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Halo: Combat Evolved

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Template:Infobox

[[Series:|]]
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
"Halo CE" below refers to Halo: Custom Edition while "Halo" refers to Halo: Combat Evolved.

Availability

Retail only. No digitally distributed versions of this game are currently available for Windows or Mac OS X.

DRM

Product key included with disk. Required on installation. The disc check was removed in patch 1.08.

Patch 1.09 (Windows)

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:

Patch 1.09

System requirements

Template:System Requirements

Halo: Custom Edition

Halo: Custom Edition (Halo CE) allows players to play multiplayer Halo games on user-created maps. As Halo CE is multiplayer only, there is no singleplayer campaign. Halo CE can only be used if a legal copy of Halo: Combat Evolved is installed on your computer. 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

Custom Resolution

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 s 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.

Windowed mode

Use the above method to add: 

 -windowed

to the target box in a shortcut.

HUD Stretch

When played at custom resolutions on widescreen monitors, the HUD (Heads Up Display) and all ingame menus will be stretched horizontally. There is currently no fix for this for Halo v 1.09. Read this thread for more information on how to fix HUD stretch in previous versions.

Antialiasing

Halo does not support Antialiasing (AA). Force-enabling AA in your graphics driver has no effect on Halo: Combat Evolved and in Halo CE causes the game to freeze on the loading screen while playing the main menu music in the background. The only way to escape this is by force closing the game with Alt+F4 or the Task Manager. If your graphics card supports it, enable Morphological Antialiasing (MLAA) on ATI cards or Fast Approximate Antialiasing (FXAA) on Nvidia cards to improve image quality and gain an AA-like effect. You may need to update your graphics drivers to gain access to these features. It is recommended that you enable MLAA and FXAA for Halo and Halo CE only and not globally.

FOV Fix

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: 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. 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 only works in Halo, not Halo CE.
  • Halo CE 1.09: FOV and ThirdPerson Halo. Open the program and set the hotkeys and FOV to your liking (90 degrees is recommended). Next with the program still running open Halo CE and enable the FOV fix with the hotkey you set (Default is *). FOV and ThirdPerson Halo must be running for the fix to work.

EAX

Environmental Audio Extensions (EAX) applies effects such as echo, reverb, and flange to ingame sounds, making the game sound more realistic, in theory. However, if played on Windows Vista or later, Halo does not support EAX. To fix this, those with Creative sound cards can download Creative ALchemy, those with ASUS sound cards can download GX2.5, and those with Realtek integrated audio can download Realtek 3D SoundBack. All three programs re-enable EAX effects in pre-Vista games by emulating EAX calls in OpenAL. Even with these programs, EAX cannot be used unless you enable it in the ingame audio options. Using these programs, specifically 3D SoundBack, may result in sound clipping and other audio artifacts. EAX is supported in Halo and Halo CE.