Hello! I'm new to the community here.

My brother gave me a copy of Halo: Combat Evolved recently. I installed it on my Windows 10 computer. I installed the patches for it up to version 1.10. When I play it, objects (in particular characters and trees) seem to stretch across the screen. The game is playable, but it's rather annoying. Here's an example: https://imgur.com/a/q6CkA

I tried running it in compatibility mode for WinXP and WinVista, but it didn't fix anything. I've followed instructions from http://www.pcgamer.com/how-to-run-halo-combat-evolved-on-windows-78/ and from this website.

While searching for solutions, I discovered Halo Custom Edition. I installed it, including patches up to 1.10. I downloaded all the regular campaign maps and a new UI file according to the instructions. However, it still does it! Also, I am not able to adjust the resolution any higher than the regular Halo game (I have a 16:9 monitor, so the max resolution in Halo and Halo Custom Edition is 1280x720, instead of my native resolution of 1920x1080).

My hardware is:

• Intel Core i5-6600 (Skylake) - Not overclocked


• 32 GB DDR4 RAM


• Samsung 850 Pro SSD


• Windows 10 Enterprise N LTSB


• No external video card - using the built in Intel HD Graphics 300

Does anyone know why this is doing this and how I can fix it? It's very frustrating. Thank you so much!
Edited by Rooster28 on Dec 14, 2015 at 10:15 PM

You can set the resolution by reading this: http://hce.halomaps.org/?nid=309
and that is a common issue with Intel graphics unfortunately. Try updating to the latest drivers. I have tried haswell integrated and it does that occasionally. Intel's drivers on linux are surprisingly more stable, but I doubt you want to go that route.

Thanks for the tip on setting the resolution!

I am running the latest drivers already . This is a brand-new system that I literally just finished putting the hardware together two days ago . Since it's the fault of Intel HD Graphics, I imagine if I get a external graphics card (like a Nvidia GeForce 780 Ti), this glitch wont happen?

I actually did plan to setup a dual-boot with Arch Linux, but that might take a week to setup the way I want. Halo CE can run in wine?

Thanks for the quick reply!

I'd go with a GTX 970 if I were you, there's about a $60 difference in price for a negligible difference in performance. Also it's newer-gen.

Thanks for the advice everyone! I actually just got back from a local store and purchased a Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 4 GB. It was $270. The 970 was $100 more, so I passed on it.

I'll update to confirm that it fixed this stretching problem.

It works! The graphics actually look better overall (I guess Intel was messing up some textures too?) and I can select my native resolution in the settings without modifying the command line.

Thank you all so very much! I'm looking forward to playing the Halo campaign for the first time in many years.

I am going to click on you again.

Perhaps I'll get a quadro m5000 out of it.....

One more tip. You can probably get the textures look even sharper with this:
https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/1671033/0/0