Halo: Combat Evolved
| Cover image missing, please upload it | |
| Developers | |
|---|---|
| Bungie | |
| Publishers | |
| Microsoft Studios | |
| Engines | |
| Halo Engine | |
| Release dates | |
| Windows | September 30, 2003 |
| macOS (OS X) | December 3, 2003 |
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|
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.
| Halo | |
|---|---|
| Halo: Combat Evolved | 2003 |
| Halo 2 | 2007 |
| Halo: Spartan (series) | |
| Halo Online | 2015* |
| Halo 5: Forge | 2016 |
| Halo Wars (series) | |
| Halo Recruit | 2017 |
| Halo: The Master Chief Collection (series) | |
| Halo Infinite | 2021 |
Key points
- 1.10 patch fixes issues with modern hardware and replaces GameSpy with a new master server. Test version of this update can be downloaded from here
- Modding tools are available as a separate download
- Great console port
- Small community
General information
- Bungie.net - The developer's site
- Halo Nation - A very detailed wiki for everything Halo related
- Halo.Bungie.org - One of the biggest Halo fan sites around
- Halo Maps - A fan site for downloading mods and maps for Halo: Custom Edition
- Bungie forums thread about enhancing the graphics of Halo CE
Availability
- The official demo for the game can be found here
Versions
Halo: Custom Edition
Halo: Custom Edition allows players to play multiplayer Halo games on user-created maps. There is no singleplayer campaign. In order to play a downloaded user-created map, place the .map file in:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition\maps
Note: this is the path for a default installation on a 64-bit copy of Windows 7. The path may vary. If you downloaded a .zip or other archive, you will need to extract it first. WARNING: Do NOT delete any .map files in the folder by default, ESPECIALLY not ui.map. Halo: Custom Edition and any custom maps can be downloaded from halomaps.org
Essential improvements
Patch 1.09 (Windows)
- This patch also removes the disk check.
The latest version of the game is 1.09. The game can download the latest patch automatically by clicking Internet in the multiplayer menu. The latest patch can also be downloaded manually:
Open Sauce
A mod for Custom Edition that fixes multiple issues and adds several features. It is not compatible with Combat Evolved.
Game data
Configuration file(s) location
Save game data location
Save game cloud syncing
- No save game cloud syncing information; you can edit this page to add it.
Video settings
Widescreen resolution
- Upcoming version 1.10 supports resolutions up to 4800x3600[1]
To play at a resolution unsupported in the ingame options, right-click a shortcut to the game, select Properties>Shortcut, and you will see a path to halo.exe in quotes in the Target box. Add a space after the end quote and then:
-vidmode x,y,z
where x is the horizontal resolution, y is the vertical resolution, and z is the refresh rate. For example, to play at 1920 by 1080 at 60fps, enter:
-vidmode 1920,1080,60
If z is not specified, the game will default to what is set in the ingame options. The game must be started from the shortcut you modified for the custom resolution to work.
Field of view (FOV)
On widescreen resolutions, Halo compresses its vertical field of view (FOV) instead of stretching its horizontal FOV. To fix this, download the following tools as appropriate to the version you are using
- Halo: Combat Evolved: Widescreen Fixer. When running, an icon should appear in the system tray. Right-click it and select Restore. A window should appear where you can configure various settings. To remove the delay when changing FOV/change FOV instantly, set the FOV refresh under Settings to 1 millisecond. After configuring, minimize the window and launch Halo. Once the main menu appears, press the key you assigned to enable the FOV fix (by default it is bound to *). Press the key again to disable the FOV fix. Widescreen Fixer must be running for the fix to work. The FOV fix does not work for Halo: Custom Edition.
- Halo: Custom Edition: Open Sauce. Once installed, the ingame menu can be toggled with F7. Press 1 and slide the mouse back and forth to play with the FOV. Left click to save, right click to reset. Open Sauce also supports custom weapon FOVs which can be configured by pressing 2.
- Adjust FOV by hex editing
- Backup your maps folder before starting (default location is
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Halo\maps) - A hex editor is required. HxD is a good free editor.
In A Nutshell : Replace all occurrences of 'AA619C3F' with 'CDCCCC3F' in all .MAP files.
- Go to
<path-to-game>\maps\folder - For every map file (Except the files Sound and Bitmaps) do the following:
- Open the .MAP file with HxD
- Choose replace in the search menu
- In the type box choose: hex values
- In the 'Find' field type: AA619C3F
- In the 'Replace' field type: CDCCCC3F, a 32-bit float value which translates into a decent FOV of 1.6 instead of the default 1.22. Use other float values if you prefer.
- Make sure to replace all occurrences
- Save the file
- Close the file
- Do exactly the same procedure for all of the files
- You're done, launch the game and enjoy a permanent FOV fix in Halo.
Active Camo Fix (Custom Edition)
- Officially fixed in upcoming version 1.10[2]
There is no need to use DXTweaker. Installing Open Sauce should automatically fix this issue. If it does not, navigate to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Halo CE\OpenSauce, open OS_Settings.User.xml, and ensure <nVidiaActiveCamouflage basic /> is set to "false".
Other information
How to play Campaign with Open Sauce
Open Sauce (and all its fixes and improvements) is incompatible with Combat Evolved. However, Custom Edition does not include a Campaign. To fix this, we will modify Custom Edition and add the classic Halo Campaign back into the game.
First, navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition\maps. Backup ui.map by changing its filename to "ui.mapbackup" or similar. Make sure to change the file type from .map to something else or it could confuse the game.
Next, download a new ui.map from halomaps.org. We'll be using this one. Note: this tutorial is for making Custom Edition indistinguishable from Combat Evolved. If you'd like to experiment with custom content, including modified Campaigns and main menus, feel free to browse halomaps.org for alternative maps to download.
Now to download the Campaign itself. The following is a list of links to downloads of all the original Campaign levels. Put all these .map files in your \maps folder. Note: DO NOT try to copy the Campaign maps from the Combat Evolved \maps folder. They are all in an incompatible format. The following downloadable versions have all been modified to work with Custom Edition.
- Level 1: The Pillar of Autumn
- Level 2: Halo
- Level 3: The Truth and Reconciliation
- Level 4: The Silent Cartographer
- Level 5: Assault on the Control Room
- Level 6: 343 Guilty Spark
- Level 7: The Library
- Level 8: Two Betrayals
- Level 9: Keyes
- Level 10: The Maw
These all work exactly like they do in Combat Evolved: cutscenes, seamless level transitions, save & quit functionality, checkpoints, difficulty selection, the works.
System requirements
| Windows | ||
|---|---|---|
| Minimum | Recommended | |
| Operating system (OS) | 98SE | ME, 2000, XP |
| Processor (CPU) | 733 MHz | |
| System memory (RAM) | ||
| Hard disk drive (HDD) | 1.2 GB | |
| Video card (GPU) | 3D T&L capable 32 MB of VRAM | |