Proto:Half-Life (Windows)/September 1997 Prototype/Half-Life Readme

This is a sub-page of Proto:Half-Life (Windows)/September 1997 Prototype.

Half-Life Readme (in Word 95 format).doc

Half-Life Alpha Notes

Contents of this CD:

Drivers and Tools – a variety of drivers (latest DirectX, Righteous 3D drivers we know work, etc...). The one most likely to be of use is the Glide 2.31 runtime, which many people don't have. Install this, and make sure glide2x.dll is in your Windows system directory. About 80% of the time if someone can't get the GL version of Half-Life to run, this is the problem.

Half-Life – this directory contains all the files for actually running Half-Life and Worldcraft

Half-Life Links – an HTML file of the known on-line resources for Half-Life (excluding Sierra and Valve)

Materials –screenshots, white papers, the E3 movie, etc…

Walkthrough – contains a document describing how to walk through a couple of the included levels

You can run Half-Life by running the supplied batch files (Half-Life.bat and Half-Life GL.bat), which will launch you into the demonstration rooms from E3, or you can run engine.exe and enginegl.exe, which will leave you at the console. See below for some useful commands you can use from the console.

The GL version of the batch file tries to set up appropriate 3DFX variables for performance and quality before launching enginegl (if you aren't using a 3DFX card for your OpenGL accelerator, these won't do anything). You can have arguments to the engine (like +exec gaben.cfg or +map c1a3) that are just console comands with a "+" in front of them. For example, Half-Life GL.bat should have a line like "enginegl +map techdemo +exec gaben.cfg –width 640" in it. The –width 640 is unnecessary and just is overkill to make sure the engine runs in 640 by 480 mode.

By default, the batch files exec a file, gaben.cfg, in addition to the default, autoexec, and config.cfg files. All CFG files are text files. You can create your own configurations and run them either by replacing the line "+exec gaben.cfg" in the batch files, or by typing "exec <yourname.cfg>" at the console.

GABEN.CFG settings:

~ - brings up the console and makes it go away

escape – brings up the menu system

e - go forward

d - go backward

s - strafe left

f - strafe right

mouse movement turns you up and down and left and right

space bar - jump

control – crouch

b – use (good for opening drawers and fuse closets)

q – toggles invulnerability

r – toggles invisibility

z - make gun visible

x - make gun invisible (useful for screen shots)

n - noclip (lets you move around without touching anything)

h - makes everything really bright (called fullbright)

j - turns off fullbright

l - toggles the trace lines in the grunt room so you can see the AI

key 1 – toggles your flashlight

keys 2,4 – this followed by a click of the left mouse button is how you select weapons

keys 5-0 - make various noises so you can show off the DSP effects

backspace – stops the CD from playing

mouse button 1 – fires your weapon (or selects it if you've typed 2 or 4)

mouse button 2 – uses your weapons secondary attack (only on machine gun now)

mouse button 3 – spray paints the Half-Life logo on the wall

keys F1- F11 - play songs off of the CD

key F12 - takes a snapshot of the screen and saves it to your Half-Life directory

tab – slow motion

shift – normal motion

If you bring up the console by typing ~ (the console is the thing that looks like command.com), you have some other useful commands:

restart - restarts the level

maps – lists all the maps in the valve\maps directory

map techdemo - takes you to the very beginning of the E3 demonstration

map maindemo - takes you to the doors right outside the room with the seal on the floor

map silodemo - puts you in the room out in front of the green tentacle monster

map c1a3 – map with a bunch of grunts and the fan puzzle

quit – good for escaping the occasional ugly situation

bind keyname "console command" – binds the key to the console command in quotes

playdemo <demfile> - there are a number of *.dem files you can run to see recordings of game action, such as c1a1, dem1, etc…

vid_describemodes – lists all of the modes Half-Life can run on your machine

vid_mode <modenumber> - switches to that video mode

You can also change the configuration of keys by being in the game and hitting the Esc key, which brings up the user menus. One of the menus is Options, and you can look in their to change which keys do what. This behaves pretty much the same way Quake type games do, so it should be familiar.