HD Pack enabled by default on Half-Life 1

[Walther]

It seems that the models and sounds in Half-Life 1 for Linux are from the "HD pack". In my humble opinion (and I'm pretty sure in the opinions of many others) the HD pack should not be enabled by default. The HD pack has been an opt-in in Windows, it should be the same way in the Linux version. As the title suggest this is the original HL1, it should represent the original game in every way.

Steps to reproduce:
0. Start Half-Life

1. Observe models of e.g. machine gun, RPG
2. Notice the big difference compared to the original models

[MRZA-MRZA]

I don't like HD pack. It should not be enabled by default. Please fix it.

[tr37ion]

Hmm, I like the HD pack. But giving an option to change back would be nice for the others. Otherwise I wouldn't have the devs working on such issues instead of fixing technical bug first.

[alfred-valve]

This is by design, we can investigate letting you disable it.

[eisbehr]

Weapon models are the HD ones for me, but character models aren't from what I can tell. For the textures I'm not sure. I also seem to have some sort of "low violence" (German) version, which is odd as the store page didn't say that when I bought it. That may be something that interferes with the models?

[stevethepocket]

Does this also affect the sounds? Because the shotgun and submachine gun sure sound more powerful than before.

[lzap]

NACK, I want it by default. Go ahead and download nostalgia models and sounds, if you need to...

[Walther]

alfred-valve: In my opinion it should not be a case of "letting us disable it", but rather make it the default and have the option of enabling it. Consistency; the game defaults should be the same regardless of the OS.

[lifayk]

agree here

[stevethepocket]

Never understood the point of an "HD pack" that only upgrades the weapon models in the first place. Everything else still looks like 1998.

And for the record, the Windows version updated with this change too.

[dagla]

@alfred-valve While you are at it, the HD pack on Steam has outdated models with some animations missing, which are known to cause some problems in mods. There was a patch for Blue Shift released (1.0.0.1 - 8/14/2001) to fix this, the following files should be updated with the models from that patch:
in /valve/models:
barney.mdl
barney01.mdl
barney02.mdl
barney03.mdl
barney04.mdl
barney05.mdl
gman.mdl
Hgrunt.mdl
Hgrunt01.mdl
Hgrunt02.mdl
Hgrunt03.mdl
Scientist.mdl
Scientist01.mdl
Scientist02.mdl
Scientist03.mdl
Scientist04.mdl
Scientist05.mdl
Scientist06.mdl
Scientist07.mdl
Scientist08.mdl
Scientist09.mdl
Scientist10.mdl

[Sinihopea]

I also don't like fact that the HD pack is enabled by default. I used to like some of the things in it when it first came with the Blue Shift. However it has so many issues that those small improvements it does are over weighted by the negative side effects. Thus I'd rather stick with the old models. Old models also have some classic good 3D weapon modelling which is kind of ruined in the HD pack. (MP5 has much better look and feel than the M16 which replaces it.) NPC characters look better but some animations are missing.

[vorot93]

HD pack is perfectly fine, please keep it as it is.

[kncsvk]

@alfred-valve me and 'few' players ( http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3065555 ) complains about availability to disable HD pack on win.. It could not be overrided by any known method and that really sucks! :)

[alfred-valve]

Next update will support a "-nohdmodels" command line parameter to disable loading of the model pack.

[zp]

Can you add a similar launch option to counter-strike for players who own condition zero?

A "-noczmodels" that reverts back to the original 1.6 player models.

[xPaw]

@alfred-valve I think adding "Half-Life High Definition" DLC would be much convenient for users, rather than a launch parameter. There are some games that already use this technique, for example Sleeping Dogs, with it's free HD addon.

[johndrinkwater]

Same thoughts (#steamlug ftw), though I don’t know how one would selectively remove DLC.

[Triang3l]

DLCs cannot be removed. For example, if you install Skyrim High Resolution Texture Pack, Steam will always download it every time you install Skyrim. But Skyrim has an option to toggle content packs, while Half-Life doesn't. -nohdmodels would be do similar thing as Skyrim package manager.

[Tolman]

@alfred-valve That is absolutely NOT how such a command should be implemented. The HD Pack should be DISABLED BY DEFAULT and there should be a launch parameter known as "-hdmodels" which enables the HD Pack upon use. One should be able to enjoy Half-Life in its purest and original form simply by loading the game. We should not have to search for some obscure command line option in order to play the game the way it was intended to be.

It would also be nice if you acknowledged @dagla's message since you're still forcing broken models on us that were actually fixed ages ago.

[stevethepocket]

Agreed. Playing the game in anything but its original form should be an option that users have to enable manually. I could see making these models the default in, say, Half-Life Source, but not this. Then again, I honestly think AA should be disabled by default too, both for that reason and because it clashes with the visibly jaggedy railing textures.

[kncsvk]

@alfred-valve sounds good :) As Tolman noticed it should be inversed logic. But the best would be to use original solution for HL HD pack https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3157-QDVN-1426

[Triang3l]

The addon system is not supported for the new content system. I think Valve should add Workshop to HL1 for content mods, and HD pack should be a Workshop item. But -hdmodels instead of -nohdmodels would be fine too.

[AnAkkk]

+1 zp, a similar option to have the CS 1.6 models instead of CZ ones would be great.

[kncsvk]

In CS 1.6 you are able to copy non CZ models to cstrike dir and game loads them.

[AnAkkk]

Of course you are, but if you need to verify the game cache, they'll be overwritten. It's still better to have some sort of option.

[dagla]

IIRC Team Fortress Classic has an ingame option that changes models from old to new (at least players) on the fly, it's in the multiplayer settings. Perhaps this could be implemented for the HL pack and the Condition Zero player models in CS 1.6?
Or at least an option in Steam's game properties, a command line switch or the URL that worked before is really hard to find by players I would guess, a more user friendly solution is needed here.

[thegreatprophetzarquon]

This is still a legitimate issue. The HD-models clash with the art-style of the game and look very out of place. When Valve made Half-life Source, they had the option to use the HD-models, but chose not to, as the originals are better.

But that is not the worst of it. The version of Half-life available on Steam is no longer the real half life. When I play Half-Life, I expect it to look the way it did 15 years ago. Heck, even the promotional images on it's Steam page use the old models. Suddenly "upgrading," the look of a 15 year old game, with no option to revert is a very bad idea. You are effectively rewriting history, as Steam is pretty much the only place to buy Half-Life.

New players to Half- life will think the game always looked this way. Old players will become frustrated that they can't get the original Half-life back, as the the only way revert the change is a launch command that isn't documented anywhere (and at the moment this doesn't even exist!). The official documentation now refers to options that don't work: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3157-QDVN-1426. The historic work of many Valve modelers and artists has been swept down the drain. At the moment, there is no way for "non-technical" people to experience the original-half life.
Even if you think the HD-models look better, they should be disabled by default, out of respect to the original Hal-life.

[eisbehr]

There's a check box in the options, you can turn it off.

[thegreatprophetzarquon]

As far as I can tell, the check box doesn't work for single player. (I think it's just for multilayer.) I'm still getting HD-models. Even if it did, the HD-models should not be default.

[eisbehr]

It's in the "video" tab.

[thegreatprophetzarquon]

Is it only in Linux at the moment? I'm on my Windows computer and I don't see it.

[eisbehr]

I wouldn't know.

[zp]

You have to opt in to the Half-Life beta for it to show up on Windows, right click on half-life in your steam list -> properties -> betas tab -> update to steampipe.

You might have to be running the Steam client beta as well, not sure. (I am)

[thegreatprophetzarquon]

Well, at least they are eventually going to give us a check box. But the HD-models still should not be default. (And Valve, forcing horrible changes on your customers for long periods of time is not a great idea.)

[thegreatprophetzarquon]

Also, I'm curious. Why, for 15 years were the original models perfectly fine (even being used in the Source remake), but suddenly now the Hd-models are default "by design?"

[kncsvk]

But gameplay in steampipe is even worse than playing with HD models and it's full of errors :/

zp notifications@github.com wrote:

You have to opt in to the Half-Life beta for it to show up, right click
on half-life in your steam list -> properties -> betas tab -> update
steampipe.

---

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub:
#891 (comment)

Sent from my Android phone with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.

[thegreatprophetzarquon]

Those will eventually be fixed, but I think that the non-beta version should get the old models back for now. (and the beta should have them off by default.)

[Triang3l]

http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=719950
This is what HD models look like in software rendering mode.
HD models should be optional, not default.

[eisbehr]

The Half Life beta doesn't have a software renderer, at least no on Linux. You should specify what version you're talking about.