HaloMods "Classic" Read-only Archive

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1. Halo Commands

- Checking Your Framerate while Playing
- Commands for Old Graphics Cards
- Make Halo Load Faster
- No Joystick
- Screenshots
- Record Framerates
- Manually Change Video Resolution

2. Minimum Requirements

3. The Real Requirements

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*** Checking your Framerate while Playing ***

While ingame press CTRL and F12 at the same time.




*** Enabling Console ***

-> Right click on your Halo desktop icon
-> Properties
-> Target
-> It should have "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe"
-> Put a -console on the end it make it look like "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe" -console
-> Now to access it in game all you do is press the "tilde" key ~




*** Commands for Old Graphics Cards (Shader Graphic Level) ***

This only should be used if you get low frame rates while playing.

-> Right click on your Halo desktop icon
-> Properties
-> Target
-> It should have "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe"

There are many different versions. For GeForce 4 and under put -UseFF,for others put -Use11 .
"UseFF" makes Halo look not as spectacular but it makes your framerates rise through the roof usually.
"Use11" helps but not to the same degree and it's the best Quality/Proformance ratio.
-> So it should either look like "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe" -useff or "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe" -use11

Here is a quick rundown of all the commands available to set the shader level.

-use20
Without any -use command, Halo defaults to pixel shaders 2.0, provided
your video card supports the feature. It?s an advanced technique for
applying special effects to computer graphics at the pixel level.

-use14
Forces the game to use older and faster pixel shaders 1.4. You lose
bump-mapped mirrored surfaces. Some effects are two-pass.

-use11
Best balance of performance and appearance. Forces the game to use older
and faster pixel shaders 1.1. You lose bump-mapped mirrored surfaces,
model self-illumination, animated light maps, and specular lights. Some
effects are two-pass. Fog calculations are triangle-based instead of
pixel-based.

-useff
For really old rigs. Turns off pixel shaders, looks pretty ugly. This
may be faster for old video cards, but it is probably slower for modern
ones. The ff stands for fixed function. It really does make Halo
butt-ugly. No shadows, glows, or flares. Very basic fog, water, and
lighting. The camouflage effect is simple and difficult to see. The only
benefit I can think of is that it makes it easier to tell red and blue
uniforms apart, because they become flat red and flat blue (not glossy
or metallic).




*** Make Halo Load Faster ***

-> Right click on your Halo desktop icon
-> Properties
-> Target
-> It should have "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe"
Now add -novideo
-> It should have "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe" -novideo
This makes its so the intro movies dont play and you go straight the
main screen.




*** No Joystick ***

-> Right click on your Halo desktop icon
-> Properties
-> Target
-> It should have "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe"
Now add -nojoystick
-> It should have "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe" -nojoystick
Use this if you don't have a joystick its supposed to help increase framerates slightly.




*** Screenshots ***

Allows gamers to take in-game screen shots by pressing the PRINT SCREEN
key on their keyboards. Halo will save your screenies sequentially as
TGA (targa) files in a Halo\screenshots folder. There is a pause in game
play while the shots are saved.

-> Right click on your Halo desktop icon
-> Properties
-> Target
-> It should have "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe"
Now add -screenshot
-> It should have "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe" -screenshot




*** Record Framerates ***

The timedemofunction runs four cinematic sequences and records frame
rates. Test results are added to timedemo.txt in the Halo game folder.

-> Right click on your Halo desktop icon
-> Properties
-> Target
-> It should have "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe"
Now add -timedemo
-> It should have "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe" -timedemo




*** Manually Change Video Resolution ***

This command overrides settings made in the Video Setup GUI to play Halo at a particular width, height, and refresh rate.
For example, -vidmode 1024,768,85 forces the game to run at 1024×768×85Hz.
The only time you'll want to use this command is while testing multiple resolutions with -timedemo.
It is faster to change resolutions in the command line than it is to launch the game and make changes in Video Setup.

-> Right click on your Halo desktop icon
-> Properties
-> Target
-> It should have "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe"
Now add --vidmode w,h,r
-> It should have "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe" -vidmode w,h,r




*** NOTE: You can chain multiple options together to suit yourself i.e.
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe" -use20 -novideo -nojoystick -console




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*** The Minimum Requirements ***

* Operating System: Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Windows Second Edition, Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me), Microsoft Windows 2000, or Microsoft Windows XP.
* Computer/Processor: 733 megahertz (MHz) processor.
* DirectX: DirectX® 9.0 or later. (DirectX 9.0b is installed by Halo.)
* Memory: 128 megabytes (MB) of RAM.
* Hard Disk: 1.2 gigabytes (GB) of free hard disk space.
* Video card: 32 MB with 3D Transform and Lighting capable.
* CD: 8X.
* Sound: Sound card, speakers, or headphones with multiplayer play.
* 56.6 Kilobytes per second (KBps) modem or 10 MB network adapter. Multiplayer servers require broadband to run a server.
* Additionally, you must have an Internet Service provider (ISP) or a Local Area Network (LAN), if you want to play multi-player games.



*** The REAL Requirements ***

Halo is a system hog of game. To see Halo in all of its glory I
recommend minimum of a 9600XT. 5900XT - 9800Pro will play it with 60+
Frames with everything on high if you have the right drivers and your
not bottlenecking your GPU with your CPU or RAM. Also Halo on dial-up is
pretty laggy because it doesn't have the best netcode so I recommend
getting a decent connection aswell.