Half-Life 2
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Revision as of 19:15, 9 June 2020 by Litbeep (talk | contribs) (→Issues fixed: fix for SteamVR launches automatically when attempting to enter Options)
Developers | |
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Valve Corporation | |
Publishers | |
Sierra Entertainment | |
Valve Corporation | |
Engines | |
Source | |
Release dates | |
Windows | November 16, 2004 |
macOS (OS X) | May 26, 2010 |
Linux | May 9, 2013 |
Reception | |
Metacritic | 96 |
IGDB | 91 |
Taxonomy | |
Modes | Singleplayer |
Pacing | Real-time |
Perspectives | First-person |
Controls | Direct control |
Genres | Shooter |
Vehicles | Automobile, Naval/watercraft, Off-roading |
Art styles | Realistic |
Themes | Eastern Europe, Post-apocalyptic, Sci-fi |
Series | Half-Life |
⤏ Go to series page | |
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.
Key points
- Installing the Update mod is recommended to fix numerous bugs introduced by various later updates.
- Numerous mods are available for the game, including new levels and completely new game modes.
General information
- GitHub Issue Tracker for Linux bugs in Half-Life 2 and other Source-based games
- Unofficial Half-Life Wiki
- Steam Community Discussions
Availability
Source | DRM | Notes | Keys | OS |
---|---|---|---|---|
Retail | European copies also include SecuROM 5 DRM. Collector's Edition copies can bypass Steam if you launch hl2.msi directly. |
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Steam | DRM-free when launched directly from the executable.[citation needed] |
Essential improvements
Skip intro videos
Use -novid command line argument[1]
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Enabling the console
- A list of console commands can be found here.
Command line[1] |
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Notes
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Options menu[1] |
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Mods
- For additional, nonessential mods, see Additional mods.
Half-Life 2: Update
- An unofficial update that fixes bugs, improves the lighting, draw distance and adds new effects among others.
- Standalone; uses a separate installation folder, separate save and configuration files, and separate Steam AppID.
- Does not include newer official updates, including an update that fixed NPCs not blinking. This particular bug can be fixed in Update by copying the vanilla
<path-to-game>\hl2\bin
to Update's<path-to-game>\hl2\bin
.[citation needed]
Half-Life 2 Upscaled Model Textures
- Textures for all NPCs, some weapons, some items, some crates, and some vehicles, upscaled with Topaz A.I. Gigapixel.
- Upscaled textures are faithful to the original textures.
Game data
Configuration file(s) location
System | Location |
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Steam | <path-to-game>/hl2/cfg/ |
- It's unknown whether this game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux. Please fill in this information.
Save game data location
System | Location |
---|---|
Steam | <path-to-game>/hl2/save/ |
Save game cloud syncing
System | Native | Notes |
---|---|---|
Steam Cloud | Approx. 100 MB available. |
Video
Graphics feature | State | WSGF | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Widescreen resolution | |||
Multi-monitor | |||
Ultra-widescreen | |||
4K Ultra HD | Interface scales poorly. | ||
Field of view (FOV) | Values between 75° and 90° horizontal can be set via ingame slider.[2] Default is 75°. For higher values use this guide. | ||
Windowed | |||
Borderless fullscreen windowed | See Borderless fullscreen windowed. | ||
Anisotropic filtering (AF) | |||
Anti-aliasing (AA) | Up to 8x MSAA. | ||
Vertical sync (Vsync) | |||
60 FPS and 120+ FPS | Frame rate cap can be changed by changing fps_max in the developer console. To uncap FPS or cap FPS higher than 300 you must first set sv_cheats = 1 before using fps_max . sv_cheats = 1 will also disable achievements. |
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High dynamic range display (HDR) | Rendered image uses SDR color space. In-game HDR option refers only to HDR Rendering. |
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Instructions[1] |
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Notes
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Input
Keyboard and mouse | State | Notes |
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Remapping | ||
Mouse acceleration | ||
Mouse sensitivity | ||
Mouse input in menus | ||
Mouse Y-axis inversion | ||
Controller | ||
Controller support | Use the console command exec 360controller to automatically setup Xbox controller support (if not already configured at startup). |
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Full controller support | Use Controller UI Mod for a console style menu that can be navigated easily with a controller. | |
Controller remapping | ||
Controller sensitivity | ||
Controller Y-axis inversion |
Controller types |
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XInput-compatible controllers | ||
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Xbox button prompts | ||
Impulse Trigger vibration |
PlayStation controllers | See the glossary page for potential workarounds. |
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Tracked motion controllers | Supports Razer Hydra. | |
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Button/gesture prompts |
Generic/other controllers |
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Additional information | ||
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Button prompts | Use Controller UI Mod to get a choice of button prompts such as Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3/4, Switch, and more. | |
Controller hotplugging | ||
Haptic feedback | ||
Digital movement supported | ||
Simultaneous controller+KB/M |
Steam Input | ||
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Steam Input API support | ||
Hook input (legacy mode) | ||
Official controller preset(s) | ||
Steam Controller button prompts |
Audio
Audio feature | State | Notes |
---|---|---|
Separate volume controls | Game volume and music slider. | |
Surround sound | 4.0, 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound. 7.1 output may require DirectSound3D restoration software. | |
Subtitles | ||
Closed captions | ||
Mute on focus lost | Under a check box in the Audio menu. | |
EAX support | Set snd_legacy_surround 1 in console, 4 speakers in options, and use DSOAL for binaural HRTF mixing.[3] |
Localizations
Language | UI | Audio | Sub | Notes |
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English | ||||
Simplified Chinese | ||||
Traditional Chinese | ||||
Czech | Fan translation including dubbing, download. | |||
Danish | ||||
Dutch | ||||
Finnish | ||||
French | ||||
German | ||||
Italian | ||||
Japanese | ||||
Korean | ||||
Norwegian | ||||
Polish | ||||
Portuguese | ||||
Russian | Original localization by SDL here | |||
Spanish | ||||
Swedish | ||||
Thai |
Network
Multiplayer types
Type | Native | Players | Notes | |
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LAN play | 32 | Users will need to open the developer console and type "maxplayers 4; sv_lan 1" and "map d1_trainstation_01" in the console. Do note that the game will not load an autosave, but you and your partner will respawn instead. | ||
Online play | 10 | Use Synergy. |
Connection types
Type | Native | Notes |
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Matchmaking | ||
Peer-to-peer | ||
Dedicated | ||
Self-hosting | See Documentation: Dedicated Servers. | |
Direct IP |
VR support
3D modes | State | GG3D | Notes | |
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Native 3D | ||||
Nvidia 3D Vision | See also Helix Mod: Half Life 2:Update. | |||
TriDef 3D | ||||
iZ3D | ||||
vorpX | G3D, DirectVR Officially supported game, see official vorpx game list. |
Headsets | |||
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SteamVR | This game might be playable with the Revive Compatibility Layer (compatibility list). | ||
Oculus VR (LibOVR) | Available under Video Settings. See the Oculus Rift forums for further instructions. | ||
Windows Mixed Reality | This game might be playable with the Revive Compatibility Layer. |
Devices | |||
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Tracked motion controllers | Supports Razer Hydra. See Input for details. |
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Traditional controller | See Input for details. | ||
Keyboard/Mouse | |||
3RD Space Gaming Vest | |||
Novint Falcon |
Issues fixed
Windows
- TweakGuides has created a comprehensive guide for fixing issues in this game which can be found here.
Purple and black textures
- See missing textures.
No lighting after Black Mesa East
Activate the High Dynamic Range in the Advanced Video Options[citation needed] |
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Stuck in Black Mesa East
Walk into the elevator, Quick Save F6, then Quick Load F9. |
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Not enough space on disk (retail)
Copy the files[1] |
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Available memory less than 128 MB
Setting the compatibility mode[1] |
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Half-Life 2 stuck on DirectX v8.0
Command line parameter[1] |
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Notes
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Cyrillic Font Issue in Linux
Cyrillic Font Issue in Linux[citation needed] |
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Find and remove the Helvetica font. |
SteamVR launches automatically when attempting to enter Options
Modify the gameinfo.txt file[4] |
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Notes
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Other information
API
Technical specs | Supported | Notes |
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Direct3D | 6, 7, 8, 8.1, 9 | |
OpenGL | 2.1 | OS X and Linux only. |
Shader Model support | 1.x, 2, 3 |
Executable | 32-bit | 64-bit | Notes |
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Windows | |||
macOS (OS X) | [citation needed] | ||
Linux | [citation needed] |
Middleware
Middleware | Notes | |
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Physics | Havok | Heavily modified variant. |
Audio | Miles Sound System | |
Cutscenes | Bink Video | Used for startup videos and in-game movies. |
Anti-cheat | Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC) |
Launch options
Instructions[1] |
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Additional mods
- An extra list of mods can be found here. To view the most-rated mods, click here.
- A discussion of various graphic improvement mods can be found here.
Half-Life 2: Survivor
- An unofficial port of the Japanese arcade version.
- This mod does not require Steam in order to run, but it requires you to use old files from Source SDK Base 2006. Click at the link above for more info.
Half-Life 2: MMod
- Enhances visual effects, weapon animations, sound, and gunplay. Most features can be toggled on and off.
- Compatible with all official Half-Life 2 titles, MINERVA and the FakeFactory Cinematic Mod. Compatibility patches made by the community for other mods and games based around the Half-Life 2 gameplay and various other addons can be found here.
System requirements
Windows | ||
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Minimum | Recommended | |
Operating system (OS) | XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10 | |
Processor (CPU) | 1.7 GHz | 2.0 GHz |
System memory (RAM) | 512 MB | 1 GB |
Hard disk drive (HDD) | 6.5 GB | |
Video card (GPU) | Nvidia GeForce FX 5700 ATI Radeon 9500 128 MB of VRAM DirectX 8.1 compatible | Nvidia GeForce 6800 ATI Radeon X800 512 MB of VRAM |
- Windows 98SE, ME, and 2000 were previously supported operating systems for the game, but as future updates for this game and Steam occurred; the support for these operating systems were dropped with non-Collector's Edition retail copies.
- Must be run without Steam to play on XP and Vista.
macOS (OS X) | ||
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Minimum | ||
Operating system (OS) | 10.5.8, 10.6.3 | |
Processor (CPU) | 1.7 GHz | |
System memory (RAM) | 1 GB | |
Hard disk drive (HDD) | 4.6 GB | |
Video card (GPU) | Nvidia GeForce 8000 Series ATI Radeon X1600 Intel HD 3000 |