Halo refresh rate problem

Dogfighter · October 10th, 2003

I got the game this morning, installed it, it gave me a direct 3D error. I downloaded latest Dets it started ok. I ran reforce to get around the 60 mgz refresh problem in XP and it then gave me the same error. Is there a way around this like in BF 1942. I am in work now I will have another go tonight.

Yharn · October 10th, 2003

the only way i have found to keep Halo running in WinXP is to right click on the shortcut and in the compatibility mode tab set it to Win98 compatibility mode. the only downside to this is that in multiplayer you are not able to read any chatting.

October 10th, 2003

Originally posted by Dogfighter
I got the game this morning, installed it, it gave me a direct 3D error. I downloaded latest Dets it started ok. I ran reforce to get around the 60 mgz refresh problem in XP and it then gave me the same error. Is there a way around this like in BF 1942. I am in work now I will have another go tonight.

If ReForce does not work, you can also try RefreshLock which is more up to date and has more options:

http://www.pagehosting.co.uk/rl

Also be sure you have SP1 installed.

Dogfighter · October 10th, 2003

I don’t think it is a ReForce Problem, I will try resetting my refresh rate to 60 mgz, and start the game, in the graphic menu I saw a refresh rate setting which was defaulted to 60 mgz , I will set that to 75 mgz and then run ReForce again @ 75 mgz and see if the game will start then.

**Krux** · October 10th, 2003

Halo isn't frefresh rate locked at 60hz. and Ive never understood this 60hz thing ive never had that problem.... is it and Nvidia thing or what?

October 10th, 2003

Originally posted by Yharn
the only way i have found to keep Halo running in WinXP is to right click on the shortcut and in the compatibility mode tab set it to Win98 compatibility mode. the only downside to this is that in multiplayer you are not able to read any chatting.

try this right click on the shortcut and ad after halo.exe

-vidmode 1024,768,100

this is ofcource for resolution 1024/768
after exe must be a space
this worked for me

Doom · October 10th, 2003

Originally posted by Zomaar
try this right click on the shortcut and ad after halo.exe

-vidmode 1024,768,100

this is ofcource for resolution 1024/768
after exe must be a space
this worked for me

You've totaly lost me there. What do you mean?

October 10th, 2003

i mean, if you have the prob. the game is giving an error on d3d
you can fix the prob.
by rightclick at the shortcut then press properties ->shortcut and paste the text in target-->> -vidmode 1024,768,100
like this -> H:\Games\Halo\halo.exe -vidmode 1024,768,100 <-this is only a example

hope this will clear up

Yharn · October 11th, 2003

thanks it fixed it

Yharn · October 11th, 2003

pretty dumb to have to do that right outta the box i mean we pay good money and then have to figure how to run the **** because it won't run right.

Doom · October 11th, 2003

I'm still a little lost with this. When I do it to the shortcut for it on my desktop I get a box coming up telling me that the target is not valid.

October 11th, 2003

make a shortcut from the exe where the game is installed on your desktop
then go to the shortcut on your desktop and right click
then go to properties
then you see "target" in here you see the link were the prog is starting (your dir. where it is installed)
it is something like this "H:\Games\Halo\halo.exe"
then go to the end after halo.exe
there must be 1 space and then put this after it -vidmode 1024,768,100
it is going to look like this"H:\Games\Halo\halo.exe -vidmode 1024,768,100"
hope it will work now
we keep on trying

Dogfighter · October 11th, 2003

Thanks Zomaar that works just great, just the fix I was looking for, I new someone would be smart enought to sort me out

**Terrahertz** · October 11th, 2003

Originally posted by Krux
Halo isn't frefresh rate locked at 60hz. and Ive never understood this 60hz thing ive never had that problem.... is it and Nvidia thing or what?

Yup its a Nvidia thing. we all have to do a refresh rate fix

LPDad · October 14th, 2003

I think everyone agrees that this issue needed to be addressed a little better before they released the pc version...Oh well..

I have a fairly high-end system and out of the box halo played like crap for me. My brother-in-law has a mid-range system with a cheaper nvidia card and it played like a dream for him...go figure..
ANYWAYS, here is what worked for my system..hopefully it will save you some time..give it a try.

My system:
WinXP Pro
Lots of Harddrives
Nvidia GF4 4400 (latest drivers from Nvidia)
Asus A7N8X-Deluxe (+ latest n-force drivers)
Onboard sound
blah, blah, blah...

Bottom line is to add some qualifiers to your shortcut (as zomar suggested)
..besides the refresh fix listed above it helps if you specify the pixelshaders that you want the game to use. I found for my nvidia card PS1.4 work the best (I have included a listing of all the options at the end of the post)

I have EVERYTHING set to HIGH, and I am using sound Hardware acceleration (YES)...BUT TURN OFF EAX.

I run at 1024x768 and I am specifying a Refresh rate of 85. (my monitor's actual refresh rate is set much higher)

in game set the FRAMERATE= VSYNC

Once again all ingame settings are set to either YES or HIGH except for EAX which is OFF. (Antialiasing is turned off in the Nvidia control panel, but the "controlled by application" works also)

To get this to work on my machine add the following to the last part of the shortcut (as outlined above):

-vidmode 1024,768,85 -use14

So that your shortcut will be:

"H:\Games\Halo\halo.exe" -vidmode 1024,768,85 -use14

(your drive/folders may be different)
if you want to try the PixelShaders 1.1 then simply change to -use11.

Hope this helps some of you out with this very frustrating problem.

Here is a list of the Commands you can append:

To add the command line:

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe" -vidmode 1024,768,85 -use14

Other commands you can tack on (straight from the Readme.rtf)

-nosound
Disables all sound.

-novideo
Disables video playback.

-nojoystick
Disables joystick/gamepads.

-nogamma
Disables adjustment of gamma.

-useff
Forces the game to run as a fixed function card.

-use11
Forces the game to run as a shader 1.1 card.

-use20
Forces the game to run as a shader 2.0 card.

-safemode
Disables as much as possible from the game.

-window
Runs the game in a window.

-width640
Forces the game to run at 640x480.

-vidmode w,h,r
Forces the game to run at width, height, refresh rate.

-adapter x
Forces the game to run fullscreen on a multimon adaptor.

-port x
Server port address used when hosting games.

-cport x
Client port address used when joining games.

-ip x.x.x.x
Server IP address used when you have multiple IP addresses.

-screenshot
Enables the "Print Screen" key to generate screenshots

-timedemo
Runs four movies and writes out timedemo.txt.

-console
Enables the debugging console.

**chris** · October 14th, 2003

Good post LPDad, covers just about everything you can add to the shortcut.

October 14th, 2003

Wheres the command to change the frickin fov??

TheBlueRaja · October 14th, 2003

Actually, it happens with me as well and i have ATi. The command above fixed it though.

Thanks

October 15th, 2003

Well it seems that using LPDad's "-vidmode 1024,768,85 -use14" fixed whatever problems were occurring (was getting a BSOD everytime I tried to change refresh rate or screen resolution)

Thanks a bunch!!

Gus K · October 23rd, 2003

Yup its a Nvidia thing. we all have to do a refresh rate fix

NO it's an XP thing that's been corrected with SP1 (except for OpenGL). You don't need any apps to override the default 60 in D3D. Just go into 'More help' in dxdiag and set the override to whatever you prefer.

October 10th, 2003	Top \| #1
Dogfighter Gamer Joined: April 2002 Location: Wales UK Posts: 81 Reputation: 0 Power: 124	Halo refresh rate problem I got the game this morning, installed it, it gave me a direct 3D error. I downloaded latest Dets it started ok. I ran reforce to get around the 60 mgz refresh problem in XP and it then gave me the same error. Is there a way around this like in BF 1942. I am in work now I will have another go tonight. Amd XP 3000 333 fsb MSI Geforce FX 5900 1024 Mb 2700 DDR Asus A7V8X Via KT400 Mobo Creative 1024 live sound card LG DVD Burner 2mb ADSL

October 10th, 2003	Top \| #2
Yharn meh. Joined: June 2002 Location: Indiana, USA Posts: 324 Reputation: 30 Power: 124	the only way i have found to keep Halo running in WinXP is to right click on the shortcut and in the compatibility mode tab set it to Win98 compatibility mode. the only downside to this is that in multiplayer you are not able to read any chatting. Little Us

October 10th, 2003	Top \| #3
Vorpal Unregistered Posts: n/a	Re: Halo refresh rate problem Originally posted by Dogfighter I got the game this morning, installed it, it gave me a direct 3D error. I downloaded latest Dets it started ok. I ran reforce to get around the 60 mgz refresh problem in XP and it then gave me the same error. Is there a way around this like in BF 1942. I am in work now I will have another go tonight. If ReForce does not work, you can also try RefreshLock which is more up to date and has more options: http://www.pagehosting.co.uk/rl Also be sure you have SP1 installed.

October 10th, 2003	Top \| #4
Dogfighter Gamer Joined: April 2002 Location: Wales UK Posts: 81 Reputation: 0 Power: 124	I don’t think it is a ReForce Problem, I will try resetting my refresh rate to 60 mgz, and start the game, in the graphic menu I saw a refresh rate setting which was defaulted to 60 mgz , I will set that to 75 mgz and then run ReForce again @ 75 mgz and see if the game will start then. Amd XP 3000 333 fsb MSI Geforce FX 5900 1024 Mb 2700 DDR Asus A7V8X Via KT400 Mobo Creative 1024 live sound card LG DVD Burner 2mb ADSL

October 10th, 2003	Top \| #6
Zomaar Unregistered Posts: n/a	Originally posted by Yharn the only way i have found to keep Halo running in WinXP is to right click on the shortcut and in the compatibility mode tab set it to Win98 compatibility mode. the only downside to this is that in multiplayer you are not able to read any chatting. try this right click on the shortcut and ad after halo.exe -vidmode 1024,768,100 this is ofcource for resolution 1024/768 after exe must be a space this worked for me

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October 10th, 2003	Top \| #5
Krux Nissan Powered Joined: April 2002 Posts: 1,649 Reputation: 30 Power: 140	Halo isn't frefresh rate locked at 60hz. and Ive never understood this 60hz thing ive never had that problem.... is it and Nvidia thing or what?

October 10th, 2003	Top \| #7
Doom OSNN Senior Addict Joined: July 2002 Location: Aberdeen, Scotland Posts: 266 Reputation: 10 Power: 123	Originally posted by Zomaar try this right click on the shortcut and ad after halo.exe -vidmode 1024,768,100 this is ofcource for resolution 1024/768 after exe must be a space this worked for me You've totaly lost me there. What do you mean? Fujitsu siemens Amilo 3438G 17"Laptop Pentium M 2gig 1 Gig DDR 2 2 x 60 Gig Hard drives Geforce Go 6800

October 10th, 2003	Top \| #8
Zomaar Unregistered Posts: n/a	i mean, if you have the prob. the game is giving an error on d3d you can fix the prob. by rightclick at the shortcut then press properties ->shortcut and paste the text in target-->> -vidmode 1024,768,100 like this -> H:\Games\Halo\halo.exe -vidmode 1024,768,100 <-this is only a example hope this will clear up

October 11th, 2003	Top \| #9
Yharn meh. Joined: June 2002 Location: Indiana, USA Posts: 324 Reputation: 30 Power: 124	thanks it fixed it Little Us

October 11th, 2003	Top \| #10
Yharn meh. Joined: June 2002 Location: Indiana, USA Posts: 324 Reputation: 30 Power: 124	pretty dumb to have to do that right outta the box i mean we pay good money and then have to figure how to run the **** because it won't run right. Little Us

October 11th, 2003	Top \| #11
Doom OSNN Senior Addict Joined: July 2002 Location: Aberdeen, Scotland Posts: 266 Reputation: 10 Power: 123	I'm still a little lost with this. When I do it to the shortcut for it on my desktop I get a box coming up telling me that the target is not valid. Fujitsu siemens Amilo 3438G 17"Laptop Pentium M 2gig 1 Gig DDR 2 2 x 60 Gig Hard drives Geforce Go 6800

October 11th, 2003	Top \| #12
Zomaar Unregistered Posts: n/a	make a shortcut from the exe where the game is installed on your desktop then go to the shortcut on your desktop and right click then go to properties then you see "target" in here you see the link were the prog is starting (your dir. where it is installed) it is something like this "H:\Games\Halo\halo.exe" then go to the end after halo.exe there must be 1 space and then put this after it -vidmode 1024,768,100 it is going to look like this"H:\Games\Halo\halo.exe -vidmode 1024,768,100" hope it will work now we keep on trying

October 11th, 2003	Top \| #13
Dogfighter Gamer Joined: April 2002 Location: Wales UK Posts: 81 Reputation: 0 Power: 124	Thanks Zomaar that works just great, just the fix I was looking for, I new someone would be smart enought to sort me out Amd XP 3000 333 fsb MSI Geforce FX 5900 1024 Mb 2700 DDR Asus A7V8X Via KT400 Mobo Creative 1024 live sound card LG DVD Burner 2mb ADSL

October 11th, 2003	Top \| #14
Terrahertz Extinction Agenda Joined: April 2002 Location: New York Posts: 972 Reputation: 294 Power: 135	Originally posted by Krux Halo isn't frefresh rate locked at 60hz. and Ive never understood this 60hz thing ive never had that problem.... is it and Nvidia thing or what? Yup its a Nvidia thing. we all have to do a refresh rate fix INSTALLATION & ADMINISTRATION

October 14th, 2003	Top \| #15
LPDad OSNN Addict Joined: January 2002 Posts: 205 Reputation: 20 Power: 129	I think everyone agrees that this issue needed to be addressed a little better before they released the pc version...Oh well.. I have a fairly high-end system and out of the box halo played like crap for me. My brother-in-law has a mid-range system with a cheaper nvidia card and it played like a dream for him...go figure.. ANYWAYS, here is what worked for my system..hopefully it will save you some time..give it a try. My system: WinXP Pro Lots of Harddrives Nvidia GF4 4400 (latest drivers from Nvidia) Asus A7N8X-Deluxe (+ latest n-force drivers) Onboard sound blah, blah, blah... Bottom line is to add some qualifiers to your shortcut (as zomar suggested) ..besides the refresh fix listed above it helps if you specify the pixelshaders that you want the game to use. I found for my nvidia card PS1.4 work the best (I have included a listing of all the options at the end of the post) I have EVERYTHING set to HIGH, and I am using sound Hardware acceleration (YES)...BUT TURN OFF EAX. I run at 1024x768 and I am specifying a Refresh rate of 85. (my monitor's actual refresh rate is set much higher) in game set the FRAMERATE= VSYNC Once again all ingame settings are set to either YES or HIGH except for EAX which is OFF. (Antialiasing is turned off in the Nvidia control panel, but the "controlled by application" works also) To get this to work on my machine add the following to the last part of the shortcut (as outlined above): -vidmode 1024,768,85 -use14 So that your shortcut will be: "H:\Games\Halo\halo.exe" -vidmode 1024,768,85 -use14 (your drive/folders may be different) if you want to try the PixelShaders 1.1 then simply change to -use11. Hope this helps some of you out with this very frustrating problem. Here is a list of the Commands you can append: To add the command line: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe" -vidmode 1024,768,85 -use14 Other commands you can tack on (straight from the Readme.rtf) -nosound Disables all sound. -novideo Disables video playback. -nojoystick Disables joystick/gamepads. -nogamma Disables adjustment of gamma. -useff Forces the game to run as a fixed function card. -use11 Forces the game to run as a shader 1.1 card. -use20 Forces the game to run as a shader 2.0 card. -safemode Disables as much as possible from the game. -window Runs the game in a window. -width640 Forces the game to run at 640x480. -vidmode w,h,r Forces the game to run at width, height, refresh rate. -adapter x Forces the game to run fullscreen on a multimon adaptor. -port x Server port address used when hosting games. -cport x Client port address used when joining games. -ip x.x.x.x Server IP address used when you have multiple IP addresses. -screenshot Enables the "Print Screen" key to generate screenshots -timedemo Runs four movies and writes out timedemo.txt. -console Enables the debugging console.

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October 14th, 2003	Top \| #16
chris Free to Fly Joined: September 2002 Posts: 1,109 Reputation: 50 Power: 130	Good post LPDad, covers just about everything you can add to the shortcut.

October 14th, 2003	Top \| #17
str8 Unregistered Posts: n/a	Wheres the command to change the frickin fov??

October 14th, 2003	Top \| #18
TheBlueRaja BR to Some Joined: April 2002 Location: Fawkirk! Posts: 766 Reputation: 269 Power: 133	Actually, it happens with me as well and i have ATi. The command above fixed it though. Thanks

October 15th, 2003	Top \| #19
blackspawn Unregistered Posts: n/a	Well it seems that using LPDad's "-vidmode 1024,768,85 -use14" fixed whatever problems were occurring (was getting a BSOD everytime I tried to change refresh rate or screen resolution) Thanks a bunch!!

October 23rd, 2003	Top \| #20
Gus K NTFS abuser Joined: November 2002 Location: USA Posts: 380 Reputation: 30 Power: 120	Yup its a Nvidia thing. we all have to do a refresh rate fix NO it's an XP thing that's been corrected with SP1 (except for OpenGL). You don't need any apps to override the default 60 in D3D. Just go into 'More help' in dxdiag and set the override to whatever you prefer.