Technology Overview


The following section contains a brief description of the engine and related technology used in the Halo for the PC, including hardware system requirements.


Brief Overview


The game technology used by Halo for the PC is a proprietary game engine developed by Bungie Studios and Microsoft with additional code and modifications made by Gearbox Software.  The core rendering engine supports 4 rendering paths including fixed function rendering (DirectX 7.0),  Pixel Shaders 1.1  (DirectX 8.0), Pixel Shaders 1.4 (DirectX 8.0), and Pixel Shaders 2.0 (DirectX 9.0) and takes advantage of the latest generation video hardware.  The rendering engine supports vertex and pixel shaders in the form of a materials system.  The engine uses a bsp-style visibility solution with vertex lighting for models and a simple radiosity solution supporting lightmaps for world geometry.


Minimum System Requirements


The minimum system requirements to run Halo for the PC are as follows:
  • Operating System: Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Windows Second Edition, Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me), Microsoft Windows 2000, or Microsoft Windows XP.
  • Computer/Processor: 733 megahertz (MHz) processor.
  • DirectX: DirectX© 9.0 or later. (DirectX 9.0b is installed by Halo.)
  • Memory: 128 megabytes (MB) of RAM.
  • Hard Disk: 1.2 gigabytes (GB) of free hard disk space.
  • Video card: 32 MB or 3D Transform and Lighting capable.
  • CD: 8X.
  • Sound: Sound card, speakers, or headphones with multiplayer play.
  • *56.6 Kilobytes per second (KBps) modem or 10 MB network adapter. Multiplayer servers require broadband to run a server.
  • *Additionally, you must have an Internet Service provider (ISP) or a Local Area Network (LAN), if you want to play multi-player games.


Additional System Requirements


The following are the additional system requirements for editing Halo.  Please note that the end user should refer to the system requirements for any additional programs (3ds max™, Photoshop©, etc..) that they also intend on using for Halo editing.

Additional system requirements for Halo editing are as follows:
  • Hard Disk: A minimum of an additional 550 mb of free hard drive space
  • A 3 button mouse.  A third mouse button is necessary to activate the camera controls in the Sapien.

Additional system memory (RAM) and processor speed are highly recommended for editing Halo.