Half-Life 2: Update

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Half-Life 2: Update

Developer(s)

Filip Victor

Publisher(s)

Filip Victor

Series

Half-Life series

Release date(s)

March 28, 2015

Genre(s)

First-person shooter

Mode(s)

Single-player

Platform(s)

Windows, macOS, Linux

Engine

Source (Source 2013 SP)

Steam AppID

290930

Written in

C++

Mod support

Yes (custom folder and sourcemods)

SDK

None
Source SDK (unofficially)

System requirements

• Win XP, Win Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 or later
• macOS/OS X 10.5.8, 10.6.3 (up to 10.14.6)
• Any Ubuntu/Linux distros (latest recommended)
• AMD Athlon 2.4 GHz or Intel Pentium 4 Processor 2.80 GHz and/or Dual-core
• 1 GB RAM
• 7 GB disk space
• DirectX 8.1 level card
  with 128 MB VRAM

Note: To play on XP/Vista, run without Steam. Achievements will be disabled if run without Steam.

Distribution

Steam

Links

Steam page

 :Requires Half-Life 2 purchased.

Quick reference (PDF)

Half-Life 2: Update is a mod released in 2015 that improves Half-Life 2 by fixing most (but not all) of the bugs and improving the graphics.

When Half-Life 2 was ported from Source 2006 (Old Engine) to Source 2009 (also known as Orange Box engine or New Engine) in 2010 for PC (also applies to console port for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3), it introduced hundreds of bugs and issues, which was listed here. Most of these bugs are fixed in Half-Life 2: Update, while at the same time also improving the graphics, increasing draw distance, and adding new effects without changing the core gameplay (aside from maps, which were slightly modified to add more Lambda Locator crates and symbols while keeping total as 45).

This mod is completely standalone (only requiring users to own Half-Life 2 to play) and has its own separate saves, separate achievements, and separate AppID and configs. Additionally, it also fixed the issue that caused the game to enable fullbright lighting in some chapters (such as Black Mesa East, Highway 17, etc...) which was caused by a lack of compiling LDR+HDR for some of the Half-Life 2 maps while porting the game from the previous version of Source.

Much of these bugs was later eventually fixed with Steam Deck and Anniversary Update for the original Half-Life 2, which partially makes Update somewhat obsoleted.

Features

Complete lighting overhaul including enhanced lighting, more detailed world shadows, and full High Dynamic Range Lighting (HDR).

The original Half-Life 2 maps are compiled for LDR only, with some of them are HDR only after 2010 update, but not both LDR and HDR.

This also fixes the issues with fullbright lighting due to lack of LDR lighting in the original Half-Life 2 (starting with Black Mesa East until end of Nova Prospekt).

New particle effects, skyboxes and improved fog

Aside from new particles effect, many chapters such as Ravenholm and Highway 17/Sandtraps have new skyboxes, new lighting, etc.

Countless bug fixes, correcting both visual and game-based issues.

Large amount of bugs is fixed, including bugs that are introduced at launch, / version (Source 2007), and PC after 2010 (Source 2009).

Community Commentary Mode

Featuring voices from various YouTubers, including Caddicarus, Brutalmoose, Ricepirate, Balrog the Master, ProJared, and Ross Scott from Freeman's Mind

Bugs and Limitations

Warning:As of 2023, Half-Life 2: Update runs on the outdated version of Source 2013 from 2015, and it is no longer receiving updates, including recent bugs fixes exclusive to the vanilla Half-Life 2 introduced with the Steam Deck and 20th anniversary updates, which fixes bugs related to Dropship gun no longer rotates (preventing it from shooting, and thus, spawn camping),^[1] NPCs eyes not blinking, and many other issues.
The game also lacks many new features introduced with Half-Life 2 Steam Deck and 20th Anniversary Update.

An unofficial patch (reUpdate patch) to fix these issues and add Steam Deck features, Vulkan renderer, aswell as Source SDK can be found here at PCGW and/or Gamebanana.

Gallery

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System Requirements

Windows:

• OS: XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 or later
• CPU: AMD Athlon 2.4 GHz/Intel Pentium 4 Processor 2.80 GHz and/or Dual-core
• RAM: 1GB RAM
• Disk space: 7 GB (15GB+ recommended)
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 6xxx series, ATI Radeon X1600, Intel HD Graphics 3000 (with 128MB VRAM)
• Direct3D 9.0 compatible video card (with atleast DirectX 8.0 compatibility level or higher)

Note:Due to Steam dropped support on Windows XP & Vista, users need run the game without Steam by running the hl2.exe executable directly. Achievements will be disabled when run without Steam.

OS X:

• OS X 10.5.8, 10.6.3 (up to 10.14.6)
• CPU: 2.0 GHz and/or Dual-core
• RAM: 1 GB
• Storage: 7 GB (15GB+ recommended)
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 8xxx series, ATI Radeon X1600, Intel HD Graphics 3000
  OpenGL 2.1 compatible
• Audio: OpenAL compatible

Note:Mac version are no longer supported after macOS Catalina (10.15), due to this game only have 32-bit binaries.
User can manually build Intel 64-bit/Apple Silicon version of HL2 by following this guide.

Linux:

• OS: Ubuntu 12.04, SteamOS 1.0 or later
  Other Linux distros supported.
• CPU: 2.0 GHz and/or Dual-core
• RAM: 1 GB
• Storage: 7 GB (15GB+ recommended)
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 8xxx series, ATI Radeon X1600, Intel HD Graphics 3000
  OpenGL 2.1 compatible
• Audio: OpenAL compatible

Note:The system requirements on Linux are unofficial, based off Windows/Mac info, as well as other Source games that support Linux, such as Portal 2.

References

References

1. User:leonidakarlach (June 10, 2024).  Half-Life 2 - The one Dropship gun bug that ruins the Sandtraps chapter (Now fixed). YouTube. Note:The bugs shown on the video are recorded from Half-Life 2: Update (both unpatched and unofficially patched), but these also applies to original version of Half-Life 2 (since 2007 for consoles, 2010 for PC, was fixed on PC in 2022). . Retrieved on June 10, 2024.