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 - only changes Half-Life 1.1.1.0 binaries):
- 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.
UPDATE 9/9/2020 (v1.1.1 - only changes Half-Life 1.1.1.0 binaries):
- Fixed an issue with game->menu transitions that caused game window to obscur menu window on modern Windows/GPU drivers.
- Direct3D mode now works with dgVoodoo2 and works better with native Direct3D as well (no more game not responding to mouse wheel).
- Added -d3dnomaxwinmode command line argument (calls undocumented Windows 8+ specific DirectDraw function to restore classic fullscreen mode for Direct3D).
- Changed styling of game window in windowed mode.
- Removed some non-critical calls to window management APIs.
- Fixed an issue with CD/MP3 playback code that would sometimes leave a hung hl.exe process in the background after quitting.
UPDATE 9/14/2020 (v1.1.2 - only changes Half-Life 1.1.1.0 binaries):
- Removed 2 redundant calls to DirectDraw display mode set/restore methods.
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 Pcgamingwiki.com
-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.
Wisely done! :) Must have thing for all WON fans.
It certainly is Qwertyus.
Just the job, renamed all the the .mp3 tracks and running nicely now with correct monitor resolution and the music. Thanks very much indeed.
" If you can make it through the rocket test labs, you might be able to worm your way through the old tunnels to track down whatever's left of the Lambda team."
Thanks a lot!
For some reason, patching my disc copy (v1.1.1.0) of Half-Life only shows display options up to 1920x1080 (Windows 10).
I have a 2160p and 1440p display but there are no listed resolutions above 1920x1080, so no 2560x1440 or 3840x2160 options(regardless of fullscreen vs windowed mode).
There seems to be no obvious reason for it to be doing this, any insight or a tweak I'm glancing over?
I'm currently on Nvidia driver version 399.24 for my GTX 1070.
Thanks for this patch!
The game is not multi-monitor aware, so you'll always see the resolutions of the primary display. Another limitation on the game side is that its resolution buffer is preallocated and can hold 50 resolutions at most. Could probably be lifted (do we even have configurations with such large number of display resolutions?).
Are you running the game in Windows 95/Windows 98 compatibility mode by any chance? This does limit number of reported resolutions, the last ones on the list are omitted.
Aha! I have an uncommon audiovisual setup for my home system since it also powers a home theater and some diagnostic bays.
Bypassing the HDMI audio pass-through from my receiver (which passes through to a 1080p display) fixed the issue and now all resolutions (including Nvidia DSR ones) appear!
I did notice 95/98 compatibility was blocking some resolutions so it's good to know this executable doesn't require it.
Thanks for the extra information!
Glad you figured out! My setup isn't anything special, so I didn't come up across such quirks. The game doesn't do anything special to retrieve resolutions, so the same resolutions should be seen in any game that ask the system which resolutions are supported.
i cant see any resolution above 1080p, i got an 1440p monitor
Do you have multiple monitors? It only enumerates resolutions of the primary monitor. Do you have compatibility mode set? If so, turn it off. There aren't any artificial restrictions in place regarding resolution. Works with 4K resolution on my end, although that makes the HUD ultra small.
thx4reply. i only have one monitor and compability mod is off. altough if i turn on DSR in drivers settings and enable any higher resolution i can see them in options. but game crashes when i hit ESC DSR resolution
I don't know how to help in that case since I can't reproduce the crash on my end.
So is the music without cd fix possible with the regular version of Blue Shift or is it only Blue Shift unlocked? Also great work with this fix, great for people like me who hate relying on steam for their games.
I haven't tried, but you could probably use DxWnd's virtual CD audio feature. You'll have to prepare the tracks according to its documentation then.
Will I get the option for 1920x1080 on the expansions too?
Yes. Blue-Shift is a bit special since it's a separate installation using separate engine files, so has to be patched separately; patched versions of those files are provided.
Or you can convert it to plain Half-Life mod with the help of Blue-Shift: Unlocked. Patching Half-Life affects mods as well. Conversion will also give you the ability to play music off MP3 files without having to use software emulating CD audio, since the separate (older) engine doesn't have the MP3 support.
So I ported the music from the steam Half-life folder to the media folder in my WON Valve directory.
No music. None. Is the Steam music not compatible?
Use Mp3tag software to remove tags from MP3 files, then it should work. The MP3 decoder that comes with WON version doesn't understand MP3 files with ID3v2 tags. Files without any tags or just ID3v1 tags are playable.
You are superb! Thanks!!
Can you make this patch for very first V1.0.0.5 version of the game? i want to experience the very first release with uncapped bunny hop and all that.
It's probably doable, but finding time for it is the problem.
Also have a 1440p monitor and the max resolution that's displayed on my end is 1920x1440 instead of 2560x1440.
Any idea how to fix this please? I have Win 10, I'm not running any compatibility mode on the exe either.
Surprised to see you have 4K resolution showing, yet mine can't show native 1440p option :(
Have you ever tried running 3DMark99 Max on your PC and does the desired resolution show there? I'm curious since it also uses DirectDraw's EnumDisplayModes method to get the resolution list. 3DMark99 will need the patch too: Drive.google.com
Still, the only limitation on Half-Life's side that I'm aware of is that it won't show more than 50 resolutions, so the first 50 reported get added to the list, the rest is ignored.
Another idea, Dege's dgVoodoo2 wrapper - Dege.freeweb.hu - see if the resolutions shows with it (and if its configuration utility displays it). The files DDraw.dll and D3DImm.dll from MS folder go to Half-Life folder.
Is it possible a version for HL: uplink could be created?
It might be possible (I'm assuming you're referring to the original demo with its own .exe), but I'm not sure when I'll find the time for these things again.
You can try installing Uplink as a mod to the existing installation. Since the old mod version seems to have disappeared from the internet, I've uploaded it here: Drive.google.com
Might be a good idea to put it on this site and other sites like this one sometime.
Appreciate the fast response! That was actually exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!
Does it work with 1.0.1.5?
I don't know what the differences between 1.0.1.5 and 1.0.1.6 are. The files for version 1.0.1.6 may work fine if 1.0.1.6 engine files don't introduce some incompatibility with any of the other files in the 1.0.1.5.
I guess in this case there's a greater chance that it works fine rather than it doesn't, but impossible to tell for sure without knowing what was changed.
Like others here, 2560 x 1440 is not showing up for me in Half-Life (or Opposing Force). 1920 x 1440 is the maximum resolution. However, it does show up in Blue Shift.
Is this compatible with Opposing Force?
Opposing Force is technically a mod for Half-Life, so yes.
Hello. When I openning "hl.exe" it shows an error. It can't find "WONAuth.dll" even though it's there. I redownloaded and reinstalled everything including this patch but it still shows this error. What am I missing?
Edit: I also tried another resolution patch and it shows the same error.
will this work with 1.1.0.8?
i want to run this thing on my cs1.3 can you do it? your patch is awesome mate :)
hello I tested it on 2 systems and 2 monitors and on both monitors I cant use the 2560x1440p resolution.
On 1 monitor its the native resolution and the other monitor is an 34 inch ultrawide.both monitors can use this resolution normaly.strange thing even 3440 works but no 1440p.
strange,on blue shift 1440p works but not in halflife or mods.
Can you please fix this problem ? I am very grateful for your awesome work I love the halflife games and they are still so much fn in LAN. very thanks,michel
It Crashes Whenever i try to Load game or Newgame
Does this work on the half life demos like day one or uplink?
Does the MP3 capabilities of this patch only work with 1.1.1.0 or is 1.0.1.6 supposed to work as well? I've used both and the 1.0.1.6 version doesn't seem to have working music. Is this intentional or is there a workaround?
The menu isn't converted to widescreen, yes it's a nitpick but the rest works fine and its nice
I know it's been a couple months, but you can convert the menu into widescreen by using -lw and -lh launch commands. But it doesn't necessarily look pretty.
I applied this on version 1.1.1.0 and I cannot see any resolution above 1280x1024, regardless of switching to OpenGL or Direct3D. Is there any step I am missing during instalastion? I simply copied everything from the Half-Life v1.1.1.0 folder (hl.exe + 2 asi files), and I was expecting it to work, but it seems it doesn't.
thanks itss pretty good
I updated my Half Life WON to v1.1.1.0 and there are no resolutions to pick in the video configuration menu like in the screenshot you posted in the preview. I tried the -lw and -lh parameters but when I got into a game, the Half Life window was like really really really tiny, could not see the game at all.
I am also experiencing not having the "2560x1440" for Half-Life. I do have this resolution for Blue Shift, so it is working there. I have tried previous methods mentioned above, no luck. I even unplugged all my displays except for my main and it still did not work. I do think that there might be something wrong with how the Half-Life patch is finding the resolutions, because I made a custom resolution at 4K and that shows up, but no 2560x1440. it seems like it is somehow skipping a resolution (or more). I know you said that Half-Life can only pre-cache the first 50 resolutions, but I have less than that. Even in your screenshot it does not show 2560x1440 where it should. Again, it works just fine for Blue Shift, just not in Half-Life even though they are both relatively the same.
I think you should still examine the patch.
I am on a 1366x768 monitor yet i can only see resolutions up to 1280x768. How do i fix this?
Hello, how are you? Thank you for sharing this patch. What solved me was the resolution, if I did it, make it the highest and you can see everything clearly depends on the screen and it also plays the mp3s, just copy the media folder in the valve folder and yes this Well, the only detail is that I do not get the execute box in a window and in the image of the post that you put if you get my half life it is version 1.1.1.0 it is a Spanish version and in the review that you put you say that If you add that option, it could help me with how to have the version that you have or what patches you use. I like the version won I grew up with this half life.
One last question, how do you do to modify this type of codas, do you use visila studio? the SDK is very important to me about programming and I would like this version not to be obsolete greetings from Peru
Can you please post which codec version/bitrate/encoding commandline args has the best compatibility with MP3 playback ?
Ive ripped music from a disc, with disabled id3v1 and id3v2 tags. It didn't work. The only MP3s that worked for me, were the ones from a very old steam version which sound like garbage.
The Menu seems to be ok, but when I try to play the game, it loads, then crashes. please tell me what's wrong, I used the latest version file, and it doesn't work, i tried both versions, and both of them don't work!
it doesn't work for me was put in there of even i put it everywhere and it does not work how can i fix this
Will there be compatibility for Gunman Chronicles?