib may fall through infinite space in the
level. Just ignore this or if you just can't stand reading the error, don't use
the developer mode (-dev or developer 1) and turn it off by removing -dev or
input developer 0.
[6.2.2.11] Invalid page fault in module HW.DLL
If you get this error, there is currently no exact solution at all. The only
suggestions that I can give you is to:
1. Install the latest version of Half-Life
2. Update all of your hardware drivers, like video card, sound card, etc...
3. It's because you installed other softwares, for instance, if you have
Internet Explorer 5.0, it maybe the cause for it. Some reported that if upon
removal of IE5.0, then they don't get the error any more.
The problem lies in the OS, softwares, and drivers currently loaded on your PC.
That is all I can say about this error. If you get this error while playing
single player, then I suggest you skip that level (level warp) and go on to the
next one. But you need to do the cheat codes though. I am sorry, but it's the
only way if you want to continue of the problem persists.
If you get this when playing multiplayer mode, and it suddenly crashes and gives
you that error, I don't know what to tell you but try again whatever you tried
to do if necessary.
[6.2.2.12] Kb_keys.lst not found
Error: kb_keys.lst not found. This error usually comes after this error: Could
not open bitmap file 'gfx/shell/btns_main.bmp'. This usually means that the
pak0.pak is not all there. There maybe an installation problem. Reinstall the
game. Check out section 6.2.2.9 for the solution.
Another thing that can trigger this error is the removal or modifying the
pak0.pak. This will then require you to reinstall the game.
[6.2.2.13]: MCI File Playback:### MMSYSTEM ##
If you get any error like "MCI File Playback:### MMSYSTEM ## Unable to play file
on specified device, file may be corrupt or in incorrect format", then you may
not have the correct video compression codec driver. To fix this, you should go
to http://developer.intel.com/ial/indeo/video/driver.htm. Get v5.1 Codec from
Intel.
Another fix is to visit this site:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q178/3/07.asp
Another fix is to visit this site: http://members.xoom.com/tdp/mmsystem296.htm
Other than that, it's just that the video codec file types are screwed up/edited
in the registry. So don't worry if you can't view the two intro movies. It's not
special anyhow. So this error isn't holding you back on playing Half-Life
anyhow.
[6.2.2.14]: Overflow 350 Temporary Ents
If you get this error, it just means that there are too much entities rendered
in current screen. Just ignore this or if you just can't stand reading the
error, don't use the developer mode (-dev or developer 1) and turn it off by
removing -dev or input developer 0.
[6.2.2.15]: SZ_GetSpace
This error happens when you're running Half-Life, over stuffing a .cfg file.
This happens because the .cfg is too big. Shrink the size down as far as you
can. You can try to avoid this by adding -zone xxxx after hlds.exe or hl.exe.
For example, Start Menu-> Run. Type in: C:\SIERRA\Half-Life\hl.exe -zone 1024
It means that it would give about extra 1 KB memory into the cfg's.
[6.2.2.16]: Unable To Validate CD
Sometimes, this error would come up, saying that you need the CD. It's pretty
much straight forward: put the original legit Half-Life CD in and let it satisfy
the checking. There are a couple of reasons that this error comes up:
1. You have a warez game
2. You don't have the CD
3. You created a screwed up CD-R/RW backup of the game
4. It checks for the music tracks on your Half-Life CD, but your PC's CD-ROM
drive somehow doesn't get the operation or acknowledge that it's there
5. You have more than one CD-ROM drive
To fix problem one, simply buy the game. To fix problem two, either get the CD
back from someone you lend to, find the CD, or buy the game if you're pirating
the software. To fix problem three, please refer to the section about "Burning
Half-Life On CD-R/RW". To fix problem four, get and install v1.0.0.6 patch or
later. It disables the audio music track authentication check and should allow
you to play. To fix problem five, just make sure you put the CD in your primary
CD-ROM drive or disable your second CD-ROM drive.
[6.2.2.17]: Your HL Executable Has Been Modified
As soon as you run Half-Life (or the Half-Life dedicated server HLDS.exe), Half-
Life checks itself to determine if the Half-Life executable you are running has
been damaged or altered in any way. The most likely causes of such damage are:
1. computer viruses (very common)
2. corrupt portions of a user's hard disk drive (rare)
For number 1, visit section 6.7 will show you how to proceed. For number 2, just
run ScanDisk to check errors on your HDD. You may need to reinstall Half-Life.
[6.2.2.18]: Your HL Installation Corrupted/Outdated
There are two reasons why for this to happen:
1. Virus (very common)
2. Half-Life version needs to be updated (sometimes common)
To take care of reason 1, see section 6.7 to know how to take care of it. To
take care of reason 2, you just need to download the latest Half-Life patch. You
may get this error if you tried to update your Half-Life. If so, then that means
that you got a virus. Check out section 6.7.
[6.2.2.19] Z_Malloc: Failed On Allocation Of xxx Bytes
To fix this error, use the -zone xxxx parameter. Check out section 7.2.3 on how
to use the parameter. The cause of this error maybe caused by oversized cfg
files. Cut down the size and you might eliminate the problem.
[6.2.3]: LAN
There are some people out there that reported some problems running a LAN game
of Half-Life. Try these solutions below.
1. When trying LAN hosting, but you get a black screen, [Alt]+[Tab] and you
would probably see the DUN box. Close it down. That's your problem right there.
2. Problem is that when running LAN, the console stops at IPX protocol. The
solution is to disable DNS configuration. To do so, go to Start Menu-> Settings-
> Control Panel-> Network-> TCP/IP Dial-UP Adapter-> Properties-> DNS
Configuration-> Disable DNS. Make sure you write down your DNS if there is one.
3. Try hitting the Esc key.
4. Make sure that Internet Explorer sets itself to connect to the internet via
LAN. To do so, launch IE4-> View-> Internet Options-> Connection tab-> Connect
to the Internet using a local area network
5. Problem is WON Authentication. Go here and get a small utility (27 KB):
http://www.planetfortress.com/downloads/mirror.asp?tfc/wontool.zip
All this program do is adjust the file hosts.sam in the \Windows\ directory. If
you know what to edit, then do it. Make sure it has "127.0.0.1 localhost" (no
quotes) and nothing else.
6. Could not get IPX socket name. IPX disable. Reason: WSAENOTSOCK. If you get
this error, try and see if you could use solution number 2 above and see if it
works. You also need to enable IPX/SPX from the Network via Control Panel.
If you're running a LAN and have multiple computers sharing one IP address, and
want to connect to the internet to play, considering that you have working
separate CD Keys, then try this solution: Create Half-Life shortcut to give
Half-Life a parameter of this: -port 270xx
Example:
Computer 1: hl.exe -port 27025
Computer 2: hl.exe -port 27035
Computer 3: hl.exe -port 27045
This should work, considering how servers do it, but no guarantees.
[6.2.4]: Multi-Player Mode
Here are some known fixes for errors/bugs in MP mode.
[6.2.4.1]: .hpk has a bogus # of directory entries
If you have this problem, all you need to do is delete a file called custom.hpk.
It can be found under \Sierra\Half-Life\Valve\ directory.
[6.2.4.2] Attempting to connect to Won
When upon joining on a server, and it hangs on the command 'Attempting to
connect to Won', then that means that WON.Net's authenticating server must be
down. Check back in a little while and see if you can try play. Another thing to
try is to restart your computer in case of a bad connection with your PC on the
internet.
[6.2.4.3]: Bad Protocol
When trying to connect to any server, and happens to give you this message, "bad
protocol", that means that you have a different Half-Life version than the
server that you're trying to connect. Either the server is hosting with an
outdated Half-Life version, or you don't have the latest Half-Life version. Just
run Sierra's Utilities-> AutoUpdate to get the latest Half-Life version.
[6.2.4.4]: Can't Swim In Water Using Jump Key
If you are having trouble swimming up when you are standing on the ground
underwater, try setting fps_lan to a number less than it is currently set to at
the console. To check what is set to, type this in the console: fps_lan.
[6.2.4.5]: Client.dll
If you get an error saying that you're running a different client.dll, then
here's the solution: All you need to do is uninstall Half-Life, and then go and
delete the remaining folder of Half-Life, even though nothing seems to be in
them. Once deleting the folder(s) associated with Half-Life, then reinstall the
game and it should work fine.
Another quick fix is to copy the client.dll from \Sierra\Half-
life\valve\cl_dlls\ and paste it in \Sierra\Half-life\tfc\cl_dlls and that
should work. If not, then do the long way solution above instead.
[6.2.4.6] Custom file missing wad3 id
To fix this problem, delete the custom.hpk file found under any of \Half-Life\
directory, like for example, there's one under \Half-Life\Valve\. This should
fix the error.
[6.2.4.7]: File Mechwine Not On Server
It is an error in Crossfire. It basically means that in the level, Half Life
couldn't find the file "mechwine.wav". It's an ambient sound contained in the
pack file (pak0.pak). Just ignore this error. It won't cause any problems.
[6.2.4.8] Host_Error:CL_Parseserver Message
Error: Host_Error:CL_Parseserver Message:Bad server message. Here are two
solutions that I can come up with and possibly an explanation:
1. Quit out of Half-Life; restart Half-Life back up again and try to log on the
server.
2. Reboot or shutdown and restart the PC. then see if you can connect to the
server.
I can't really point in a general lead, but this error usually ends up on the
server side. Some times it can be the client's fault. Something maybe wrong with
Half-Life when loaded up. This error happened to me quite a few times,
especially if the server is running the map Doublecross. But also, if I restart
Half-Life or reboot my PC, then I can finally bypass that error. This is one
strange error.
[6.2.4.9] Pldecal.wad
Don't worry about too much of this file. If it can't write to it, then it's
okay. This file only holds the decals (spray paints) that may have been
downloaded, or tried to download decals and write to the file, but you disabled
downloading the decals.
[6.2.4.10]: Stuck On Elevator
There were some people who reported that when going up the elevator, it gets
stuck and rubber bands you around. The solution to this bug is simply: Duck.
Crawl way from it. It should work. I know it, because I got stuck a few times,
and ducking would solve the problem. For future warnings, don't stand close to
the edges of the elevator. Stand in the middle if possible so that this problem
will not occur.
[6.2.4.11]: Stuck On Ladder
If you are getting stuck on the top of the ladder in a multiplayer game, make
sure that the server you are on does not have the variable sv_airaccelerate set
to zero. Any value other than zero will work properly.
[6.2.4.12]: Using Decal ### Without A Name
Getting v1.0.0.9 or higher patch should fix this problem. But if the patch
fails, then all you need to do is delete every thing in this folder:
\Sierra\Half-Life\Logo\ and that should get rid of the error. If you made a
custom decal for yourself, make sure you don't delete it and leave it in the
folder.
If you recorded a demo during a deathmatch online, then I suggest that you allow
your computer to download the custom decals from the opponents on that server or
you would probably get this error. So leave the download of decals on to try and
avoid this error. If you get this error when trying to playback the recorded
demo, I don't know what to say, but that demo is worthless and nothing can be
done about it.
[6.2.4.13]: Warning: U_Remove on full update
This message is given because you lagged big time (major data loss). You can
also try another solution, that may work. Use this command: cl_nodelta 1. It
worked for some people, so give it a try. But be warned: it can add additional
lag, because I've tried it before, and it makes lag worse than before. But if it
cures this problem, then be my guest on using it.
The only way to cure this annoying problem is to have a clear connection to the
internet as possible. You only get this error when you lag. This can contribute
by having call waiting. Disable call waiting if you can. I hate it when someone
tries to call, because it would lag and the connection would most likely be out
of sync and it probably disconnect from the internet or takes a moment to re-
sync with the game.
Anything else that causes interruption to your internet session can cause this
too. Line noise, background popups, downloads, whatever, can cause it.
[6.2.4.14]: Wonau_w95.dll/Woncr_w95.dll
Error: A required .DLL file, WONAU_W95.DLL was not found! You get this error
because when installing the patch, the file names were truncated and renamed
them as DOS filenames. You'll find those two files (if one is missing, the other
is bound to be the same) in your \Sierra\Half-Life\ folder. It is named
wonau_~1.dll. Rename it to wonau_w95.dll. The second one that is woncr_~1.dll
Rename that to woncr_w95.dll. It should now be fixed.
[6.2.4.15] Wsaenotsock
Error: could not get IPX Socket name. IPX disabled. Reason: Wsaenotsock. If you
get this error, it means that IPX/SPX is diabled. Enable it through the Network
from Control Panel and/or remove the -noipx parameter from HL.exe if you put it
there. There's nothing wrong with this error unless you want to use IPX to play
on LAN servers that don't want to use TCP/IP.
[6.2.5]: Patch/Update Half-Life
The only problem with patches that I notice are that either you downloaded them
and perhaps tried to resume/got disconnect and tried to resume it will end up
corrupting them (highly possible). So you're gonna need to download the patches
non-stop without interruptions. HL patches are highly sensitive to the CRCs and
easily corrupt.
Also, there was a wide spread problem with patch v1.0.1.0, stating that you
tried to apply the v1.0.1.0 patch over v1.0.0.6, in which you really have
v1.0.0.9. Check out section 6.2.5.3 for the instructions how to take care of
this problem.
[6.2.5.1] Corrupted Installation Detected
It maybe:
1. The patch that you just downloaded is corrupted. Go and re-download it again.
2. Your Half-Life game is corrupted. Scan for a virus first (make sure you're
using a good virus detector to really make sure that you don't have a virus on
your PC.). If no virus are found, uninstall the game, delete the remaining
folders that couldn't be removed from the un-installation program, and reboot.
Then re-install it.
[6.2.5.2] Not a valid previous version
You may get this error because you downloaded the wrong patch (wrong version for
your game's version). You need to know first and check to see that you are
getting the correct update patch for your version. Be sure to get the right
patch, like for the US game or for foreign game versions. There are separate
patches for different languages.
[6.2.5.3]: Your HL is v1.0.x.x and you have v1.0.x.x
If you happen to run across this kind of scenario; this started to spread with
v1.0.1.0 patch: I've downloaded a patch for my outdated Half-Life, which is at
v1.0.x.x and the patch I got is v1.0.x.x. It reports that my Half-Life version
is even lower than it is, and I know that I got the correct patch for my current
version of Half-Life. When it updates, it says that the patch is incorrect to
update your Half-Life version. I know that I got the correct patch for my Half-
Life version. Well, here's the solution:
1. Locate the file named sierra.inf
2. Open it up and scroll down until you run into something like this:
; Version is the version of the application. This is also used by
; EREG to identify the product
Version=1.0.0.5
PatchVersion=1.0.x.x
3. Change PatchVersion=1.0.x.x to whatever your current patched version of Half-
Life is at. Replace the x's with the actual numbers of your current Half-Life
version.
Another good solution, is to download the full update file to Half-Life. Take
for example - get the patch 10051013.exe. This will update your Half-Life CD
version to the latest version which would be v1.0.1.3. This would mean hours of
download (on a slow connection of course). It is suggested to try the above
solution first before getting the full patch.
[6.2.6]: Single-Player Mode
Single-player mode bugs/errors that are widely known are listed below.
[6.2.6.1]: Barney Dies
No, not the purple dinosaur. I'm talking about NPC, you know, the security
guards that help you during the game. Sometimes, they just die straight out
(don't confuse this with the scripting of some Barneys dying because they're
suppose to). Well, this is a bug. To fix this bug, make sure to put a carriage
return (an empty line) at the end of the opengl.cfg/d3d.cfg/x.cfg file(s). Error
symptoms are Barneys (security guards) dying without any indication of harmful
effects done to them.
[6.2.6.2]: Stuck/Die On Elevator
Just like the level We've Got Hostile, sometimes in the game, you would just get
stuck for no reason at all and perhaps lose life slowly. The only cure that
would be reasonable to try is to duck and then crawl. So just duck, and go
forward while crouching! It should free you from the sticky bug. Next time, just
stand in the middle of the elevator platform and avoid standing near the edges
of the elevator platform.
[6.2.6.3]: Uninstalling
There's a little malfunction with Half-Life's uninstall program with the out of
the box version (the one straight from the CD without any patches). If you
attempt to uninstall, it would wipe out all and everything that is contained in
the parameters of Half-Life. Say you installed Half-Life like this:
C:\games\Half-Life\ If you do, and you uninstall, then it would wipe out Half-
Life and also the directory of \games\. So, if I were you, I'd keep Half-Life
simple in it's own directory, or patch the game up to at least v1.0.0.6 to
remove the little mishap with the un-installation program.
[6.2.6.4]: Zoom
This cheap-zoom-in feature can be used with almost any weapons in the game. All
you have to do, is put out a crossbow. Now, hit the secondary fire mode. This
would zoom in. Now, hit 'F6' for quicksave, and then do a quickload 'F7', and
this should bring you to a zoom in bug feature. Now, just switch to any weapon
and you'll stay in that zoom bug almost forever, although using any other
weapons, the movement is a little jerky. To undo this bug, just switch back to
the crossbow, and hit the secondary fire mode and this should zoom out.
[6.2.7]: Timedemo
Any known errors about timedemos for Half-Life. To be sure that timedemos can be
ran, know what version it was compiled under which Half-Life version, as it
can't run on any other version of Half-Life than the one that was created from.
[6.2.7.1]: Demo Protocol Outdated
If you get this error, it is because you ran the timedemo on the wrong version
of Half-Life. By that, it means that say the timedemo was created on v1.0.0.5 of
Half-Life. You can only run the timedemo at v1.0.0.5 only. You can not run on
any other version of Half-Life. Find another timedemo for your current Half-Life
version.
[6.3]: CD Key
Some information about CD Key below. If you can't find the CD-Key, visit section
2.1.2.
[6.3.1]: CD Key In Use
If you bought a legit Half-Life game, and it happens that someone is using your
CD Key, then you need to contact Sierra so that they can terminate the current
CD Key and re-issue you a new one. Go to one of Sierra's web site with the
appropriate country and send them an e-mail about the problem. Here are the
sites:
Internet USA: http://www.sierra.com (support@sierra.com)
Internet United Kingdom: http://www.sierra-online.co.uk
Internet France: http://www.sierra.fr
Internet Germany: http://www.sierra.de
From those internet sites, go there and go under Tech Support.
[6.3.2]: Editing CD Key
If you're one of those people who installed the Half-Life warez game, or
borrowed your friend's CD, and then went out and bought your own, and now want
to use your own CD Key, then here's a way to remove your old CD Key: Start Menu-
> Run. Type in regedit. Go to this registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Valve\Half-Life\Settings. Look for the header KEY.
Delete this registry data, and then run Half-Life again, and it'll ask you for
the CD Key again.
There seems another place for the CD Key than the above. Here's the second
location to check: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\.default\Software\Valve\Half-Life\Settings.
Again, look for the header KEY. Delete this registry data and run Half-Life.
[6.3.3]: Lost CD Key
There are three thing you can do:
1. Exchange the game for another from where you got it from.
2. Send the game to the following address and once they get it, they will send
you another copy (U.S. residents only):
Sierra On-Line Exchanges/Returns
4100 West 190th Street
Torrance, CA 90504
3. Make a photo copy of the back of the CD case, Top of the CD itself and a copy
of the sales receipt and fax it to 1-425-644-7697 with the subject ATTN: Tech
support Adventure. Once they get it, they will send you a code (U.S. residents
only).
If you have any further questions just reply to this e-mail or feel free to
contact them at support@sierra.com (US only). You can also find further
information at:
Internet USA: http://www.sierra.com
Internet United Kingdom: http://www.sierra-online.co.uk
Internet France: http://www.sierra.fr
Internet Germany: http://www.sierra.de
From those internet sites, go there and go under Tech Support. Little bit edited
from a Sierra Technical Support e-mail to fit readers, so it doesn't sound like
it's meant to someone else. No other information was left out that is considered
important. Everything here is what needed. Note that parts are only for US
residents only. Please visit the correct web site link to get the correct email
address for Sierra's support.
[6.4]: Copying Half-Life On CD-R/RW
I've seen people complaining that they can't do copies of Half-Life on CD-R/RW
discs. Let me say this: yes, it can be done, but there's one problem: foreign
Half-Life games, like German, French, etc. are bigger in format size. That's the
bad news. You'll need to find some CD-R/RW that could hold a little bit more
than 650 MB to duplicate Half-Life entirely. For the United States version,
making duplicates of the game should be no problem.
In order to burn exact duplicates of Half-Life, you need to burn the game by
"tracks"-some what format like what audio CD music go by. On the United States
version, I can confirm that there are 28 tracks that are needed to copy in order
to have the full exact duplicate of the original master legit copy of Half-Life.
Why can I confirm it? Because I already made a duplicate back up copy for my own
personal use. It took about an hour and a few minutes to duplicate the game
(using a 2x writer, HP 7200i+ CD-RW). For the foreign Half-Life game, I can't,
because I don't have any version of it. I don't know how big, but some said that
the CD contained a little bit more extra. So you're gonna have to find a bigger
CD-R/RW disc to duplicate Half-Life.
I used the Adaptec's Copy CDs program. I don't know about any other programs,
because I don't know any and all I know is that this program did the trick for
me. Just find any program out there or get any program that would allow you to
duplicate CDs by tracks or perhaps mirror the whole CD. For CDs that are much
larger than the typical 650MB CD (for foreign copies of Half-Life), just copy
the data part of the game. Leave out the audio tracks. That will save a lot of
space. But you will need to patch the game up to at least v1.0.0.6 to work. But
you will have no audio CD if you do it like this. Be warned: I haven't tested
this yet.
By the way, after copying Half-Life, and testing to see if the CD-R/RW copy
works, and you get an error that says that the CD is invalid, or Half-Life
requires CD, all you need to do is patch your Half-Life game up to at least to
v1.0.0.6 to get rid of the audio authentication crap. I don't know what's left
off when burning Half-Life, but anyway, that's how you fix the problem.
[6.5]: Direct X
The latest, Microsoft release Direct X 6.1. DX 6.0 is on the Half-Life CD. You
can get the latest version of Direct X via: http://www.microsoft.com/directx/.
If you have any trouble with Direct X x.x, then you can remove Direct X x.x by
getting a program at: http://www.ebrink.com/dxun/Direct.htm.
[6.6]: PC Hardware
Here are some PC hardware troubleshooting solutions and some information. Make
sure that you read these sections carefully. Some solutions are placed where the
subject fits, but can fit in some other places. So be careful on reading some of
these solutions.
[6.6.1]: CD-ROM
Having at least a 2x CD-ROM drive is good enough, because the only use of the
CD-ROM is playing music during the game, which it doesn't need to be like 24x or
so. Also, updating your CD-ROM drivers would generally help. Go to your CD-ROM
manufacture's web site and download any new released drivers for your CD-ROM
drives. If there are problems installing the game, try these few suggestions:
Go to My Computer-> (right click) Properties-> Manager Device-> CD-ROM-> -> Properties
1. Uncheck if it's checked on the box DMA. If it is uncheck, then check the box
for DMA. Now accept the change and reboot.
2. If suggestion #1 does not work, then uncheck the box Sync Data. If it's
uncheck, then check the box. Now accept the change and reboot.
3. Mix up the combinations of these two and see if it works for the last resort.
4. If those suggestions doesn't work, take it over to a friend's house or
someone with a computer and install it on their computer and see if it works. If
it does, then you have a corrupted CD-ROM drive.
5. If taking over to a friend's house doesn't work, return the defective product
and get a new one.
[6.6.1.1]: Audio Music
If for some reason, you don't hear music, then it's:
1. CD music cable
2. CD music is off
3. CD music volume is off
To fix problem one, you need to open up your PC and check to see if the CD-ROM
drive has a digital cable running to your sound card from your CD-ROM drive. To
fix problem two, try this: Start Menu-> Settings-> Control Panel-> Multimedia->
CD Music tab. From here, make sure you select your CD-ROM drive that would play
the audio music and make sure you check the box at the bottom so that it could
play digital music, and make sure the volume slider is all the to right so that
the volume is to the highest.
For problem three, you can check the volume just like above, or also from the
Volume Control, where you see the yellow horn near your clock in the task bar.
Load it up and see if your CD audio volume is up high. If you don't have Volume
Control, then go and grab your Windows 9x CD-ROM, stick it into your drive, Go
to Start Menu-> Settings-> Control Panel-> Add/Remove Programs-> Windows Setup->
Multimedia-> Volume Control (check it)-> Apply.
If nothing works, see if your CD-ROM could play the music from Half-Life CD. Use
MS's Media Player or any audio CD player and see if you could play any sound
tracks from 2 through 28. If you can't play any, then your CD-ROM don't support
the music.
[6.6.2]: Controller/Joystick
There are some information referring to some controllers in the readme.txt.
Please read the readme.txt for some information. For the best result, upgrade
your controller's drivers to the latest date available.
When using a joystick and you encounter a crosshair problem, try the following:
Start Menu-> Settings-> Control Panel. Select the Advanced
tab in Game Controllers. For the "Port Driver", make sure that "Poll with
interrupts enabled" is not checked.
[6.6.3]: CPU
Half-Life should support most of the CPUs out there today. Half-Life officially
supports MMX and unofficial 3DNow! CPU instructions. No word yet on SSE
instructions.
[6.6.3.1]: 3DNow!
There is a patch out there, that enables support of AMD's 3DNow! instructions
for only the K-6-2 processors. The link are:
http://www.amd.com/products/cpg/k623d/drivers.html (3dfx)
http://www.3dnow.net/ (3dfx and Rendition)
Please be aware that the 3DNow! drivers can only work with Rendition or Voodoo2
video cards. These are not official 3DNow! patch for Half-Life.
After downloading/unzipping, copy the file 3dfxglam.dll into \Half-Life\gldvr\
and go to section 6.6.6.8 and follow those instructions on how to use this
3DNow! driver. It's the same procedure on how to install the driver just as that
section talks about Open GL driver. Just replace opengl32.dll with 3dfxglam.dll.
After following those instructions, make sure that you do select the 3DNow!
drivers from the video menu. This instruction is only for 3dfx Voodoo2 cards.
For the Rendition, download it at the second link and follow the readme.txt. It
provides instructions in there for 3dfx and Rendition.
If you get the blue screen of death, and the error message is FXMEMMAP.VXD
related, then here's the solution: In the QuakeII 3DNow! package, there's a file
called fxmemap.vxd. Copy that file and place it under \Windows\System\. It may
be older, but it may fix your error. Please back up the original before copying
the older version if so. This file can only be found in the first link of the
3DNow! patch.
Note: if you use these hacked drivers, be warned that your crosshair may go
corrupt and be out of order on your HUD screen. To fix the problem with your
crosshair location, bring down the console and type this in: gl_flipmatrix 1.
[6.6.3.2]: MMX
Half-Life may not enable MMX support. To enable MMX support, type this in the
console: r_mmx 1.
[6.6.3.3]: SSE
The only use of SSE instructions may be found in Direct X 6.1 and perhaps your
video card drivers. So download those to have maximum performance out of your
Pentium III.
[6.6.4]: Modem
Always update your modem drivers to the latest. Having a 14.4 modem to play this
game is not recommended. You will lag when there's a lot of people on the server
that you would play. 28.8 is minimum, but a 56k non-window modem is recommended
to get best performance.
[6.6.4.1]: WinModem
Winmodem is not the best choice for online gaming. In fact, they just plain out
suck. The reason is that Winmodem relies on the CPU to do most of it's job.
That's a major no-no, and a small performance hit to your overall PC speed.
Avoid getting a Winmodem at all cost. Don't care if it's a low price. Get cheap
stuff, suffer cheap stuff's consequences. Go and buy a regular modem, and make
sure it's not a Winmodem.
[6.6.5]: Sound
There are some information referring to some sound stuff in the readme.txt.
Please read the readme.txt for some information. For the best result, upgrade
your sound card's drivers to the latest date available. Half-Life takes
advantages of the following two major APIs: Creative's Environmental Audio (EAX)
or Aureal's A3D (A3D).
[6.6.5.1]: A3D
Half-Life supports A3D Vortex 1 & 2 chipset. Get the v2.xx A3D drivers in order
for A3D to function correctly with Half-Life or else your A3D enhancements will
not exist. If using your A3D sound card sounds crappy, like low noise, and some
bad environmental noise mixes, then try these values into the console:
s_distance 18
s_2dvolume 0.88
s_verbwet 0.15
s_min_distance 8
s_refgain 0.34
If turning on A3D, and you get a big performance hit, losing some fps, then use
this command: s_geometry 0. You may lose some of the positional sounds, but not
much quality hit, but at least it should give back some fps for faster
performances. Make sure you have at least v1.0.0.8+ for Half-Life. Also download
the latest sound card drivers for your A3D sound card. Always install the
reference drivers if your sound card manufacture hasn't updated their drivers.
You can get the latest drivers at http://www.a3d.com/html/download/drivers/ Once
you downloaded the latest drivers, delete the a3dapi.dll file in the Half-Life
directory, only the copy in \windows\system\ is needed. The one in Half-Life's
directory is kind of old.
[6.6.5.2]: Audio Music
If for some reason, you don't hear music, then it's:
1. CD music not enabled in the game
2. CD music is off
3. CD music volume is off
To fix problem one, go through the configuration and into audio and check the
box Play CD Music. To fix problem two, try this: Start Menu-> Settings-> Control
Panel-> Multimedia-> CD Music tab. From here, make sure you select your CD-ROM
drive that would play the audio music and make sure you check the box at the
bottom so that it could play digital music, and make sure the volume slider is
all the to right so that the volume is to the highest.
For problem three, you can check the volume just like above, or also from the
Volume Control, where you see the yellow horn near your clock in the task bar.
Load it up and see if your CD audio volume is up high. If you don't have Volume
Control, then go and grab your Windows 9x CD-ROM, stick it into your drive, Go
to Start Menu-> Settings-> Control Panel-> Add/Remove Programs-> Windows Setup->
Multimedia-> Volume Control (check it)-> Apply.
If nothing works, see if your CD-ROM could play the music from Half-Life CD. Use
MS's Media Player or any audio CD player and see if you could play any sound
tracks from 2 through 28. If you can't play any, then your CD-ROM don't support
the music.
[6.6.5.3]: EAX
4 speakers 360 degrees sound is supported after v1.0.0.8 patch. You will need to
get the v1.0.0.8 patch or higher to enable full 360 degrees of sound with 4
speaker support. If not, you would only get 180 degrees 2 speaker support (you
can hear from the rear, but will sound the same as your 2 front speakers would),
which would suck.
[6.6.5.4]: Losing Sound During Gameplay
If you lose sound during gameplay, then you can try this quick fix to see if you
can get it back: Hit Esc key during gameplay. Then hit Resume Game option once
in the menu. If your PC is nice enough, it might give you sound back. Works for
many people who loses sound if they Alt-Tab out of the game. If that doesn't
work, then you might need to terminate your current game and load it back up.
Update your sound card drivers is highly advised if there are any.
[6.6.5.5]: Repeating Sound Loops
If for some reason, the sound FXs loop and replays through the whole event, say
the explosion sound FX gets looped and played again and again and again, making
your ears hurt and have to restart Half-Life, then I got the cure for you. To
stop the looping sound FX, type this in the console: stopsound. That should stop
any sound FX that is currently played. Everything else should go back to normal
after it's executed.
[6.6.5.6]: Sound Blaster Cards
If you have a SoundBlaster sound card, you will find that the sound skips and
sounds horrible. To try and solve this problem, right click on "My Computer"
icon. Select "properties". Click the "+" sign next to the "Sound, video and
games controllers" listing. Double click the . Click the "Settings" tab. Make sure the
"Allow Full-Duplex operation" check box is checked. Click "OK". Reboot.
Another thing to try is bring down the console. Type this in: snd_noextraupdate
1. This fixes the Sound Blaster 64 AWE, letting the users to leave it on high
sound quality. I don't know if it'll work on other Sound Blaster x cards, but
give it a try. If it still stutter, make sure you try out section 6.6.5.7
section in this HLFAQ. Also, fiddle around with the checking the boxes in the
settings of your sound card interface stuff. Take a look around. If you have
Sound Blaster Live!, it is recommended that you should update your SBL! drivers.
[6.6.5.7]: Stuttering
Try these solutions and see if they could cure your stuttering problems with the
game:
1. Bring up the console and type this in: _snd_mixahead x.xxx
Where xx.xxx=any number, like 0.145. Try different numbers if it doesn't work.
Fiddle with the number until it improves.
2. From the Start Menu-> Run, type in this:
:\\hl.exe -wavonly
x=HDD; HL dir=HL's directory
3. Bring up the console and type this in: snd_noextraupdate 1
[6.6.6]: Video
There are some information referring to some video stuff in the readme.txt.
Please read the readme.txt for some information. For the best result, update
your video card's drivers to the latest drivers available. Half-Life takes
advantages of the following two major APIs: Open GL or Direct 3D. Half-Life
could also be run under software mode, but it does not take advantage of 3D
accelerator cards. Just uses a lot of CPU MHz power to render the game.
If you happen to run Half-Life, and it would just crash, then try this solution:
On the Desktop (right click)-> Properties-> Settings tab-> Advanced...->
Performance tab In the Performance tab, slide the pointer left to decrease the
usage of your video card. It may enable you to play the game and not crash. Keep
on sliding it more left if you still got problems until you reach none. After
reaching none, and you see no improvements, then you're SOL.
[6.6.6.1]: 3dfx
Half-Life supports 3dfx cards by Open GL via Mini GL. Please also update your
3dfx video card drivers. You could get both drivers for your 3dfx cards at
http://www.3dfx.com. You will be greeted by a choose your location page. After
choosing the appropriate location, pick the link Drivers on the next page. Then
choose the appropriate video card that you have and get the drivers. Remember to
get the drivers for your video card and Mini GL (they are two different set of
drivers).
Whatever you do, when you run Half-Life, go through the menu first so that you
can pick how Half-Life can be run under which hardware acceleration. When you
get to the Video options menu, pick what drivers should be used under Open GL,
do not pick 'default'. It's slow. Pick the other choice given, which would be
3dfx Mini Driver. Note: you must update your Mini GL drivers if necessary. See
the above paragraph for the information. If you try to run the game without
updating the Mini GL driver, you will get a black screen and may say 'Loading',
and it won't go further. This means that the Mini GL that you have is out dated
on your PC. Go and get the latest Mini GL.
If you have a Voodoo1 and get this error: 'Expected VXD version V1.2, got V1.1',
then that means that you need to update your Voodoo1 drivers. They are outdated
on your machine. Go grab the latest at http://www.3dfx.com. If you get this
error: "Mutual exclusion prohibits this", then this means that there are two
programs try to use the Voodoo2 card at the same time. Do Ctrl+Alt+Del to see if
any program that can be using your Voodoo2 card. Also try getting the latest
reference drivers for your Voodoo2 at http://www.3dfx.com might help solve the
problem. It maybe sometimes be the drivers' fault for that error.
Some people have been experiencing problems with their gamma settings with 3dfx
cards and the v1.0.1.0 patch. The gamma settings for your 3dfx card with
v1.0.1.0 patch are decided by the 3dfx control panel installed with your card's
drivers. This was a change to allow users of some 3dfx hardware to set their
gamma to a higher setting than was allowed in the Half-Life game, as the game
was too dark. To allow your gamma settings on 3dfx hardware to be decided by the
Half-Life game, run Half-Life with this command line parameter: -3dfxgamma
If you have a Voodoo2 card, and want to squeeze extra speed out of it, you would
want to overclock it. To find out how, go to:
http://www.tweak3d.net/tweak/v2oc/.
[6.6.6.2]: 3DWarning
For the first time when running Half-Life, and decide to choose the hardware
mode, like D3D or Open GL, a warning message comes up. If it keeps coming up,
then you could disable it. Follow these instructions: Start Menu-> Run. Type
regedit and hit OK. Go to this registry setting: HKEY_USERS-> .DEFAULT->
SOFTWARE-> Valve-> Half-Life-> Settings. Change the 3DWarning key: Right click
on 3DWarning-> Modify. Change the 0 (zero) into a 1. After all this, press OK.
Now it shouldn't give you any more hassle about the 3D Warning crap. Make sure
you don't screw up in the registry. If you do, then you're doomed and you have
to reinstall Windows and everything else you got on your computer.
[6.6.6.3]: Blue Water
If you finally encounter water, and you jump in, and all the sudden, it goes all
blue, then you've got a problem. The problem is this: it's your video card or
video card drivers. You need to get updated video card drivers and see if that
could cure the glitch with rendering underwater scenes. If getting an updated
driver won't fix your blues, then you can use a quick workaround -switch to
software mode, get where you need to go and get out of the water, and then
switch back to your original hardware rendering style. This blue water mostly
happens with D3D hardware rendering.
[6.6.6.4]: D3D
Direct3D Input sometimes seems lagged. If your input seems to lag behind the
visual display on occasion, type this in the console: gl_d3dflip 1.
If you use D3D as your hardware rendering for Half-Life, and you see textures as
'grayed out', only black boxes, etc, then there maybe a big problem. The problem
is that your video card, perhaps your video card drivers too, are either too old
or can't handle D3D. The first thing you could do is to update your video card
drivers. This may solve the problem. If updating your video card drivers won't
help, then that only means that your video card can not handle D3D rendering
(a.k.a. your video card sucks). Only one solution exists for this kind of
problem: dump the current video card and go buy one that can do it. 3dfx's
Voodoo x and nVidia's TNTx/GeForce video cards are good ones to go on.
[6.6.6.5]: Decals
Some video cards out there, have problems creating/placing decals (blood, bullet
holes, etc...). Some could only view from a specific angle, some disappears if
close, reappears if far way. To fix this problem, type this in the console:
gl_polyoffset xx
Where xx=any number, fiddle around with the numbers until you get it right. Try
these values: 0.1,-0.1, 1, -1, 20, or -20. .001 fixes i740 video cards, 20 fixes
TNT video cards.
[6.6.6.6]: Matrox
If you can't see underwater other than in software mode, then you need to get
the latest patch for your video card. Go to http://www.matrox.com and get the
latest patch/drivers for your video card and it should correct your mishap with
underwater adventures. Try the beta drivers to see if they work.
[6.6.6.7]: Multiple 3D Cards
Go to http://www.3dfiles.com/utility/ and go under Multiple Video Cards section.
Click the link and it should give you multiple programs to choose from to let
you switch from 3D cards, like the TNT/Voodoo x for an example.
[6.6.6.8]: Open GL
Please visit your video card manufacturer's web site and see if your video card
supports it. If it does, find your video card drivers for Open GL, may also be
called ICD. After getting any essential Open GL files from your manufacturer's
web site, install them to enable Open GL support for your video card.
Some video cards just install supporting drivers and use their own Open GL
coding, Installable Client Drivers (ICD). For instance, 3dfx's Open GL file is
called 3dfxogl.dll (this file can be renamed as opengl32.dll). But you can use a
generic Open GL called opengl32.dll, should be about 753,808 bytes big (about
736 to 737 KB). It can be found under C:\Windows and C:\Windows\System\. If you
don't have the generic Open GL file, then here's the link to get it:
ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/softlib/mslfiles/opengl95.exe.
PCs older than Win95 OSR 2 should get that file linked above to fix the Open GL
and upgrade the file. Get this file, because it's a fix. This is v1.1 of Open
GL. Some video cards rely on this generic Open GL driver. In order to use the
generic Open GL driver, you must install your video card drivers that supports
Open GL first. There are some video card manufactures that support Open GL by
just updating your video card drivers and then just download a file for Open GL,
which would usually be opengl32.dll. This for sure was done by ATI for their
Rage Pro (started for GLQuake). If you are given the file opengl32.dll, it is
needed to be placed it where Half-Life would detect it and so that you could
play using hardware rendering. Copy the opengl32.dll into C:\SIERRA\Half-
Life\gldrv\ (assuming that's the installation default directory).
After copying the opengl32.dll, you need to edit a file to make Half-Life see
the file. The file should be drvmap.txt within C:\SIERRA\Half-Life\gldrv\ the
same directory. Open it up with a text editor. Now, it should have something
like this:
Default Default
3dfxgl.dll 3dfx Mini Driver
Now, to make Half-Life see the opengl32.dll file, type this in:
opengl32.dll Open GL
So it should look like this within the file:
Default Default
3dfxgl.dll 3dfx Mini Driver
opengl32.dll Open GL
^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^
File's name and name to see listed in the game. Now, save the file and Half-Life
should let you run Open GL. So, start up Half-Life, and go to Configuration->
Video Mode selection. Now, select Open GL. To the left, it should give you a box
listing several choices. The box is left on Default if it's not messed with.
Now, click the down button arrow and choose Open GL, or whatever you named it
back in the drvmap.txt. Hint: It's not going to be the choices Default or 3dfx
Mini Driver. It should be what you named it in the drvmap.txt. Now run the game
and it should be accelerated in Open GL.
[6.6.6.9]: Screen Not Aligned
Whenever you play, and you start up the game, the viewing area screen slides
like an inch off from the regular windows setting, and you need to re-adjust the
screen. Well, it may have to do with your refresh rate. People with two video
cards, like a primary 2D card and a 3D card, would likely to see this problem.
It is because two of the video cards are using the same refresh rate. To try and
fix this problem, you need to assign one of the video card a different refresh
rate.
[6.6.6.10] Slow Menu
If the in game menu slows down so much, try this solution: Start Menu-> Run->
Type in regedit-> Find the key CPUMHZ under:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Valve\Half-Life\Settings\. Open up the CPUMHZ key and
edit the value from 0 (zero) to 1. That should make the menu fly by quicker.
Reverse the number if it ends up doing the opposite.
[6.6.6.11]: Nvidia
Please get the reference drivers (Detonator) for your TNT boards. The URL is:
http://www.nvidia.com/Products.nsf/htmlmedia/software_drivers.html so that the
game would work at its best for your Open GL hardware rendering.
There's a site out there that have TNT tweaks, especially for Half-Life:
http://www.voodooextreme.com/tweak3d/tweak/rivatnt/.
When switching between Open GL and D3D with a TNT card, decals may not display
correctly. To fix this, type this in the console: gl_polyoffset 4.
If you are having unreadable text when using TNT, then do the following: Right
click Desktop-> Properties-> Riva TNT-> Additional Properties-> Direct3D. Set
auto-mipmap to trilinear, mipmap detail to best image quality. Then go to
advanced and enable fog table emulation.
For the TNT2, it is advised to use the reference drivers off of Nvidia's web
site. Check it out at http://www.nvidia.com and download the latest drivers for
your TNT2. Note: TNT2 can use TNT drivers (some of them).
[6.6.6.12]: Video Tearing
When running the game under hardware rendering, sometimes, there are tearing and
lines cut from here to there. There are several reasons why:
1. Fast refresh rate
2. V-Sync enabled
3. Old non-up-to-date video drivers
4. The game itself
To fix problem one, lower the refresh rate, by right click on Desktop->
Properties. To solved problem two, disable V-Sync. To solve problem three, get
updated drivers from your video manufacturer's web site. To fix problem four,
enter this in the console (only if you're running D3D or Open GL hardware
acceleration mode): gl_keeptjunctions 1.
[6.6.6.13]: Video Too Dark
If the video settings are too dark and you can't see anything, then you can try
and up the brightness on your monitor's settings. If that doesn't help, then try
these two commands in the console:
gamma #
brightness #
# = any number from 0 through whatever. 0 = dark, 5 = 5x brighter, etc... Do not
try double digits/triple digits until you tried up to 9 and still say it's
dark...
If you have a 3dfx card and updated Half-Life v1.0.1.0 or higher, then there's a
command that will let you follow how gamma is set up from your video card
properties found when right click on desktop. The command is a parameter to be
used with Half-Life. It's -3dfxgamma. Go to section 7.2.3 to check out the
information about the usage of the parameter.
[6.6.6.14]: Visual Enhancements
Anthony "Reverend" Tan, devoted some of his time to create a good guide, of
telling what variables are good for your PC and to enjoy the game to be used
with Half-Life. Better known as 'tweaks', which are to find the best
configurations and to take advantages of their usage to make the game a better
way to play it than before. Based on Voodoo2 results. It'll work with other
video cards, but results will vary. HALF-LIFE Visuals Tweak Guide at:
Shockwave: http://www.voodooextreme.com/reverend/flash/Main.html
Regular: http://www.voodooextreme.com/reverend/Main.html
[6.7]: Virus
This one word makes the computer go nuts! Okay, I've seen a few problems. Some
of the problems, like can't upgrade to v1.0.0.8 or can't run game because
hlds.exe is incorrect version, etc... This is a result of a virus on your
computer. Yes. There is a virus on your computer. Don't doubt me. But if your
current virus scanner don't see any virus whatsoever, you should get one that is
the latest. You can get a good virus checker at: http://www.avp.com. Here's a
quicker and faster way to get rid of the WinCIH virus if you know you got this
one: http://www.pspl.com/download/cleancih.htm. Go there and it will have
instructions on how to use the cleancih.exe to clean out all the WinCIH viruses.
Please be aware, that this is the main cause of why it gives you that message
that hlds.exe is corrupted or incorrect version, etc. The virus that you may be
looking for is the WinCIH virus. It alters program files and changes the file
not to resemble itself anymore. The programs will continue to work, but it is
best to remove this WinCIH virus ASAP. This CIH virus can be cleaned. Other than
that, there can be other viruses that can affect Half-Life. Here's a short
information on the WinCIH virus: There are three variants (1.2, 1.3 and 1.4) of
Win95.CIH virus. These variants can be identified from the text string present
in the virus code. The variants 1.2 and 1.4 are reported to be in the wild and
spreading. Win95.CIH.1.2 and 1.3 do the damage on 26th of April only and
Win95.CIH.1.4 does it on the 26th every month. Win95.CIH.1.4 is also the most
frequently reported variant.
[7]: PERFORMANCE TIPS
[7.1]: Enhance Sound Effects
Okay, this isn't none of those hidden stuff that Microsoft slapped into their OS
or is this trick new. It's been there forever, so it's not new. You can try to
get 3D sound by going to Start Menu-> Programs-> Accessories-> Entertainment->
Volume Control-> Advanced. Under Advanced Controls for Volume Control, go under
the 'Other controls' and it should have a box and have an option for "3D Effect
Enable". Check this box and get ready to be amazed like I did. Some other sound
cards have different options, but be sure to check it out what it got to offer.
If you don't have Volume Control, then go and grab your Windows 9x CD-ROM, stick
it into your drive, Go to Start Menu-> Settings-> Control Panel-> Add/Remove
Programs-> Windows Setup-> Multimedia-> Volume Control (check it)-> Apply. Some
sound cards may give you this option, so it's all up to your sound card. If you
don't see the 3D Effect Enable option, then that means that your sound card
can't do 3D effects, or somewhat.
[7.2]: Half-Life Tweaks
Here are some Half-Life tweaks to try out. Here's a link for Half-Life tweaks:
http://www.tweak3d.net/tweak/hl/. Try that link out if anything below doesn't
make sense.
[7.2.1]: Autoexec.cfg
It is recommended that you should create a cfg file, let it be autoexec.cfg so
that it can load some of tweaking commands or anything for Half-Life. This would
save your butt from typing repeated commands that you always want to use when
playing Half-Life. Take a look at section 4.1. There's also an automated
autoexec creator for people who needs some visual to help them make an
autoexec.cfg. Here's the link: http://www.tweak3d.net/autoexec/halflife/.
[7.2.2]: Multi-Player
Here are some tips and tweaks to get some improvements out of MP online:
To see what's your lag, in a graph format, access the console (follow section
2.1.5, to find out how to get it). Now, type this in the console: r_netgraph 1.
Green represents lag. The higher the green lines go, it shows how long data
packets get to your PC. You actually want short green lines. Red represents data
lost/data dropped. You do not want red lines. If you get too much of these,
you'll see opponents skipping around. Yellow represents too much data for your
connection. You need to raise your rate xxxx to see if you can eliminate the
yellow lines. Other than that, you have a limited bandwidth connection. Blue
means corrupted data. To turn off the net graph, type in this: r_netgraph 0.
R_netgraph has other settings too. If you use r_netgraph 2 or 3, it displays
more in depth information about your network stats. Here is what Yahn has to say
about it: "r_netgraph 3 allows you to monitor bandwidth usage over the server to
client channel. I wouldn't worry about r_netgraph 2, as r_netgraph 3 has all of
the additional information in it. Here's how it works: The green hashes up the
side of the HUD represent 50 bytes each of data each. As the graph moves from
right to left, each vertical column represents a message from the server that
the client received (or dropped, or was choked, or was invalid). The way to read
the part above the white divider is as follows: the yellow chunk is player data,
the purple is entity data (non-player entities), the blue is temporary entities
info, and the green is sounds. The full message size is indicated with a little
gray dot. For our future games (and possibly for future updates to Half-Life /
TFC multiplayer), we expect to see substantial decreases in the yellow and
purple parts and we believe we can almost completely eliminate the blue and
green lines. To see why this is important, fire up a game of HLDM, turn on
netgraph 3 and fire the shotgun with the alternate fire key (i.e., fire both
barrels). Look at the netgraph when you do this, there's a lot of data (~100
bytes) created to get all of the shotgun effects over to the client (sound,
bullet decals, shell ejections, muzzleflash, punching the clients view, etc.).
This data flow is not an issue in single player, but a big issue in multiplayer.
We're investing a lot of research into technologies that will save us bandwidth
in this area. What this will translate to is a much better play experience on a
28.8 or 56K modem (less lag, etc.), something that we think is critical to the
continued on-line success of Half-Life / TFC, and any of our future titles."
To mess around with your bandwidth connection, access the console. Now type this
in the console: rate xxxx. Where xxxx=any four digit number, prefer around 2600-
4800 for analog modem users, and 4800+ for higher/quality/digital connections
like ISDNs, T1s, etc. 2600=28.8 modem, 4800=56k modem. If the rate is set lower
than your connection is at, say if you have a 56k modem, it is unwise to put
rate at 2600. You got twice the 28.8 modem connection, so put rate as 4800. If
you do set the rate lower, then that means that there's a possibility that
you're going to get yellow lines in the netgraph. To reduce yellow lines, raise
the rate xxxx higher than it is. Just think as the digits as number of
characters (or bytes) per second your connection can handle. If your rate is set
higher than 5000, then you will then need to switch over to using the command
fps_lan xx instead.
To add more to the rate xxxx command, there's a command to try and stop "ice
skating" across the whole level because the result of lag. Bring down the
console, and type this in: pushlatency -xxx. Where -xxx=any digit number, prefer
1/10th of your rate xxxx. Example: in game rate 4800. Put the -xxx to 480. So
this is what the command would look like this in the console: pushlatency -480.
Others insist on a negative number half of your latency while in game. You can
try that too, but I didn't see good results when I went under -480. But it
depends on you, so you decide which is the best.
To limit how much data would be sent to you, there's a command to limit how much
should be sent. The command in console is: fps_modem xx. Where xx=any double
digit number, designed for how much fps you should get to have a good game. Put
it to 20 or something. Remember, whatever number you put, that's how much fps
you are going to get. And that's the limit fps you're going to see. If you put
10 for the fps_modem, then you're going to get maximum of 10 fps for the
duration of your game play. Don't be stupid and assign the number like 100. If
you do, don't be surprised if your ping jumps up (for some reason, if I jack
this number very high, nothing happens, but it's a warning that it might
happen). The lower the number, the lower the lag.
Another thing that is very good, is to disable pretty looking graffities. Yes,
I'm talking about the ones that you have to download, especially when you just
enter the game, and then find out that you are downloading other people's
decals, which lagged and bogged your connection down. To disable this annoying
feature, then type this into the console: r_decals 0. But, if you want to see
some decals, it's best to set r_decals to a low number. I have mine set to
r_decals 256, meaning that the game will only allow a maximum of 256 decals to
be present in the game at the whole time. If decals reach the max, then they
will clear from the memory and would just keep cycling through and through. Kind
of like if you run out of memory, then it will remove the first decal and let
the latest decal appear - kind of like chronological order. You must have at
least v1.0.0.8 to do this if you want to set a limit on decals.
The last and best thing to stop lag, especially just connecting to the server is
use this command: cl_download_ingame "0". This disables all decal downloads.
It's that little orange bar that is under your health, that downloads decals,
which is annoying and lags you to death if you're just joining the game, or
someone who just joined the game. If you want to try and tweak your connection
quality, please take a visit to section 7.3.1 for Bandwidth. This would be the
last thing to do before you go crazy.
[7.2.3]: Parameters
How to use these parameters are easy. To do this, for example: Start Menu-> Run.
Type in: C:\Sierra\Half-Life\hl.exe -
Example: C:\Sierra\Half-Life\hl.exe -noip
Here are the current available parameters/flags to use:
-32bpp
This enables 32-bit true color mode rendering of the game. You must have
v1.0.0.9+ patch for Half-Life in order to do this. Also make sure that gl_dither
is set to 0 (zero) (example: gl_dither 0).
-3dfxgamma
This allows your gamma settings on 3dfx hardware to be decided by the Half-Life
game.
-console
This enables the usage of the console, where commands can be used and to tweak
some commands that can alter the game to be more efficient or degrade to he||.
This also skips the two short movie introductions.
-d3d
This enables Direct3D hardware rendering mode. This command is only available
from v1.0.0.9+ patches.
-dev
This is "developer" mode. It just prints out a lot of developer debug messages.
Not recommended to use it, because it eats up some CPU power to display those
commands when you don't really need to see it. So don't use this command unless
you want to troubleshoot Half-Life.
-full
This runs Half-Life in full screen mode.
-game
This is to enable Half-Life to play modification games other than to go through
the menu to select them. This is a shortcut. An example to this command would be
TFC. So it'll look like this: -game tfc. Don't bother doing this if you're
playing the normal Half-Life game.
-gamegauge
This runs the demo in Game Gauge mode. This is a benchmark utility that runs a
demo as fast as possible and stores the framerate in a file called fps.txt in
the Half-Life directory. Where is the demo that you used to record
during a gamin session or downloaded off he internet. When typing in the part, leave out the three letter extension.
-gl
This enables Open GL hardware rendering mode. Use the -gldrv command too if
using this command.
-gldrv
This selects the Open GL driver. The two choices are "Default", "3dfxgl.dll" and
any other driver(s) listed in the drvmap.txt.
-heapsize x
Where x is how much RAM you got in KB. Say you got 32 MB of RAM. Replace x with
16384. Don't be foolish and replace the x with more than what you got in RAM.
People with more than 64 MB of RAM sometimes feel that it's not using the RAM
being supplied. Well, they're right. This command invokes to show Half-Life all
the RAM that you have and it can be used. The reason with half of the RAM you
got, because Windows would already used half your RAM for it's OS. Putting it to
32768 wouldn't do anything.
-nointro
This is to skip the two avi's in the beginning.
-noip
This is useful when you get that D.U.N. box to go away and to give you no IP
address. Remove this command whenever playing on the internet. If not, then you
will fail to connect to any servers.
-noipx
This is only to remove that annoying IPX error crap whenever starting up Half-
Life all the time. Put this in and you don't have to see the IPX error any more.
This just disables IPX network protocol.
-numericping
This is very useful and great. Instead of the in game Half-Life server browser's
green dots used, it will then instead be replaced by numbers of latency, as in
pings. Only available in v1.0.0.8 or later versions of Half-Life.
-particles
This is useful for those who build levels for Half-Life. This is useful to
search for leaks in the maps. The is to set aside some buffer space.
-port 27016
Use this with HL.exe. This allows you to play on your own server after running
HLDS.exe. This assigns HL.exe port 27016, so that it won't conflict with
HLDS.exe's port 27016 (defaulted). Use this whenever you want to play on your
own dedicated server.
-soft
This enables Half-Life to be rendered in software mode.
-startwindowed
This enables Half-Life to start in a window mode, instead of fullscreen.
-toconsole
When this is used, upon launching Half-Life, it would bring you to the console
the first thing, no intro movies or the menu, just the console.
-w
This sets the video mode display width. Where is the width in pixels of
desired video mode display.
-wavonly
This disables Direct Sound and plays SFX in wav files. A fix for some sound
cards that have stuttering problems. Also removes that annoying "no directsound
driver" error message when loading up Half-Life. Use this command if you get
that error message, besides, you don't have directsound drivers, so just use
this command. Beware: there's a bug with this command. It will cause the
resolution to be locked at 320 by 240 on start up on the games. You will need to
change the resolution in the menu every time upon launching Half-Life.
-win
This enables Half-Life to start in a window mode, instead of fullscreen.
-zone
This allocates more memory to scripting files, like autoexec.cfg and so forth.
Replace with any number, preferred the number that the error gives when
scripts are too big.
[7.3]: PC Tweaks
Here are some tips/tricks on how to speed up your PC before you go out and spend
a fortune to upgrade to get more speed out of your PC.
[7.3.1]: Bandwidth
Here's a good link to a site that have some good internet tweaks and information
for you:
http://www.voodooextreme.com/3Fingers/stuff/nettweak.htm. Visit it, and it
should get you going about internet tweaks to make your connection
better/faster, although not guaranteed. But it's worth a try. Even though this
web page is meant for cable modem tweaks, it can also be used for other high
bandwidth connections. Here are some sites:
http://home.tampabay.rr.com/philip1/cable.htm
http://www.speedguide.net/Cable_modems/
Be warned when trying those tweaks above. Some people reported good downloading
speeds, but Half-Life became choppy. Make sure you back-up your registry before
trying any of those tweaks.
Here are some web pages that has some modem tweaks that you can try out:
http://www.tweak3d.net/tweak/modem/
http://www.spy.net/%7Edustin/modem/
http://home.inreach.com/echevarr/pingpage.htm
[7.3.2]: Windows 9x
Here are some quick PC performances at the last moment to speed things up before
you go insane. For even more tweaks, visit these site:
http://www.pcvelocity.com/apps/tweaks/win9x/tweaks.shtml
http://www.tweak3d.net
[7.3.2.1]: Defrag
Defrag is going to be your favorite word. If you don't know what this word
means, take a dictionary and look up the word 'defragment'. But if you can't
find the word, look for 'fragment' and take the opposite of that word and you
should find out what I mean. To get to the point, do the following: Start Menu->
Programs-> Accessories-> System Tools-> Disk Defragmenter This would rearrange
files to a big piece so that the files aren't spread everywhere on the HDD,
shortening the HDD's life span. Make sure you do 'full defragmentation' if you
decide to go into Options. If you have two HDD, then go to the section 7.3.2.4
to find out a tip.
[7.3.2.2]: ScanDisk
Before doing anything else, first let's clean off any errors on your HDD before
doing other things. You need to clean off errors before doing anything else
because the errors would still exist after you do anything else. So, let's use
ScanDisk, found at: Start Menu-> Programs-> Accessories-> System Tools->
ScanDisk. After loading ScanDisk, make sure you select the option 'Standard'
under 'Type of Test'. Also, make sure you check every HDD listed in the box.
Now, click the button 'Advanced...' and enable the following recommended
options:
1. Display Summary: Always
2. Log File: No Log
3. Cross-Linked Files: Delete
4. Lost File Fragments: Free
5. Check Files For: Invalid File Names, Invalid Dates And Times, and Duplicate
Names.
Run ScanDisk with those options enabled and fix any errors that are given.
Always delete cross-linked files, always free up lost file fragments, and always
fix invalid things. Most of these errors are useless to bring them back, so do
what's best for your HDD(s).
[7.3.2.3]: Turn Them Off
In no way should any other programs run in the background when playing any
games. It is ridiculous, unless you want it to and take up valuable resources
and speed away from the game. You want everything dedicated to your game and
only your game. So shut down everything in the background, even your desktop
wallpaper - yes, those take up memory. Put the background to none should do the
trick. To shut down anything that runs in the background, give it the three
finger salute: [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[Del]. Close everything except Explorer and Systray.
[7.3.2.4]: Virtual Memory
Virtual Memory is the next in line if your RAM fails to hold the information.
This is kind of a bad thing. Virtual Mem. is slow, because it is cached on your
HDD. But another bad thing is that Microsoft programmed it to resize it whenever
it thinks it needs more room.
To take care of your Virtual Mem., create a solid file for it to use. Do the
following: My Computer-> (right click) Properties-> Performance tab-> Virtual
Memory-> Let me specify my own virtual memory settings.
For the Hard disk, if you have two, select where the swap file should be. To
make this decision easier, put it on the HDD that is not the one running your
game. If you have one, you have no choice, but to leave it as C drive. For the
Minimum and Maximum variable, put it as the same number for both. It depends on
how much free space you have on the HDD that you're putting the swap file on.
Putting 200 MB worth and dedicated to VM would be nice. Do it if you can. If you
can't, 80 to 100 should do it. A minimum of 40 would do it, but it might spring
up an error message saying that there are none left for VM, so put at least 80
MB of VM.
For you people that have more than one HDD, defrag the HDD that would be the
source of the VM swap file. To do this, change your swap file to the other HDD.
This would clear any obstacles stopping the speeding access of the VM swap file.
[7.4]: Updates
Some update suggestions.
[7.4.1]: Drivers
It is always wise to update old and outdated drivers with the newest and latest
drivers if possible. It is always a solution if something doesn't work. Drivers
do fix glitches and may speed up the hardware(s) associated with the drivers,
especially video cards. That's where you see drivers affect the most.
[7.4.2]: Half-Life
It's always wise to update Half-Life. It's recommended that you update Half-Life
to at least v1.0.0.8 if you're just only playing single-player mode. For those
who plays on the internet, then that that would mean that you are required to
get the latest patch, which is v1.0.1.3.
[7.4.3]: PC
Well, this is all opinion right here. It's the deciding factor for games to run
better and smoother if you got the budget to do so. Upgrading your computer is a
nice thing, with new hardware to run the latest games. If you have a low budget,
consider a RAM update, and then a video card update, considering if you have at
least a Pentium MMX that is.
To me, a decent video card, like a Voodoo or TNT card would do fine. Having at
least 64 MB of RAM should also be a must. For the CPU, it should be more than a
Pentium 200 MMX to get some juice out of the game. It's not recommended to have
A3D sound card to accelerate sound FXs, because it takes some % of CPU power to
give you good sound FXs. So turn the off or avoid getting them, if you have a
low end PC. Now, if you have a monster speeding PC, then that's another story.
[8]: INTERNET RESOURCES
[8.1]: Forums
alt.games.half-life
-newsgroup for Half-Life
alt.games.half-life.editing
-newsgroup for Half-Life editing related
alt.games.half-life.tfclassic
-newsgroup for Half-Life: Team Fortress Classic
alt.binaries.games.half-life
-newsgroup for Half-Life binary files
http://forums.planethalflife.com/
-forum for planethalflife web site
http://marcus.sierra.com/forums/half/
-official Half-Life forum from Sierra
[8.2]: Utilities
http://www.egnus.com
-EGN: Game ping/list program
http://www.gamespy.com
-GameSpy: Game ping/list program
http://www.icq.com
-ICQ: A message/pager/chat program, used to keep in touch with friends
http://www.pingtool.com
-PingTool: Pinging program
[8.3]: Web Sites
Here are some of the websites that you can start off looking for Half-Life
information. Not all sites are listed:
http://decyber.solgames.com/halflife
-dedicated to Half-Life maps
http://halflife.gamedesign.net
-dedicated to building Half-Life maps
http://halflife.gamegurus.net/map/tutorials
-Half-Life tutorials for creating maps
http://halflife.gameplex.net
-dedicated to Half-Life
http://halflife.pcgame.com
-Once as I.AM.Half-Life site
http://www.contaminated.net
-dedicated to Half-Life, site a.k.a. www.planethalflife.com
http://www.contaminated.net/coldfusion
-models for Half-Life multiplayer
http://www.contaminated.net/radium
-dedicated to SP and MP maps for Half-Life
http://www.contaminated.net/repository
-spray painting (graffities)
http://www.halflife.org
-dedicated to Half-Life with up-to-date news
http://www.halflife.net
-dedicated to Half-Life
http://www.planetfortress.com/radium
-dedicated to Team Fortress Classic maps
http://www.sierrastudios.com/games/half-life
-official Half-Life site
CHAPTER [9]: HISTORY
v.11.27.1999 - Fourteenth version released.
v9.4.1999 - Thirteenth version released. Once text based, now HTML.
v8.22.1999 - Twelfth version released.
v6.1.1999 - Eleventh version released.
v5.9.1999 - Tenth version released
v4.24.1999 - Ninth version released.
v4.10.1999 - Eighth version released.
v2.27.1999 - Seventh version released.
v2.1.1999 - Sixth version released.
v1.23.1999 - Fifth version released.
v1.16.1999 - Fourth version released.
v1.9.1999 - Third version released.
v1.1.1999 - Second version released.
v12.22.1998 - First version released.
(c) 1998, 1999 and beyond, HQH. All rights reserved.