Section Rules - Halo 3 Modding Q&A

[wickedheresy]

Also no you cant edit the forge pallet, been said many times...

Not Directly no... but you can change what is spawned when you select something from the forge pallet thus achieving basically the same thing. and actually in theory (this is a question by the way not a statement being made out of ignorance) couldn't you change the object that spawns in place of something from the forge pallet like swap a traffic cone for a tree or something and then in the .map (which is where I'm assuming the actual forge pallet is contained I could be wrong) edit the test for traffic cone to say "tree" thus basically being able to completely replace objects within the pallet?

[Tural]

That's just a workaround, and does not achieve the goal of actually modifying the list of objects you can spawn through the Forge pallet.

[SPARTAN-OMEGA]

Thank You Tural, your right work arounds dont get the goal achieved, and actually are quite gay

[sneakyn8]

i have a question from h2 that i have yet to figure out myself what is a signature(not its purpose plz) how is it calculated and why is it changed with modifying the file

[SPARTAN-OMEGA]

A signature...I dont know how to describe it, Its purpose is map security and to make sure it was copied correctly, and it changes because you edit the map so the file changes and so does the checks.

[Tural]

Think of the signature as a short representation of all of the data in a file. That's not quite what it is, but it will help me explain it.

If you change something, then that signature is changed, because it is generated based on all of the data in a map file. This is good for things such as, as mentioned, errors in transfers and whatnot. Say your map gets corrupted in a transfer and loses some data. Well the signature at the beginning of the map would say something different than what the game was calculating, and the game would know that the map data that is there now is not the same as the data that was there when the signature was generated. Instead of the game checking every single byte of a map file to see that it is the same (Meaning it would have to store every map internally), it just checks the signature, which is unique to each map, and will never be the same for two maps or modifications.

Eh, I don't know how I'm trying to explain it.

[Anthony]

I think that was a good way to put it

[SPARTAN-OMEGA]

Agreed

[ketchupkid13]

Do I need a special drive to pull all the data off the Halo 3 disc?

[uralllame]

Yes, or you could just look on the internets.

[wickedheresy]

That's just a workaround, and does not achieve the goal of actually modifying the list of objects you can spawn through the Forge pallet.

Does it matter if the same effect occurs? Using that method you can spawn things from the forge menu that aren't actually supposed to be in the forge menu thus achieving the goal of modifying what spawns from the forge menu. It may be a hack but whatever gets the job done right? Like I've said I don't actually understand the forge pallet's placement within the file structure of the .map files so I am assuming you wouldn't have to use this hack you could actually edit the forge pallet directly through the .map file but if for some reason that actually isn't possible the method I've posted should be a viable alternative to reach the same goal of using the forge menu to spawn different objects.

[Tural]

But you wouldn't be adding anything to the Forge pallet, you'd be swapping [whatever the item collection tag is] and changing the string. Ideally, you would want to add a chunk to the Forge pallet to have more items able to be spawned, not replace an existing one. I'm sure everyone is aware of the basic concept you proposed, hence the post that a workaround does not accomplish what the question was truly asking. He specifically said to add something to the Forge pallet. Seeing as how he mods, I'm certain he would have no point in asking for someone to tell him you can swap a value in an item collection tag, as that is common sense.

[Patrickssj6]

The checksum thing in H3 is more like a CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check)...or that's how I would describe it. This just for information so you have something to google for

[wickedheresy]

But you wouldn't be adding anything to the Forge pallet, you'd be swapping [whatever the item collection tag is] and changing the string. Ideally, you would want to add a chunk to the Forge pallet to have more items able to be spawned, not replace an existing one. I'm sure everyone is aware of the basic concept you proposed, hence the post that a workaround does not accomplish what the question was truly asking. He specifically said to add something to the Forge pallet. Seeing as how he mods, I'm certain he would have no point in asking for someone to tell him you can swap a value in an item collection tag, as that is common sense.

Well then I apologize because to me it just looked like he wanted to know if spawning something from the forge pallet that was not originally in the forge pallet was possible.

[sneakyn8]

Think of the signature as a short representation of all of the data in a file. That's not quite what it is, but it will help me explain it.

If you change something, then that signature is changed, because it is generated based on all of the data in a map file. This is good for things such as, as mentioned, errors in transfers and whatnot. Say your map gets corrupted in a transfer and loses some data. Well the signature at the beginning of the map would say something different than what the game was calculating, and the game would know that the map data that is there now is not the same as the data that was there when the signature was generated. Instead of the game checking every single byte of a map file to see that it is the same (Meaning it would have to store every map internally), it just checks the signature, which is unique to each map, and will never be the same for two maps or modifications.

Eh, I don't know how I'm trying to explain it.

so if xbl bans people on the hash wich,correct me if im wrong, is basically what you just described then how does it know what to ban but the game dosnt

[Tural]

I don't know that it's Xbox Live detecting it, but rather the game detecting it and sending the ban information to Xbox Live. I don't know. They have full control over the game and servers, so the server could be checking or the game could. It doesn't matter which though, because the result is the same.

[SPARTAN-OMEGA]

I cant even read his english...what is he asking?

[Tural]

"If Xbox Live bans people based on the signature, why does Live know what to ban but the game itself does not?"

[sneakyn8]

how is it that the file can be modified but maintain the same sig

[Veegie]

I think you're confused.