Build 725 (Oct 19, 1998)

This is a sub-page of Proto:Half-Life (Windows).

readmeTwo readme files that detail general testing instructions.

Docs#

Bugs Bugs BugsDocument for bug reporting. Early ReactionsDocument for testers to write down their initial reactions. Install and SetupDocument for any issues during install. MultiplayerDocument for multiplayer setup and questions. Overall SummaryDocument for testers' thoughts after completing the game. UninstallDocument for uninstall methods.

Map Differences#

Anomalous Materials#

c1a0d#

The logic entities for the microwave sequence are positioned differently, this has no noticeable visual impact on the sequence when loaded in.

"We've Got Hostiles"#

c1a3b#

It is possible to go through the gaps in the electric fences (and survive with enough health and armor), making the outside area explorable. The final game has these gaps clipped off.

Blast Pit#

c1a4i#

The beta version of this map has slight differences with the scripted sequence at the start of the map. For starters, the scientist that gets dragged by the Tentacles has a different starting position.

Prototype	Final

Additionally, the sequence is triggered by the entrance door opening in the beta version, where in the final game, it uses a trigger_once entity instead. It is unknown why this change was made.

Prototype	Final

On A Rail#

c2a2a#

The dead HECU grunt in the area next to the turret uses a different skin than in the retail game.

Prototype	Final

c2a2e#

The elevator's top level has 3 tripmines "blocking" the exit, but they can be easily jumped through its gaps. The final game swaps these for a stack of explosives.

Prototype	Final

c2a2h#

Watch on YouTubeThe rocket launch center still has its unaltered original sequence, where three scientists are hiding inside the computer room. The grunts outside must be killed first, the doors will then open and one of the scientists must be lead into the retinal scanner.

The player can crawl through the windows in the launch room, something not possible in the final game.

Apprehension#

c2a3e#

The final game adds an invisible "box" that prevents movement for the first few moments of being teleported to the compactor, which breaks into gibs once the first crate is broken.

Prototype	Final

Questionable Ethics#

c2a4e#

In the room where the Alien Grunts and the HECU battle each other, the entrance door is missing its 'Monsters Can't' flag, meaning that enemies can open the door.

Prototype	Final

Additionally, one of the laser tripmines at the right from the entrance of the same room isn't placed on the wall properly, which can be seen when the map is loaded in-game.

Prototype	Final

Surface Tension#

c2a5#

The beta version of the explosive flying barrels at the start of the map has the 'Only Once' flag disabled for their associated trigger_push entities. This has no noticeable effect on how they act in-game.

c2a5e#

The beta version of the map has two unused sprite entities that don't exist in the final map, these being biggun_shot_sprite and biggun_shot_sprite1. They are not visible in-game and thus can only be seen inside a map viewer, this is what they look like when opened inside one:

"Forget About Freeman!"#

c3a1#

The version of c3a1 present in the beta uses a different texture for the walls at the starting hallway, strangely the next map has the hallway using the final game's textures.

Prototype	Final

Unused Map#

Watch on YouTubec3a1c is a cut map present in this build. It starts off in the hidden elevator from "Forget about Freeman!" (map c3a1) containing the red triangle, now to the left of the player. After exiting the elevator, the player goes through the starting area of map c3a1b. After that, however, is a dome with a satellite dish on it, similar to what's shown on the Uplink demo, albeit in a less finished state. The objective is the same: tune the transmitter to the US NRC.

A Stukabat model is seen at the very top of the dome. However, it is only a cycler entity, and as such, will cycle through its animations when shot at.

This map has no defined sky texture, and will fallback to the one used from the last loaded map or the default "desert" sky.

The map is also using an older version of the BSP file format, the same one present in the September 1997 prototype and Quake.

Lambda Core#

c3a2d#

Both armouries have different weapon and ammo placements compared to the final game.

The first armoury (the one closest to the entrance of the room) is missing a Hivehand and a Gluon Gun, with some Revolver and Shotgun ammo in the place of the Hivehand.

Prototype	Final

The second armoury is also missing a Tau Cannon, with two Revolver ammo pieces in its place.

Prototype	Final

Xen#

c4a1#

The beta version of this map uses a different sound file for the tall pillar on the main island closest to the 2nd island the player jumps to.

Instead of using 'ambience/flameburst1.wav', it references a sound file that doesn't exist, that being 'weapons/r_exp3.wav'. It also uses a pitch of 100, rather than 70 in the final version.

The first island the player jumps to is also missing a blood decal, a battery and a medkit.

Prototype	Final

Gonarch's Lair#

c4a2#

The dead helmet model next to spawn in the beta version of this map has a Long Jump Module and the loot is positioned differently, this is most notably seen with the batteries.

Prototype	Final

Interloper#

c4a1b#

Item distribution is largely different here, mostly in secluded areas.

The last portion of the map has five tripmines as loot. The final game swaps these for a medkit, and adds a weaponbox and dead body near the teleport.

Prototype	Final

c4a1d#

For unknown reasons, the chapter name for the beta version of c4a1d is 'Nihilanth' rather than 'Interloper'.

Nihilanth#

c4a1f#

The beta version of this map has slightly different lighting at the portal.

Prototype	Final

Multiplayer#

General Differences#

All of the Deathmatch maps are named hldmX internally instead of the actual map name, where X is a number.

A table listing each map and the corresponding name for them in the final release is below:

Boot Camp#

The version of boot_camp (hldm4) included in this build is missing the blue room.

Prototype	Final

There is also extra loot in the area behind the sniper building to make up for the lack of the blue room in this version of the map.

Prototype	Final

Snark Pit#

The version of snark_pit (hldm3) included in this build is slightly more unfinished when compared to the final version.

Both of the blue rooms, despite being in the map, are otherwise completely inaccessible. The upper blue room is missing the trigger_push above the fan. In the final version, the button that extends the bridge to the RPG also opens the door to the lower blue room, but in the beta, it is only set to activate the bridge, making the lower blue room inaccessible.

The lower blue room also has no button to open the door once you're inside and the loot is positioned closer to where the button would have been placed.

Prototype	Final

Stalkyard#

The beta version of stalkyard (hldm7) contains many differences with loot placement, multiple items have been moved, deleted and added when compared to the final version.

For starters, a Tau Cannon in the final game is instead a Gluon Gun in the beta version.

Prototype	Final

Secondly, there's an extra grenade pickup on top of the light fixture in the beta version.

Prototype	Final

Finally, there's an extra RPG rocket in the beta version of the map.

Prototype	Final

Additionally, the final version of the map has a room with extra loot, accompanied with a ventilation system that provides a detour to the lower part of the map. The beta version is missing this room and the vents entirely.

Prototype	Final

Subtransit#

The version of subtransit (hldm1) included in this build has some oddities that aren't in the final version.

All the info_node entities inside the map are absent from the beta version, and there are pushable boxes, 4 of which are in the room with the shotgun and Tau Cannon ammo, and one more is located in the room at the opposite side of the other. The purpose of them is unknown.

Prototype	Final

Undertow#

The version of undertow (hldm2) included in this build has some differences in loot at the lower section of the map.

These differences include:

1. The Hivehand in the pool of water being absent.
2. A piece of Crossbow ammo being absent next to the Crossbow.
3. A missing Shotgun and Shotgun ammo above the elevator room.
4. A missing SMG on the roof above the elevator room.

This is shown in the following comparison:

Prototype	Final

Monster Differences#

Gargantua#

Gargantuas fully play their death animation, without exploding, fading out once complete. This usually results in some major clipping during its intended death sequence in Power Up.

Unused Graphics#

gfx.wad#

gfx.wad has two additional lambda icons not present in the final version. Purpose unknown.

Texture Differences#

gfx.wad#

Texture	Prototype	Final
PAUSED

The pause graphic is larger.

halflife.wad#

Texture	Prototype	Final
PEPSI_SD
PEPSI_FT

The Pepsi branded vending machine textures are uncensored.

c3a1c#

Curiously, some textures embedded into the unused map c3a1c differ from their final versions, as well as using textures that can only be found in the September 1997 build.

Texture	c3a1c	halflife.wad
C1A1_W1B
TNNL_FLR6B
TNNL_W12A
Texture	c3a1c	September 1997 prototype
+1~METALSTCH2
GENERIC041
OUT_HCW1

Model Differences#

Player#

Prototype	Final

Gordon's model is similar to his Day One demo counterpart, including all the different animations. The gender bodygroup has been replaced with a helmet bodygroup, and the weapons bodygroup has been removed entirely. The model is the same in Net Test 1.

Female Assassins#

Prototype	Final

The shooting animation included in this version of the model has no blends, which means that they can't visually look up or down while shooting.

p_crossbow.mdl#

Prototype	Final

Texture	Prototype	Final
stock.bmp
sightcyl.bmp
recieverside.bmp
world_grip.bmp

The Crossbow's model as held by a player features less saturated, more natural looking wooden grips and a slightly less detailed scope. The model is the same in Net Test 1.

p_egon.mdl#

Prototype	Final

The Gluon Gun's model as held by a player uses an older, much less refined design. The textures are the same as the early viewmodel, merely downscaled. However it uses a very basic mesh, with no backpack and poor UV mapping. The view model (w_egon2) for this version of the Gluon Gun is present in the Half-Life SDK with less detailed textures. The model is the same in Net Test 1.

p_rpg.mdl#

Prototype	Final

The RPG as held by a player has its design as seen in the Day One demo and in some pre-release screenshots. The model is the same in Net Test 1.

v_crossbow.mdl#

The Crossbow's viewmodel center has a unique texture, internally named recslide.bmp. The model is the same in Net Test 1.

v_357.mdl#

The Revolver's viewmodel is missing its sound event for reloading, this is because the game is hard-coded to play the reload sound for the Revolver instead.

Alien Slave#

Texture	Prototype	Final
Toes1.bmp

Vortigaunt toes are a solid grey rectangle in the prototype, seemingly by mistake as the Day One models doesn't share this oddity. The model is the same in Net Test 1.

Multiplayer#

There are only four multiplayer models in the models/player folder.

All four multiplayer player models are close to their final counterparts save for two major differences; their default textures feature much more saturated colors and use animations from the Day One demo.

Gina#

Prototype	Final

Texture	Prototype	Final
DM_Base.bmp
DM_Face.bmp

Gordon#

Prototype	Final

Texture	Prototype	Final
DM_Base.bmp
DM_Face.bmp

Helmet#

Prototype	Final

Texture	Prototype	Final
DM_Base.bmp

Human Grunt#

Prototype	Final

Texture	Prototype	Final
DM_Base.bmp

High-poly submodels#

Much like their final counterparts, the deathmatch models also have a separate submodel featuring a higher-poly version of them. This is meant for the "Use High Quality Models" option made to allow for the slower computers of the time to play deathmatch with less performance issues.

However, the high-quality model for Gordon has a unique version of the 'idle' animation that none of the other characters possess, where he has a fully animated eyebrow and mouth to accompany the nose itching.

Gordon	Other Models

Text Differences#

The Hazard course has no title. In fact, its entry in titles.txt is blank.

T0A0TITLE
{

}

The following blank entries are also missing:

OPENTITLE3
OPENTITLE4
C4A1BTITLE
C4A1CTITLE
C4A1ETITLE
C4A1FTITLE

Strings related to spectating, multiplayer scoreboards, teamplay and replays are not present here.

Menu Differences#

• The "3D info site" button is missing entirely. This button was seemingly added in the very last days of development, as even Build 738 (4 days before release) doesn't have it.
• The "Content Control" button is called the "Gore reduction" button in this build.
• The button to view the readme has different capitalization, saying "View readme.txt" rather than "View Readme.txt"
• The "LAN game" button has wonky capitalization and instead says "Lan game"
• The WON logo is not present anywhere in the settings.

Player Customization#

The player customization menu is unfinished; most options do not work, with only the player name and color actually being saved:

• The model preview is not displayed at all, although there is a box to display it.
• The spray preview is also not displayed, although there is a box to display it and the actual spray icons are identical to the final game.
• The UI here generally has rendering issues - the color customization box may not be completely displayed, if at all.

Product Previews#

These do not exist at all; clicking the "Previews" button to view them causes an error as the HTML files displaying them are not present - the only HTML file packaged with the game is a list of driver websites for GPUs of the era.

Control Differences#

• There is an additional control binding in this build inherited from Quake, "messagemode2", used for team chat. It has been completely removed for the final. This may relate in some form to the scrapped cooperative multiplayer mode.
• The "key descriptions" in the various kb_* files don't exist in this build - only the actual key names are listed.

Miscellaneous#

• p_shotgun.mdl and p_9mmar.mdl appear as they do in the Day One demo.
• Sound settings are not set up in valve.rc
• joystick.cfg is not run by default.
• The German models are present in their own folders.
• The default value of gl_zoffset on Nvidia RIVA TNT cards (rivatnt.cfg) was changed from 0 to 0.1.

3DLabs GPU support#

It appears that 3Dlabs GPUs had not been thoroughly tested with Half-Life as of this build, as various settings were tweaked by the final to work around buggy drivers and general poor support for 3D graphics techniques:

• Overbright is enabled by default (in the final game, it is disabled by default).
• Colored lighting is enabled by default (in the final game, it is disabled by default).
• Fullbright is always enabled by default (in the final game, it is disabled by default).
• Paletted textures are enabled by default. In the final game they were disabled because, according to a comment in the file, although the Permedia 2 GPU advertises support for paletted textures in its OpenGL driver, they show up as white when they are actually rendered by the game.
• "Amplitude of waves in GL (temporary)" comment removed