manual building xbox mapfiles (might be possible)

[mrhyperpenguin]

ok, here are some tutorials that grendiac wrote for background knowledge

Tutorial on mapfiles: Installment #1
Tutorial on mapfiles: Installment #2
Tutorial on mapfiles: Installment #3

so as you sould of read, the map files is structured, header > bsp > raw data > index > meta's
now you can choose where the raw data, index, and meta goes (maybe bsp, but i dont know how)

so for whatever map your expermenting with (im usuing wizard) open it in hht v4, and add the bsp offset (800 in hex , 2048 in dec) plus the bsp size (note: bsp size is in dec) we want to keep the bsp
example 2048+552960=555008 (87800 in hex)(for wizard)
so open wizard in hdd hex editor, control+i or edit > fill
leave ASCII empty, for bytes put 00, and check the bottom box (from) and for the first offset put 87800, you can leave the second one empty

open your map in HXE 3.0 and go to tools > map info, change the INDEX OFFSET and EOF POSITION to 87800. save changes and quit HXE
it may or may not give you an error, if so then restart

open wizard in hht v4,"index was outside the bounds of the array", just click continue
recursively save a bsp and recursively inject the bsp in to wizard
if it gives you an error "non negative number required, parameter name: count" then just click quit and try to inject again, it should work

this is were i get stuck, where do i go next?
i need to know what meta's do i need to run the map file?

bipeds, scenario, game globals...

[CLuis]

why would u wanna do that? HHT 5 ialready has rebuilding working with way faster recursive injection. i have a bunch of bugs to fix but after that it should be done

[Talin64]

Good point CLuis, But you have to admit manualy building a map is a pretty impressive challenge. I think anyone who is trying to hex edit a new map has some major skill.
bye, Talin64

[thinkreddie]

[i]woa![/i]theres gonna be a hht5???

[rabiv88]

It will ROCK

[mrhyperpenguin]

i wish i could beta test... now that i think about it, it doesnt seem all that hard

[swese44]

Sounds awesome, I can't wait. As if map rebuilding isn't enough, quicker recursive injection will be great, it'll save a lot of time on many mods.

I assumed that HHT4 took so long to recursively inject because the recursive calls got insanely large, I'm guessing you must have rewrote the recursive functions so they're more efficient.

Anyway, keep up the great work, version 5 is gonna be a HUGE asset to the community!

[rabiv88]

Yes it will, i dont want to bother Cluis in anyway, but does he have an estimated date on when he expects his project to be done?

[mrhyperpenguin]

well map rebuilding is cool but i would like to see halo run like halo pc, in the way that there is shared bitmaps and sounds. becuase when i was looking through the map the raw data and takes up around half of the map file

[rabiv88]

Would that help with some of the lag issues that have been happening with some of the current mods... Or even NMCx?

[swese44]

Yes it does, and the raw data is much more efficient than separate bitmaps and all, and with HHT5 we will be able to get rid of unused stuff to make plenty more room for new stuff (well I'm assuming that but it should be possible with map rebuilding). But you would have to build a whole new game engine if you wanted to use shared bitmaps, models, etc. Good luck with that...

[rabiv88]

I never planned on building a new engine, but the fact that we can save room/lag and even add much more to maps w/o lag issues makes me happy

[swese44]

Would that help with some of the lag issues that have been happening with some of the current mods... Or even NMCx?

The lag issues are due mostly to the large poly count. There is so much more visuals the game has to render in a map like NMCx or one with a million stupid building blocks.

[Stinger77s]

Actually this is kind of good news, I took the sbsp of NMCx and saved it with Xinject, then I saved the sbsp meta recursively with NMCx. Then I went into Bloodgulch and injected the sbsp into BG with Xinject and chose to null everything out, after that I injected the sbsp meta recursively with HHT and then reinjected the sbsp with Xinject and it only asked for a Lone ID of the sky bitmap so I used BG's sky bitmap, the result was no freaking lag whatsoever. I am trying to see at what point it of adding stuff to it that makes it lag but so far I haven't found it. I was just testing something out, and thought I would share, Later!

[swese44]

Wow that's awesome. Let us know what else you find.