Unofficial Half-Life FAQ v10.1.2001 By HQH

Welcome to the Unofficial Half-Life FAQ version 10.1.2001. Throughout this document, reference of HLFAQ (Half-Life FAQ) means this document. 'Unofficial' means that this HLFAQ is not supported by Valve nor Sierra. FAQ stands for Frequent Asked Questions. This is the 3rd edition of the HLFAQ. The 3rd edition is designed to take care of many problems that plagued my legacy revisions (up to the 16th revision). This is the nineteenth revision to the HLFAQ, but only the second revision to my HLFAQ 3rd edition. This HLFAQ is designed to accommodate a lot of self explanatory information, more details and collated in a way that a reader can easily access the information as quickly as possible. The HLFAQ will only be available in HTML format. I have decided that converting the HLFAQ over to a text document format defeats the purpose to be able to click on links that are found throughout the whole entire HLFAQ.

My revision classification works something like this: it goes by the date. Plain easy and simple. This is how it goes: v.<day>.<month>.<year>. Since this is going to be my last HLFAQ revision, this is the final and latest HLFAQ you can have to date. The HLFAQ will not be updated anymore.

The structure of this HLFAQ is as follows: The eight chapters are in capitals, bold, and underlined. For primary sections branching off of the respective chapters, they will be bold, underlined, and italicized. For secondary sections branching off of primary sections, they will be bold and underlined. Any other sections branching off of secondary sections will be the same as the secondary. All chapters and section headings will have this color, so you'll know if you've gone into another chapter or section or not.

This HLFAQ was done from resources of the U.S. English retail of v1.0.0.5 of Half-Life through the latest version of Half-Life 1.1.0.8 at the current time of this HLFAQ writing. Some parts of this HLFAQ may very in OS platforms and countries. Beware for those of you that do not live in the U.S. Some parts may not apply to your country, nor do I make a note about it. Proud to be made in the U.S.A.

Please read the Forward section for further information about this HLFAQ.

Author

I am not the following, but not limited to:

-Employee of Valve nor Sierra.

-Official technical support for Valve nor Sierra.

-The webmaster of sites like Planet Half-Life, etc... I have my own website: http://members.home.com/hqh51/.

-Work for any websites like Planet Half-Life, etc... I have my own website: http://members.home.com/hqh51/.

Once a high school student, who have worked on this HLFAQ for more than two years and some months now. HQH is my initials for my real name if you were wondering. You can find out more information about me (if possible) at my website.

I bought Half-Life on December 1st, 1998, at a local Wal-Mart store. It was to replace Unreal. Indeed, it was far superior than Unreal. Best game I've played. Especially the single player missions. Great one. I wrote the HLFAQ so that it could be used to answer repetitive questions in alt.games.half-life newsgroup. I started somewhere in December of 1998 and published it then. This HLFAQ was suppose to be exclusively used for the newsgroup, but it was much more useful to the whole world instead of exclusively for the newsgroup.

Come and visit my website: http://members.home.com/hqh51/

Contact

I am no longer able to answer your Half-Life questions or anything related to this HLFAQ. You can read the Forward section to find out why.

Accuracy

Since this is my second to last HLFAQ, I've tried to be correct and accurate as possible. Please don't hold me for accuracy, because I will likely to make mistakes. I've gone through the entire HLFAQ and again to make sure that everything I provide is as most accurate as possibly can. Whatever information provided herein are provided as is. Also remember that every information found in this HLFAQ is as accurate when the HLFAQ was published (October 1, 2001). So anything found after the HLFAQ's version could make the information result in error or inaccurate.

Credits

Credits go to most of the people on alt.games.half-life and many other different sources on the Internet. Also, a big credit goes to Valve for creating one of the most greatest game for the PC and Sierra On-Line for publishing it.

I won't give direct credits to people who gave me solutions or help me out with the HLFAQ. This is because I'm taking precautions not putting down names, because if I do, there will be other people who have sent in solutions already, and when I publish the HLFAQ, there names wouldn't be found anywhere, because it would really come down to first come first credited. So this is why I'm not giving credits. This is my first FAQ, so that is why I'm going with it. Perhaps in the future of any other FAQs that I do, I'll credit people.

The only credit that I will hold is creating this HLFAQ and nothing else. That's it. Although some solutions are from me and instructions are clarified, I still hold the creation of the HLFAQ. I will not claim that I own all solutions listed in this HLFAQ. That will contradict in what I mentioned in the first sentence in this paragraph.

Forward

It's been great for more than two years and some months to see how Half-Life became the number one game. It's kind of sad that I will have to end the HLFAQ's life. There are times that some people have to move on to something else. This is why the HLFAQ has to end. I have other things in life that I want to do, and thus, I have to let the HLFAQ go. You can follow what I do from here on out after this by going to my website at http://members.home.net/hqh51/ and check out what I have to offer. I want my HLFAQ to retire and left as is right in this semi-final revision. I don't want to pass the HLFAQ to someone else, because of many undisclosed reasons.

This HLFAQ's revision should be considered semi-final, because this is going to be the second to last HLFAQ revision to be released. I have made an effort by going through thoroughly and cleaning up any flaws and cleaned it up as good as I can possibly can. However, I will not say that I've caught all of the mistakes that I've created or anything contributing to the mistakes that you see in here. I refreshed everything in the HLFAQ if possible to make it more user friendly. The final HLFAQ revision release is when Half-Life is declared a legacy product. In other words, when Valve stops updating Half-Life. That is when the last HLFAQ update will appear.

Because of departing the Half-Life scene, I will no longer support anybody's questions related to Half-Life problems or ideas. I want to leave the Half-Life community behind and embark myself on a journey somewhere else other than Half-Life. Do not attempt to e-mail me. If you have any problems and they're not answered in this HLFAQ, go here (What If My Problem Isn't Found In This HLFAQ?).

Notices

Just a few words of notices and caveats that applies to this HLFAQ.

Disclaimer

The purpose of this HLFAQ is to aid the public in regarding questions to Half-Life, by Valve. In no way should this HLFAQ and my work promote suicidal, killing others, killing in any other fashion, or result to violence. This HLFAQ can only be used in reference to Half-Life. Sierra and/or Valve does not endorse, sponsor, nor otherwise authorize this HLFAQ.

I, HQH, the author, have used the best effort in preparing this HLFAQ. I make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this HLFAQ and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. There are no warranties which extend beyond the descriptions contained in this paragraph. No warranty may be created or extended by anyone. The accuracy and completeness of the information provided herein and the opinions stated herein are not guaranteed or warranted to produce any particular results, and the advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every individual. I shall not be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

I, HQH, the author, claims no responsibility what so ever, so if anything from this HLFAQ corrupts, damages, screws up, faulted with, created errors, do anything else that harms your computer, creating data lost, or anything with you or with the world for all I care, I claim no responsibility!

By reading my HLFAQ, you have agreed to my disclaimer.

Distribution

End-User License Agreement: Read this. You should carefully read these terms and conditions before distributing this HLFAQ. This is a license agreement between you and HQH. By distributing this HLFAQ, you acknowledge that you have read and accept the following terms and conditions. If you do not agree and do not want to be bound by such terms and conditions, do not distribute this HLFAQ.

License Grant. HQH grants to you (either an individual or entity) a nonexclusive license to use this HLFAQ solely for your own personal or business purposes on multiple computers. The HLFAQ is in use upon opening up with a program to read the HLFAQ. HQH reserves all rights not expressly granted herein.
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Restrictions on Use and Transfer.
1. You may make as many copy of the HLFAQ as you wish. You may not (1) rent or lease the HLFAQ, (2) modify, adapt, or create derivative works based on the HLFAQ without the author's knowledge, (3) however, a translation of this HLFAQ is permitted as long as it retains original material.
2. You may not reverse engineer, recompile, or disassemble the HLFAQ. You may transfer the HLFAQ on a permanent basis, provided that the transferee agrees to accept the terms and conditions of this Agreement and you can retain as much copies as you would like. If the HLFAQ is an update or has been updated, any transfer must include the most recent update and all prior versions.
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2. In no event shall HQH be liable for any damages whatsoever (including limitation damages for loss of business profits, business interruption, loss of business information, or any other pecuniary loss) arising from the use of or inability to use the HLFAQ, even if HQH has been advised of the possibility of such damages.
3. Because the HLFAQ is available through the Internet, some countries' jurisdiction do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, the above limitation or exclusion still applies to you no matter what or how much you complain.
General. This Agreement constitutes the entire understanding of the parties and revokes and supersedes all prior agreements, oral or written, between them and may not be modified or amended except in a writing signed by both parties hereto that specifically refers to this Agreement. This Agreement shall take precedence over any other documents that may be in conflict herewith. If any one or more provisions contained in this Agreement are held by any court or tribunal to be invalid, illegal, or otherwise unenforceable, each and every other provision shall remain in full force and effect.
All of the Agreement above may or may not contain errors, conflicts with something, or any other things not covered are subject to be perfect. HQH will not be held responsible whatsoever.

Trademarks & Copyrights

All brand names and product names used in this HLFAQ are trade names, service marks, trademarks, or registered trademarks of their respective owners. HQH is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this HLFAQ.

Half-Life:

© 1998 Sierra On-Line, Inc. or Valve L.L.C. All rights reserved. ® and/or ™ designate trademarks of, or licensed to Sierra On-Line, Inc., Bellevue, WA 98007. Half-Life contains software technology licensed from id Software, Inc. ("id Technology"). id Technology © 1996-1998 id Software, Incl. All rights reserved.

FAQ:

What If My Problem Isn't Found In This HLFAQ?

All I have to say is: tough luck. Here are many ways that you can still see if you could find a solution to your problem:

1. Search through newsgroup messages here. Just type in keywords about your problem.

2. Search the Internet. Start off with Yahoo. Just type in keywords about your problem.

3. Post your problem up in forums.

4. Go to the appropriate websites dedicated to what you're looking for. You can start at Planet Half-Life and their Tech Corner.

5. Make sure you read through the whole HLFAQ. Your problem may be under a different heading and some place elsewhere in the HLFAQ. Happens a lot of time.

6. Update Half-Life to the latest version possible. It will most likely fix bugs with the game. You can go here to see what version fixes what.

7. Read the readme.txt that comes with Half-Life in the Half-Life root directory.

Of course, do not e-mail me about your problem. You can go here to find out why.

CHAPTER 2: HALF-LIFE

How...

To Activate 3rd Person View

Half-Life lets you play 3^rd person view a la "Tomb Raider" style, where you see a yourself. Bring down the console and type this in: "thirdperson" or "chase_active 1" (no quotes).

To change position of seeing your character, type the any of the following variables into the console:

Variable	Description
cam_idealyaw 0	see from behind
cam_idealyaw 180	see from front
cam_idealdist 64	sets preferred distance from model for the chase camera
cam_idealpitch 0	sets preferred pitch for chase camera
chase_back 100	sets preferred camera distance from the player when backing up
chase_right 0	sets preferred offset to the side for chase camera
chase_up 16	sets preferred offset up for the chase camera

To disable the 3^rd person view, type this into the console: "firstperson" or "chase_active 0"

Be careful when you play 3^rd person view. Here are some reasons to take into considerations:

1. Don't mind about not seeing the HUD (Heads Up Display), like health, armor, ammo).

2. Don't mind about not being able to aim accurately. Basically no crosshair.

3. Don't mind about not being able to hear what the HEV announces.

4. Don't mind seeing where you get hit (HUD red signs).

Note: You can't use 3^rd person view in multiplayer. You can use it only if the server sets sv_cheats to 1.

To Activate Cheat Codes

1. You must activate the console.

2. Run Half-Life.

3. Load up your saved game or start playing.

4. In the middle of the game, bring down the console and type in: sv_cheats 1

After doing the above four steps, you have the following two choices in cheats:

If you are going for the following cheats: god mode or noclip, then do the following:

1. Do a quick save and then a quick load. If you don't have any keys bound to the two, here are the commands:

bind F7 "load quick"

bind F6 "save quick"

2. After the quick load, you should be able to do god mode or noclip.

If you are going for any other cheats than above, like give <something> or impulse 101, then do the following:

1. You need to pass one new loading point. You can't go back to a loading point that you know of. It must be a new territory that you haven't been through.

Note: you can get a list of cheats here.

To Activate Console

To activate the console within Half-Life single player mode or multiplayer mode, you must do one of the following:

1. Start Menu -> Run -> Type in: <x>:\<hl dir>\HL.exe -console

Where x = HDD and hl dir = Directory of Half-Life

2. Create a shortcut of HL.exe -> Right click -> Properties -> Shortcut tab -> Target box -> Put in " -console" after HL.exe. Example: C:\Sierra\Half-Life\HL.exe -console

Note: If you installed Half-Life into a directory where it has a space in between, for an example: C:\Program Files\Half-Life\, then your example is this: "C:\Program Files\Half-Life\HL.exe -console". See that the -console goes inside the quotes, not outside.

3. If you have done one of the two above, and the console still does not show up, and you have Half-Life v1.1.0.0 or higher, create an autoexec.cfg (a blank text file if you don't have one already) and insert this variable into the file: console 1

After activating the console, you can bring down the console by pressing the '~' or '`' key. It is near the 1, Tab, and Esc keys.

To Activate Content Control

Do the following to reduce the visual violence in Half-Life: Launch Half-Life -> Configuration -> Content Control -> Check the box "Active content control" and put in a password. Make sure you know the password, or you may need to uninstall the game to remove the content control.

To Backup / Copy Half-Life CD

You can backup or copy Half-Life CD (English USA version) on a regular 74min/650MB CD-R or CD-RW. For foreign countries, there's a little problem: you either just copy the files and exclude the music tracks to fit on a regular 74min/650MB CD-R or CD-RW or go out and get an 80 min/700 MB CD-R or CD-RW and copy it. If the 80 min/700 MB isn't even enough for the whole Half-Life CD contents, then just copy the files only and exclude the music tracks.

The important thing after you duplicate Half-Life CD is to patch Half-Life up to at least v1.0.0.6 (if not already above version) to disable the CD authentication. If you fail to have at least Half-Life v1.0.0.6, Half-Life will reject the CD and say it is an invalid Half-Life CD. Of course, when playing strictly to mutliplayer mode, you do not need the Half-Life CD.

To Be a Spectator

For Half-Life v1.0.1.6 and under: The only way to be in observer mode is to have the server to set the command "mp_forcerespawn 0" (no quotes and it's a zero). If the variable is set to zero, then all you need to do to get into observer is to die. After dying, don't press a single button and/or key. You will then be shifted to an observer view. There's no way to move throughout the map, so you're stuck in one spot to view action.

For Half-Life v1.1.0.0 and higher: Just die and you will be in observer mode.

To Bind Quick Messages

Create an autoexec.cfg (text file) or open one up if there is one currently existing. Do the following example, but modify it to do quick message(s):

bind <Key> "say <Message here>"

Example: bind k "say Good shot!"

To Change Max FPS

You're probably running into a maximum of 72 fps when looking at your fps rate (to know how, click here). To change this, bring down the console (how to enable console here) and type in: fps_max 100. 100 is the highest you can go. Note: This is a way to change fps rate in the later versions of Half-Life.

To Change Name In Multiplayer Mode

Bring down the console and type in: name <your desired name>

For an example: name Newbie

Your name would then be changed from Player to Newbie.

To Configure Half-Life

Half-Life can be easily configured from its main menu by going through Configuration. If you are an expert, get a list of console commands, place them into an autoexec.cfg and execute it through the console. If you edit a file called config.cfg (Half-Life v1.0.0.9 or higher), then do not edit it anymore. Half-Life automatically regenerates config.cfg every time Half-Life is executed. You will lose everything changed in that file if you decided to edit it. If you are going to edit the file, make a copy of config.cfg and rename the file to autoexec.cfg and then edit it.

To Convert Timedemo to Video

Go here: http://students.washington.edu/jvoss/asc/HLM2DivX/index1.htm.

To Create a Different Gaming Style

Half-Life could be played over again in a whole new different experience by extracting out a file called skill.cfg from pak0.pak. Get the editor that could extract this file out at http://www.planetquake.com/qped/. Getting this file would allow you to change the damage and health of all the enemies and weapons in Half-Life.

To Create a Mono / Colored Logo / Spray Paint / Decal

To create a mono colored decal:

Making a custom decal is a simple process. All you need is an image, and a paint program capable of simple palette manipulation and image scaling. Paint Shop Pro is ideal, and is available as shareware from http://www.jasc.com/. The steps for creating a decal are: 1. Paint or scan an image. Make it 64 by 64 pixels in size, either by painting the image to that size, or by scaling your scanned image (or larger painted image). Painting in black and white is recommended, because the final decal will be displayed as one color only. You can choose the color of your decal and you can change that color at any time between games using the game interface. Save your source decal as a black and white image, however.

2. Use your paint program to make the image a "grayscale" image: that is, the palette (the colors that the image uses) should be a ramp from white to black. If you are painting the image yourself using Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop, or some similar program, you can specify that you want the image to be grayscale before you start. With the palette going from black to white, any white in the image will be totally opaque, and any black in the image will be totally transparent (invisible). Any gray in the image will be translucent: very translucent if it is near-black, and close to opaque if it is near white. Some applications will ramp the palette from black to white when you select "grayscale." That is, if you look at the color palette, the first color (usually the upper left-hand corner color) will be black, and the last color (usually the lower right-hand corner color) will be white. In this case, you want to invert your image, such that the black portions of your image are the parts that will be opaque, and the white portions are the parts that will be transparent. Be sure you check what the palette looks like after you save your file, and adjust it if necessary. Think of it this way: if your decal looks like a chalk drawing on a blackboard, you want the first color in your palette to be black (which will come through as completely transparent), ramping to the last color which is white (which will come through as opaque). If your drawing looks like a pen drawing on white paper, the first color should be white, ramping to the last color which should be black.

3. Save this image in your half-life\logos directory as a Windows bitmap (.bmp) file, and it will automatically show up in the list of decals you see in the launcher interface. There you can choose the decal's color. Changing the color of your decal during a game will not take effect for that game. Only after you restart your game will the new color appear.

If you would like to view pre-made decals, several are shipped with Half-Life and can be found in the \Half-Life\logos\ directory. These will give you a good idea about the file format and appearance of a decal, before it appears in the game.

To create colored decal:

Go to http://home.telefragged.com/wally/ and download Wally. Instructions can be found here.

Another way to create colored logos is to go here: http://cfsclansite.gamepoint.net/hlcweb/.

To Create User Levels

You will need to install Worldcraft (on Half-Life CD or download the latest version from http://www.valve-erc.com) to get started. Worldcraft is a map/level editor. To get help with this program, access Worldcraft's own Help option. You can get additional help or answers at http://www.valve-erc.com. There are other programs that can create maps/levels other than Worldcraft. Here are three of them:

QERadiant: http://halflife.qeradiant.com

Qoole: http://www.volved.com/qsr/

Quark: http://www.planetquake.com/quark/

If you choose to use the above three other than Worldcraft, you are on your own and may only get support by the authors of the program(s) that you use.

To Do Gauss Jump

To know what gauss jumping is, go here to find out.

What you do is get the Gauss gun. Charge the gun by holding down the alternative fire (secondary fire), letting the gun charge up to 9 cells, look at the ground, and release the payload and up you go! The difference between the Gauss gun and the rocket jump tactic is that you don't really need to jump at all, if you charge up to 9 cells. It will catapult you to very high heights without the need to jump first and then fire.

Note: The Gauss jump can only be used in multiplayer. Beware, the Gauss jump does not give you damage, like the rocket jump in Quake 1-3 series if self-damage is turned on. But the only damage that you will get for doing the Gauss jump, is when you fall down from that great height that you just achieved. To safely land, just charge the Gauss gun up to a few cells, perhaps even just one, by the time you almost hit the ground, release the charge and and you should land safely if you timed it right.

To Do Long Jump

Quick instructions: move forward. While moving forward, quickly hit the duck (crouch) key, release it, then press the jump key. All this happens in a split second. The duck and jump key are the hardest part to get. Keep in mind that you are still holding down that forward movement key while doing the duck jump keys combination.

Slow way to learn, but easy: Take the Hazard Course, found at Half-Life's main menu.

To Edit CD Key

If you're one of those people who: installed a pirated Half-Life version, or borrowed your friend's Half-Life copy, and then went out and bought your own copy of Half-Life, and now want to use your own CD Key, or trying to recover your CD Key, then here's a way to remove the old CD Key: Start Menu -> Run -> Type in: regedit -> Go to this registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Valve\Half-Life\Settings -> Look for the header KEY -> Delete this registry data -> Run Half-Life again, and it'll ask you to enter in the CD Key.

There may be another place for the CD Key than the above's location. You can check to see if it is in this location: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\.default\Software\Valve\Half-Life\Settings

To Edit Crosshairs

You can go here: http://www.bullseyecrosshairs.com or http://www.contaminated.net/cc/.

To Edit In-Game Fonts

Half-Life v1.1.0.0 and higher, Half-Life uses true type fonts and it is possible to customize the text. There is a utility in the SDK 2.0 called makefont.exe (you can download it here or download the SDK 2.0). Makefont.exe will create the necessary wad file (fonts.wad) from any true type fonts the user has installed. The color is controlled by the con_color console variable. For example "255 0 0". If you would like to download my pre-made ones, here are your two choices: Arial and Courier New. They are the largest I can get it without crashing the program. They should be very good for those of you who run in very high resolutions. I have tested them on 1024x768 (highest my laptop can go under OpenGL) and they look much better and are more legible than the default font point sizes (Arial, 7, 9, 15). Mine are (for both Arial and Courier New) are set at 15, 16, 20.

Instructions on how to use makefont (HQH's way):

1. Download makefont.zip.

2. Extract makefont.exe from makefont.zip and put it anywhere on your HDD, preferred to be in it's own directory and alone, like C:\Makefont.

3. Have the directory of makefont.exe's opened. Also, open up your font folder C:\WINDOWS\FONTS\.

4. Now, take a look at all those fonts, and pick one that you like to use.

5. Open up a DOS Prompt (Start Menu -> Run -> Type in: command) and go to your makefont.exe's directory if you haven't gotten there yet. Now, if you want to know what options makefont.exe gives you, here it is:

usage: makefont [-font "fontname"] [-italic] [-underline] [-bold] [-pointsizes sm med lg] outfile

Explanations:

[-font "fontname"] = -font <whatever font you pick from C:\WINDOWS\FONTS\>, very important - fontname must be in quotes, especially fonts that have space in their name, like Courier New

example: makefont -font "Courier New"

[-italic] = makes the font italicized

example: makefont -font "Courier New" -italic

[-underline] = makes the font underlined

example: makefont -font "Courier New" -underline

[-bold] = makes the font bold

example: makefont -font "Courier New" -bold

[-pointsizes sm med lg] = font's size number, sm for small, med for medium, and lg for large respectively, so used in the example below, 10 is the point size for small, 15 is the point size for medium, and 20 is the point size for large.

example: makefont -font "Courier New" -pointsizes 10 15 20

outfile = very important - replace this with "fonts", the output of the fonts file for Half-Life usage

example: makefont -font "Courier New" fonts

For an example, I would like to make the in-game fonts for Half-Life Courier New, bold and the pointsizes 12 for sm, 16 for med, and 20 for lg: makefont -font "Courier New" -bold -pointsizes 12 16 20 fonts

After creating the fonts.wad (remember to add "fonts" to the end of your parameters to create a file name fonts.wad or else the program won't create a wad file for you; read what outfile parameter does above) in the makefont.exe's directory, go to your Half-Life\Valve directory and find the default fonts.wad. Rename it to something else like oldfonts.wad. Now, copy the fonts.wad that you have just created from makefont.exe into Half-Life\Valve directory. Run the game and go into the console. You should see that the text (font) has changed. You should also test it in a multiplayer session to see how text look like. To test the text, press the "chat" a.k.a. "messagemode1" key, then just type something random and see how it looks on screen.

To Enable LAN With Internet Players

If you want to host a server over the Internet, and you want your LAN to play on the server with you, do the following things from the console:

sv_lan 0 (to allow Internet opponents to join)

sv_lan 1 (to allow LAN opponents to join)

Note: if you put sv_lan 0 (zero), only the Internet clients can connect to the server. If any LAN players want to connect to your server, you must set sv_lan 1. But if you do set sv_lan 1, then no Internet clients can connect to your server until you put sv_lan 0.

To Enable Shadows

To enable shadows in Half-Life, you must have the console enabled and type the following into the console: r_shadows 1

To have it enabled every time if you find that when you start up the game and shadows is not enabled, put it in a cfg file, like autoexec.cfg.

To Get FPS

There are many ways to get your frames per second (fps). The ideal fps should be around 30 so that the game is playable and won't make it turn out to be a slideshow (about 15fps and below). Here are the following ways to get your fps:

1. Half-Life v1.0.1.6 and lower:

During the game, type the following in the console:

developer 1

host_speeds 1 (host_speeds 0 turns it off)

Another way to get fps reading is enabling the netgraph. Bring down the console and type in: net_graph 1. To turn it off, type in net_graph 0. This is available only for v1.0.1.6.

Half-Life v1.1.0.0 and higher:

During the game, type the following in the console:

cl_showfps 1 (cl_showfps 0 turns it off)

Another way to get fps reading is enabling the netgraph. Bring down the console and type in: net_graph 1. To turn it off, type in net_graph 0. If net_graph 1 slows your computer down, try net_graph 3.

2. Use the -gamegauge <timedemo's filename> parameter. Example: hl.exe -gamegauge timedemo. You do not need to type the timedemo's last three letter extension (dem). You must have a good recorded timedemo or download a well known timedemo so that you can stress out your system, and some people's computer results to compare numbers to.

3. Almost same as above, but from console, type in: gg <timedemo's name>

You do not need to type the timedemo's last three letter extension (dem). Check out how to record your own timedemo section here. You may not need to type in cl_gg 1.

To Get Half-Life Mods

I advise you to check here: http://www.halflifeworld.co.uk/features/mods.htm. You should then go to its main website: http://www.halflifeworld.co.uk/index.htm for news about mods. You can also check for mod news at http://www.contaminated.net. There is a Mod of the Week featured at http://www.contaminated.net/community/motw/ looking at mods that are special for the week.

To Get Half-Life's Version

Go here (Is My Half-Life Version) to know how.

To Host a Server

Go here for good information on how to host a server and to get you started: http://planethalflife.com/commands/howto.shtml. If you're most likely hosting a Counter-Strike mod server, go here: http://server.counter-strike.net/. It also has some good information on serving, so visit it even if you're not hosting a Counter-Strike server.

To Level Skip / Warp

To do a level skip, you must do the following:

1. Enable the console.

2. Run Half-Life.

3. Enable the cheat code.

4. Load up the saved game where the place you're stuck at, whether you're stuck trying to solve it or the game crashes right before a certain spot.

5. Do a quickload right after loading up the game. Now, the important part here is to pay attention to what the console displays. Look for the following context: c#a#n. Where # could be any numbers and n could be any letters. The c#a#n is the name of the level that you may be on. There would be a few of these c#a#n displayed in the console, so pick one of them, and enter one number and/or letter higher than it is. For an example: you see c1a0a in the console. If you want to skip the current level/map, you need to type this in the console: map c1a0b. To know if such higher level/map exists, check in the cheats section here.

To Open Pak Files

To view all the goodies that Half-Life uses, like the models, sound effects, or maps, go to: http://www.planetquake.com/qped/ and download the QPed II program. This is a pak viewer and it could extract files from the pak0.pak that came with Half-Life. Another pak viewere is Pak Explorer: http://quakestuff.telefragged.com. By using any of these two programs, you can extract anything found in the pak0.pak. If you want to view the models, you can get the HL MDL Viewer at http://www.swissquake.ch/chumbalum-soft/hlmv/index.html.

To Play a Timedemo

If you downloaded a timedemo, place it into \Half-Life\valve\ directory. Then to play the timedemo, type this in the console: timedemo <timedemo's name>. Another way to play a recorded timedemo is to type this in the console: playdemo <timedemo's name>.

If you tried to play a timedemo and it won't work, click here.

To Play Audio Music During Game Play

To play audio music CD during game play, you must activate the console first. Bring down the console, and type in: cd #, where # is the track number you want to listen to. To stop music playing, type in the console: cd stop. If you want to loop a certain track, type in the console: cd loop #, where # is the track number you want to listen to.

If you're not hearing any music, visit here.

Note: Half-Life has some cool sound tracks on the CD. Sound tracks are playable from track 2 through track 28. Most of them are just background music, but there are some that are techno. Audio tracks 15 and 25 are good ones to hear, although they're short.

To Play Co-op Mode

Half-Life does not support co-op mode. But you can try a modification at http://www.svencoop.com/.

To Play Custom Made Single Player Levels

To run custom made user maps, like single player made levels, it is best to read the readme.txt that came with the level. You can also ask the author the instructions how to. But for your sakes, I will give general instructions how to run a typical map:

1. Place the *.bsp file(s) into <HDD>:\<Half-Life's directory>\Valve\Maps\

Example: C:\Sierra\Half-Life\Valve\Maps\

2. Get into Half-Life's console and type this in: map <*.bsp's name>

Example: you have a file boot_camp.bsp, a custom made level. You will type in the console as: map boot_camp

Example 2: You can edit your HL.exe shortcut parameter like this: HL.exe +map boot_camp

Note: When entering in maps/levels, it is not required to enter in the file's last three extension letters - *.bsp. Leave them out.

To Play Half-Life Modem To Modem Or Serial Cable

For now, there were a few dead links to guides, so I will have to write my own some day to help out some people. Anyhow, here's a link to get modem to modem up and running: http://www.lbctyler.org/rabtech/dun/index.html.