Widescreen Gaming Forum

Can you please tell me how to configure original non Steam Half Life 1 to work with widescreen?

Thank you.

As far as I am aware, the original Half-Life doesn't do widescreen without Steam.

I'm proved wrong.

Awesome work for that fix, BooTx. :)

Heh, spoke too soon. I started to work on the Detailed Report and I ran into some bad news. Turns out while 1440x900 works flawlessly for me (it's also my panels native resolution), every other widescreen resolution I've tried (1024x600, 1280x720, 1280x768, 1280x800, and 1366x768) has had major problems in fullscreen mode.

First, gameplay goes to a mock windowed mode and when you hit escape to go back to the menu and then click resume, the FOV is all out of whack; zoomed in, fisheyed, bobbing and rotating like Freeman has had a few too many drinks. I've never seen anything like it before. On top of that, my AF, AA, and VSync settings are all reverted back to default. None of these things happen with 1440x900.

However, if I add -window to the shortcut to start the game in window mode, all of these resolutions work perfectly fine (while windowed). The renderer is fine, there's no FOV problems, etc.

If any of you have the retail game I'd really like to get your experiences with this hack (especially if your panels offer different native resolutions). I can't believe 1440x900 would work without any issues but every other resolution has problems.

I guess I should do more extensive testing before posting confirmed solutions. This is the second time I've been burnt because the first resolution I tried worked perfectly, while virtually all others fail.

Some issue with non-native resolutions when fullscreen? Sounds strange, but there are weirder things out there. ;)

Yeah you should see it. All of them spin really slowly but 1366x768 spins at a hundred miles an hour. It doesn't make any sense.

I'm going to install it on my other computer with my CRT and look into it some more.

Well 1280x720 and 1280x768 both work perfectly fine on here with this old CRT. It looks like it may actually be a native resolution thing. Hopefully it works fine for everybody.

If I can find my Half-Life 1 CDs... I'll give it a shot.

No promises, though - finding them is probably gonna take a while...

I don't really see what the point is. Why would you play non-Steam HL over Steam HL?

I don't really see what the point is. Why would you play non-Steam HL over Steam HL?

You own it and can't transfer it into the Steam account through a serial number?

I had Half Life on CDs somewhere but just bought it on steam on the day they had it for 0.99$, it was the 10th year anniversary or something.

[quote]I don't really see what the point is. Why would you play non-Steam HL over Steam HL?

You own it and can't transfer it into the Steam account through a serial number?

But you can transfer Valve games (and a small selection of others) to Steam.

It really does seem like a lot of trouble to just not use steam..

The Steam version has a bunch of patches that are automatically applied aswell. Just like the Widescreen enabler.

But you can transfer Valve games (and a small selection of others) to Steam.

It really does seem like a lot of trouble to just not use steam..

The Steam version has a bunch of patches that are automatically applied aswell. Just like the Widescreen enabler.

But to add them to your Steam account (and not just launch them) don't you need a serial number for Steam to read?

You need a serial number just to install the non-Steam version in the first place. Might as well just register it on Steam.

You need a serial number just to install the non-Steam version in the first place. Might as well just register it on Steam.

Didn't know if serial numbers were included with HL1, thanks for clearing that up.

Have to say, if it wasn't for the fact that I finally decided to see what all the fuss was about with Half-Life 2... I still wouldn't be using Steam. The only other game I've played on Steam that would make my buy it was The Last Remnant... but if I hadn't had Steam at the time I bought it, I wouldn't have.

Which would mean that I'd be playing Half-Life with this hack for widescreen. And not playing quite a few other games.

Steam's free. Even if Half-Life 1 is the only Valve game you have and you refuse to ever purchase a game by download, if you want to play HL1 there's really no reason at all not to play it through Steam.

Alright.

Fine.

Whatever.

We'll obviously have to agree to disagree. I do not see any point in using Steam simply 'because it's there'.

It has other reasons for use, but had I not been tormented into finally playing HL2... I still wouldn't be using Steam. It's rather like saying I should buy a Kindle and never read a paper book again.

The point is the ability to play HL1 with an updated engine with fewer bugs, MP3 music, native widescreen support, Internet multiplayer, and no need for a CD key every time you want to install it and no need to insert the disc every time you want to play. If you have the game and want to play it, there's really no reason to walk away from these advantages, even if HL1 is the only Steam compatible game you've got and ever will have.