Halo: The Master Chief Collection

3D Vision and geo-11 fix for Halo: The Master Chief Collection. This fixes all of the games inside the collection, including the customization menu made in Unreal Engine 4, the classic versions of Halo CE and Halo 2, and Forge and multiplayer maps. Considering the differences in the games shaders, this is more or less like 9 fixes in 1.

Tested with the Steam version of the game.

Update (2022-11-12): updated geo-11 fix with build v0.6.78. More HUD consistency between games. Autoconvergence configured. Refixed Halo 3 shadows that a game update broke. Performance improvements.

Update (2022-06-21): added geo-11 fix.

Update (2022-06-13): a round of polishing, with improved light shafts in Halo 2, correctly fixed sniper views (including a vehicle in Halo: Reach), fixed radial blur, added a missing Halo 2 crosshair to the list, fixed Halo 4 thermal vision, a water shader in Halo 2, some shadows in Forge mode, more effects in the customization menu... And also changed defaults of some hotkeys, for what I find more comfortable.

Update (2022-04-20): after the recent game update, I have refixed shaders in the affected games and also fixed motion blur from 3 and ODST, and radial blur when aiming in Halo 1. Shader regex compilation has been improved by a lot too. I did NOT refix weapon convergence in Halo 2 classic. I'm tired of it getting broken so frequently, so I'm going to wait until Halo MCC stops receiving updates.

Update (2021-12-11): refixed water in Halo 3.

Update (2021-11-06): minor update that fixes a shadows shader in "The Arbiter" mission in Halo 2 with medium shadows selected. It also fixes some new shaders from the customization in the main menu.

Update (2021-10-23): fixed broken things from Halo 1 and Halo 2 again after the latest update broke them. I have also fixed water caustics in Halo 2 Anniversary, improved its light shafts and fixed light shafts in Halo 2 classic (the sun was invisible with the old fix).
By the game update itself, lighting clipping in Halo 1 isn't there anymore, and weapon convergence is already correct in Halo 2 Anniversary (not in the classic Halo 2. That fix still is necessary) so CPU performance is now better.

Update (2021-06-26): fixed Halo 1 again after a game update broke it. I have also fixed a Halo 3 fog shader I missed the last time. Reenabled stereoization of specular reflections for Halo CE classic.

Update (2021-04-15): fixed Halo 3 again after a game update broke it and added some missing Halo CE crosshairs and textures now stereoized. Disabled stereoization of specular reflections for Halo CE classic, because it had glitches. Other small fixes.

Fixed

• Shadows.
• Lighting.
• Lens flares.
• Light shafts (there is a bit of imperfection in Halo 2 remastered).
• Haloing issues like water and some windy effects in Halo 2 classic.
• Fog and distant fog.
• Weapon convergence scaling in Halo 2 classic (pending to refix).
• 2D geometry in Halo 3 and Halo 3 ODST.
• Night vision in Halo 3 ODST and Reach, and a similar effect in 4.
• Distortion effects.
• Motion blur.
• Sniper rifle screens.
• Customization menu.
• Black textures in anniversary maps of Halo 2.
• Distant geometry in Halo CE classic.
• Stereoized specular reflections.
• Stereoized parallax occlusion mapping and similar effects.
• Dynamic HUD except for Halo 2 classic which remains at 100% depth.
• Added some automatic convergence presets for some of the games.
• Minor things that I don't remember.

Known issues

• Halo 2 classic doesn't have dynamic HUD. I couldn't find a suitable shader from which to get the depth.
• The culling fix for Halo 2 remastered lens flares has the side effect of clipping some lighting at the left and right borders of the screen.
• After the October 2021 update, fixing some elements in Halo 2 classic has the drawback of breaking others. I tried to reach a balance.
• Stereoized specular reflections in Halo CE classic and Halo 2 classic may not always be correct depending on the camera angle.
• Some fog effects were fixed in a "sticky" way instead of making it float mid air. I couldn't find another way to do it and I'm not sure if that possibility exists.

Installation

• geo-11 (new, recommended, using build v0.6.78): download this file and extract its contents in the "Halo The Master Chief Collection\MCC\Binaries\Win64" folder, where "MCC-Win64-Shipping.exe" is. Remember to edit "d3dxdm.ini" to change your "direct_mode" to the output you need.
• 3D Vision (outdated): download this file and extract its contents in the "Halo The Master Chief Collection\MCC\Binaries\Win64" folder, where "MCC-Win64-Shipping.exe" is.
• Now you need to run the game, but it's very important to do it in a way that doesn't launch Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC). There are two ways of doing it:
1. Launching the game with the "MCC Anti-Cheat Disabled (Mods and Limite.." option that Steam offers. This will disable all achievements, but it doesn't require touching any game files.
2. If you want to get achievements in single player modes (and some for messing around in Forge or alone in multiplayer maps), you need to bypass EAC. The dll files you can download in a ".rar" there go in the "Halo The Master Chief Collection\easyanticheat" folder. Remember to make a backup of the originals for whenever you want to play multiplayer modes that require EAC.
• When you run the game for the first time, let it overwrite the Nvidia profile.

Recommendations

• DO NOT use the resolution percentage slider. Anything other than 100% will break mouse interactions with the menu until you alt+tab.
• Play in borderless mode (it triggers 3D just fine) or "upscaling = 1" + windowed to have quick and working alt+tab. However, you need to not use the resolution scaling setting. Anything other than 100% will crash the game. For lower or higher resolution, you'll need to use windowed. Exclusive fullscreen is problematic.
• If you play on a 3D Vision monitor, 3D TV or projector (basically limited to 60fps per eye), use the ingame 60fps limit for maximum smoothness at 60fps. However, when you get lower than 60fps it's choppier than the unlimited setting.
• Each game needs its own convergence for the same effect. The "F2" hotkey is good for this. Some flying sections in Reach and 4 can be better with very high convergence, but there isn't a hotkey for that.
• I recommend the "8" hotkey, especially in Halo 4. By default it's already in use.
• (3D Vision, old recommendation): to get a lot better fps (near double fps in CPU limited situations) in Halo 3, ODST, Reach and 4, turn down the "Details" setting to medium, or low if medium isn't enough. However, the fps difference of this option in Halo 1 and 2 remastered is minor.

Hotkeys (not the numpad for the numeric keys)

• L: help OSD toggle (if you uncomment the ";include = ShaderFixes\help.ini" line in "d3dx.ini"). This shows a block of text with the current state of hotkeys and how to use them.
• F2: convergence presets (0.25, 0.34, 0.5, 0.75, 1). 0.25 by default. Only when autoconvergence is disabled. Each game has its own convergence needs.
• F3: convergence multiplier (kinda, it will show as x0, x1, x2, x3, x4 in the help text) for when you ride vehicles or use turrets in Halo CE, 2, 3 and ODST. This is because in those situations a high convergence mode will be triggered. x3 by default.
• F4: toggle for black bars in Halo CE remastered. Disabled by default.
• F5: weapon convergence correction presets for Halo 2 classic (x0, x4, x8, x13). x8 by default, which seems the most accurate. Anything other than x0 is just the proper fixed convergence correction. Non functional until I redo the feature.
• F6: motion blur toggle for Halo 3 and Halo 3 ODST. Disabled by default because it's annoying.
• F8: vignette toggle for Halo 4. Disabled by default.
• 5: depth of field toggle for the games that have it. Disabled by default. When disabled, aside from Halo 2 classic, things can still look lower res than what wasn't blurred.
• 6: image grain toggle Halo 3 ODST. Not disabled by default.
• 7: night vision distortion artifacts toggle for Halo 3 ODST. Not disabled by default.
• 8: this toggles off useless HUD helmet textures in Halo 3, Halo 3 ODST and Halo 4. Disabled by default. I recommend it to have fewer distractions in your view.
• 9: screen space reflections reflected geometry multiplier for Halo 2 remastered (x1, x2, x4, x8, x12). x1 by default. Higher presets look better but come at a cost of some more GPU usage, not much. Keep in mind that you may see visual stretching at the cutoff point where the reflection doesn't have more space to reflect from the screen.
• 0: dynamic HUD samples (100, 250, 500, 750, 1000). 250 by default. Higher number equals more crosshair depth smoothness at a cost of more GPU usage. You probably won't need to touch this.
• K: HUD toggle for all the games. This doesn't disable pause menus and some Forge menus.

Autoconvergence (with geo-11)

• If you go to "d3dxdm.ini" and set "dm_auto_convergence = 0", you will disable autoconvergence.
• ctrl+F5 and ctrl+F6 change the general convergence strength in autoconvergence.

If you liked the fix and want to contribute for more future fixes, you can donate to this PayPal account: masterotakusuko@gmail.com

Or you can join my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/masterotaku