_____ ____ _______ ¯¯| | __ /¯¯\ ¯¯| '---, ,-' \ | | | \ //\ \ | |¯ __/,'¯¯¯¯¯¯\ | | '-------' | ¯__\ \ | | ¯¯¯ _ | |_ | |¯¯¯¯¯¯| | ,-'____ \ | | ( )- | |¯ | | | | / / \ \ | | /| _ ¯ | | _/ \__ | '_ ,-´ ,/__ _\ \_ _| `-----´_| \\ / | ¯¯¯`---`¯¯ ¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯'-----' \`-----´ ,´ ¯¯'----´ Game Tweaks, Fixes, and Console FAQ Written by: Apocolypse ASCII Art Title: CC Version: 1.3 ====================================================================== Table of Contents ====================================================================== I. Intro a) What are Game Tweaks? b) How do I use them? c) Other Questions II. Pixel Shaders a) -useff b) -use11 c) -use20 III. Screen Shots a) -screenshot b) Where Halo Stores the Pictures c) How Halo Stores the Pictures d) Converting the Pictures IV. The Console a) -console b) How to Activate c) The Commands d) Map Names V. Other Commands a) -? b) -window c) -safemode d) -timedemo VI. Version History VII. Contact Information and Legal Information ====================================================================== I. INTRO ====================================================================== I'll start it off by explaining some of the common questions that many have about these game tweaks. a) What are Game Tweaks? Game Tweaks are things you can add to the end of the target in your Halo PC shortcut file. They can improve the games functionality and the speed at which the game runs. b) How do I use them? First, find or create a shortcut to Halo.exe in your Halo PC directory. Next, right-click the shortcut, and left-click properties. In the target text box, there should be the directory pointing to Halo.exe. At the end of the target, outside the quotes, add the tweak you want to activate. Make it look like this: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe" -console -screenshot -use11 These tweaks will only become active if you use the shortcut you modified to run Halo PC. NoWayHoser's note: Also, make sure you add the before the command. c) Other Questions Q: Can I add more then one tweak to one shortcut? A: Yes, you can. Just add them one after the other. Make it look like this: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe" -console -screenshot -use11 Q: Do these work for the demo or the beta? A: I am not sure as I do not have any of these. If you have either of these, please test the tweaks listed out and email me the results. See the contact section. Q: Do pixel shader version changing tweaks work for both ATI and nVidia cards? A: It should work for both. Q: Are there cheats I can use with the console? A: No, they were writen into the game, but disabled by Gearbox before release. Q: What are the other files in the "MAPS" folder? A: There are all the multiplayer maps (Outlined in section IV.d), the User Interface file (ui.map), the textures file (bitmaps.map) and the single player maps, which are as follows: Pillar of Autumn: a10.map Halo: a30.map Truth and Reconciliation: a50.map Silent Cartographer: b30.map Assault on the Control Room: b40.map Guilty Spark: c10.map Library: c20.map Two Betrayals: c40.map Keyes: d20.map The Maw: d40.map ====================================================================== II. PIXEL SHADERS ====================================================================== Pixel shader versions are the most commonly used tweaks to improve gameplay. They can drastically increase performance in FPS, but not without a price. All of these will be explained below. a) -useff First off, to enable this, make your target look like this: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe" -useff What this tweak does is disable all the pixel shading in the game by making your graphics card work like a fixed function card. This will make everything look very bland, but run very fast. The biggest thing is the shields with this tweak on look like a solid green wall around the Master Chief. Also, MC's visor will be solid black and his single player colors will be distorted. The game will run very fast if you have a decent computer. b) -use11 Make your target look like this: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe" -use11 Pixel shader v1.1 is a very minor step down from 2.0 and a drastic step up from shutting it off completely. The game will look nearly as good as with v2.0 and will run a whole lot better. If you are still getting some slow downs when using this tweak, try turning off reflections and shadows. c) -use20 This is the default pixel shader version and you do not need to change anything in the target to make the game use this. This is where the FPS slow downs hits. They are practicly unavoidable with this version enabled, especially in Covenant buildings where there is a ton of bump mapping, which causes the FPS to drop. Even with a great computer, you will get a horrible frame rate. ====================================================================== III. SCREEN SHOTS ====================================================================== a) -screenshots Put this in your target and hit the print screen key to save a screen shot. Make your target look like this: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe" -screenshot b) Where Halo Stores the Pictures They will be in a folder called "screenshots" in your Halo directory. Screen shots are saved as .tga files, which most people can not open. I will explain how to convert .tga files to .jpg files in section III.a. c) How Halo Stores the Pictures You can take as many screen shots as you want, but once you switch levels, it will start overwriting the .tga files. So if you enter a game, press "Prt Scrn" 9 times, 9 files will be created titled 0screenshot00.tga through 8screenshot00.tga. If you leave that game and press "Prt Scrn" again, 0screenshot00.tga will be overwriten. d) Converting the Pictures The .tga files are picture files sometimes used by programmers, but not your average Halo PC gamer. You need a program to convert them to .jpg files. I recommend ReaJpeg. Their site is at www.reasoft.com/products/reajpeg/ Download and install the file and now you can convert them to .jpg's. ====================================================================== IV. THE CONSOLE ====================================================================== a) -console Make your target look like this: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe" -console b) How to Activate Simply press the "`" key ("~") in game to activate it. Press the "Tab" key to view the list of commands. c) The Commands Okay, this is the list of commands that comes up when you press the "Tab" key, their proper usage, and their function. cls Proper Use: cls Function: Clears the console output screen. mouse_acceleration Proper Use: mouse_acceleration Function: Turns on or off the mouse acceleration. sv_kick Proper Use: sv_kick Function: Gives an unwanted player in your server the boot. They can rejoin. sv_mapcycle Proper Use: sv_mapcycle Function: Displays the maps in the current map cycle. sv_mapcycle_timeout Proper Use: sv_mapcycle_timeout