Similarities in Halo 2 to the original?

jesusphreak · Post by **jesusphreak** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 2:03 pm

I was noticing looking though files on Halo 2 (on someone else's PC), that it uses the same .map files, etc, etc.

Basically, all I'm wondering, is if this is gonna make modding Halo easier or not?

I'd love to see a Team Fortress classic type of mod for Halo 2, with different classes such as the Brute, Hunter, etc, etc...

Thoughts?

I don't know if discussing the recent leak is okay or not, but I'm not asking anything very specific, just generally if it will be similar to modding Halo or not....

Audio's Slave · Post by **Audio's Slave** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 2:15 pm

Your not really posting about the leak, your posting about modding, you just happened to mention the leak in there but thats not your main point. So you should be ok.

G0t m4xx 21 · Post by **G0t m4xx 21** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 7:12 pm

Yes, it seems to use the same .map format, but I have noticed some other interesting things: (simply talking about modding here, not promoting the leak)

-There are 2 extra maps, called shared.map (174mb), and single_player_shared.map (423mb) They probably contain all the weapon models, vehicles, scenery, skins, etc, but I am not sure. They are quite large in size compared to the other maps.

-It uses 2 of the cache partitions on the Xbox, not just one. it is still the cache00x.map thing, but they wouldn't all fit on one partition.

--The first cache contains folder "fonts", cache000.map (180mb, cache of shared.map), cache001.map (520mb, cache of single_player_shared.map), and preferences.dat (appears to contain profile names)

--The second cache contains a folder called "sgf", cache002.map and cache003.map (80mb, MP map cache, possibly also UI), and cache004.map and cache005.map (280mb, SP cache), and savegame backups.

-SP compressed maps range in size from 67mb (01a_tutorial.map) to 266mb (07a_highcharity.map), averaging at about 200mb.

-MP compressed maps average at about 35mb.

-The UI is called mainmenu.map (56.9mb)

The entire game is about 4.4gb, and this is with NO XDEMOS!!! This is friggin HUGE!!!

NO ONE ASK ME ABOUT THE LEAK! I'm here to talk about modding.

Just so you know, I tried opening one of the maps with various Halo modding programs (including spark edit and HHT5), they just say that the map is corrupt.

jesusphreak · Post by **jesusphreak** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 7:43 pm

So the UI is possibly very editable?

mrhyperpenguin · Post by **mrhyperpenguin** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 2:28 am

lol, why are you guys trying to open them with various halo editing apps, take a look at them with a hex editor, the header is totally different, so the apps wont be able to read them

jesusphreak · Post by **jesusphreak** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 8:22 am

But its only gonna take figuring out the hex to start editing, correct?

Zenofex · Post by **Zenofex** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 12:32 am

if anyone would like to get with me and look at it the code the day of the launch, pm me ive talked to a friend of mine who had looked at the hex code for it and he said that he wasn't able to edit any of the cache files or the main menu.map because when he tried he got a dirty disc error for the mainmenu.map and when editing the cache he got "failed to load map" in multiplayer. so there may be a little obstacle to get by there.

Digital71 · Post by **Digital71** » Sat Oct 30, 2004 7:48 pm

Zenofex wrote:if anyone would like to get with me and look at it the code the day of the launch, pm me ive talked to a friend of mine who had looked at the hex code for it and he said that he wasn't able to edit any of the cache files or the main menu.map because when he tried he got a dirty disc error for the mainmenu.map and when editing the cache he got "failed to load map" in multiplayer. so there may be a little obstacle to get by there.

I think it's because Bungie hates hackers. But I might have some good news. There is a downloader.xbe or something like that. Bungie also hinted that they will be releasing downloadable content. So if we get the entire map stuff figured out (and where to put it ofcourse) we can just have one long list of maps for Halo 2 and we won't need mappacks (not saying that they're bad, but it is better to just have 1 list of them). Like the other people, I am not promoting the leak, I am only trying to contribute knowllege about Halo 2.

edit: Xbox Magazine also said that Halo 2 will have downloadable content.

jesusphreak · Post by **jesusphreak** » Sun Oct 31, 2004 7:22 pm

digital71 wrote:
Zenofex wrote:if anyone would like to get with me and look at it the code the day of the launch, pm me ive talked to a friend of mine who had looked at the hex code for it and he said that he wasn't able to edit any of the cache files or the main menu.map because when he tried he got a dirty disc error for the mainmenu.map and when editing the cache he got "failed to load map" in multiplayer. so there may be a little obstacle to get by there.
I think it's because Bungie hates hackers. But I might have some good news. There is a downloader.xbe or something like that. Bungie also hinted that they will be releasing downloadable content. So if we get the entire map stuff figured out (and where to put it ofcourse) we can just have one long list of maps for Halo 2 and we won't need mappacks (not saying that they're bad, but it is better to just have 1 list of them). Like the other people, I am not promoting the leak, I am only trying to contribute knowllege about Halo 2.

edit: Xbox Magazine also said that Halo 2 will have downloadable content.

Are you saying that when we figure out where and how the downloaded maps are placed, we can do the same to custom maps?

Zenofex · Post by **Zenofex** » Mon Nov 01, 2004 12:04 am

lol, ive done alot since that last post check out the halo2 forum at
http://www.hxbdev.org/
-zenofex-

Digital71 · Post by **Digital71** » Mon Nov 01, 2004 3:38 pm

jesusphreak wrote:
digital71 wrote:
Zenofex wrote:if anyone would like to get with me and look at it the code the day of the launch, pm me ive talked to a friend of mine who had looked at the hex code for it and he said that he wasn't able to edit any of the cache files or the main menu.map because when he tried he got a dirty disc error for the mainmenu.map and when editing the cache he got "failed to load map" in multiplayer. so there may be a little obstacle to get by there.
I think it's because Bungie hates hackers. But I might have some good news. There is a downloader.xbe or something like that. Bungie also hinted that they will be releasing downloadable content. So if we get the entire map stuff figured out (and where to put it ofcourse) we can just have one long list of maps for Halo 2 and we won't need mappacks (not saying that they're bad, but it is better to just have 1 list of them). Like the other people, I am not promoting the leak, I am only trying to contribute knowllege about Halo 2.

edit: Xbox Magazine also said that Halo 2 will have downloadable content.
Are you saying that when we figure out where and how the downloaded maps are placed, we can do the same to custom maps?

Yes, I believe we'll be able to do the same with cutom maps.

jesusphreak · Post by **jesusphreak** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 9:50 pm

So...

Could we potentially play new maps and mods over LIVE without a modchip even?

I mean, in theory, if we figure out how to use the updater, we can download custom maps and such, heck, maybe even edit the UI and background music, stuff like that....

mrhyperpenguin · Post by **mrhyperpenguin** » Sat Nov 06, 2004 6:13 am

well if we can find where our xbox puts the downloaded content, it sounds simple, just looking for the downloaded content but i remeber shana fan saying that no one can find it and the only place you could get if is from OXM magizine

jesusphreak · Post by **jesusphreak** » Sat Nov 06, 2004 8:30 am

mrhyperpenguin wrote:well if we can find where our xbox puts the downloaded content, it sounds simple, just looking for the downloaded content but i remeber shana fan saying that no one can find it and the only place you could get if is from OXM magizine

Bah. The Xbox was supposedly "unhackable", and no one expected Halo to be modded so heavily. Anything can be figured out, its just a matter of time.