Halo for Mac OS X
Version History
This application will update all previous versions of Mac Halo to version 1.5. This Updater is for the U.S. (ie, English) retail version of Halo only.
Version 1.5 - 1 December 2004
- The Mac code is now in sync with version 1.06 of the PC code (Build 612).
- An "Advanced Pixel Shaders" option has been added to the Graphics Options window. This new rasterizer may be used on ATI 9600/9700/9800 and NVIDIA 6800 level hardware.
- Support for USB gamepads and joysticks has been added. NOTE: If you have multiple USB game controllers attached to your Mac and you experience control problems, remove all game controllers except the one you wish to play with before starting Halo.
- GameRanger support has been added (special thanks to Scott Kevill!).
- The Hardware Shaders menu in the Graphics Options window has been simplified ("Pixel + Vertex Shaders" and "NV Shaders" are now a single option).
- A change in the OpenGL description string for the NVIDIA 5200 fx was preventing Pixel Shaders from running optimally on the new G5 iMacs. This has been corrected.
- Model Reflections are now always active when using Pixel Shaders on ATI 9600/9700/9800 and NVIDIA 6800 level hardware. This prevents performance loss and graphics bugs.
- Lens flare effects have been greatly optimized for gamers using Mac OS X 10.3.5 or later.
- A bug with decal textures has been fixed on NVIDIA 5200 fx, 4 Ti, and 3 Ti hardware.
- A bug with night vision has been fixed on NVIDIA 5200 fx, 4 Ti, and 3 Ti hardware.
- The plasma shield effect has been fixed on ATI 9600/9700/9800 level hardware.
- Optimizations to the Vertex Shaders rasterizer have been made for ATI 8500/9000/9200 hardware.
- Minor optimizations have been made to the blur and warp screen effects on NVIDIA 5200 fx, 4 Ti, and 3 Ti hardware.
- A problem in the Pixel Shaders where 2D overlays (menus, health & shield indicator, ammo indicator, etc) would turn bright blue has been fixed.
- The rasterizer_fps console command is working again.
- Added a check to make sure the path to the Users/user name/Documents folder was valid.
- A memory calculation bug in Macs with greater than 4GB of RAM has been fixed.
Version 1.05.3 - 8 September 2004
- The Mac code has been synchronized with version 1.05 of the PC code (Build 610). The PC code had been updated with a GameSpy Security Hot-Fix to prevent a malicious user from being able to shut down the game on the server.
- Gamers with the new NVIDIA 6800 video hardware may play Halo using either the NV Shaders or ATI Pixel Shaders modes.
Version 1.05.2 - 10 June 2004
- Gamers with video cards equipped with 128 MB or more VRAM may now set Halo's game resolution to greater than 1600x1200 if their monitor supports it.
Version 1.05.1 - 7 June 2004
- Active camo no longer causes a hang when using the NV Shaders, and the effect works correctly even with model reflections off.
- Halo now checks to make sure the main display is set to Millions of colors before trying to play in windowed mode. Previously, the game would spontaneously quit at launch on a monitor set to Thousands of colors if Windowed Mode and NV Shaders were active.
Version 1.05 - 9 April 2004
- Additional functionality which provides reflective surfaces for objects and vehicles on some NVIDIA hardware has been added to the NV Shaders rasterizer.
- A Model Reflections option has been added to the Halo Graphics Settings window. This option is only available in the ATI Pixel Shader and NVIDIA NV shader modes. We strongly recommend disabling this new option on lower-end video hardware.
- A PC game bug which prevented eMacs and other analog monitors with high refresh rates from syncing to 640x480 resolution has been fixed.
- Some issues with hardware fogging when using the Vertex Shaders rasterizer have been addressed.
Version 1.04.1 - 14 February 2004
- Some users reported problems with keyboard movement after updating to 1.04, though the bug could not be duplicated in testing. However, we did find and fix a random memory trasher in Halo's input system which may have been causing this problem. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
Version 1.04 - 12 February 2004
- The Mac code has been synchronized with version 1.04 of the PC code (Build 607). The PC code had been updated with a GameSpy Security Hot-Fix that addresses a rare crash bug that could occur if a malicious individual (hacker) purposely tries to exploit the GameSpy CDKey SDK on either Mac OS X or Windows.
Version 1.03 - 18 January 2004
- The Mac code is now in sync with version 1.031 of the PC code (Build 606). Mac Halo is once again multiplayer compatible with PC Halo:-)
- Previous versions of Halo did not require you to have a CD inserted to play the game. Unfortunately, due to heavy illegal online downloading of the software, this and all future versions of Halo will require a CD to play.
- A new "NV Shaders" rasterizer path has been added for players with nVidia GeForce 3 Ti, GeForce 4 Ti, or GeForce 5200 fx video hardware and Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther). Gamers with these configurations will notice a dramatic change in image quality when using this new feature.
- Players with Mac OS 10.3.2 and a GeForce 3 Ti or 4 Ti video card may encounter a few graphics glitches, particularly when zooming weapon sites with NV Shaders active. A fix for this is in progress.
- Many FSAA glitches have been fixed by Mac OS 10.3.2.
- Fixed occasional black screen flash when hit by weapons fire on eMacs and other Macs with ATI Radeon 1 or ATI Radeon 7500 AGP cards.
- In rare cases, gamers with Mac OS X 10.3.x (Panther) who click the Multiplayer menu option may now see the error "Halo can't connect to the network". This error occurs when Halo cannot retrieve the computer name assigned to your Macintosh. While there is no firm fix for this problem, some gamers have had success playing Multiplayer games by reseting their Mac's "Parameter RAM". For more information on resetting your Mac's PRAM, visit http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238 and http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86194 or go to http://www.info.apple.com/ and enter "parameter ram" into the search field.
- Servers now have a complete team killing / banning system that should significantly reduce team killing online. The concept is simple: team-kill a number of time and you will automatically be banned from the server for a period of time set by the server administrator. Because team kills can be accidental, the concept of grief also exists: following a team-kill, if you don't team-kill again for a period of time, you are forgiven for your team-kill. These settings are customizable by the server administrator(s) using server console commands.
- In addition to the system above, players are no longer penalized for being killed by someone on their team and respawn time penalty for a team-killer is multiplied by the number of teammates he killed, rapidly leading to very long respawn times for team killers.
- We've made a number of updates and bug fixes to our networking architecture, the most important one being specifically in how we transfer / predict player's movement / position as well as the action of reloading your weapon. While going into the details of these changes is beyond the scope of this document, the result should be a smoother online game experience across the variety of connections to the Internet.
- Servers name now supports 65 characters for dedicated servers and 32 characters for client-hosted servers and now accepts an extended character set.
- Chat text length has been extended to 64 characters.
- In-game scoreboard now displays every client's ping.
- In-game scoreboard now displays your # of assists.
- Server port numbers are displayed accurately throughout their range.
- Teams are now persisted for the next game when map cycling occurs.
- Map Reset: It's now possible to restart the current game without requiring the server to map cycle.
- Assault: We now have a timer to keep track of how much time is left to your offense / defense round.
- Assault: Alongside this timer, we also have an "Offense" and "Defense" indicator to quickly inform you of your role.
- Online Multiplayer: Telefrag message is now appropriately replicated.
- Online Multiplayer: Minor fixes to switching teams in kill-in-order games (score will now remain accurate).
- Online Multiplayer: Minor fixes to the end of the game state (new players now have to wait for the game to be restarted before being admitted to the server).
- Online Multiplayer: Fix for client's flashlight states when joining games.
- Online Multiplayer: Vehicles won't respawn if they have a projectile (such as a plasma grenade) attached to them. They will wait for the projectile to be removed.
- Online Multiplayer: Minor fixes to using teleports for high-latency connections.
Version 1.02 - 4 December 2003
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