PC Safe Mode

From Halopedia, the Halo Wiki

This article is about the Real World.

Safe Mode runs Halo PC with as many things off as possible. It looks almost exactly like an early version of Halo Mac, however, the current version has been fixed. Safe Mode is used in order to allow a reduced version of the game to operate on the PC, for computers with lower-end graphics cards or processing memory, or for players who want the game to operate more smoothly and quickly without the computer having to render extra graphics.

Contents 1 How to Enable Safe Mode 2 Changes 2.1 Lowest Quality 2.2 Medium Low Quality 2.3 Medium High Quality 2.4 High Quality 3 Trivia

[edit] How to Enable Safe Mode

There are two ways to enable Safe Mode. The first is manually enabling it on your program list. To do this...

• Go to where your Halo icon is, like in your Start Menu or on your Desktop.
• Right-click on it.
• Select Properties.
• Under "Target:", you'll see where your halo.exe is. At the end of that, put -safemode. Like this:

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe" -safemode

The text in quotes may be different than that.

This way doesn't always work, and won't if you have a high-end PC. It detects that your computer's processor is too slow to run Halo, and it asks if you'd like to run it in Safe Mode. Choose to by clicking it.

[edit] Changes

[edit] Lowest Quality

There are no textures, people are gray sillouettes. Everything is gray and backdrop is extremely distorted. No blood, particles, or decals. Seen on a Windows 95.

[edit] Medium Low Quality

No variety in character models color, Jackals and grunts are always brown, crew members, spartans, and elites are all white. No reflection effects. No blood, particles. Seen on a low grade Windows XP.

[edit] Medium High Quality

No reflection effects, no particles, blood, or decals. Lighting changes only on character models, but is brighter. Lighting changes on other equipment, such as the flashlight, do not happen.

[edit] High Quality

No particles, blood, or decals. All effects are perfect, but video hardware is just under enough to ask for safe mode. Recommended continue anyway.

[edit] Trivia

• Safe mode always turns off particles.

• On a game running with reflections, you will see the safe mode quality in some parts. Put a character model in some very dark lighting and shine the flashlight on it. This does not include a Spartan's visor.

• In Safe Mode, the Halo ring that normally animates and spins on the menu screen is just a low resolution still image.