Halo Online

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

The official release under Microsoft Studios for Russian players was cancelled in 2016. However, Halo Online is playable worldwide with the ElDewrito Mod, which is now essential for play. As such all guides on this page are in reference to the aforementioned mod.

General information

Halo Waypoint - Official Beta Launch of Halo Online testing under Microsoft Studios in Russia

ElDewrito.com - Official Page of ElDewrito Mod

Blog.ElDewrito.com - Official blog for the ElDewrito Mod

r/HaloOnline Subreddit for Halo Online and ElDewrito Help and Discussion.

ElDewrito Source Code - ElDewrito Mod Repository

Availability

Not officially available. Requires the ElDewrito Mod to play the game.^[1]

Essential improvements

ElDewrito

Provides bug fixes and quality of life improvements including 21:9 support, extended FOV slider, and raw mouse input.

Players can host multiplayer and Forge games with up to 16 players with this mod.

The ElDewrito Mod's development has been put on hold until further notice, due to discussions with Microsoft regarding the reverse-engineering of their intellectual property - Game can still be played in spite of this just no further updates.^[2]

Installing the ElDewrito Mod^[3]

Obtain the "Halo Online 1.106708 cert_ms23" archive.
Safe Checksums for Base ms23 files:
- MD5: 5ae9e3d0a4952686cedb7d7261ad6c11
- SHA1: 1293f856720af0685adadcc4082c9f97e078a4fa
- SHA256: 4674454e0e973573e43c4025e894820523ab4e665108248dc9eb1c9a5a09ec1
Download the ElDewrito Updater which can be found on the r/HaloOnline Get Started Page.
Extract the Base Halo Online files that were obtained earlier, and then the Updater archive into the same directory.
Run <path-to-game>\updater.exe and update to 0.6.0.
Once updated the user will need to run the Updater again to update to 0.6.1.
Launch <path-to-game>\eldorado.exe to play the game.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\dewrito_prefs.cfg^{[Note 1]}

Video

In order to access game settings on keyboard and mouse, press Home from the main menu.

Can only select Resolutions up to Desktop Resolution of the Primary Monitor

In-game general video settings.

In-game advanced video settings.

In-game general game settings.

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)		Supports between 55° and 120° (Hor+)
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Exclusive Fullscreen not Supported.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Bundled as part of "Texture Filtering" Setting.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Post-Processing AA - Does not support Downsampling Techniques such as SSAA or DSR
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Enabled by default; to disable toggle the "Fix FPS Stutter" option in the Video Settings
60 FPS
120+ FPS		Physics are locked at 60Hz
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Input

In-game general control settings.

In-game general gamepad settings - also showing the "Halo Online Default" gamepad scheme.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus		Halo 3 UI can only be navigated using the Keyboard, or Gamepad
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		Only has native support for XInput
Full controller support		Requires a Keyboard and Mouse to navigate certain menus.
Controller remapping		See Controller remapping.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers		Both Xbox 360 and Xbox One controllers are supported with icons
Xbox button prompts		Both Xbox 360 and Xbox One controllers are supported with icons
Impulse Trigger vibration

DualShock 4 controllers		Launching the game through Steam with Overlay will allow Steam to convert the DS4 input to Xinput such that Halo Online can support
DualShock button prompts		Without modification there is no in-game icons for any PlayStation controller
Light bar support
Connection modes	unknown

Generic/other controllers

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Controller remapping

Halo 3

In-game "Halo 3 Default" gamepad scheme.
In-game "Halo 3 Southpaw" gamepad scheme.
In-game "Halo 3 Boxer" gamepad scheme.
In-game "Halo 3 Green Thumb" gamepad scheme.
In-game "Halo 3 Bumper Jumper" gamepad scheme.
In-game "Halo 3 Walkie Talkie" gamepad scheme.

Halo Reach

In-game "Halo Reach Default" gamepad scheme.
In-game "Halo Reach Southpaw" gamepad scheme.
In-game "Halo Reach Boxer" gamepad scheme.
In-game "Halo Reach Green Thumb" gamepad scheme.
In-game "Halo Reach Bumper Jumper" gamepad scheme.
In-game "Halo Reach Recon" gamepad scheme.

Halo 4

In-game "Halo 4 Default" gamepad scheme.
In-game "Halo 4 Southpaw" gamepad scheme.
In-game "Halo 4 Boxer" gamepad scheme.
In-game "Halo 4 Green Thumb" gamepad scheme.
In-game "Halo 4 Bumper Jumper" gamepad scheme.
In-game "Halo 4 Recon" gamepad scheme.
In-game "Halo 4 Fishstick" gamepad scheme.

Audio

In-game general audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		SFX, and Music
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

ElDewrito UI and In-game HUD does not respond to Language changes and remains in English.

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
French
German
Italian
Portuguese
Spanish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Players	Notes
Local play	4	Versus Start the game with `-multiinstance` parameter.
LAN play	16	Versus
Online play	16	Versus

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated		See this Guide for how to set up a Dedicated Server for Halo Online's ElDewrito Mod
Self-hosting
Direct IP		Open the console (`~`) and use `connect` followed by the IP and port.

Ports

Protocol	Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP	11775, 11777
UDP	11774

This game supports Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) for automatic port configuration.

Issues fixed

The best way to report game issues to the ElDewrito community and get assistance, is via the mod's latest bug report thread.

Crash on Nvidia RTX chipsets

The game has a bug whereby Contrails cause the game to crash, notably on RTX GPUs.^[4]

Replace binkw32.dll with this version

Download the Unofficial Mod Patch which fixes the RTX GPU crashes when the game uses contrails.
Navigate to <path-to-game> and replace the binkw32.dll with this one.

Notes

Tested on a Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080ti on Windows 10 build 1809 ^[5]

If the player has used the previous version of this fix, they must also download the original mtndew.dll file - which is also included in the link - and replace the modified mtndew.dll with the original one.

Game is too bright on Intel HD Graphics

Enable the `Bloom (Brightness) Patch` in the game's Advanced Video settings, and restart the game.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9	DirectX9 Extended
Shader Model support	3

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	Havok
Interface	Scaleform, Chromium Embedded Framework
Cutscenes	Bink Video
Multiplayer	4Game, ElDewrito	ElDewrito Mod is a Requirement to play after shutdown by Microsoft

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	Vista	7, 8, 8.1, 10
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Equivalent AMD CPU
System memory (RAM)	4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	4 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT Equivalent AMD GPU 512 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0c compatible Shader model 3.0 support
Controller	XInput Compatible	Xbox 360 or Xbox One Controller

Notes

↑ 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

↑ Polygon - Russian free-to-play Halo Online canceled - last accessed on 2019-11-23
↑ ElDewrito Blog - Microsoft’s Legal Action and the Future of ElDewrito - last accessed on 2019-11-23
↑ r/HaloOnline - Get Started - last accessed on 2019-11-23
↑ r/HaloOnline - Bi-Weekly Questions, Requests, and Bug Reports Thread. (Oct 24) - last accessed on 2019-11-23
↑ Verified by User:Weion on 2019-01-24
The RTX crash is fixed by this patch while also not modifying the mtndew.dll file, allowing players to still be fully updated - and fix all known issues of the previous release.

[gamedir-4] 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).

[1] Polygon - Russian free-to-play Halo Online canceled - last accessed on 2019-11-23

[2] ElDewrito Blog - Microsoft’s Legal Action and the Future of ElDewrito - last accessed on 2019-11-23

[3] r/HaloOnline - Get Started - last accessed on 2019-11-23

[5] r/HaloOnline - Bi-Weekly Questions, Requests, and Bug Reports Thread. (Oct 24) - last accessed on 2019-11-23

[6] Verified by User:Weion on 2019-01-24
The RTX crash is fixed by this patch while also not modifying the mtndew.dll file, allowing players to still be fully updated - and fix all known issues of the previous release.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[Note 1]

[4]

[5]

Developers

	343 Industries
	Saber Interactive
Windows	Microsoft Studios
Publishers
	Microsoft Studios
	Innova Systems
Engines
	Halo Engine
Release dates
Windows	2015
Taxonomy
Series	Halo