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Half-Life 2: Episode One

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Half-Life 2: Episode One
Half-Life 2: Episode One cover
Developers
Valve Corporation
Publishers
Valve Corporation
Russia Buka Entertainment
Engines
Original Source 2006
Current Source 2013 Singleplayer
Release dates
Windows June 1, 2006[1]
macOS (OS X) May 26, 2010[2]
Linux May 9, 2013
Reception
Metacritic 87
IGDB 87
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase
Microtransactions None
Modes Singleplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives First-person
Controls Direct control
Genres Shooter
Art styles Realistic
Themes Eastern Europe, Post-apocalyptic, Sci-fi
Series Half-Life
Half-Life 2: Episode One on HowLongToBeat
Half-Life 2: Episode One on IGDB
Half-Life 2: Episode One guide on StrategyWiki
Half-Life 2: Episode One on MobyGames
Half-Life 2: Episode One on Wikipedia
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.

Half-Life 2: Episode One is a singleplayer first-person shooter game in the Half-Life series.

General information

GitHub Issue Tracker for Half-Life 2: Episode One and other Source-based games
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Icon overlay.png
Also includes Half-Life 2: Deathmatch and Half-Life Deathmatch: Source.
Windows
Steam
DRM-free after installation through Steam client (notes may include more details)
DRM-free when launched directly from the executable with -game episodic command line argument.[citation needed]
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Soundtrack is available for free with purchase here.
All versions require Steam DRM.

Monetization

Type Notes
One-time game purchase The game requires an upfront purchase to access.

Microtransactions

Type Notes
No microtransactions Game does not contain microtransactions.

Essential improvements

Peixoto's patch

Peixoto's patch forced resolution allows high resolution without shrinking the HUD\menus. Super sampling anti aliasing is also possible

Skip intro videos

Use -novid command line argument[3]

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Steam <Steam-folder>/SteamApps/common/Half-Life 2/episodic/cfg/
This game does not follow the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux.

Save game data location

System Location
Steam <Steam-folder>/SteamApps/common/Half-Life 2/episodic/save/

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
Steam Cloud
Approx. 100 MB available.
Syncs save games and settings.

Video

General video settings
General video settings
Advanced video settings
Advanced video settings

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
[4]
4K Ultra HD
Interface scales poorly.
Field of view (FOV)
Values between 75° and 110° horizontal can be set via ingame slider.[5] For even higher values use this guide.
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Run in a window (No Border) option, otherwise see Borderless fullscreen windowed if running old versions or not working.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Up to 8x MSAA. SGSSAA available with flag 0x000000C1.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
Double buffered [6]
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.[7]
High dynamic range display (HDR)
Rendered image uses SDR color space. In-game HDR option refers only to HDR Rendering.
HBAO available with flag 0x0000002C.

Borderless fullscreen windowed

-window -noborder[3]
For newer versions, see above. Otherwise follow this steps:
  1. Find Half-Life 2: Episode One in your Steam Library
  2. Right-click the game name
  3. Select Properties
  4. Select Set Launch Options...
  5. Input -window -noborder
  6. Press OK
  7. Launch the game

Input

Key map settings
Key map settings
Mouse/gamepad settings
Mouse/gamepad settings

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Native since 2022 update, use -gamepadui Command line argument to enable Gamepad UI. By default, this will also enable Vulkan, which can cause the game to crash on incompatible hardware.

If you want to enable the Gamepad UI on systems with GPUs that does not support Vulkan, use -dx9 alongside -gamepadui in order to force the game to launch with DX9 mode instead of Vulkan, while having Gamepad UI enabled.[8]
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion
Controller types
XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Supported via Steam Input API.
Impulse Trigger vibration
PlayStation controllers
PlayStation button prompts
Supported via Steam Input API.
Light bar support
Adaptive trigger support
DualSense haptic feedback support
Connection modes Wired, Wireless (Bluetooth), Wireless (Bluetooth)
[9]
Tracked motion controllers
Generic/other controllers
Both Nintendo Switch Pro Controller and Generic Gamepads are supported via Steam Input API
Button prompts
Nintendo Switch Pro Controller button prompts are supported via Steam Input API
Additional information
Button prompts
Native since 2022 update, use -gamepadui Command line argument to enable Gamepad UI. By default, this will also enable Vulkan, which can cause the game to crash on incompatible hardware.

If you want to enable the Gamepad UI on systems with GPUs that does not support Vulkan, use -dx9 alongside -gamepadui in order to force the game to launch with DX9 mode instead of Vulkan, while having Gamepad UI enabled.[10]
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Supported via Steam Input API.

If using the old version/Legacy XInput mode: you can bring back Controller rumble by download an updated version of the SDL2 runtime binary (choose Runtime Binaries x86) and replace it with the one in <path-to-game>\bin.[11] This works for any Source engine based game.
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M
Steam Input
Steam Input API support
Official controller preset(s)
PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, Steam Controller & Steam Deck (under Standard and Motion Controls presets)
Steam Controller button prompts
Uses Steam Input API's built-in Button Icons

Audio

Audio settings
Audio settings

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Over-all game volume and separate music slider.
Surround sound
7.1, 5.1 surround sound, 4 speaker surround. 7.1 output may require DirectSound3D restoration software.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
"Silence the audio while the game window is in the background" check box.
EAX support
Set snd_legacy_surround 1 in console, 4 speakers in options, and use DSOAL for binaural HRTF mixing.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Czech
Danish
Dutch
Finnish
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Russian
After the "SteamPipe" update, errors appeared in the localization, such as the effect of broken phrases. Therefore, it is recommended to download the patch, made by guys from the "hl-inside" forum.
Spanish
Swedish
Thai

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
LAN play
Online play
10 Use Synergy.

Connection types

VR support

3D modes State Notes
Native 3D
Nvidia 3D Vision
vorpX
G3D, DirectVR
Officially supported game. Momentarily not on official vorpx game list, but assuming through some forum talk the game should be 3D. Profiles are available at the factory list.
Headsets
SteamVR
This game might be playable with the Revive Compatibility Layer (compatibility list).
Oculus VR (LibOVR)
Available under Video Settings. See Oculus Rift for more information.
Windows Mixed Reality
This game might be playable with the Revive Compatibility Layer.
Devices
Tracked motion controllers
Traditional controller
See Input for details.
Keyboard/Mouse
3RD Space Gaming Vest
Novint Falcon

Oculus Rift

By default VR mode will run full screen, to switch back to a borderless windowed set the vr_force_windowed convar.

Issues fixed

Purple and black broken textures

A generic fix for this issue can be found on our Source engine page.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 9 Initially had compatibility levels for Direct3D 7 - 8.1 cards. Current version only supports compatibility levels for 8 and later.
OpenGL 2.1 OS X and Linux only.
Vulkan
Use -vulkan command line argument.
Shader Model support 1.x, 2, 3
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)
[citation needed]
Linux
[citation needed]

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Physics Havok Heavily modified variant.
Audio Miles Sound System
Input SDL
Cutscenes Bink Video Used for startup videos and in-game movies.

Console commands

Games running on the Source engine can utilize Source Engine Console Commands for various tasks.
Enabling the console in Source games[citation needed]
  1. Launch the game
  2. From the main menu select Options
  3. Select the Keyboard tab
  4. Click the Advanced button
  5. Check the box next to Enable developer console (~)
  6. Click Apply

Notes

Press ~ to open the console.
Some commands may first require you enabling sv_cheats. You can do so with sv_cheats 1.
Users without a US keyboard could experience some problems.

Launch options

View this Steam Support Article regarding launch options as well as the relevant Valve Developer wiki page for further information and a list of useful Source engine launch options.
Enabling a launch parameter[citation needed]
  1. Find the game in your Steam Library
  2. Right-click the game name
  3. Select Properties
  4. Select Set Launch Options...
  5. Input your selected launch options and separate each command with a space
  6. Press OK
  7. Launch the game

Mods

For popular mods see Mod DB's "Half-Life 2: Episode One Mods" section.

MINERVA

Original version available on Mod DB.
Improved version available on Steam for free. Requires Half-Life 2: Episode One.

Half-Life 2: Episode One 4X AI 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.
Large download at over 6.5 GB, including patches. Around 13.9 GB once extracted.

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) XP, Vista, 7
Processor (CPU) 1.7 GHz
System memory (RAM) 512 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 4.6 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce3 Ti 200
ATI Radeon 9000/8500
64 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, even with retail copies.
Must be run without Steam to play on XP and Vista.
macOS (OS X)
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 8
ATI Radeon X1600
Intel HD 3000


References

  1. News - HALF-LIFE 2: EPISODE ONE AVAILABLE NOW - last accessed on 2023-07-02
  2. News - Steam For Mac Launch: Week 3 - last accessed on 2023-07-02
  3. 3.0 3.1 Verified by User:Suicide machine on August 11, 2016
  4. Steam Community :: Group :: /r/ultrawidemasterrace Group - last accessed on May 2023
  5. Field of View - Valve Developer Community - last accessed on May 2023
  6. Black mesa vsync is double buffered - last accessed on 2024
  7. New 120Hz Games Report - last accessed on May 2023
  8. Verified by User:Kr0tchet on 2024-01-27
  9. Verified by User:Al2009man on 2022-05-05
    Tested on DualShock 4 V2 and DualSense Controller while Steam Input is forcefully disabled.

    As of this writing: Left/Right Joystick does not work if Steam Input (under Legacy mode) is enabled.
  10. Verified by User:Kr0tchet on 2024-01-27
  11. Verified by User:Al2009man on 2022-05-05
    Seems like this method no longer works on Steam Deck branch.