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Below is a list of frequently asked questions about Chimera. If you don’t find your answer here, check the Troubleshooting page or visit the Discord server.

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System Requirements

Short answer: If your PC uses Windows 7 or later, it’ll work. Note that, while Chimera isn’t too taxing, especially on modern systems, it can make Halo harder to run if you’re on extremely ancient hardware.Long answer: Here are the requirements:

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Minimum Requirements

  • OS (if on Windows): Windows 7 or newer, or Windows XP and newer if using the dedicated Windows XP release
  • Wine (if on Linux): Wine 4.0 or newer
If your PC does not at least meet the above requirements, Chimera may fail to run properly due to the underlying API being older.For running Chimera optimally:
  • CPU (Intel): Intel Core i3-2100 (3.1 GHz) or better
  • CPU (AMD): AMD FX 6100 (3.3 GHz) or better
  • RAM: 8 GiB or more*
  • GPU (Nvidia): Nvidia GeForce 8500 GT
  • GPU (AMD): ATI Radeon HD 5670 or better
  • GPU (Intel): See Nvidia and AMD requirements
*Halo, even with Chimera, is 32-bit, so it won’t technically use more than 4 GiB, but 8 GiB is recommended so Chimera has enough RAM.
The newest of the above recommendations is the AMD CPU (FX 6100) which was released in 2011.

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Licensing

Probably not. You would first need to ask all of the developers of Chimera for permission.Chimera is licensed under version 3.0 of the GNU General Public License. See the LICENSE file in the repository for more information.

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Installation & Configuration

This can occur when a required DirectX 9 library isn’t installed.The fix: Download and run the official DirectX installer from Microsoft’s download page.
Make sure you download the official DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer from Microsoft.
Short answer: Halo’s gamma setting was disabled as it does a lot more harm than good. Basically, it’s screwed up and there’s no good way to fix it. This may seem like an inconvenience, but you really do not want to use this. We recommend using dgVoodoo2 for this, instead.Long answer: How Halo’s gamma setting works is, rather than changing Halo’s own brightness level, it changes your operating system’s brightness. It then stores the gamma setting by editing the registry. Halo is then programmed to restore the operating system’s older gamma setting when it closes. However, this can only occur if Halo closes correctly. There is the chance that it won’t close properly (exception errors, you closed it improperly, etc.), and if that happens, you may end up with Halo’s gamma setting lingering.We decided to disable this setting since it presented unnecessary modifications to the registry, it potentially ends up actually screwing up your operating system’s video settings, and there is quite simply a better way to do it, anyway.
We are not going to provide an option to re-enable it. Use dgVoodoo2 instead.

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Updates & Maintenance

Short answer: Auto updating is not actually a feature you want. For the best experience, the responsibility for keeping Chimera up-to-date falls upon you, the user.Long answer: The gains of adding an auto updater are vastly outweighed by the cons of having one.

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Why No Auto-Updater?

The only reason to add an auto updater is for convenience. Chimera is very easy to install and update. So, it is not necessary to add one even for novice users. Updates are generally announced on both the Discord server as well as on Open Carnage.

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Reasons Against Auto-Updating

  1. File Access Issues
    • You need write access to the mod DLL
    • When the game is running, strings.dll cannot be written to due to it being in use
    • Most people do not have write access to the Halo game files if installed in “Program Files”
  2. Security Risks
    • Auto updaters present a security risk if the server is hijacked
    • Developers could potentially push bad updates
    • Signing mechanisms can be compromised
  3. Historical Issues with Other Mods
    • SAPP: Some versions crash on Wine due to DLL obfuscation issues
    • HAC2: Server downtime has prevented users from starting the game, acting like DRM
    • HAC2: Updates changed from open source to closed source without user consent

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What This Means

No mod developer should be able to:
  • Update to a build that no longer works when it was working before
  • Restrict you from playing the game unless it can communicate with a server
  • Change the terms of your agreement to said software without your consent
Since it’s easy to keep your version of Chimera up-to-date manually, it was decided against implementing auto updating functionality.

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Multiplayer & Maps

Short answer: This is probably due to a CRC32 mismatch. Basically, this is to prevent Halo from crashing due to using a map that differs from what is hosted on the server. This is done for your protection, and we recommend either forging the CRC32 or getting the original map.Long answer: Halo Custom Edition (and Chimera if joining Custom Edition servers) calculates a checksum (a number) from your map based on the contents of the map file. It then sends this number to the server upon joining, and the server compares it against the map it has. If the checksum isn’t forged, then it can confirm, with ~99.999999976% certainty (or a 1 in 4,294,967,296 chance for a collision), that the map is identical.

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Why This Check Exists

The reason it does all of this is due to the fact that using a modified map or a different map entirely can result in a game crash for the client. Obviously, there are some modifications that can be done to a map that will not result in a crash, but there is no way to discern such a chance using a checksum alone. This is done for your protection, and it is not recommended to attempt to bypass this check.

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Using Modified Maps

If you want to join a server using a modified Halo Custom Edition map on a Halo Custom Edition server, then you should forge the CRC32.
Using maps with different CRC32 values than the server expects can cause crashes and other issues. Only forge CRC32 values if you know what you’re doing.

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Getting Help

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