Half-Life 2

Half-Life 2

Developer(s)	Valve Corporation
Publisher(s)	Valve Corporation
Engine	Source
First release date	Windows November 16, 2004 OS X May 26, 2010 Linux May 9, 2013

Half-Life

Half-Life	1998
Half-Life: Opposing Force	1999
Half-Life: Blue Shift	2001
Half-Life: Source	2004
Half-Life 2	2004
Half-Life 2: Deathmatch	2004
Half-Life 2: Lost Coast	2005
Half-Life Deathmatch: Source	2006
Half-Life 2: Episode One	2006
Half-Life 2: Episode Two	2007
Black Mesa (unofficial mod)	2012

Key points

Runs well on low-end hardware

General information

Unofficial Half-Life Wiki

GitHub Issue Tracker for Half-Life 2 and other Source-based games

Steam Users' Forums

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source(s)	Store unlock	Notes
Retail
Steam		Windows and Mac OS X.

All versions require Steam.

Game data

	Location
Windows	C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\username\half-life 2
Mac

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Steam Cloud
GameSave Manager		Officially Supported

Video settings

Graphics option	Native	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)
Oculus Rift		See Oculus Rift.

Oculus Rift

Enable Oculus Rift support • Link Find Half-Life 2 in your Steam Library Right-click and select Properties Go to the Betas tab Select the SteamPipe Beta Go back to the General tab Choose Set Launch Options... Add -vr and press OK. Close the window and relaunch the game

Input settings

Input Settings	Native	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Controller support		See Controller support.

Issues & Fixes

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

Controller support

• In the console (~) type exec 360controller to automatically enable controller input and bind the buttons.Note this will also change any key icons to icons of 360 controller buttons.
• To disable these changes type exec undo360controller in the console.

Not Enough Space on disk

This is really only a problem if you are installing from a retail copy, Copy all the files from the disk to a temp folder and then run the setup.exe from the new folder

Failure to load shadows

Activate High Dynamic Range in the Advanced Video Options to reload the shadows for the map.

Available memory less than 128MB

When this message shows up when starting up the game, go to hl2.exe, right-click and go to properties, go to the compatibility tab, and check 'run this program in compatibility mode for windows xp (service pack 3)'

Stuck in Black Mesa East

On some systems, when in Black Mesa East, the game will get stuck after Judith Mossman says "If they knew what we were doing with entanglement", and an elevator opens. If this happens to you, simply enter the elevator, press f6 (quick-save) and f9 (quick-load). If this doesn't work, walk to different parts of the elevator, and keep pressing f6, followed by f9.

Console Commands

Games running on the source engine can utilize Source Engine Console Commands for various tasks.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	Windows XP/Windows Vista/Windows 7	Windows XP/Windows Vista/Windows 7
Processor (CPU)	1.7 GHz	1.7 GHz
System memory (RAM)	512 MB	1 GB
Video card (GPU)	NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 128 MB or ATi Radeon 9500 128 MB	NVIDIA GeForce 6800 128 MB or ATi Radeon X800 128 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	4.6 GB free	4.6 GB free

Mac
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	Mac OS X version Leopard 10.5.8, Snow Leopard 10.6.3,	Mac OS X version Leopard 10.5.8, Snow Leopard 10.6.3,
Processor (CPU)	1.7 GHz	1.7 GHz
System memory (RAM)	1 GB	1 GB
Video card (GPU)	NVIDIA GeForce 8 or higher, ATI X1600 or higher, or Intel HD 3000 or higher	NVIDIA GeForce 8 or higher, ATI X1600 or higher, or Intel HD 3000 or higher
Hard disk drive (HDD)	4.6 GB free	4.6 GB free