Comment by jamesfinlayson 10 days ago
I don't think there's any official way to play the original 2004 version (or even the Source 2006/Episode One version either). The Xbox version is probably closest but they used palettised textures for the Xbox version - something that no PC version of Source ever supported - probably to get it to run okay.
There aren't any official methods, but with a little elbow grease, several ways to run a vanilla boxed copy of Half-Life 2 are outlined in this thread: https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=70250
I've also wanted to run HL2 in DirectX 6 as well on period correct GPUs. Specifically a TNT2 Ultra and a Voodoo 5 5500 I have laying around. I just haven't gotten around to it.
Those were some fancy graphics cards when they came out.
Maybe you can? If -dxlevel 60 doesn't work any more I think there's a file called dxsupport.cfg (or something like that) that adjusts various graphical settings based on the DirectX level detected. I don't really know how it works but my understanding is that the engine figures out what version of DirectX you have installed and sets the DirectX level based on that, but all the controls is various graphical settings.