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Halo: The Master Chief Collection

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Revision as of 05:31, 17 November 2020 by 58.248.165.2 (talk)
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Although this product has been released, it remains under active development - information may change frequently and could be outdated or irrelevant.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection
Halo: The Master Chief Collection cover
Developers
Lead development 343 Industries
Original games (exc. Halo 4) Bungie
Windows Ruffian Games
Windows Splash Damage
Windows Saber Interactive
Publishers
Xbox Game Studios
Engines
Halo Engine
Saber3D Engine*[1]
Unreal Engine 4
Release dates
Windows December 3, 2019*[2]
Reception
OpenCritic 85
IGDB 86
Taxonomy
Microtransactions None
Modes Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives First-person
Controls Direct control
Genres Action, Shooter
Vehicles Automobile, Flight
Art styles Realistic
Themes Sci-fi, Space
Series Halo
Halo: The Master Chief Collection on IGDB
Halo: The Master Chief Collection guide on StrategyWiki
Halo: The Master Chief Collection on MobyGames
Halo: The Master Chief Collection on Wikipedia
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

Halo: The Master Chief Collection is a collection of singleplayer and multiplayer FPS games in the Halo series. The collection includes Halo: Reach, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo 2: Anniversary, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, and Halo 4. Only two of the games had previously received PC ports - the original Halo: Combat Evolved released in 2003 and Halo 2 released in 2007.

The games were released individually based on their chronology, starting with Halo: Reach in December 2019 with the rest following throughout the next year and concluding with Halo 4 in November 2020.

Closed beta for Halo 4 began on October 20, 2020 with its release expected to be in November 2020.[3] As of October 17, 2020, all games of the collection have been released.

Key points

This article acts as an overarching parent page for the individual game articles. See the game-specific section for details pertaining to each release.

General information

Official website
Official forums
Steam Community Discussions
Halo Insider Program

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Microsoft Store
Microsoft Store
Xbox Game Pass for PC
Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Windows
All versions require a Microsoft account for both singleplayer and multiplayer.
The games can be purchased either individually as they are released or in a discounted bundle containing all six games.[4]

Series

{{#ask: Part of series::Series:Halo: The Master Chief Collection Modification date::+ | ?Developed by=Developer | ?Published by=Publisher | ?Release date=First release |+limit=1 | ?Available on=Systems|+order=desc | ?Release date#ISO|+limit=1 | ?Cover filename #=Cover | ?#- | introtemplate = Series/ti | template = Series/t | outrotemplate = Series/to | format = template | default = | sort = Release date }}

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Remove the video files[5]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\MCC\Content\Movies.
  2. Delete or rename FMS_logo_microsoft_7_1_.bk2 and FMS_logo_343_7_1_.bk2.

Notes

Players can use the Anti-Cheat Disabled (Mods and Limited Services) option to speed up the launch even further.[6]
After deleting the above files, the game will freeze every time you try to exit.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Microsoft Store %USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\MCC\
Steam %USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\MCC\
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/976730/pfx/[Note 1]
Local settings are shared between the Steam and Microsoft Store versions.[7]

Save game data location

System Location
Microsoft Store %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.Chelan_8wekyb3d8bbwe\SystemAppData\wgs\
Steam <Steam-folder>\userdata\<user-id>\976730\remote\<user-id>\Saves\
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/976730/pfx/[Note 1]
Saves cannot be transferred between the versions.[8]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
Steam Cloud
Used to save Mid-Mission Checkpoints in Campaign and Playlists.[9]
Xbox Cloud
Progress will transfer between the Xbox One and PC versions (Mid-Mission Checkpoint progress is not retained as not compatible).[9]

Video

In-game general video settings.
In-game general video settings.
In-game general gameplay settings.
In-game general gameplay settings.

Graphics feature State Notes
Widescreen resolution
See the individual pages for details.
Multi-monitor
See the individual pages for details.
Ultra-widescreen
See the individual pages for details.
4K Ultra HD
See the individual pages for details.
Field of view (FOV)
See the individual pages for details.
Windowed
See the individual pages for details.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
See the individual pages for details.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
See the individual pages for details.
Anti-aliasing (AA)
See the individual pages for details.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
See the individual pages for details.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
See the individual pages for details.
See High frame rate to unlock the framerate in menus.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the engine page to force native HDR output, or the glossary page for other alternatives.
The game engine may allow for manual configuration of the game via its variables. See the Unreal Engine 4 page for more details.
FOV adjustment and variable frame rate support may change per title due to limitations.[10][11]

High frame rate

Instructions[12]
  1. In the configuration file(s) location, navigate to Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor.
  2. Open Engine.ini using a text editor.
  3. At the bottom of the config file, add these lines of text:
    [SystemSettings]
    t.MaxFPS=xxx
    
  4. Replace xxx with the desired framerate cap for the menus, and save the file.
  5. Right click on Engine.ini, go to properties, then set the file as "Read-only". This will prevent the game from overwriting the values.

Input

In-game keyboard and mouse control settings.
In-game keyboard and mouse control settings.
In-game general gamepad settings.
In-game general gamepad settings.

Controller remapping

The Universal Presets apply to all games in the collection.

Audio

In-game general audio settings.
In-game general audio settings.
In-game general accessibility settings.
In-game general accessibility settings.

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Menu Music, Game Music, Effects, and Voice Chat.
Surround sound
7.1[13]
Subtitles
See the individual pages for details.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Polish
Not available in Reach, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo 2, Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST.
Portuguese
Voiceovers not available in Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. Halo 2 was not translated at all.
Russian
Not available in Reach, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo 2, Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST.
Spanish
Voiceovers available for all games except for Halo 2: Anniversary.
Latin American Spanish
Voiceovers available for all games except for Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary.

VR support

3D modes State Notes
vorpX
G3D, Z3D, DirectVR
Officially supported game, see official vorpx game list.

Network

In-game general network settings.
In-game general network settings.
Online features require a free Microsoft account.
Supports crossplay between Microsoft Store and Steam versions. PC/Xbox crossplay as well as input based matchmaking is planned for release in 2020.[14]

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
Local play
Use Nucleus Coop & Unofficial mod. Will be investigated to see if it can be supported post-launch.[11]
LAN play
16 Co-op, Versus
See the individual pages for details.
Online play
16 Co-op, Versus
See the individual pages for details.

Connection types

Type Native Notes
Matchmaking
Hosted on 343i's Dedicated Servers.
Peer-to-peer
Self-hosted lobbies are Peer-to-Peer.
Dedicated
Matchmaking Online matches are hosted on 343i's Dedicated Servers. No official dedicated server is provided.
Self-hosting
Can host peer-to-peer Custom Game lobbies.
Direct IP

Ports

Protocol Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP 4811, 52390-52397, 52401-52425, 52460-52638, 52855, 53070, 53274, 53490, 53719, 53962, 54085-54090, 54175, 54382
UDP 4379, 7551, 61421
This game supports Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) for automatic port configuration.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 11.1
Shader Model support 5.0
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Physics Havok
Audio FMOD, Miles Sound System, Wwise, iZotope Utilizes multiple audio processing systems across the collection.[15]
Interface Unreal Engine 4, Scaleform The former is used for the Main Menu UI and Customization UX, whereas the latter is used for the in-game UI.[15]
Cutscenes Bink Video
Multiplayer Xbox Live, Steamworks
Anti-cheat Easy Anti-Cheat Players have the option to launch the game without anti-cheat to play with custom modifications. Matchmaking is disabled in this mode.

Shortcut to launch without anti-cheat

Create a custom shortcut (Steam only)[citation needed]
  1. Right-click on the original desktop or start menu shortcut created by Steam, and select 'Properties.
  2. In the URL textbox change steam://rungameid/976730 to steam://launch/976730/option1
  3. Click OK, and launch the game using that link to run it without anti-cheat.

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 7
Processor (CPU) AMD FX 4100 3.6 GHz
Intel Core i7 870 2.93 GHz
System memory (RAM) 8 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 20 GB
(Windows Store: 24.93 GB) (Steam:23.97GB)
Video card (GPU) Radeon Vega 10 Mobile
Intel UHD Graphics 630
1 GB of VRAM
DirectX 11.1 compatible
Shader model 5.0 support
Support for Windows 8 is still being investigated.[11]
May be differences in System Requirements between the Windows Store and Steam versions of the game.[9]

Game sizes

Game title Size (Campaign + Multiplayer)
Halo: The Master Chief Collection 6.37 GB
Halo: Reach 19.4 GB
Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary 7.37 GB
Halo 2: Anniversary 28.8 GB
Halo 3 12.9 GB
Halo 3: ODST 8.97 GB
Halo 4 27.0 GB


Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/976730/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (976730) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

  1. Saber Interactive - Halo: The Master Chief Collection - last accessed on 2020-03-09
  2. Halo Waypoint - Halo: Reach Arrives December 3rd - last accessed on 2019-11-14
  3. PC Gamer - Halo 4 begins closed testing on PC - last accessed on 2020-10-21
    "Testing kicked off last night and is expected to run until November 3, with invites being sent out in waves to all Halo Insiders (meaning you might still snag a spot if you're not yet signed up). If this flight is like the last few, expect Halo 4 to launch proper a few weeks later."
  4. Halo Waypoint - MCC PC & Halo: Reach
  5. Verified by User:Aemony on 2019-12-03
  6. Verified by User:Aemony on 2019-12-03
    Verified the presence of the option on both Steam and the Microsoft Store versions of the game.
  7. Verified by User:Aemony on 2019-12-03
    Verified by launching both versions and seeing what settings carried over.
  8. Verified by User:Aemony on 2019-12-03
    The saves of each version uses a separate file structure from the other version.
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 Halo Waypoint - MCC Development Update - October 2019 - last accessed on 2019-10-31
  10. Halo Waypoint - MCC Development Update - April 2019 - last accessed on 2019-12-03
  11. 11.0 11.1 11.2 r/gaming - MCC PC, Halo: Reach, and Halo Insider AMA - last accessed on 2019-03-19
    "  Video Settings:
    • Yes, support for FOV-sliders is the plan. We will adjust what level of FOV is supported on a title by title basis. As an example, if adjusting the FOV causes significant player/weapon model distortion, we may need to put limits in.
    • Uncapped framerate is the plan, but the specific level of support will vary by title.
    Network:
    • re: Crossplay - PC players will be able to play together regardless of which store they choose to purchase from. In terms of Xbox One to PC crossplay, it's not something we're currently committing to at launch but it is top of mind and the team is actively investigating this.
    • re: Dedicated servers for Reach - our goal is to continue using dedicated servers to power the matchmaking experences within MCC. We'll definitely share more details as development progresses.
    • A custom games browser is of course very important to us and something we're looking forward to bringing to MCC on PC and Xbox One.
    • Regarding Splitscreen: This one is tricky and the team is still looking at what can be supported.
    System Requirements:
    • Currently our focus is on Win10 and Win7. Win8 is still being investigated.
     
    "
  12. Verified by User:KingKrouch on 2020-07-28
    Tested by editing Engine.ini config.
  13. Verified by User:Aemony on 2019-12-03
    Determined by using Special K and Razer Surround; basically through the process that is described here.
  14. Halo - MCC Development Update - July 2020 - last accessed on 2020-10-21
    "Features planned for release in 2020:
    • Crossplay
    • Input Based MM"
  15. 15.0 15.1 Halo Waypoint - Halo: The Master Chief Collection Credits - last accessed on 2019-12-09