Half-Life
Version 1.0
Readme File
10/30/98 […]
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Half-Life
Version 1.0
Readme File
10/30/98
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About This Document:
This document contains last-minute information about Half-Life, including questions you may have concerning the game or your computer. If you have a question, check to see if it is addressed here first: you may save yourself a call to Technical Support.
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I. MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
II. GENERAL TECHNICAL ISSUES
III. GENERAL GAME ISSUES
IV. 3D HARDWARE ISSUES
V. CONTACTING SIERRA
I. MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
Windows(r) 95, Windows 98 or Windows NT 4.0
Pentium 133+, 24 MB RAM
SVGA, high color (16-bit)
2x CD-ROM drive
Windows-compatible sound card
Mouse, keyboard
II. GENERAL TECHNICAL ISSUES
DRIVER ISSUES
When running Half-Life in OpenGL, you must select '3Dfx Mini Driver' from the drivers list in the Video Options menu if you have a 3Dfx card (Voodoo, Voodoo2, Rush or Banshee). Choosing the 'Default' driver may severely impact Half-Life's performance.
Make sure the most current version of DirectX is installed on your computer. DirectX 6 is the most current version (as of 10/31/98), and it is included on the Half-Life CD in the 'DirectX' folder.
If you are running a pre-OSR2 release of Windows95, get the OpenGL 1.1 fix in order to run Half-Life in OpenGL mode. The fix can be found at ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/softlib/mslfiles/opengl95.exe
Make sure you have installed the most recent drivers for all your hardware before playing Half-Life.
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IV. 3D HARDWARE ISSUSES
Half-Life has the ability to use both OpenGL and Direct3D. Many cards with support for 3D acceleration will provide both OpenGL and Direct3D drivers. Which one is better depends upon the quality and performance of the drivers themselves, and will vary from card to card.
The latest release of DirectX, version 6.0, is included on the Half-Life CD. It should be automatically installed as part of the Half-Life installation process. If you need to reinstall at a later time, open the DirectX folder on your Half-Life installation CD and run dxsetup.exe.
In general, make sure you have the latest versions of the device drivers for your display hardware. Most graphics card vendors make them freely available on the Internet, and a collection of links to sites of many popular cards is installed on your hard drive along with Half-Life. The default location for this file is:
C:\SIERRA\Half-Life\media\DrvPage\default.htm
Video configuration is set in the Configuration\Video\Video modes menu in Half-Life.
The following section explains the known driver and compatibility issues for specific chipsets at the time of Half-Life's shipping. If you have any questions about which chipset is incorporated in your graphics card, consult the documentation that accompanied your card, or contact the card manufacturer.
3DFX Banshee, Voodoo 1, Voodoo 2, Voodoo 2 SLI
Get the latest drivers from your card manufacturer or get the latest drivers directly from the 3DFX site. Half-Life ships with the current, tested GL mini-driver. Make sure that you have Glide version 2.54 or above. Half-Life does not support Direct3D on Voodoo cards.
The Voodoo 2 running in SLI mode on Windows/NT is prone to crashing. The solution to this instability is to either get an updated driver from 3DFX, disable SLI mode, or run under Windows 95/98.
3DFX Rush
With the current drivers, Half-Life supports the Voodoo rush in software mode only. Check with 3DFX for an updated driver that offers support for Half-Life
NVIDIA Riva 128
You must have Windows 95 OSR 2 or later, Windows 98 or Windows NT. As of shipping, Half-Life Riva 128 OpenGL support requires the latest reference driver from NVIDIA. Get this driver off of their site, http://www.nvidia.com. Direct3D support is currently unavailable. Contact NVIDIA for a Direct3D driver that supports Half-Life.
NVIDIA TNT
Half-Life supports the TNT in software, OpenGL and Direct3D modes. Get the latest driver off of NVIDIA’s site.
Matrox G200
Half-Life supports the G200 in software and Direct3D. Get the latest driver from Matrox’s site, http://www.matrox.com. Matrox will also be providing a GL mini-driver that will support OpenGL in Half-Life. Check with Matrox for details.
S3 Virge
Half-Life supports the Virge in software mode only.
S3 Savage
Half-Life support the Savage in software and Direct3D. You can get the latest drivers from S3's site, http://www.s3.com. S3 will also be providing a GL driver that will support Half-Life. Check with S3 for details.
General Issues:
Missing Decals (i.e. Bullet holes)
Half-Life uses a feature of OpenGL and Direct3D that some video card drivers do not support correctly. To over ride the default settings for this feature, put this line in your opengl32.cfg or d3d.cfg file:
gl_polyoffset 0.1
If this doesn’t work, try -0.1, 1 or 20. This tells the driver how far to offset the decal from the surface of the polygon that the decal is being applied to.
Direct3D or OpenGL are running very slow
On some cards that don’t fully support Direct3D or OpenGL, Half-Life will fall back to a software emulation mode. These modes are very slow. If your Direct3D support is slow, try selecting OpenGL, and vice versa. If neither work, change your settings to use Half-Life’s software video modes instead and the speed will improve.
Direct3D Input seems lagged.
If your input seems to lag behind the visual display on occasion, add this line to your d3d.cfg file:
gl_d3dflip 1
Copyright (1998 Sierra On-Line, Inc.)