The Halo PC Engine

[jcap]

I haven't been able to get a hold of CtrlAltDestroy, so I'm going to be filling in on his behalf. CAD has a lot of experience with getting things in-game which were never intended for this engine. He's been extremely creative, instrumental, and artistic in what he's done. Here's some examples:

Halo 2 Sanctuary, all Halo 2 weapons, and Halo 3-like "backpack weapons"


Randomized melee animations (with the help of Kornman00's OpenSauce)


Zombie Mod, money/score tracking


Zombie mystery box


He's done a lot more, including things he hasn't even put into videos. I just wish he didn't go on hiatus until further notice. He pretty much abandoned all hope of another decent Halo game on the PC, so instead of holding his breath and wasting time, he just left.

Another member, ShadowSpartan, has a lot of experience with Halo's tag format and made a real-time tag editor to assist people in fine-tuning their maps:


----------------------------------------

Also, I just want to post something here to "show off" a mix of OpenSauce and a popular trend in high-end PC setups today...multi-screen gaming.



The preservation of the HUD's aspect ratio and FOV are possible thanks to OpenSauce.

More pics here: http://www.modacity.net/forums/showt...l=1#post341643

On and off over the past few years I've also been working on a new Halo UI (makes use of features of OpenSauce):



In addition, I've worked with another member of this forum on a project to create custom gametypes for Halo servers. We created our own Zombie mod, similar to Infection from Halo 3 and Reach. We've also made another gametype called "Dogfight". In Dogfight, every player spawns in a banshee in the air, and they basically have to shoot down the other players. Players are unable to exit vehicles and rider ejection is disabled to prevent exiting from accidental flips. It can work on slayer, team slayer, and juggernaut, and with a few other hacks it could probably work on Race and KotH too.

[{XG}Gijs007]

For me this game has made me learn quite some things about computers, especially networking and basic logic of servers which I found useful later. and it even made me start hosting servers for my clan and later (after some requests) to host for other people as well.

It was also the main reason I decided to learn a bit of c++ and made an new version of Server checker, Which is an open source program that checks if a server is still running and if not reboots it automatically.

I did this because halo servers tend to crash sometimes and Serverdoc (which has the same purpose as server checker) didn't always reboot them because sometimes they just "hang" without closing.

See my forum for more info about server checker:
http://www.1xgclan.com/forum/viewtop...83848a509e7400

Also those projects stimulate the community feeling for example:
I help with the development of sapp (Mostly testing and giving feedback and sometimes coming up with new idea's) and im currently hosting his website as well because his old host had some issues.
Also my clan members and especially the admins are always here when Sehe needs some players to test something and they like to help.

Btw: I hope Microsoft will release public dedicated server files for their games on the pc platform in the future. (Instead of what EA Games and Activision are doing by keeping the executables private to hosting companies).

This allows the community to host much more servers for a lower price (running a dedicated server with 20 or 30 halo servers is cheaper then renting 20 or 30 servers from gameservers.com for example)
And it also allowed us to create new server programs which can do amazing things (look at Gandanur and Sapp).

This also happens with other games look for example to Battlefield 2 which has its own server tools and mods as well.
Games which do not have public server files tend to have less of an active community and also die a lot quicker.

[FireScythe]

I primarily work with OpenSauce now which kornman00 has posted previously in this thread, but prior to that I created a number of programs for working with BSP and bitmaps.

Halo Bitmap Extractor
Extracts the bitmap data from Halo 1 or Halo 2 bitmap tags and saves it to formats usable in modelling programs.




Aether
A program that allows map makers to create their maps lighting in a 3D modelling program. This has allowed a number of maps to be made with higher resolution lightmaps and higher quality lighting than the stock tools can provide, some of which have been showcased already.




OpenSauce
With kornman00's OpenSauce I have added a post processing extension to Halo which adds built in bloom and per pixel motion blur as well as a highly flexible tag based system for per-map post processing effects. I have also added a GBuffer to Halo's rendering pipeline with a linear depth buffer, screen space normals, per pixel velocity (though only on BSP for now) and an index buffer with information about the mesh team and type. All of which can result in some nice eye candy .

The GBuffer.


An attempt at creating a VISR-like effect to show the use of the depth, normals and index buffers.


A big picture...just because. Shows bloom, colour tinting and depth of field.


I also add custom vertex and pixel shaders, used primarily when rendering with a shader_model, for adding specular and normal maps to game objects which CMT are now using.

CMT have shown off the new shaders better than I can but here are some comparison shots I cooked up a while back.

Specular:


Reflection:


Lighting:


Final:

...and finally, a demonstration video (which is also linked on the googlecode OpenSauce homepage).

[Fubih]

Not much to show or to tell, but you could say that quite a few things changed when I found out about the HEK back in 2005. It would be a shame to leave this engine someday.
Hallway from the Halo 2000 E3 video.

And some high resolution Halo 1 textures that are being recreated from scratch.

[Rosco]

I am not personally here to show work, but I just want to mention how video producing using Halo is one of my favourite things. Of course using Bitter Banana's alldev app to give camera access in multiplayer, it's great being able to record games and spectate during clan matches. The game also has reasonably popular machinima thanks to Dennis on halomaps. (a link has popped up more than once to there)

[PopeAK49]

A map that I worked on about 2.5 years ago and released. This was my only project that I completed....Well, sort of completed.

http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=3934

I don't really work on Halo CE maps any more, but I wouldn't mind get motivated again. I guess the only reason why I stopped is because everyone hosts or wants to play blood gulch.

[Siliconmaster]

Oh wow, I didn't see this thread until today.

My contributions are mainly Precipice, a MP map.





Features full custom lightmaps made using Aether, which Firescythe developed and mentioned earlier in the thread. Also utilizes some tricks to have scenery AI moving around and a synced energy beam that can damage players.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Also, Inferno has asked me to post his work for him.

Inferno's Map Pack, with video links and descriptions:
http://www.modacity.net/forums/showthread.php?21175-3-Years-and-11-Maps..

Epsilon, a Singleplayer Campaign:


And Yoyorast V2, which Inferno did a lot of work on, which features a whole bunch of syncing doorways and switches far beyond what H1 multiplayer was originally meant to handle:

[INSANEdrive]

I thank you all for posting and reminiscing for all that you do and have done. I'm sure that (...yes kornman00...) Corrinne Wu will be very impressed. If she gives a reply (after seeing all this effort and skill I would be surprised if she didn't) I will see to get it posted here in a new post.

That said I would like to bring to light just a small few whose voices have faded into Halo-modding History...those who are no longer actively "of and in the community". All of these people I am posting of, originally posted at Halomods in its Hey-Day when it was under the Administration of Grenadiac and Iron_Forge (Who basically invented Halo Modding/The Tools to do it). All these individuals did something more so on the engine side (as far as I can tell). I could go on forever of all the Mods including the different "skins packs"/texture packs such like the ones by Halo 2 Rules!! (Jean-Luc), quaglinoman, or My Own. From the different "Swap Mods" to All the many many many...many log mods, which basically was our version of Forge for Halo 1. I could go on forever...there are so many people who have done so much. There isn't enough space on the net.

But I digress...

Iron_Forge - BansheeWars for Death Island - (Jan 21, 2004)

NiTrOuSoXiDe - Halo 2 for PC - Our Halo 2 was better than your Halo 2 (I will give you the Rant link on if you wish- Feb 27, 2004)

Deimos - Chain Spawning Projectiles- Bloodgulch- One of the first simple mods that (as I recall...and yes I really have been in the community for that long) really got beginners interested in Halomodding...just playing in the engine. It's an Simple Oldie but it's a goodie. You just got to start somewhere.(Mar 13, 2004)

? - Rocket Chasers - Sentinel SPNKRs - Step 1: "Swap AI" into Rocket Launchers. Step 2: Profit!!!! (Ok...so this one doesn't count. )

MonoxideC - Attack On the Control Room Multiplayer (Play AOTCR as a Multiplayer map - Apr 04, 2004)

Some Random Guy [url=http://old.halomods.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=97&t=6287-[/url] The Ultimate AI mod - I got yer Halo 1 Firefight RIGHT HERE (Apr 20, 2004)

bitterbanana - 3rd person "hack" (A trainer that enables the camera in 3rd person - Dec 04, 2005)

DECOY - Modded sidewinder with custom scenery and modified desert terrain. Play as a marine, modded human weapons only. (He has a ton of maps...this is just one of them. Oct 30, 2006)

CtrlAltDestroy (& spikes122) - Backpack weapons (Like you see in Halo 3 - Oct 21, 2007)

Pepsi - Halo:FTW - A PepNess Project - "...tried to strive for a way to enhance Halo in a way to rekindle a new light in a game we both have played for over 4+ years by giving out something away from the same scenery and look we had come accustomed to for so long..." ( Jan 01, 2008 HBO LINK)

I really want to post that "Cel-Shaded" Mod the Jean Luc made...but its just a total reskin....IT DOESN'T COUNT!

....SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MANY PEOPLE!
There is are links in the dash.

You asked a question and I told you it would be best for the community to answer. I was foreshadowing when I said that...I knew the magnitude in which you asked. I told you a week. With all due respect...Here ya go.

This here...this thread in its entirety...is your answer. ^_~

Godspeed everyone...and Thank you for posting.

-INSANE "Maxiumus" drive

[Cortexian]

Just an FYI, NiTrOuSoXiDe was hired by Bungie, moved onto Microsoft Game Studios, then onto Monolith, then back to MGS... Corrinne may want to look him up and have a chat with him on his work about Halo Custom Edition as well.

He still does very occasional work on Halo Custom Edition mapping but seems to be focused more on the game play design and feel of maps. For his most recent work in CE (to my knowledge) you can checkout this thread.

[jcap]

Looking back over the past 8 years since Halo was released on the PC and 10 years since the game’s initial debut on the Xbox, it’s truly astounding how far the devoted Halo 1 modding communities have pushed this game. When Halo PC was released in 2003, the game was initially viewed as a cheap console port that lacked many features. However, even past the game’s release, Gearbox continued to support the game, and about 6 months later, they released they highly demanded and anticipated Halo Custom Edition (Halo CE) and Halo Editing Kit (HEK). The release of Halo Custom Edition marked the birth of Halo PC modding communities over the next 7 years, which still exist to this day.

When Halo Custom Edition was released, we were given a locked-down Halo Editing Kit. Although the tools in the HEK were for the most part the same tools that Bungie and Gearbox used when developing the game, important features were removed from the toolset which prevented the creation of much content. Fortunately, the community savior, Kornman00, discovered that most of the features weren’t removed from the HEK, just “locked.” He worked on “unlocking” those features, and shortly after released an unlocked version of the HEK. While creating custom maps was possible with the stock toolset, the unlocked tools have permitted the creation of some of the BEST content available for Custom Edition today.

Despite Gearbox’s support for patches and the release of the HEK, the toolset was unsupported. Aside from a small tutorial covering the basic functionality of the HEK, the developers of the community had to learn most of the features of the HEK through experimentation. Furthermore, with Kornman00’s unlocked version of the HEK having zero official support whatsoever, it took several years to finally learn all of the ins and outs of the tools. It was the members of the modding communities that created tutorial documents and videos to teach others what they’ve learned.

Over the past 7 years, the modding communities have accomplished substantially more than map creation. Server apps have made server administration easier and have given many features such as IP bans, mapcycle voting, and even custom gametypes such as Zombies and Dogfight. Stats tracking projects are providing career stats similar to that of Halo 3 and Reach. The recent release of OpenSauce has opened the door for a whole new era of mods. The creative engine modifications clearly illustrate the superiority of the open PC platform over any consoles.

Prior to the release of with the release of Halo 2 for Windows Vista (H2V), the PC community was anxious to move on to a newer engine. However, the quality of the game to this day is so depressing, it compelled many members of our community to work together on a letter to Microsoft: Buyer’s Remorse. The poor integration with Games for Windows Live (GFWL) and overprotectiveness of the game made all creative and productive mods (such as OpenSauce) impossible, while not preventing cheaters. The dedicated servers lacked crucial management functionality, and some features, such as stat dumping, were broken out of the box. The editing kit we were given for H2V had fewer features than the HEK for Halo CE. In Microsoft’s attempt to gain total control over the game, they ended up depriving it of any community. The harder they squeezed, the more the community slipped through their fingers. The bad news circulated throughout the Halo communities, discouraging most players from ever purchasing the game. Players were driven back to Halo Custom Edition, where we are today, while others abandoned the Halo series altogether due to their new distrust in Microsoft.

We love the Halo engine. It’s easy to learn and to use, and the power it possesses is immeasurable. We have considered and tried to find another game engine to call home, but we keep coming back to the game we love. We don’t want to go to any other game, and as long as our hands aren’t tied, we would create more, even better content. Seven years ago, Halo Custom Edition was weak, and its future was uncertain. No one expected the game to still have a community today, but the mods and community support have kept it alive. If Halo Custom Edition was as locked down as Halo 2 for Windows Vista, none of our accomplishments would have been possible, and this thread wouldn't even exist today. We would have no community and nothing to show. H2V has proven that if a game doesn’t appeal to the modding communities that support the game, the game will have no future.

Even when the PC community was dealt a bad hand of cards, we managed to make the most of it and defy the odds time and time again. Still, to this day, we continue to push the limits of a game engine that is 10 years old! We have had our hopes of successful Halo ports crushed repeatedly, and for the most part it appears that Microsoft simply ignores the fact PC communities exist. We are dedicated fans - even moreso than the “biggest fan” you see roleplaying at E3 or Halofest. We’ve put years of our LIVES into developing for Halo, for our own enjoyment and the enjoyment of others. But no matter the outcome of this, you can’t ignore our devotion to this game and the impact we’ve made.