Map Modding

johnnyblaz20 · Post by **johnnyblaz20** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 2:33 am

i was just wondering if anyone made a tutorial for modding maps with the tools that come with halo2.. i just want to know what tools do what...

DarkMetal · Post by **DarkMetal** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 9:26 am

Well first of all, the tools that came with it are not for moddifying the map files, they are for creating your own maps. Bungie and everyone else is dumb to actually call it the "Map Editor".

Guerilla is the tag creating/editing program. In its current state, it can only work with Scenario, BSP, Bitmap, Shader and Sky tag files. I'm fairly sure kornman00 or someone is working to fix this, we'll see...

Sapien is the Visual Scenario Editor. It lets you place and modify anything in your scenario visually in the Halo engine. I'm not sure what has and hasn't been restricted... I haven't delved too deep into it yet.

Tool is basically a compiler. It can compile raw data into halo tag data. Bitmaps, models, bsp, etc. It's a command-line tool. Bungie included the "Map Editor Launcher" to have a basic user interface to it.

Anything else... feel free to ask. I'll be making some stuff for the H2V map format when I get back in town.

Zeridian · Post by **Zeridian** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 7:40 pm

What should you use to create the geometry for the maps, cause thats where I get stuck. Everything else is simple to use.

Would you use 3d max or maya(woot) to do it?

McJix · Post by **McJix** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 12:11 pm

Guerilla kind of sucks now, but I can see why.

Becuase of the Xbox LIVE system now being used for achievements (which I don't like, becuase now its way harder to do clans becuase you have to have a pre-set username, and modding = ban too), so it makes sense that the only way to import weapons now would be to use modding tools (not sure if they still work, need to try it) and essentially hacking them in.

That way, Bungie can prevent people from making a "nuke" gun that would make getting that "KIlltacular" achivement meaningless.

McJix · Post by **McJix** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 12:13 pm

Zeridian wrote:What should you use to create the geometry for the maps, cause thats where I get stuck. Everything else is simple to use.

Would you use 3d max or maya(woot) to do it?

BTW, is maya easier to use than 3ds max? Because when I go to compile my exported .ASS file, I get an error saying that it couldn't parse any materials and importing the pipeline structure failed. This is my first time in making a map, so could someone help me with this issue?

Zeridian · Post by **Zeridian** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 7:18 pm

I wouldnt know, thats why I am asking about the tools to use for geometry...but maya is supposed to be the tool professionals use.

By the way, I tried a bunch of the old tools, including dothalo, and they all give exeptions when opening the maps. It may be because of vista, but probably not.

I found out that H2x v4.20 loads the map, can view the primary and secondary magic, and can sign the map but it cannot view the tags...I'm sure some tweaks to the program can make it usefull in H2V.

Here is the dothalo error:

See the end of this message for details on invoking
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************
System.ArgumentException: The output char buffer is too small to contain the decoded characters, encoding 'Unicode (UTF-8)' fallback 'System.Text.DecoderReplacementFallback'.
Parameter name: chars
at System.Text.Encoding.ThrowCharsOverflow()
at System.Text.Encoding.ThrowCharsOverflow(DecoderNLS decoder, Boolean nothingDecoded)
at System.Text.UTF8Encoding.GetChars(Byte* bytes, Int32 byteCount, Char* chars, Int32 charCount, DecoderNLS baseDecoder)
at System.Text.DecoderNLS.GetChars(Byte* bytes, Int32 byteCount, Char* chars, Int32 charCount, Boolean flush)
at System.Text.DecoderNLS.GetChars(Byte[] bytes, Int32 byteIndex, Int32 byteCount, Char[] chars, Int32 charIndex, Boolean flush)
at System.Text.DecoderNLS.GetChars(Byte[] bytes, Int32 byteIndex, Int32 byteCount, Char[] chars, Int32 charIndex)
at System.IO.BinaryReader.InternalReadOneChar()
at System.IO.BinaryReader.Read()
at System.IO.BinaryReader.ReadChar()
at H2Edit.HaloMap.HaloMapStructure.LoadMap()
at H2Edit.frmMain.OpenMap()
at H2Edit.frmMap.butOpen_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnClick(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnClick(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mevent)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ButtonBase.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Button.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
DotHalo
Assembly Version: 1.0.1867.33439
Win32 Version: 1.0.1867.33439
CodeBase: (Rly long directory)
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
zH2Sig
Assembly Version: 1.0.1866.21219
Win32 Version: 1.0.1866.21219
CodeBase: (Rly long directory)\zH2Sig.DLL
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.VisualBasic
Assembly Version: 8.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 8.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Microsoft.VisualBasic/8.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll
----------------------------------------

************** JIT Debugging **************
To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for this
application or computer (machine.config) must have the
jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.
The application must also be compiled with debugging
enabled.

For example:

<configuration>
<system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />
</configuration>

When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception
will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computer
rather than be handled by this dialog box.

Zeridian · Post by **Zeridian** » Sat Jun 16, 2007 3:52 pm

Anyone?....ya i know this is a double post but this topic is losing attention....though the topic name seems to warrant that.

shade45 · Post by **shade45** » Sat Jun 16, 2007 8:27 pm

Zeridian wrote:Anyone?....ya i know this is a double post but this topic is losing attention....though the topic name seems to warrant that.

Here use this:
http://forums.halomods.com/viewtopic.php?t=61186

Zeridian · Post by **Zeridian** » Sun Jun 17, 2007 3:21 pm

well, see, thats not rly a editor(yet)...but what im thinking now is maybe we can fix up the h2 xbox editors to work with the vista version....

McJix · Post by **McJix** » Sun Jun 17, 2007 7:04 pm

Yeah, maybe we could find that guy who made HMT v3.5 and have him update the code to make it compatible with the H2V maps.

Then the people here who now how to create .xml documents could then create plug-ins for it.

Agent ME · Post by **Agent ME** » Sun Jun 17, 2007 8:04 pm

Isn't HMT for Halo1? I don't think it can do Halo2.

bricksarefun · Post by **bricksarefun** » Sun Jun 17, 2007 8:58 pm

Agent ME wrote:Isn't HMT for Halo1? I don't think it can do Halo2.

Read his post again, and "that guy" doesn't have H2V yet, and even if he did, I doubt he would make something for H2V because he's busy with a bunch of other stuff. k?

McJix · Post by **McJix** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 1:39 pm

bricksarefun wrote:
Agent ME wrote:Isn't HMT for Halo1? I don't think it can do Halo2.
Read his post again, and "that guy" doesn't have H2V yet, and even if he did, I doubt he would make something for H2V because he's busy with a bunch of other stuff. k?

Ok, I guess our best chance now is that H2v Edit. It looks pretty good right now, and I hope it, in the end, has the same functionality of HMT.

Perhaps those of us (Including me) who know how to Hex Edit can look for patterns in the Meta Data files, and then be able to post what we have found.

Zeridian · Post by **Zeridian** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 7:25 pm

Ya, I am going to get started doing that and possibly(with permission of course) edit the program to have some other functionality.

Though, it still might be easier editing dothalo or one of those programs, because all the exceptions are, are size(and probably path) issues.

McJix · Post by **McJix** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 5:54 pm

Zeridian wrote:Ya, I am going to get started doing that and possibly(with permission of course) edit the program to have some other functionality.

Though, it still might be easier editing dothalo or one of those programs, because all the exceptions are, are size(and probably path) issues.

I tried using some of the Halo PC Modding Tools, just to see if they worked, and I got an Overflow error, meaning that something in the map is too large for a varible in the original Halo PC modding tools. I'm sure a few code edits and some plug-ins would make them work quite nicely.