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Half-Life 2: Deathmatch

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Half-Life 2: Deathmatch
Half-Life 2: Deathmatch cover
Developers
Valve Corporation
Engines
Original Source 2004
Current Source 2013 Multiplayer
Release dates
Windows November 30, 2004[1]
macOS (OS X) September 30, 2010
Linux March 16, 2013
Taxonomy
Modes Multiplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives First-person
Controls Direct control
Genres Shooter
Art styles Realistic
Themes Eastern Europe, Post-apocalyptic, Sci-fi
Series Half-Life
Half-Life 2: Deathmatch on HowLongToBeat
Half-Life 2: Deathmatch on IGDB
Half-Life 2: Deathmatch guide on StrategyWiki
Half-Life 2: Deathmatch on MobyGames
Half-Life 2: Deathmatch on Wikipedia
Half-Life mods and fangames (series)
Half-Life 1998
Half-Life: Opposing Force 1999
Half-Life: Blue Shift 2001
Codename: Gordon 2004
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
Portal (series)
Half-Life: Decay (unofficial port) 2008
Half-Life: Alyx 2020

Warnings

The macOS (OS X) version of this game does not work on macOS Catalina (version 10.15) or later due to the removal of support for 32-bit-only apps.

Half-Life 2: Deathmatch is a multiplayer first-person shooter game in the Half-Life series.

General information

GitHub Issue Tracker for Half-Life 2: Deathmatch and other Source-based games
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Icon overlay.png
Included with retail copies of Half-Life 2: Episode One and Counter-Strike: Source.
Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Initially could not be purchased separately and was instead given for free to all owners of Half-Life 2. Received a standalone digital release later.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
All versions require Steam DRM.

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Use -novid command line argument[citation needed]

Increase performance

HL2DM's default settings are generally not optimized for most users. Therefore, it is generally recommended to use a performance config, such as Xeogin's HL2DM Community Patch.
Install HL2DM Community Patch Autoexec[citation needed]
  1. Backup your current configuration files (config.cfg & autoexec.cfg)
  2. Copy the text from the latest HL2DM Community Patch from Xeogin's GitHub
  3. Create a file named autoexec.cfg in <path-to-game>\hl2mp\cfg
  4. Paste the text from the GitHub to the newly created autoexec.cfg
  5. Create overrides.cfg inside <path-to-game>\hl2mp\cfg, and add anything you'd put normally place inside your autoexec.cfg into overrides.cfg instead
If another version of the community patch is released, simply overwrite the existing autoexec.cfg to update it

Reduce red opacity from the HUD when hit

Modify configuration file
  1. Download the Red Screen Flash Reduction Mod
  2. Navigate to <path-to-game>\hl2mp\custom.
  3. Move either the red_screen_fix_minimal or red_screen_fix_off folder from the archive to the custom folder

Notes

If you install a custom HUD, you will need to delete the red_screen_fix folder in order for it to work

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\hl2mp\cfg[Note 1]
macOS (OS X)
Linux <path-to-game>/
It's unknown whether this game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux. Please fill in this information.

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
Steam Cloud

Video

General video settings
General video settings
Advanced video settings
Advanced video settings

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Default FOV is 90 Hor+
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
See Borderless fullscreen windowed.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Up to 8x MSAA. SGSSAA available with flag 0x000000C1.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
Double buffered [2]
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
Frame rate cap can be changed by changing fps_max in the developer console.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
Rendered image uses SDR color space. In-game HDR option refers only to HDR Rendering.
HBAO available with flag 0x0000002C.

Borderless fullscreen windowed

-window -noborder[citation needed]
  1. Find Half-Life 2: Deathmatch in your Steam Library
  2. Right-click the game name
  3. Select Properties
  4. Select Set Launch Options...
  5. Input -window -noborder
  6. Press OK
  7. Launch the game

Input

Key map settings
Key map settings
Mouse/gamepad settings
Mouse/gamepad settings

Audio

Audio settings
Audio settings

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Over-all game volume and separate music slider.
Surround sound
4, 5.1 & 7.1 speaker options, though not true surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
"Silence the audio while the game window is in the background" check box.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Belarusian
Fan translation, Steam Guides. In testing stage.

Network

Multiplayer settings
Multiplayer settings
For more information, see the "Source Dedicated Server" section of our Source engine article.

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
Local play
16 Versus
Use Nucleus Co-op.
LAN play
16 Versus
Online play
16 Versus
Player count can exceed 16 with an add-on; but there can be problems on maps with limited spawnpoints, especially if there's not some form of no-block and the scoreboard can only handle having so many players before it no longer fits on the screen
The max player limit can be increased externally (32 players)

Connection types

Type Native Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP
Use connect [IP address here] in the console.

Ports

Protocol Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP 27015
UDP 27005, 27015, 27020, 51840
Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

VR support

3D modes State Notes
Native 3D
Nvidia 3D Vision
TriDef 3D
iZ3D
Headsets
SteamVR
This game might be playable with the Revive Compatibility Layer (compatibility list).
Oculus VR (LibOVR)
Shows under Video Settings, but requires a launch option to fully enable. Uses 0.4 API which is no longer supported on current firmware.
Windows Mixed Reality
This game might be playable with the Revive Compatibility Layer.
Devices
Tracked motion controllers
Traditional controller
See Input for details.
Keyboard/Mouse

Issues fixed

Purple and black broken textures

A generic fix for this issue can be found on our Source engine page.

SteamVR launches automatically when attempting to enter Options

Modify the gameinfo.txt file[3]
  1. Navigate to <path-to-game>/hl2/ and open gameinfo.txt with a text editor of your choice.
  2. Find the value of supportsvr and change it from 1 to 0.

Notes

If you reinstall the game or verify the integrity of the files, this change will be reverted.

Chosen Player model is forgotten after joining a new map

The player's character model influences their starting weapon.
Install a client-side mod
  1. Download the fix player model change on Gamebanana.
  2. Open the archive and add the fix_model_change folder to <path-to-game>\hl2mp\custom.
Manually change your playermodel and team using aliases
  1. Add the following to <path-to-game>\hl2mp\cfg\autoexec.cfg
cl_playermodel            "models/humans/Group03/male_03.mdl"
alias  "rebelModel"            "cl_playermodel models/humans/Group03/male_03.mdl"
alias  "combineModel"          "cl_playermodel models/combine_soldier.mdl"

bind  "F1"  "timeleft"          // Uses console command instead of game chat
bind  "F2"  "rebelModel;jointeam 3;say_team Either joined team red, or will change to a rebel player on next spawn."    //Jointeam 3 + change to designated (aliased) rebel skin
bind  "F3"  "combineModel;jointeam 2;say_team Either joined team blue, or will change to a combine player on next spawn."  //Jointeam 2 + change to designated (aliased) combine skin

bind  "F4" "jointeam 1" // Spectator

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 9
OpenGL 2.1 OS X and Linux only.
Shader Model support 2, 3
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)
[citation needed]
Linux
[citation needed]

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Physics Havok Heavily modified variant.
Audio Miles Sound System
Input SDL
Cutscenes Bink Video Used for startup videos and in-game movies.
Multiplayer Steamworks

Console commands

Games running on the Source engine can utilize Source Engine Console Commands for various tasks.
Enabling the console in Source games[citation needed]
  1. Launch the game
  2. From the main menu select Options
  3. Select the Keyboard tab
  4. Click the Advanced button
  5. Check the box next to Enable developer console (~)
  6. Click Apply

Notes

Press ~ to open the console.
Some commands may first require you enabling sv_cheats. You can do so with sv_cheats 1.
Many servers will not allow you to play with cheats enabled, or will disable them upon entering the server.
Users without a US keyboard may experience some problems.

Launch options

View this Steam Support Article regarding launch options as well as the relevant Valve Developer wiki page for further information and a list of useful Source engine launch options.
Enabling a launch parameter[citation needed]
  1. Find the game in your Steam Library
  2. Right-click the game name
  3. Select Properties
  4. Select Set Launch Options...
  5. Input your selected launch options and separate each command with a space
  6. Press OK
  7. Launch the game

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) XP
Processor (CPU) 1.2 GHz
System memory (RAM) 256 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 2.8 GB
Video card (GPU) DirectX 7 compatible
macOS (OS X)
Minimum
Operating system (OS) Leopard 10.5.8, Snow Leopard 10.6.3
Processor (CPU) 1.2 GHz
System memory (RAM) 1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce 8
ATI Radeon X1600
Intel HD 3000


Notes

  1. When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

References

  1. News - Half-Life 2: Deathmatch and SDK Update - last accessed on 2023-07-02
  2. Black mesa vsync is double buffered - last accessed on 2024
  3. Steam Community - last accessed on 26 May 2023