How can I manually reset the default video settings in HL1?

Question

I changed the video settings to the maximum resolution that the game supports and widescreen.

I wanted to change back but now only a small part of the game is available on the screen to I can't get to where I can change the settings.

I have re-installed and tried both the "-safe" and "-autoconfig" set launch options but they didn't do anything.

How can I fix this?

Answer 1

If this is Half Life: Source, then you can start the game with this command line option in order to have it re-autodetect your screen and use the default size it first started with:

-autoconfig

This will not fix your config file, but it will ignore the current (bad) config files, allowing you to fix your resolution settings, close the game, then run the game without the -autoconfig option to use your newly-chosen resolution.

You can add command line options to a game from within Steam by right-clicking the game in your Library, choosing Properties, clicking Set Launch Options, then pasting in -autoconfig (or whatever command line option you're adding).

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If this is Half Life (the original), then you can start the game using the -w and -h command line options to tell it to start up with a different resolution. For example:

hl.exe -w 800 -h 600

Will start the game up in 800x600 (4:3 resolution), and will allow you to fix your graphics settings to that next time you start the game without the -w and -h options, it'll use your new resolution settings.

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Reference source: Command Line Options article at the Valve Developer Community site (thanks to 3ventic)

Answer 2

Assuming this is the Steam version of HL1 you can

1. Go to Properties by right clicking on the game in your library
2. Select Set Launch Options
3. Enter -window -noborder -width [native width of monitor] -height [native height of monitor] without the brackets

This fixed the problem for me