Half-Life Version 1.1.0.

8 Readme File 9/12/01 ******************************************************************** About This Document: This document contains last-minute information about Half-Life, including questi ons you may have concerning the game or your computer. If you have a question, c heck to see if it is addressed here first: you may save yourself a call to Techn ical Support. ******************************************************************** I. II. III. IV. V. MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS GENERAL TECHNICAL ISSUES GENERAL GAME ISSUES 3D HARDWARE ISSUES CONTACTING SIERRA

I. MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS 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 II. GENERAL TECHNICAL ISSUES DRIVER ISSUES If you are using a nVidia based GeForce video card, download the latest referenc e drivers from www.nvidia.com. This will fix the problem with models showing up as all white. When running Half-Life in OpenGL, you must select '3Dfx Mini Driver' from the dr ivers list in the Video Options menu if you have a 3Dfx card (Voodoo, Voodoo2, R ush or Banshee). Choosing the 'Default' driver may severely impact Half-Life's performance. The Diamond Viper 550 drivers older than 4/2/99 cause the game menus to be drawn incorrectly. Use the drivers from the Nvidia home page (http://www.nvidia.com) dated 2/17/99 or later. Make sure the most current version of DirectX is installed on your computer. Dir ectX 6 is the most current version (as of 10/31/98), and it is included on the H alf-Life CD in the 'DirectX' folder. If you are running a pre-OSR2 release of Windows95, get the OpenGL 1.1 fix in or der to run Half-Life in OpenGL mode. The fix can be found at ftp://ftp.microsof t.com/softlib/mslfiles/opengl95.exe Make sure you have installed the most recent drivers for all your hardware befor e playing Half-Life. There is only one CD-Key allowed per client for Internet play. If you are getti ng a "CD-Key in use error" make sure that there are no other clients connected t o any game server using your CD-Key.

III. GENERAL GAME ISSUES LAN HEARTBEATS By default, the Half-Life game engine now reports the current status of IP LAN ( e.g., sv_lan 1 or unable to authenticate) games to the master servers. This rep orting is for general statistical information to Valve only and these IP LAN ser vers will not be visible to Internet players. If you would like to opt out of h aving your IP lan server report to the master servers, you must run the engine o r dedicated server with the "-nomaster" command line option. CUSTOM RESOURCE DOWNLOADING Something that has always limited the propagation of custom maps has been the la ck of support for custom map resources. Running a custom map that has it's own .wad file, custom sprites, or precached sounds has been something of a burden to server operators. So, we've added a new feature/function to help simplify the p rocess. For this example let's assume we have a Team Fortress map called "mymap.bsp". T his map uses a few different custom resources. It has it's own .wad file called "mytextures.wad", a new model called "mymodel.mdl", and a new sprite called "my sprite.spr". As a server operator you will need to go through these steps to al low these resources to be downloaded: 1. Create a file called "mymap.res" and place it into the \tfc\maps dir ectory. The .res file must be the same as the .bsp name. 2. Add the resource names relative to the game directory in this file. The file should look like this: mywad.wad models\mymodel.mdl sprites\mysprite.spr 3. Run your server with sv_allowdownload set to 1. When a client connects they will start downloading these files. The client's do wnload speed/bandwidth is throttled according to their rate. This will not repl ace any files that are currently on the client's machine. There are seven valid file types for this: Maps (.bsp) Textures (.wad) Models (.mdl) Sprites (.spr) Bitmaps (.bmp) Sound files (.wav) Targas (.tga) TEAM FORTRESS For information on playing Team Fortress, refer to the Team Fortress manual loca ted at \half-life\tfc\manual\tfccontents.htm. SOUND PROBLEMS If you don't hear any sounds while playing Half-Life or if you only hear music, another application you are running may have control of the sound hardware. Exi t Half-Life, close the other application, and restart Half-Life. A3D 1.0 versus 2.0 Half-Life requires version 2.0 of A3D. You can upgrade your A3D from 1.0 to 2.0 by downloading the latest drivers from Aureal's website at www.a3d.com. If you try to enable A3D support in Half-Life without upgrading to 2.0, you will get a n error message when starting Half-Life.

CAN'T HEAR CD MUSIC If you don't hear any music while playing Half-Life, the problem is likely to ha ve one of three causes: 1) The Half-Life CD needs have more than one CD-ROM 2) Another application is 3) CD Audio isn't enabled to be in the first CD-ROM drive (only an issue if you drive). actively using the CD Audio when Half-Life starts up. for the CD-ROM drive.

To fix the first problem, make sure the Half-Life CD is in your first CD-ROM dri ve. To fix the second, close other applications which may be accessing your CDROM drive, such as CD music players. If you still can't hear the Half-Life musi c, run the application "CD Player" that comes standard with Windows located on y our Start Menu Programs, Accessories, Multimedia. If the CD Player doesn't pla y the music tracks on the Half-Life CD, then check Control Panel, Multimedia, CD Music, CD ROM Selection, and make sure it's set to your first CD-ROM drive. If you're under NT, you may also want to check Control Panel, Devices, Cdaudio, an d make sure it's not disabled. Once the first two requirements are met, and the "CD Player" application works, then Half-Life should be able to play the CD mus ic without any problems. "YOUR HALF-LIFE EXECUTABLE HAS BEEN MODIFIED. PLEASE CHECK YOUR SYSTEM FOR VIRU SES AND THEN RE-INSTALL HALF-LIFE." ERROR MESSAGE 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 and 2) corrupt portions of a user's hard disk drive. Th e section entitled "YOUR HALF-LIFE INSTALLATION HAS BECOME CORRUPT OR OUT OF DAT E" ERROR MESSAGE provides instructions on how to proceed. "YOUR HALF-LIFE INSTALLATION HAS BECOME CORRUPT OR OUT OF DATE" ERROR MESSAGE One cause for this error message is computer viruses. If your system has a viru s, the virus will modify hl.exe as well as any other programs you run. When you try to play a multiplayer game, this modification will be detected and your sys tem won't be authenticated. Upgrading to the latest version of Half-Life won't solve the problem, as the virus will infect that version as well. The work arou nd is simple - download an appropriate virus scanner, remove the virus from your system using the virus scanner, uninstall and then reinstall Half-Life. The re ason you must uninstall and reinstall Half-Life is because many virus scanner pr ograms, while capable of fixing damaged executables, must modify the executable in order to work. Thus, though the virus scanner has "cleaned" the Half-Life ex ecutable, Half-Life will detect the changes and refuse to authenticate the execu table. By far the most common virus that our users have encountered has been the CIH virus, and unfortunately some antivirus programs don't currently detect thi s virus. We recommend Norton AntiVirus which is available on Symantec's website at www.symantec.com. We also suggest updating to the latest version. SETTING UP A LISTEN SERVER IN THE LAUNCHER OR THE CONSOLE If you are setting up your listen server variables in the launcher then all sett ings are stored in a file called 'game.cfg' which is located in the 'valve' dire ctory of your installation. If you would like to modify settings at the console , you must either edit this file directly using notepad, or delete this file and modify all server settings at the console. SWITCHING BETWEEN OPENGL AND D3D ON THE NVIDIA TNT If you run OpenGL on the nVidia Riva TNT and switch to Direct3D, decals may not appear. To fix this, type gl_polyoffset 4 at the console. USING KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS Hotkeys can be activated by using the ALT key in combination with the highlighte

d letter. For example, you can use ALT+R to perform a 'Refresh' within the Multi player/Internet Games menu. JUMP KEY NOT ALLOWING YOU TO SWIM UP If you are having trouble swimming up when you are standing on the ground underw ater, try setting fps_lan to a number less than it is currently set to at the co nsole. CD MUSIC VOLUME You cannot control the CD music volume within Half-Life. To adjust your CD music volume, go to the Windows Start Menu, Programs, Accessories, Multimedia, and se lect the Volume Control applet. CD AUDIO SLOWDOWNS Some CD-ROM drives take a few seconds to spin up to their playing speed. You ma y notice some parts of the game that will momentarily slow down before the CD au dio will play. PLAYING ON THE SAME MACHINE AS A DEDICATED SERVER If you are going to be playing Half-Life multiplayer on the same machine that yo u are running a dedicated server on, make sure you not using the same port for b oth. Run the Half-Life client with -port 27016 (or any other port not in use) i n the target line of the shortcut. VIEW OPENING AVI SEQUENCES Half-Life begins with two short AVI sequences. If you are having trouble viewin g the AVIs, check to see that you have video compression installed. Go to the Co ntrol Panel and select Add/Remove programs. From there, select Windows Setup an d scroll down to Multimedia. Select Multimedia and make sure that Video Compres sion is checked. CUSTOM KEYBOARD CONFIGURATION If you plan to customize your keyboard configuration, note that the 'jump' and ' crouch' commands need to be controlled by different fingers. You will need to us e both keys simultaneously when performing a 'longjump.' DESKTOP RESOLUTION AND HALF-LIFE Half-Life should be run in a resolution that is lower than or equal to your desk top resolution. Running Half-Life in a full-screen or windowed mode that is gre ater than your desktop resolution can cause problems. SOUND QUALITY PROBLEMS If your sound is skipping or cracking, you may need to adjust your direct sound configuration in Half-Life. There are two common adjustments you can make: 1) Adjust _snd_mixahead. If you have access to the Half-Life console, type "_sn d_mixahead 0.2" at the console. If not, create a file with notepad that contain s the line: _snd_mixahead 0.2 And save it in your Half-Life\Valve\ directory. Name the file "autoexec.cfg". 2) Disable direct sound. Run Half-Life with the command line argument "-wavonly ". Edit the Half-Life shortcut. The 'target' field should say: "HL.EXE -wavonl y". GETTING STUCK ON LADDERS IN MULTIPLAYER If you are getting stuck on the tops of ladders in a multiplayer game, make sure that the server you are running on does not have the variable sv_airaccelerate set to zero. Any value other than zero will work properly.

MULTIPLAYER FRAMERATE ISSUE If you are experiencing low framerate in long multiplayer games, it may be cause d by too many decals. Decals are used to display spray paint, bulletholes, and blood effects in multiplayer. You can adjust the console variable "r_decals" to set a lower limit. The default value is 4096. For better performance, try set ting "r_decals 500". Bring down the console (using the ~ key) and type "r_decal s 500". You can set r_decals to any value between 0 (completely disables these effects) and 4096 (normal value for single player). TURNING OFF DATA COMPRESSION When playing Half-Life online turning off data compression can significantly imp rove your latency. To turn off data compression go to your dial up connection i n the Dial-Up networking area of your computer. Right click on your dial up con nection and go to 'Properties', click on the Server Types tab at the top and unc heck the software compression box. NEW COMMAND LINE SWITCHES IN THIS UPDATE "-w #" sets the video mode width where # is the width in pixels of desired vid eo mode. "-d3d" selects the Direct3D engine "-soft" selects the Software engine "-gl" selects the OpenGL engine "-gldrv <driver name> " selects the GL Driver. The two choices are "Default" and "3dfxgl.dll". "-win" selects windowed mode "-full" selects full screen mode "-gamegauge <demo name>" runs the demo in Game Gauge mode. This is a benchmark u tility that runs through a demo as fast as possible and stores the framerate in the file fps.txt in the Half-Life directory. JOYSTICK AND GAMEPAD CONFIGURATION Enable use of joysticks or gamepads by checking the joystick box in the Configur ation/Controls/Advanced controls menu. Joystick and gamepad buttons can then be configured through the Configuration/Controls menu. Valve thanks James Barnes at First-Person Gaming, Inc. for permission to use his excellent documentation on joystick support. Information on their products are available on the Internet at http://www.fpgaming.com/. Half-Life supports standard joysticks, digital joysticks and advanced controller s like the FPgaming Assassin 3D, the Logitech WingMan Warrior and the SpaceTec I MC SpaceOrb. To enable Half-Life joystick support, verify that your joystick or game controll er is selected in the Joystick control panel applet and has been calibrated and tested, then launch Half-Life. Check the joystick box in the Configuration/Contr ols/Advanced controls menu of Half-Life. For advanced controllers, you will also need to have a configuration file called joystick.cfg. Typically this configuration file should be obtained from your g ame controller company. However you can create your own and place this file in the Valve subdirectory of your Half-Life directory. Half-Life will automaticall y execute this configuration file each time you start the game. The configuration files for common game controllers are included below. Half-Life Joystick functionality

1. Proportional movement (the farther you move the stick, the faster you move) 2. Support for up to 32 buttons (JOY1-JOY4 and AUX5-AUX32) 3. Sensitivity setting for each control (allows tuning and inverting the control direction) 4. Dead-zone setting for each control 5. Support for all 6 axes (X, Y, Z, R, U, V) 6. Mapping of any axis to any control (Forward, Look, Side, Turn) 7. Support for absolute controls (like joysticks) and relative controls (like tr ackballs and spinners) The default joystick setting is for joystick left/right movement to control turn ing and for joystick forward/backward movement to control moving forward/backwar d. To control strafing, assign the 'strafe modifier' to one of your joystick bu ttons (via the Configuration/Controls menu). To control joystick looking, assig n the 'Joystick look modifier' to one of your joystick buttons (also via the Co nfiguration/Controls menu). 'Reverse mouse' in the Configuration/Controls/Advanced controls menu also change s the direction the joystick has to move when looking up and down. The following variables can be set in your joystick.cfg. These variables control your sensitivity settings: Command Name Command Action Default NOTES: Variable: Joyforwardsensitivity Function: Controls the ramp-up speed or how much joystick movement is required for moving "full speed" forward and backward Default: -1.0 Comments: If your joystick is not as fast as you think it should be try a setti ng of -1.5, you will reach full speed with only half of the movement. Variable: Joysidesensitivity Function: Controls the ramp-up speed or how much joystick movement is required for moving "full speed" side to side Default: 1.0 Comments: If your joystick is not as fast as you think it should be try a setti ng of 1.5, you will reach full speed with only half of the movement. Variable: Joypitchsensitivity Function: Controls the speed or ratio used when you look up and down using the Assassin 3D Default: -0.25 Comments: This setting will allow you to look Up and Down at a 45 degree angle without repositioning your hand. Variable: Joyyawsensitivity Function: Controls the speed that or ratio used when you look left to right usi ng the Assassin 3D Default: -0.5 Comments: This setting will allow you to look left and right at a 90 degree ang le without repositioning your hand. You can set the sensitivity settings to negative numbers. This inverts the dire ction of movement for the control. The default sensitivity settings are 1 (or 1). These variables control your threshold settings: Command Name Command Action Default NOTES: Variable: Joyforwardthreshold

Function: Default: Comments: trying to

Controls the dead-zone for moving forward and backward 0.15 If you have problems with your character moving forward or back when stop or strafe, increase this number to .20

Variable: Joysidethreshold Function: Controls the dead-zone for moving side to side Default: 0.15 Comments: If you have problems with your character moving left or right when tr ying to stop or walk a ledge, increase this number to .20 Variable: Joypitchthreshold Function: Controls the dead-zone for looking up and down Default: 0.15 Variable: Joyyawthreshold Function: Controls the dead-zone for looking left and right Default: 0.15 The threshold settings allow you to control your dead-zone (or no-movement zone) . The default threshold settings are .15 (meaning 15% of the full-range). The range of the threshold settings is from 0 to 1. Troublesome analog joysticks ma y need a larger number (like .2). Premium joysticks can use a smaller number (l ike .1). If your joystick has a POV hat, the buttons are mapped to AUX29-AUX32. So, you get 8 buttons with the Logitech WingMan Extreme, 12 buttons with the Microsoft S ideWinder 3D Pro, etc. These six variables control axis mapping: Command Name Command Action Default NOTES: Variable: Joyadvaxisx Function: Controls mapping of DirectInput axis X (typically joystick left and r ight) Default: 3 Comments: Allows the joystick to turn. Variable: Joyadvaxisy Function: Controls mapping of DirectInput axis Y (typically joystick forward an d backward) Default: 1 Comments: Allows the joystick to move forward and backward. Variable: Function: Default: Comments: Variable: Function: Default: Comments: Joyadvaxisz Controls mapping of DirectInput axis Z (typically joystick throttle) 0 Not used. Joyadvaxisr Controls mapping of DirectInput axis R (typically joystick rudder) 0 Not used.

Variable: Joyadvaxisu Function: Controls mapping of DirectInput axis U (custom axis - Assassin 3D tra ckball left and right, WingMan Warrior SpinControl and SpaceOrb roll) Default: 20 Comments: Sets the Assassin 3D to relative turning left and right. (Not self ce ntering)

Variable: Joyadvaxisv Function: Controls mapping of DirectInput axis V (custom axis - Assassin 3D tra ckball forward and backward and SpaceOrb yaw) Default: 18 Comments: Sets the Assassin 3D to relative free-look up and down. (Not self cen tering) Each joyadvaxis variable can be set to the following controls: 0 1 2 3 4 = = = = = Axis Axis Axis Axis Axis not used is for forward is for looking is for side to is for turning and backward movement up and down (pitch) side movement left and right (yaw)

Additionally, each axis can be designated as an absolute axis (like a joystick) or a relative axis (like the FPgaming trackball or the WingMan Warrior SpinContr ol). Absolute axes are defined as having a stopping position whereas relative a xes don't have a stopping position and just go around and around. To designate an axis as a relative axis, add 16 to the above control number. For example, to set the Assassin 3D's axis U to be looking left and right, type 'joyadvaxisu 20 '. As another example, to make your rudder pedals control turning left and righ t, type 'joyadvaxisr 4'. It's a bit complicated, but only needs to be done once . The advanced axes variables will not have any effect until joyadvanced is set to 1.0. Additionally, any changes to the axes will not take effect until the joya dvancedupdate command is executed. So, the procedure for creating an advanced m apping is: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Set 'joyadvanced 1' Make any desired mapping changes Make any desired sensitivity changes Make any desired threshold changes Call 'joyadvancedupdate'

Here is the configuration file for the FPgaming Assassin 3D: // Revision 1.0 -- refer to www.fpgaming.com for updates joyname "FPgaming Assassin 3D" joyadvanced 1 joyadvaxisx 3 joyadvaxisy 1 joyadvaxisz 0 joyadvaxisr 0 joyadvaxisu 20 joyadvaxisv 18 joyforwardsensitivity -1.0 joysidesensitivity 1.0 joypitchsensitivity -0.25 joyyawsensitivity -0.5 joyforwardthreshold 0.15 joysidethreshold 0.15 joyyawthreshold 0.0 joypitchthreshold 0.0 +mlook joyadvancedupdate Here is a configuration file for the Logitech WingMan Warrior: // Revision 0.1 -- refer to www.logitech.com for updates joyname "Logitech WingMan Warrior"

joyadvanced 1.0 joywwhack1 1.0 joywwhack2 1.0 joyadvaxisx 3 joyadvaxisy 1 joyadvaxisz 0 joyadvaxisr 0 joyadvaxisu 20 joyadvaxisv 0 joyforwardsensitivity -1.0 joysidesensitivity 1.0 joypitchsensitivity 0.0 joyyawsensitivity -0.6 joyforwardthreshold 0.15 joysidethreshold 0.15 joypitchthreshold 0.0 joyyawthreshold 0.0 joyadvancedupdate Here is a config file for the SpaceTec IMC SpaceOrb: // Revision 0.1 -- refer to www.spacetec.com for updates joyname "SpaceTec IMC SpaceOrb" joyadvanced 1.0 joyadvaxisx 3 joyadvaxisy 1 joyadvaxisz 0 joyadvaxisr 2 joyadvaxisu 0 joyadvaxisv 4 joyforwardsensitivity -1.0 joysidesensitivity 1.0 joypitchsensitivity -0.5 joyyawsensitivity 1 joyforwardthreshold 0.1 joysidethreshold 0.1 joypitchthreshold 0.1 joyyawthreshold 0.1 +mlook joyadvancedupdate Here is a config file for making your joystick operate looking around and strafi ng, your rudder pedals control turning left and right and throttle control movin g forward and backward: joyname "Joystick, Rudder & Throttle" joyadvanced 1.0 joyadvaxisx 3 joyadvaxisy 2 joyadvaxisz 1 joyadvaxisr 4 joyadvaxisu 0 joyadvaxisv 0 joyforwardsensitivity -1.0 joysidesensitivity -1.0 joypitchsensitivity 1.0 joyyawsensitivity -1.0 joyforwardthreshold 0.15 joysidethreshold 0.15 joyyawthreshold 0.15 joypitchthreshold 0.15 joyadvancedupdate

Two additional values you can set specifically for the Wingman Warrior: There are two variables which enable special response curves tuned for the Logit ech Wingman Warrior joystick. "joywwhack1" fixes a centering problem. "joywwha ck2" fixes an "out of control" spin problem when using the joystick to turn or l ook left/right. See the Wingman Warrior configuration above for an example of h ow to use these in your joystick.cfg. CONSOLE COMMANDS AND CONTROLS For a complete listing of Half-Life's console commands, visit http://pcgame.com/ randy/console.htm TEAM PLAY Starting a teamplay game: - Listen server: Start Half-Life. Select the options Multiplayer->Lan Game->Crea te Game->Advanced Options and select the 'Team Play' check box. Hit Done then St art Game. - Dedicated server: in the valve/autoexec.cfg add the line: mp_teamplay 1 then w henever you start the server it will be in teamplay mode. Joining a teamplay game: In the server browser, you can see teamplay games are called "HL Teamplay". Sel ect one of these and hit Join Game' Playing a teamplay game: Holding down the TAB key will show you the teams. Teams are assigned according to the player model you are using. To change teams, hit ESCAPE to go back to the launcher, then select the Customize option and chan ge your model to the team you wish to be on. CREATE A CUSTOM DECAL Making a custom decal is a simple process. All you need is an image, and a pain t program capable of simple palette manipulation and image scaling. Paint Shop Pro is ideal, and is available as shareware from http://www.jasc.com. The steps for creating a decal are: 1. Paint or scan an image. Make it 64 by 64 pixels in size, either by painting the image to that size, or by scaling your scanned i mage (or larger painted image.) ). Painting in black and white is recommended, b ecause the final decal will be displayed as one color only. You can choose the color of your decal and you can change that color at any time between games using the game interface. Save your source decal as a black and w hite image, however. 2. Use your paint program to make the image a "grayscale" image: that is, the palette (the colors that the image uses) should be a ramp from white to black. If you are painting the image yourself using Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop, or some similar program, you can specify that you want the image to be grayscale before you start. With the palette going from black to white, any white in the image w ill be totally opaque, and any black in the image will be totally transparent (i nvisible). Any gray in the image will be translucent: very translucent if it is near-black, and close to opaque if it is near white. Some applications will ra mp the palette from black to white when you select "grayscale." That is, if you look at the color palette, the first color (usually the upper left-hand corner color) will be black, and the last color (usually the lower right-hand corner co lor) will be white. In this case, you want to invert your image, such that the black portions of your image are the parts that will be opaque, and the white po rtions are the parts that will be transparent. Be sure you check what the palet te looks like after you save your file, and adjust it if necessary. Think of it this way: if your decal looks like a chalk drawing on a blackboard, you want the first color in your palette to be black (which will come through as completely transparent), ramping to the last color which is white (which will come through as opaque). If your drawing looks like a pen drawing on white paper, the first

color should be white, ramping to the last color which should be black. 3. Save this image in your half-life\logos directory as a Windows bitmap (.bmp) file, and it will automatically show up in the list of decals you see in the la uncher interface. There you can choose the decal's color. Changing the color of your decal during a game will not take effect for that game. Only after you re start your game will the new color appear. If you would like to view pre-made decals, several are shipped with Half-Life an d can be found in the Half-Life\logos directory. These will give you a good ide a about the file format and appearance of a decal, before it appears in the game . IV. 3D HARDWARE ISSUES Half-Life has the ability to use both OpenGL and Direct3D. Many cards with sup port for 3D acceleration will provide both OpenGL and Direct3D drivers. Which o ne is better depends upon the quality and performance of the drivers themselves, and will vary from card to card. The latest release of DirectX, version 6.0, is included on the Half-Life CD. It should be automatically installed as part of the Half-Life installation process . If you need to reinstall at a later time, open the DirectX folder on your Hal f-Life installation CD and run dxsetup.exe. In general, make sure you have the latest versions of the device drivers for you r display hardware. Most graphics card vendors make them freely available on th e Internet, and a collection of links to sites of many popular cards is installe d on your hard drive along with Half-Life. The default location for this file i s: C:\SIERRA\Half-Life\media\DrvPage\default.htm Video configuration is set in the Configuration\Video\Video modes menu in Half-L ife. The following section explains the known driver and cific chipsets at the time of Half-Life's shipping. bout which chipset is incorporated in your graphics ion that accompanied your card, or contact the card 3DFX Banshee, Voodoo 1, Voodoo 2, Voodoo 2 SLI Get the latest drivers from your card manufacturer or get the latest drivers dir ectly from the 3DFX site. Half-Life ships with the current, tested GL mini-drive r. Make sure that you have Glide version 2.54 or above. Half-Life does not suppo rt Direct3D on Voodoo cards. The Voodoo 2 running in SLI mode on Windows/NT is prone to crashing. The solut ion to this instability is to either get an updated driver from 3DFX, disable SL I mode, or run under Windows 95/98. 3DFX Rush With the current drivers, Half-Life supports the Voodoo rush in software mode on ly. Check with 3DFX for an updated driver that offers support for Half-Life NVIDIA Riva 128 You must have Windows 95 OSR 2 or later, Windows 98 or Windows NT. As of shippin compatibility issues for spe If you have any questions a card, consult the documentat manufacturer.

g, Half-Life Riva 128 OpenGL support requires the latest reference driver from N VIDIA. Get this driver off of their site, www.nvidia.com. Direct3D support is c urrently unavailable. Contact NVIDIA for a Direct3D driver that supports Half-Li fe. NVIDIA TNT Half-Life supports the TNT in software, OpenGL and Direct3D modes. Get the lates t driver off of NVIDIA's site. Matrox G200 Half-Life supports the G200 in software and Direct3D. Get the latest driver from Matrox's site, www.matrox.com. Matrox will also be providing a GL mini-driver t hat will support OpenGL in Half-Life. Check with Matrox for details. S3 Virge Half-Life supports the Virge in software mode only. S3 Savage Half-Life support the Savage in software and Direct3D. You can get the latest dr ivers from S3's site, www.s3.com. S3 will also be providing a GL driver that wil l support Half-Life. Check with S3 for details. General Issues: Missing Decals (i.e. Bullet holes) Half-Life uses a feature of OpenGL and Direct3D that some video card drivers do not support correctly. To over ride the default settings for this feature, put this line in your opengl.cfg or d3d.cfg file: gl_polyoffset 0.1 If this doesn't work, try -0.1, 1 or 20. This tells the driver how far to offset the decal from the surface of the polygon that the decal is being applied to. Direct3D or OpenGL are running very slow On some cards that don't fully support Direct3D or OpenGL, Half-Life will fall b ack to a software emulation mode. These modes are very slow. If your Direct3D su pport is slow, try selecting OpenGL, and vice versa. If neither work, change yo ur settings to use Half-Life's software video modes instead and the speed will i mprove. Direct3D Input seems lagged. If your input seems to lag behind the visual display on occasion, add this line to your d3d.cfg file: gl_d3dflip 1 Parts of the screen are flashing (in Direct3D or OpenGL) Some older, non-3DFX cards have a problem with clearing the z buffer and this ca n cause parts of the screen to flash. If you are seeing this, put this line in y our opengl.cfg or d3d.cfg file: gl_ztrick 0 Network instability If you have a connection to the Internet that is unstable, or prone to packet lo

ss, try typing 'cl_nodelta 1' at the console (bring down the console with the ~ key). This will improve your overall network stability, but will sacrifice your overall latency. COMMON QUESTIONS What can I do if the game is too dark?. Some monitors are darker than others, but Half-Life provides controls to correct this problem. You will need to adjust the Gamma and Glare Reduction settings in the Configuration\Video\Video options menu in Half-Life. These are used to adju st for different kinds of monitors and room brightness. Adjust the two sliders s o that the Soldiers camouflage pattern is dark but visible. If this still doesn 't work, you then may need to adjust the actual brightness and contrast of your monitor. This is usually done by adjusting buttons or knobs on the front of you r monitor, but all monitors are a bit different so you may want to look through your monitors documentation to be sure. Some places in the game are intentional ly dark, and you'll need to use your flashlight, but you should be able to see e verything without difficulty in the opening train ride and throughout the first part of the game. Some graphics cards also have support for controlling how bri ght the display is. If your card's device driver supports this, you can find it by going to the Windows control panel, and selecting the Display applet. What can I do if the game looks washed out? The most likely cause is that your monitor is slightly brighter than average and the default game settings are for a darker monitor. You will need to adjust the Gamma and Glare Reduction settings in the Configuration\Video\Video options men u in Half-Life. These are used to adjust for different kinds of monitors and roo m brightness. Adjust the two sliders so that the Soldiers camouflage pattern is dark but visible. If this still doesn't work, you then may need to adjust the a ctual brightness and contrast of your monitor. This is usually done by adjustin g buttons or knobs on the front of your monitor, but all monitors are a bit diff erent so you may want to look through your monitors documentation to be sure. T he most common problem, especially on new computers, is that "black" isn't showi ng up as black, but more of a dark gray. Turn the Contrast down until the borde r around the edges of the picture are totally black, then slowly turn it back up until it just before it starts getting visibly lighter. You may need to adjust your monitors Brightness back up after you do this. . Some graphics cards also have support for controlling how bright the display is. If your card's device driver supports this, you can find it by going to the Windows control panel, and selecting the Display applet.

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