About This File
This is unofficial patch for retail, pre-Steam, aka. WON version of Half-Life, which main feature is allowing user to set any resolution supported by the system when running in OpenGL or Direct3D mode. Field of view is also adjusted correctly for wide displays. The patch also fixes the error about the game requiring at least 16 MB of physical memory that occurs on some systems. As a bonus, the fix for incorrect MP3 files being played in expansion packs is included when using the undocumented MP3 playback feature in Half-Life v1.1.1.0.
UPDATE 11/9/2018 (v1.1):
- Fixed an issue with MP3 support being disabled and .asi plugins not being loaded if computer doesn't have an optical drive.
- Don't ignore request for start of MP3 playback if the last track number that is/was playing is the same.
The patch includes patched files for the following games/patch versions:
- Half-Life v1.0.1.6
- Half-Life v1.1.1.0
- Blue-Shift v1.0.0.1
Installation
Select the game/patch version that you have currently installed by navigating to the appropriate folder in this archive, then extract the contents of the folder to your game's installation directory.
You may have to disable DPI scaling in Half-Life shortcut's properties in the Compatibility tab to prevent issues like game window going outside of the monitor if your display scaling is set above 100%.
Useful command line arguments
Here are some interesting command line arguments that I found while digging through Half-Life's executable. These can be added to Half-Life shortcut's properties in the Target field after hl.exe, see https://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Glossary:Command_line_arguments
-noextracds - Prevent redundant switches to resolution 800x600 under certain circumstances before finally setting user selected resolution (highly recommended).
-lw - Forces the engine to start with horizontal menu resolution set to . Example: -lw 1920
-lh - Forces the engine to start with vertical menu resolution set to . Example: -lh 1080
-notopmost - Doesn't mark the game's windows as topmost in fullscreen mode.
The game defaults to running in 16-bit color mode. One of these can be passed to improve picture quality:
-32bpp - instructs the game to run in 32-bit color mode (highly recommended unless your PC is ancient).
-24bpp - instructs the game to run in 24-bit color mode.
MP3 playback feature
Ability to play MP3 files as a substitute for playing soundtrack from CD first appeared with patch 1.1.0.9. It's an undocumented feature that only became official with Steam version of Half-Life. Refer to the following list to see how to name MP3 files after ripping them from Half-Life CD:
- Half-Life01.mp3
- Prospero01.mp3
- Half-Life12.mp3
- Half-Life07.mp3
- Half-Life10.mp3
- Suspense01.mp3
- Suspense03.mp3
- Half-Life09.mp3
- Half-Life02.mp3
- Half-Life13.mp3
- Half-Life04.mp3
- Half-Life15.mp3
- Half-Life14.mp3
- Half-Life16.mp3
- Suspense02.mp3
- Half-Life03.mp3
- Half-Life08.mp3
- Prospero02.mp3
- Half-Life05.mp3
- Prospero04.mp3
- Half-Life11.mp3
- Half-Life06.mp3
- Prospero03.mp3
- Half-Life17.mp3
- Prospero05.mp3
- Suspense05.mp3
- Suspense07.mp3
Important: The MP3 decoder used in the old version of Half-Life doesn't understand ID3v2 tags commonly added by CD ripping software and such MP3s won't be played. Make sure your ripping software offers ability to use ID3v1 tags instead. They may also be omitted entirely.
Half-Life
\Half-Life\valve\media
Half-Life: Opposing Force
\Half-Life\gearbox\media
Half-Life: Blue Shift
\Half-Life\bshift_unlocked\media (use Blue Shift: Unlocked v1.1 to convert your BS installation to HL mod)
Known issues
FOV patch for Half-Life v1.0.1.6 and Blue-Shift causes the left and right sides of the screen to not black out when the game triggers that effect.
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.