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Xash3D Engine

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Xash3D is the powerful independent open-sourced 3D-engine, aimed for high compatibility with GoldSource engine formats (maps, models, textures, sounds, entities etc.), but with the intention to be an advanced platform for modmaking or game development. Technically it has been built from a scratch, using as totally original ideas, as some ideas from other 3D-engines. Xash3D overcomes obsolete GoldSource engine's limits and provides for you a new quality of gaming experience and modmaking capabilities, as extended map, model, texture & sound formats with higher limits, possibility to implement custom renderers with dynamic lighting and other modern features. Xash3D is the easy-to-use base to play existing Half-Life mods & create something new, impossible with GoldSource. Years of development & testing allowed to make from Xash3D a perfect mix of high compatibility with common GoldSource standards & high openness to creative modmaking ideas.

Post tutorial Report RSS Xash3D-compatible Half-Life mods for any supported OS

Original Xash3D Engine by Unkle Mike (Windows version) supports wide variety of Half-Life mods, from simple 1-map mods to mods which change everything - from game resources (textures, models, sprites, sounds etc.) to gameplay itself (new weapons, NPCs, monsters, game mechanics etc.). But some people use ported versions of Xash3D to play Half-Life mods on different operating systems (like Android, Linux etc.). Here is a guide about mods which should be supported on any platform.

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Original Xash3D Engine by Unkle Mike (Windows version) supports wide variety of Half-Life mods, from simple 1-map mods to mods which change everything - from game resources (textures, models, sprites, sounds etc.) to gameplay itself (new weapons, NPCs, monsters, game mechanics etc.). But some people use ported versions of Xash3D FWGS to play Half-Life mods on different operating systems (like Android, Linux, Mac, iOS etc.). And they want to know which mods are supported by Xash3D for their platform. The major rule here is that any ported version ("fork") of Xash3D contains standard Half-Life code. So, technically, any ported version of Xash3D should support properly any Half-Life mod, which doesn't use a new game code.

In this article you can find those mods, which are based on standard code of Half-Life. They may have changed textures, models, sprites, sounds, skill configs, but they don't change gameplay itself. This should allow you to play these mods with any fork of Xash3D (if it's ported correctly). Mods which include non-standard game DLLs (you can find them in dlls or cl_dlls folders usually) most probably should be ported on corresponding platform, otherwise they will not work properly (new weapons, NPCs, monsters will be missed, and game mechanics will be broken), so even if you manage to run such mod on any platform except Windows, you will not able to play it as intended. By the way, any multiplayer mod contains changed game code, so they must be ported with no exceptions, and they are not listed below.

SINGLEPLAYER MODS, BASED ON

STANDARD HALF-LIFE CODE


All listed mods have a download link (if possible). All listed mods have at least 2 playable maps. You can play them with Xash3D, using common rules of mods' installing (with an adjusting to specific OS). EXE-files are supported only by Windows, so if you see a mod, packed into installer, you should unpack it before trying to use it on another OS. Highly rated mods are marked with a bold font. Some mods have a tip of how to prevent potential problems with a mod, or an information about inner bugs of a mod (which show themselves not only with Xash3D, but with GoldSrc too). Some mods had problems with performance on old builds of Xash3D because of engine-side mirrors (if "gl_allow_mirrors" cvar is set to "1"), but in current versions and for most of ports on another OS it's probably is not actual already (because that cvar is removed or doing nothing).

Please note: unfortunately, some mods' authors do not know, how to properly set Valve's game dlls via liblist.gam of their mod, so they just copy dll files (hl.dll & client.dll) from valve folder into mod's folder. For original Xash3D this only works if old non-SteamPipe dlls were used. Otherwise, the engine is unable to load client.dll, linked to Steam assets, and the game do not start (Host_InitError: can't initialize client.dll). All mods listed below are based on standard game code, so if you have a trouble with their client.dll (if they have one), you can safely delete both dlls & cl_dlls folders inside mod's directory. So the engine will use appropriate dlls from your valve folder. This method works properly only for mods which do not modify original game code for their needs. Other mods (with non-standard game code) must be used only with dlls shipped with a mod.


There are also some mods, released in alpha, beta or demo state, or mods which have no complete storyline or which have been cancelled in development, so they may be not fully-featured or may contain some inner bugs. However, these mods have no incompatibilities with Xash3D, so you can try them also.


Some mods were released as a set of maps without level transitions (because they are independent, or because mod's author was unable to finish the mod). So if you want to try them, you should start every map manually via console. Look inside maps folder of a mod to check names of present maps (and load them with map name_of_a_map command or use nextmap to load one map by another in alphabetical order).


Some mods have minor incompatibilities which can interrupt normal gameplay or completing a mod. But they still almost totally playable with Xash3D.

  • Alternate Path (there are 2 issues which hopefully fixed in latest builds of Xash3D, but they may appear for you, so if you have deep sticking in elevator between maps out3 & out2, use noclip as solution; and set sv_validate_changelevel to 0, if you have a problem with level transition between maps outside & out2)
  • Graf War (to make spray painting working in the mod, put preferred logo with a name "remapped.bmp" into logos folder, or rename the present "andre.bmp" for "remapped.bmp")
  • Hard (you may get stuck inside boxes in a moving truck on the second map of the mod - type restart command in the console to fix your position when the next map is loaded and truck is stopped)
  • Pulse Episode One Beta 1, Terrorist Attack (maps of these mods have a "leak" bug, it causes visual glitches and a problem of significant performance drops after some maps played)
  • The Hill (there is a mapper's flaw in changelevel settings between maps thehill & thesequel, it can be corrected only manually by editing of entpatches for these maps - you need to rename "bottom rung" value to "bottomrung"; after editing you need to start a new game)
  • Threatening Skies Pre-Demo (aka Half-Life 1.5; you may get stuck in a roof of a train on level change between maps game010c and game010d; use noclip or restart command to fix this)


P. S. Some of mods, which were released not so long ago, are not listed here, but will be added later as soon as possible. Also there are a lot of so-called HD-packs or messup mods which don't contain new maps or new code at all, but focusing on replacing of default models, sounds, sprites, textures etc. (e. g. Overhaul Pack). Such mods are also work with Xash3D without problems, so it's not even needed to mention them as compatible. Most of single maps listed there are also just maps without custom code, if you can't find inside new DLL-files in dll or cl_dll folders.

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nekonomicon
nekonomicon - - 307 comments

Probably, need a link on our wiki: Github.com
(Any person can edit this wiki)

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DOOMGUUUUUY
DOOMGUUUUUY - - 50 comments

Just asking how to run the mod that have a .exe file ?

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Qwertyus Author
Qwertyus - - 2,492 comments

Use Windows. Or find archived version of the mod. Also some of exe`s are self-extracting archives and probably can be extracted with corresponding un-archiving program (which can work with RAR or 7-Zip archives, for example).

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C.S.Madisun
C.S.Madisun - - 419 comments

I'd like to make an amendment to this list!

Hazardous Materials: Episodes 1 + 2 contains two maps (hm_ep2_6a and hm_ep2_8a - they're both actually variants of the same map) that simply WILL NOT LOAD in Xash3D, but will under the Steam version of Half-Life.

If you try to load them (or the game tries to trigger them through the intended map triggers), the console message says "map hm_ep2_6a/8a is invalid or not supported".

Fortunately, you can move the mod over from a Xash3D install into your Steam version of HL and load a save game, but it's still a pretty bad error I've not seen in any other mod, and it's not mentioned here, so...

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Qwertyus Author
Qwertyus - - 2,492 comments

Thanks for the info. This issue is caused by some changes in the engine. Looks like new builds mistakenly treat some maps (hm_ep2_l6a, hm_ep2_l8, map hm_ep2_l10a) as if they are invalid ("funny lump size" error). This doesn't happen with build 3887 and older. So currently the solution is to use build 3887 or older to play this mod.

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