Thanks to Rinnegatamante’s open-source OpenGL implementation for the Vita called VitaGL, we now got another 3D GPU accelerated game! This time around, it is the legendary Half-Life 1 thanks to the Xash3D engine port by ‘fgsfdsfgs’.
What is vitaXash3D and Half-Life 1?
You can now play Half-Life 1 on your PSVita! At this rate, the Vita will become the go-to console for good shooters 
vitaXash3D is a port of the Xash3D FWGS engine for the PSVita/PSTV. This engine is an open-source Gold Source (GoldSrc) engine written from scratch but it still manages to manages to be compatible with many GoldSrc games and mods! Games that run with the engine are the original Half-Life, Counter Strike and other Half-Life 1 based games including mods and fan remakes.
Currently, the PSVita port of the engine is at this stage:
- It can only run Half-Life right now.
- Sound is a tad flaky and people sound a tad off but not too bad.
- It is a test release so you’ll encounter bugs, glitches and issues!
- Mods currently don’t work but you should able to use custom maps.
- The frame rate fluctuates between 20-60 FPS all the time but it’s still perfectly playable in my opinion!
- The game seems to render at 960×544 so it looks exceptionally good-looking!
- Saving and auto-saving takes a while and your game will seem to freeze so don’t force quit the game!
While it’s still an early release, it’s still great since you can play the famous original Half-Life on your PSVita! Half-Life 1 is a game released in 1998 for Windows PCs and some game consoles such as the PS 2 by Valve. It uses the GoldSrc engine which is a highly modified Quake engine; this engine went on to be used by Counter Strike and other third-party games such as Gunman Chronicles and James Bond 007: Nightfire.
How do I get this on my PSVita?
First of all, you need the data files of the game to play it on your Vita! The demo data files provided by the developer who ported this don’t seem to work, for me at least; this means I had to use the data files from the full game which worked without an issue. You’ll also need about 500MB free space on your Vita for the data files
To install this you need to do the following:
- Get on your computer and install Half-Life if it’s not already installed since you need access to its game files! Remember, getting Half-Life for free is still piracy!
- Download two files from the GitHub link below. These are the VPK file and the supplementary data ZIP file (about a megabyte large) for the game to work
- Connect to your PSVita via FTP/USB and make a folder called ‘xash3d’ in ux0:/data.
- Copy the ‘valve‘ folder from your Half-Life installation to ux0:/data/xash3d.
- Copy the contents of the ‘valve’ folder in the downloaded data ZIP file to the ‘valve’ folder you just copied over to your Vita.
- Delete the files in the ‘cl_dlls’ and ‘dlls’ folders in the ‘valve’ folder you just copied over
- Install the VPK
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Who would’ve thought you could ever roam around Black Mesa on your PSVita?
- Enjoy the game!
Make sure you understand the instructions since it’s quite easy to mess up if you’re not careful!
If you have any issues, report them to the developer by using the Issues tab of the GitHub link below. Make sure that the issue you wish to report hasn’t already been reported since many people have reported issues ever since the port’s release!
vitaXash3D release page (instructions + download link): https://github.com/fgsfdsfgs/vitaXash3D/releases/tag/v1
vitaXash3D readme (I would suggest you give this a read if you to make your life easier!): https://github.com/fgsfdsfgs/vitaXash3D/blob/master/README.md
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