Yeah that sounds about right. You are running software rendered at 400x300 (and maximum screen size I presume) on CPUs that were rather low end when Half-Life came out.
3D acceleration will definitely help, but keep in mind that Half-Life is very CPU intensive for its time. While Goldsrc (the engine that powers Half-Life) is based on Quake's idtech2, it adds many features that can be quite taxing. I've seen the game drop to sub 20fps anytime there's more than one enemy on-screen even with 3D acceleration on much faster CPUs such as K6-III+ 600.

Yeah, I do recall getting some abysmal frame drops even with a Voodoo2 on a basic Pentium. I do have a P1 build, but the hard drive kicked the bucket. I'll try to get some framerates if I can get that replaced.

interesting, it would be good to know if as well as more P1s someone has a P2-233 with similar set up otherwise, just to see how much more they get - and as in between something like P1 233mmx with the slight extra cache might get something ok too, just not sure

that seems normal I only get 5 FPS on a 233mmx (but running on a board with SiS530 igp enabled, also with sound)

it achieves 42fps on the quake timedemo

I did the benchmark, but used Fraps 1.8 to get the FPS readings, because HL version of 1.0.0.9 that I have does not support "net_graph" console command.

Got the following results on this hardware config:

P1 MMX 233@292MHz, 512KB L2, 64MB EDO RAM, i430VX chipset, Voodoo 3, no sound, win98se, full screen.

-400x300

13 FPS front, 24 FPS on both sides, 38 FPS back.

-640x480

7 FPS front, 12FPS on both sides, 17 FPS back.

Yes HL is pretty heavy on Pentium 1.

I remember playing as a Kid with Pentium 133 @ 166 with TNT2/M64.

In small rooms I could run at 1024x768 with close to 20fps, but Xen for example would be awful even at 640x480.

I created my own benchmark file and have tested WinChip2

https://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/Half-Life

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hM3eo1d9-38

Added a photo.

@mwdmeyer, close to 20fps at 1024*768 using software mode or direct3D/openGL?

Is seems unrealistic to me if you were using software mode, can you check that if you still have that hardware?

I spent most of my time at 24\28 fps with my PII setup and the voodoo 2, half life seems more like a pentium 3 kinda game to me.

PlaneVuki wrote on 2023-06-17, 11:39:

Added a photo.

@mwdmeyer, close to 20fps at 1024*768 using software mode or direct3D/openGL?

Is seems unrealistic to me if you were using software mode, can you check that if you still have that hardware?

Yes OpenGL, that was why I purchased the TNT2. Only in very small areas though, otherwise FPS tanks.

Garrett W wrote on 2023-06-15, 09:28:

Yeah that sounds about right. You are running software rendered at 400x300 (and maximum screen size I presume) on CPUs that were rather low end when Half-Life came out.
3D acceleration will definitely help, but keep in mind that Half-Life is very CPU intensive for its time. While Goldsrc (the engine that powers Half-Life) is based on Quake's idtech2, it adds many features that can be quite taxing. I've seen the game drop to sub 20fps anytime there's more than one enemy on-screen even with 3D acceleration on much faster CPUs such as K6-III+ 600.

Yeah, I confirm.

Recently, I played Half-Life on my Pentium II 400MHz with a Voodoo 2, 640x480, and I had framerate drops on areas with lot of props/details and when things happened on the screen (like explosions, particle effects...).
It was absolutely heavy for the hardware of the time.

Cannot launched half-life when patched, likely due to it being Win95 so I could not use the net-graph command, so used fraps instead. 512x384 and 320x200, as the 400x300 option was also missing.

Pentium (non-mmx) 200, 430HX chipset, 48BM EDO RAM, Matrox Mystique 2MB.

I ran into this when doing my "rebuild my first PC" project. Pentium 133 initially with no 3D acceleration, totally unplayable even with settings turned down. With a Voodoo 2, it was playable, but not pleasant. Unfortunately I didn't get any numbers at the time though there should be some video of it somewhere. An original Pentium just isn't fast enough for a good experience in Half-Life. I forgot how quickly computers aged back then; a top-of-the-line PC in 1995 would struggle with 1998 games, and a 1998 graphics card wasn't enough to fix it. I thought I'd played this game on that machine back in the day, but it must have been a later system, because I never had a 3d accelerator in that one.

XCVG wrote on 2023-06-29, 15:51:

I ran into this when doing my "rebuild my first PC" project. Pentium 133 initially with no 3D acceleration, totally unplayable even with settings turned down. With a Voodoo 2, it was playable, but not pleasant. Unfortunately I didn't get any numbers at the time though there should be some video of it somewhere. An original Pentium just isn't fast enough for a good experience in Half-Life. I forgot how quickly computers aged back then; a top-of-the-line PC in 1995 would struggle with 1998 games, and a 1998 graphics card wasn't enough to fix it. I thought I'd played this game on that machine back in the day, but it must have been a later system, because I never had a 3d accelerator in that one.

I would go as far as to say that for hl even a good pentium 2 and a voodoo2 aren't enough, after testing it with multiple systems, the bare minimum seems to be pentium 3 and voodoo2 sli or voodoo 3.

iraito wrote on 2023-06-29, 18:32:

the bare minimum seems to be pentium 3 and voodoo2 sli or voodoo 3.

Nah, I completed Half-Life on less. About anything in the 200-266MHz range (that isn't a WinChip) should be able to do it. SLI not neccessary when HL eats the CPU more for skeletal animations than anything else.

leileilol wrote on 2023-06-29, 18:38:

iraito wrote on 2023-06-29, 18:32:

the bare minimum seems to be pentium 3 and voodoo2 sli or voodoo 3.

Nah, I completed Half-Life on less. About anything in the 200-266MHz range should be able to do it. SLI not necessary.

Me too but the framerate isn't optimal (20-25fps) on my pentium 2.

iraito wrote on 2023-06-29, 18:41:

the framerate isn't optimal (20-25fps) on my pentium 2.

Sounds ideal if it's anywhere outdoors. Certainly isn't unplayable.