Post by Sanchez on Jun 3, 2006 11:01:20 GMT -5
make it snow in MP maps
Today I am going to teach you how to make it actually SNOW in a multiplayer level.
The items you will need are:
Hex Workshop
Halo MapTools version 3.5 (HMTv3.5)
And the ability to follow directions (<-sad humor)
This will be a step-by-step tutorial, but it will be very thorough.
***PRE-CAUTION - ALWAYS MAKE A BACKUP COPY***
So to help you with that. Create a folder on your desktop and label it ‘Backups’, now go to the folder labeled ‘MAPS’. Which can be found by:
-Open ‘My Computer’
-Open the ‘C:’ drive
-Open ‘Program Files’
-Open ‘Microsoft Games’
-Open ‘Halo’
-Open ‘MAPS’
Now highlight everything in that folder and right click. Choose the option labeled ‘Copy’. Then go back to desktop and open your newly made ‘backups’ folder. Then right click and select the option labeled ‘Paste’. Wait for it to finish, as it may take a while.
1) First things first. Go to desktop and create New Folder, label this folder ‘Snow Project’. Now open that folder and create another folder labeled ‘Snow extract’. And another folder labeled ‘Bloodgulch Extract’.
2) Now that you are done with your setup, open up HaloMapTools version 3.5. Next you want to click the ‘Open Map File’ button located on the bottom left hand corner of the program. For the map you must choose ‘b40.map’ (which, by the way, is Assault On The Control Room).
3) Once the map is opened you will see a long list of tags. Scroll down and about midway down is a tag labeled ‘[rain] Weather Particle (1 item)’. Open up that tag and you will notice that there is one item (hence the ‘1 item’ label) in there. Select the item inside the weather tab (it should be labeled ‘levels\b40\snow’). Now up top near the meta there is a button labeled ‘Save Meta’ and a small box labeled ‘Recursive’. Check the recursive box then click Save Meta. A window pops up asking you where you wish to save it, select the folder labeled ‘Snow Extract’ (which should be located within the ‘Snow Project’ folder).
4) Now click ‘Close Map File’, then click ‘Open Map File’ (again). Choose ‘Bloodgulch.map’. Once that map is open you will see that on top a pull down tab labeled ‘Tools’. The first thing in the list is ‘Extract’ with a side tab. Open up the side tab and you will see something in that list labeled ‘Batch Extract’. Click that.
5) A new window appears with an area for the destination and 3 boxes labeled ‘Extract Sounds’, ‘Extract Textures’, and ‘Extract Metadata’. Check the box labeled ‘Extract Metadata. Now click the button labeled ‘Browse’ and locate your previously created folder, named ‘bloodgulch extract’. Select that, then click ‘Start Batch Extraction’. A message will appear asking if you wish to extract the BSP. Select, Yes.
6) Now, manually open the ‘Snow Project’ folder and open the ‘Snow Extract’ folder as well. Once inside this folder copy EVERYTHING and then paste into the folder labeled ‘bloodgulch extract’. A message appears asking if you wish to overwrite. Select ‘Yes to All’. Last part of this step, you must copy an un-modded version of bloodgulch and paste it into the ‘bloodgulch extract’ folder.
7) We now have all of our stuff set up for the rebuild. Go back to HaloMapTool version 3.5 and select the pull down tab labeled ‘Tools’ again. On that list there is an option called ‘Rebuild Map’. Select that. Now a new window appears. One the top there is a button called ‘browse’, located next to the ‘Original Map’ bar. Click this button and find the map we just pasted into the ‘bloodgulch extract’ folder. A message will appear asking if you want to automatically fill in the required files. Select ‘Yes’. Now we must go down to the area called ‘Additional Files’, and click the button labeled ‘Add’. A window appears so you can browse for the files you wish to add. You need to locate three files, which are all found in the ‘bloodgulch extract’ folder.
File A) Open the folder labeled ‘levels’, then open the folder labeled ‘b40’, then you will see a file labeled ‘snow.rain.meta’. Select that for one of the files.
File B) Open the folder labeled ‘effects’, then open the folder labeled ‘particles’, then open the folder labeled ‘solid’, then open the folder labeled ‘bitmaps’, then you will see a file labeled ‘snow flakes.bitm.meta’. Select that for one of the files.
File C) Open the folder labeled ‘effects’, then open the folder labeled ‘point physics’, then you will see a file labeled ‘snow.pphy.meta’. Select that for the final file.
Now in the map rebuild window there is a button labeled ‘Build’. You want to click the ‘Build’ button.
8.) After a few moments a message appears saying ‘Have any new vertices been added to the original BSP chunk?’. Select ‘No’. You now get another message, which says ‘Have any new indices been added to the original BSP chunk?’. Select ‘No’. Now the rebuilding will continue, so all you have to do is wait for the final message that says ‘Map Rebuild Completed Successfully’. Click ‘OK’.
9) Now you want to open HaloMapTools version 3.5 again, and select ‘Open Map File’. The same box appears that we originally went browsing through to get the other two maps. But this time we need to go to desktop. Once there open the ‘Snow Project’ folder, and once inside there, open the ‘bloodgulch extract’ folder. You will notice two files (next to all the folders). One says ‘bloodgulch.map’ and the other says ‘bloodgulch.map.rebuild.map’. Select the ‘bloodgulch.map.rebuild.map’ and open that in HaloMapTools version 3.5. Once this map is open, scroll down the list of tags and find the one labeled ‘[rain] Weather Particle (1 item)’. Open up that tag and you will notice that there is one file in there, labeled ‘levels\b40\snow’. This is what we want. Select it and look up top, you will see the MetaOffset code and things like that. But on the very top you see something that looks like this:
ID: EADC0968 @ 0x86469C
(I believe this is the code used when transporting the weather particle to from ‘b40.map’ to ‘bloodgulch.map’…But if this is not the code displayed for you, then you must do the following) Since we have this ID you want to highlight the first part of it (for me that is EADC0968). Once highlighted you will have to right click and select ‘Copy’. If you have not noticed already the big box in which the ID is located is called ‘Tag Information’. The other big box with the list of tags is labeled ‘Resource Browser’. And in between these two big boxes, is a closed one labeled ‘Utilities’. On the right hand side of that closed box there is a little button that looks like a double arrow, pointing down. Click that and a box opens up. The first thing (in the upper left hand corner of the utilities box) is an area to put something and a button labeled ‘Swap Endian’. In the available area next to the button you want to right click and select ‘Paste’. You will now see that your earlier copied code is in there. Next, you want to click the ‘Swap Endian’ button, which will change the ID completely. Now, you have to write down the new number/letter ID. Click the bottom left hand corner button labeled ‘Close Map File’.
10) Now for the final step. Manually open up your folder labeled ‘Snow Project’ and open the ‘bloodgulch extract’ folder. Once again you see the files ‘bloodgulch.map’ and ‘bloodgulch.map.rebuild.map’ and a bunch of folders. Right click on the ‘bloodgulch.map.rebuild.map’ and select ‘Hex Edit using Hex Workshop’. A new window pops up with a bunch of mixed numbers and letters. As you can see up top there are some pull down tabs, one of which says ‘Edit’. Open up this tab and select ‘Find…’ (which can also be done by pressing Control + F). A new box appears with choices to be made. The first one is that you see a section labeled ‘Find What:’, first thing in this section is labeled ‘Type:’. You want to pull down the tab and select ‘Test String’. The second thing there is labeled ‘Value:’. You want to type in ‘niar’. The third thing there is labeled ‘Hex:’, which just displays the hex…you do not have to worry about this. The second section is labeled ‘Options’, first thing in this section is labeled ‘Find All Instances’, this has a little box next to it. Check that box. The next thing down is a multiple choice thing. The options provided are:
‘ASCll String’
‘Unicode String’
‘Either’
You want to mark ‘ASCll String’. The next selection is labeled ‘Match Case’ with a box next to it. Do not select this. And for the final section, which is labeled ‘Direction’, gives you a multiple choice. The options provided are:
‘Up’
‘Down’
You want to mark ‘Down’. Now click ‘OK’. In the bottom right hand corner of ‘Hex Workshop’ you will notice a box labeled ‘Instances of ‘niar’ in ‘bloodgulch.map.rebuild.map’. There should be two options inside that box. You will want to select the first one. As you may notice, in the big box with all the coding, it brought you to that instance of ‘niar’ with it’s code highlighted. First off un-highlight that (which can simply be done by clicking once next to it). Now either one the same line, or the line below it (this is on the left side of the big box), you will see ‘FFFF FFFF’. Remember the new ID number we wrote down earlier? Well we need it. You want to have that code overlap the ‘FFFF FFFF’ so it will read the new ID instead of the F’s. Once you have completed this, notice the pull down tab labeled ‘File’. Pull that tab down, and click save. A question will appear asking ‘Would you like to make a backup of ‘bloodgulch.map.rebuild.map’ (bloodgulch.map.rebuild.bak)?’. Select ‘No’, as we already have our backups. As the last and final piece, you must rename ‘bloodgulch.map.rebuild.map’ to say ‘bloodgulch.map’. Then copy and paste this file into your MAPS folder. A message will appear asking if you wish to replace the current file. Select ‘Yes’.
You’re done!
All you have to do is start up Halo and make a game (or join one)
And then frolic in the snow…or not, depending whether you enjoy frolicking or not….
You don't need to hex edit.
Just rebuild with your weather particle and depencendy swap with HHT.
There should be a [rain] dependency in the [sbsp] tag. - L33T
Today I am going to teach you how to make it actually SNOW in a multiplayer level.
The items you will need are:
Hex Workshop
Halo MapTools version 3.5 (HMTv3.5)
And the ability to follow directions (<-sad humor)
This will be a step-by-step tutorial, but it will be very thorough.
***PRE-CAUTION - ALWAYS MAKE A BACKUP COPY***
So to help you with that. Create a folder on your desktop and label it ‘Backups’, now go to the folder labeled ‘MAPS’. Which can be found by:
-Open ‘My Computer’
-Open the ‘C:’ drive
-Open ‘Program Files’
-Open ‘Microsoft Games’
-Open ‘Halo’
-Open ‘MAPS’
Now highlight everything in that folder and right click. Choose the option labeled ‘Copy’. Then go back to desktop and open your newly made ‘backups’ folder. Then right click and select the option labeled ‘Paste’. Wait for it to finish, as it may take a while.
1) First things first. Go to desktop and create New Folder, label this folder ‘Snow Project’. Now open that folder and create another folder labeled ‘Snow extract’. And another folder labeled ‘Bloodgulch Extract’.
2) Now that you are done with your setup, open up HaloMapTools version 3.5. Next you want to click the ‘Open Map File’ button located on the bottom left hand corner of the program. For the map you must choose ‘b40.map’ (which, by the way, is Assault On The Control Room).
3) Once the map is opened you will see a long list of tags. Scroll down and about midway down is a tag labeled ‘[rain] Weather Particle (1 item)’. Open up that tag and you will notice that there is one item (hence the ‘1 item’ label) in there. Select the item inside the weather tab (it should be labeled ‘levels\b40\snow’). Now up top near the meta there is a button labeled ‘Save Meta’ and a small box labeled ‘Recursive’. Check the recursive box then click Save Meta. A window pops up asking you where you wish to save it, select the folder labeled ‘Snow Extract’ (which should be located within the ‘Snow Project’ folder).
4) Now click ‘Close Map File’, then click ‘Open Map File’ (again). Choose ‘Bloodgulch.map’. Once that map is open you will see that on top a pull down tab labeled ‘Tools’. The first thing in the list is ‘Extract’ with a side tab. Open up the side tab and you will see something in that list labeled ‘Batch Extract’. Click that.
5) A new window appears with an area for the destination and 3 boxes labeled ‘Extract Sounds’, ‘Extract Textures’, and ‘Extract Metadata’. Check the box labeled ‘Extract Metadata. Now click the button labeled ‘Browse’ and locate your previously created folder, named ‘bloodgulch extract’. Select that, then click ‘Start Batch Extraction’. A message will appear asking if you wish to extract the BSP. Select, Yes.
6) Now, manually open the ‘Snow Project’ folder and open the ‘Snow Extract’ folder as well. Once inside this folder copy EVERYTHING and then paste into the folder labeled ‘bloodgulch extract’. A message appears asking if you wish to overwrite. Select ‘Yes to All’. Last part of this step, you must copy an un-modded version of bloodgulch and paste it into the ‘bloodgulch extract’ folder.
7) We now have all of our stuff set up for the rebuild. Go back to HaloMapTool version 3.5 and select the pull down tab labeled ‘Tools’ again. On that list there is an option called ‘Rebuild Map’. Select that. Now a new window appears. One the top there is a button called ‘browse’, located next to the ‘Original Map’ bar. Click this button and find the map we just pasted into the ‘bloodgulch extract’ folder. A message will appear asking if you want to automatically fill in the required files. Select ‘Yes’. Now we must go down to the area called ‘Additional Files’, and click the button labeled ‘Add’. A window appears so you can browse for the files you wish to add. You need to locate three files, which are all found in the ‘bloodgulch extract’ folder.
File A) Open the folder labeled ‘levels’, then open the folder labeled ‘b40’, then you will see a file labeled ‘snow.rain.meta’. Select that for one of the files.
File B) Open the folder labeled ‘effects’, then open the folder labeled ‘particles’, then open the folder labeled ‘solid’, then open the folder labeled ‘bitmaps’, then you will see a file labeled ‘snow flakes.bitm.meta’. Select that for one of the files.
File C) Open the folder labeled ‘effects’, then open the folder labeled ‘point physics’, then you will see a file labeled ‘snow.pphy.meta’. Select that for the final file.
Now in the map rebuild window there is a button labeled ‘Build’. You want to click the ‘Build’ button.
8.) After a few moments a message appears saying ‘Have any new vertices been added to the original BSP chunk?’. Select ‘No’. You now get another message, which says ‘Have any new indices been added to the original BSP chunk?’. Select ‘No’. Now the rebuilding will continue, so all you have to do is wait for the final message that says ‘Map Rebuild Completed Successfully’. Click ‘OK’.
9) Now you want to open HaloMapTools version 3.5 again, and select ‘Open Map File’. The same box appears that we originally went browsing through to get the other two maps. But this time we need to go to desktop. Once there open the ‘Snow Project’ folder, and once inside there, open the ‘bloodgulch extract’ folder. You will notice two files (next to all the folders). One says ‘bloodgulch.map’ and the other says ‘bloodgulch.map.rebuild.map’. Select the ‘bloodgulch.map.rebuild.map’ and open that in HaloMapTools version 3.5. Once this map is open, scroll down the list of tags and find the one labeled ‘[rain] Weather Particle (1 item)’. Open up that tag and you will notice that there is one file in there, labeled ‘levels\b40\snow’. This is what we want. Select it and look up top, you will see the MetaOffset code and things like that. But on the very top you see something that looks like this:
ID: EADC0968 @ 0x86469C
(I believe this is the code used when transporting the weather particle to from ‘b40.map’ to ‘bloodgulch.map’…But if this is not the code displayed for you, then you must do the following) Since we have this ID you want to highlight the first part of it (for me that is EADC0968). Once highlighted you will have to right click and select ‘Copy’. If you have not noticed already the big box in which the ID is located is called ‘Tag Information’. The other big box with the list of tags is labeled ‘Resource Browser’. And in between these two big boxes, is a closed one labeled ‘Utilities’. On the right hand side of that closed box there is a little button that looks like a double arrow, pointing down. Click that and a box opens up. The first thing (in the upper left hand corner of the utilities box) is an area to put something and a button labeled ‘Swap Endian’. In the available area next to the button you want to right click and select ‘Paste’. You will now see that your earlier copied code is in there. Next, you want to click the ‘Swap Endian’ button, which will change the ID completely. Now, you have to write down the new number/letter ID. Click the bottom left hand corner button labeled ‘Close Map File’.
10) Now for the final step. Manually open up your folder labeled ‘Snow Project’ and open the ‘bloodgulch extract’ folder. Once again you see the files ‘bloodgulch.map’ and ‘bloodgulch.map.rebuild.map’ and a bunch of folders. Right click on the ‘bloodgulch.map.rebuild.map’ and select ‘Hex Edit using Hex Workshop’. A new window pops up with a bunch of mixed numbers and letters. As you can see up top there are some pull down tabs, one of which says ‘Edit’. Open up this tab and select ‘Find…’ (which can also be done by pressing Control + F). A new box appears with choices to be made. The first one is that you see a section labeled ‘Find What:’, first thing in this section is labeled ‘Type:’. You want to pull down the tab and select ‘Test String’. The second thing there is labeled ‘Value:’. You want to type in ‘niar’. The third thing there is labeled ‘Hex:’, which just displays the hex…you do not have to worry about this. The second section is labeled ‘Options’, first thing in this section is labeled ‘Find All Instances’, this has a little box next to it. Check that box. The next thing down is a multiple choice thing. The options provided are:
‘ASCll String’
‘Unicode String’
‘Either’
You want to mark ‘ASCll String’. The next selection is labeled ‘Match Case’ with a box next to it. Do not select this. And for the final section, which is labeled ‘Direction’, gives you a multiple choice. The options provided are:
‘Up’
‘Down’
You want to mark ‘Down’. Now click ‘OK’. In the bottom right hand corner of ‘Hex Workshop’ you will notice a box labeled ‘Instances of ‘niar’ in ‘bloodgulch.map.rebuild.map’. There should be two options inside that box. You will want to select the first one. As you may notice, in the big box with all the coding, it brought you to that instance of ‘niar’ with it’s code highlighted. First off un-highlight that (which can simply be done by clicking once next to it). Now either one the same line, or the line below it (this is on the left side of the big box), you will see ‘FFFF FFFF’. Remember the new ID number we wrote down earlier? Well we need it. You want to have that code overlap the ‘FFFF FFFF’ so it will read the new ID instead of the F’s. Once you have completed this, notice the pull down tab labeled ‘File’. Pull that tab down, and click save. A question will appear asking ‘Would you like to make a backup of ‘bloodgulch.map.rebuild.map’ (bloodgulch.map.rebuild.bak)?’. Select ‘No’, as we already have our backups. As the last and final piece, you must rename ‘bloodgulch.map.rebuild.map’ to say ‘bloodgulch.map’. Then copy and paste this file into your MAPS folder. A message will appear asking if you wish to replace the current file. Select ‘Yes’.
You’re done!
All you have to do is start up Halo and make a game (or join one)
And then frolic in the snow…or not, depending whether you enjoy frolicking or not….
You don't need to hex edit.
Just rebuild with your weather particle and depencendy swap with HHT.
There should be a [rain] dependency in the [sbsp] tag. - L33T
