Half-Life free, updated for 25th & Steam Deck

Half-Life 25th Anniversary Update Notes

Prepare to feel old: Half-Life turns 25 on Sunday. And to celebrate, Valve has gone all out on commemorating the milestone, including making Half-Life free to own on Steam for a limited time and releasing a big anniversary update. The update includes Steam Deck verification, updated graphic settings, new multiplayer maps, and more.

Free-to-Play Promotion

Valve has made the iconic first-person shooter available for free on Steam. The promotion will last until November 20, allowing users to add the game to their digital libraries. This is a great opportunity for newcomers to experience the classic game, and for veterans to revisit it with a fresh perspective.

Steam Deck Verification

Half-Life has finally been verified for Steam Deck, meaning that it now runs smoothly on Valve’s handheld gaming device. The game has also received a native Linux runtime, which is set as the default. This makes it easier for users to enjoy Half-Life on a variety of platforms.

Nostalgia and Modernization

The anniversary update includes several features that pay homage to the original game. The main menu has been redesigned to resemble the 1998 original, while the default models have been switched back to the original non-“HD” models. The update also brings back the original Valve Intro video, though it can be skipped using the “-novid” launch command.

However, the update also modernizes the game in several ways, including updating the in-game menu’s design to look more like the one found in the 1998 original. The update also includes UI scaling to allow for higher resolutions. These changes ensure that Half-Life is more enjoyable on modern displays.

New Content

The anniversary update includes a wealth of new content, including four all-new Half-Life Deathmatch maps, three old Half-Life Deathmatch maps, and several new player models. The update also adds support for Steam Networking, allowing players to easily find and join multiplayer matches. Steam Friends Rich Presence has been added, which allows players’ friends to follow their journey through Black Mesa.

The update also adds Half-Life: Uplink, the original standalone Half-Life demo. Uplink is accessible through the “New Game” menu, providing players with an early glimpse of the game’s world and mechanics.

Gameplay Improvements

The update introduces several gameplay improvements, such as improved physics for throwing grenades, improved randomness for initial spawn points in multiplayer, and improved satchel charge controls. The update also fixes various bugs and glitches, such as players freezing in place on death in multiplayer, players getting stuck in place on level transitions, and incorrect weapon view-bob angles.

Other notable gameplay changes include:

• Increased the 357 damage from 40 → 50.
• Hive Hand reload time has been reduced from 0.5s → 0.3s per shot.
• MP5 now always starts with full ammo when initially picked up.
• Players no longer drop empty weapons.
• Improved client-side prediction to reduce “ghost shots”.
• Fixed network predicted crowbar swing damage being incorrect.

UI Enhancements

The update improves the game’s user interface with scaling support for higher resolutions. The in-game HUD now uses double or triple-sized sprites, while UI dialogs and fonts scale to improve readability.

Other UI improvements include:

• Main-menu background and buttons have been reskinned and now scale based upon screen resolution without stretching, supporting background image layouts up to 3840×1600.
• In-Game HUD HEV suit display has been shifted to the left of the screen, and no longer changes position at larger screen resolutions.
• Added an “Enable texture filtering” setting.
• Added an “Allow widescreen Field of View” setting to correct non-anamorphic FOVs, for widescreen and ultrawide displays.
• Re-organized all the Settings screens to improve legibility, and support controller navigation.
• Updated the Pause menu to be aware of the current gameplay mode.
• The default server name and multiplayer player name are now based on the player’s Steam Persona.
• The Steam platform menu has been removed, now that all its features are in Steam itself.
• Fixed application icon rendering incorrectly when using the software renderer.
• Fixed player and spray images not updating their coloring on the settings screen.
• Removed the now very unnecessary “Low video quality. Helps with slower video cards.” setting.

Input Improvements

The update significantly improves input handling for keyboard and controller navigation. The “Lower Input Latency” option has been added, which synchronizes the CPU and GPU to reduce the time between input and display output. This improves responsiveness and reduces input lag.

Rendering Enhancements

The update enhances rendering by adding a setting to turn off texture filtering when using the OpenGL renderer. It also restores OpenGL overbright support. The update adds support for UI Sprites and Texture files larger than 256×256, and adds support for UI Font special render modes: “blur” and “additive”.

Other rendering improvements include:

• Default gamma has been decreased from 2.5 → 2.2.
• Default resolution is now based on the resolution of the desktop, instead of a 640×480 window.
• Software renderer will now correctly filter out incompatible resolutions, unless there is only 1 resolution available on the display.
• Fixed fullscreen software renderer crashing on systems that don’t support 16-bit color.
• Fixed software renderer being stretched when using widescreen resolutions.
• Fixed skyboxes and sky color incorrectly carrying over when transitioning maps in multiplayer.
• Fixed the game appearing too dark after modifying video settings.
• Fixed MSAA in windowed mode.
• Fixed mipmap rendering on studio models.
• Fixed gluon gun sprite rendering in multiplayer.
• Fixed gluon gun sinusoidal noise being incorrect.
• Various optimizations to support the newly increased engine limits.
• OpenGL optimizations for the Steam Deck.

Engine Improvements for Mod Makers

The update includes several engine improvements for mod makers. The maximum limit of dynamic sound channels has been increased from 8 → 32. The maximum limit of sentences in the sentences.txt file has been increased from 1536 → 2048. The maximum number of entities (MAX_EDICTS) has been increased from 900 → 1200.

Other engine improvements for mod makers include:

• Increased MAX_PACKET_ENTITIES from 256 → 1024.
• Increased MAX_GLTEXTURES from 4800 → 10000.
• Increased software renderer geometry limits: max spans 3000 → 6000, max surfaces 2000 → 4000, and max edges 7200 → 14400.
• Cycler and func_button entities can now be the entity target for scripted_sentence entities, and are allowed to speak in multiplayer.
• Incorporated func_vehicle entity support from Counter-Strike, for mod-makers to use. Full SDK update will come later, but level designers can use it now.

Native Linux Build

The update also includes a native Linux build for Half-Life. The build includes support for the software renderer, improved font rendering, and numerous stability and behavior fixes.

Looking Forward

Valve has declared this 25th-anniversary update to be the definitive version of Half-Life, and the one they will continue to support going forward. This means that Half-Life: Source will become less visible on the Steam Store, though it will remain available for those who still use its assets.

With its free-to-play promotion, new content, and improvements, this 25th-anniversary update is a great opportunity for new and old players alike to experience one of the most influential games of all time.