While you're in the settings menu, also head over to sound options and set quality to HIGH. It is not recommended to use Halo's -vidmode, argument or built-in Vsync as it introduces input latency.
Don't worry about vertical tearing or if your native resolution was not an option we'll use a mod later to address this. Head to the video settings and bump the resolution up to your native resolution if available and set framerate to "NO VSYNC". Hopefully the game runs, and you're greeted with the menu music if the audio is working correctly. You should also set the $HALO_HOME variable in your shell because you'll need it later during this guide. The WINEDEBUG=-all variable noticeably improved performance for me during multiplayer matches with a lot of players. HALO_OPTS= "-console -screenshot" cd " $HALO_HOME" HALO_HOME= " $WINEPREFIX/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Games/Halo Custom Edition" When that's done, I suggest making a start script for the game to make it easier to run: #!/bin/bash export WINEDEBUG=-allĮxport WINEPREFIX=/home//wine-prefixes/halo Don't click "Play Now" just yet close the installer and move on to patching the game.
You do not need to install Gamespy arcade, install for all users, or create a desktop icon. If for whatever reason the msxml4 installer doesn't work, you can always use Wine to run the installer which ships in Halo's /redist directory.ĭuring the CE installer, you will be asked for your retail product key. # if not installed, multiplayer chat messages will not show up ingame
With the same Wine prefix configured, run: # needed by Halo's PidGen.dll to generate a product ID from CD key
Installing Haloĭownload the CE installer ( mirror 1, mirror 2) and the official 1.0.10 patch ( mirror 1, mirror 2, mirror 3). You can cancel these since they're not needed (or set WINEDLLOVERRIDES=mscoree=d mshtml=d to avoid being prompted).
During wineboot you may be prompted to install Mono and Gecko. It will be necessary to set this environment variable any time you are running Wine and want to use this prefix (e.g. export WINEPREFIX=/home//wine-prefixes/halo A default wine prefix will be used if you don't specify one, but if you want to isolate applications running under Wine it can be helpful to set a prefix by environment variable. This is a directory where the Windows system and its "C drive" will be installed. sudo pacman -S wine winetricks openal libpulse alsa-plugins mpg123 alsa-lib You could try only installing Wine and Winetricks in this step and seeing if sound works first. I don't know if all these libraries are needed since I gathered the list from a few google results, but it doesn't hurt to install them. To get ingame sound working, I needed to install some audio libraries too. I also tried using wlroots-based Wayland window managers (like sway and way-cooler) instead of Xorg and experienced lower framerates and frequent crashes requiring restart, so I can't recommend that approach either unless it's otherwise already stable and performant on your system.
I found that the nouveau drivers and mesa gave poor framerates compared to the nvidia driver. Following the Arch wiki, I installed: sudo pacman -S nvidia nvidia-utils nvidia-settings For graphics, I found the best performance and stability running Xorg with the proprietary Nvidia Linux drivers for my 660ti. System requirementsįirst off, it's a good idea to start with an up-to-date system and take advantage of any bug fixes and optimizations. I'll be referencing some Arch linux specifics, but distro shouldn't really matter so just substitute the equivalents from yours. Make sure you have your Halo PC product key ready. DXVK: Implements DirectX 9 over Vulkan for increased framerates.CE Refined: multiplayer and campaign maps rebuilt with a tagset which restores the correct Xbox appearance lost during the game's PC port.Chimera 1.0: Custom map downloads, FOV and widescreen fixes, server bookmarks, plus other quality of life improvements.This will involve installing CE, updating it, and installing a few popular mods and improvements: Setting up the HEK will not be a goal and instead I want to focus on setting up a good multiplayer experience. "retail") which supports user-created maps and an editing kit (HEK). Custom Edition is a standalone version of Halo PC (a.k.a. I've recently gotten Halo Custom Edition working well on my Linux desktop, so I want to document and share the process.
How to run Halo Custom Edition on Linux with community mods