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Halo: anniversary modding [Modzy, I think you can help]
Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 12:16 pm
by Mgalekgolo
So from what I've been told, the PC maps and anniversary maps are the same, except for the header and the endianess, whatever that is. Also, what is eschaton written in?
Re: Halo: anniversary modding [Modzy, I think you can help]
Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 1:42 pm
by Excend
Mgalekgolo wrote:and the endianess
That's pretty significant.
Re: Halo: anniversary modding [Modzy, I think you can help]
Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 3:43 pm
by Modzy
Endianess is the byte order, and it's not very significant.
Get me a copy of one of the maps if you're that interested.
Re: Halo: anniversary modding [Modzy, I think you can help]
Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 3:56 pm
by Excend
Wouldn't a difference in endianness cause values to appear at different offsets? Which are Eschaton's entire referencing system, are they not?
Re: Halo: anniversary modding [Modzy, I think you can help]
Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 5:00 pm
by Modzy
White Knightmare wrote:Wouldn't a difference in endianness cause values to appear at different offsets? Which are Eschaton's entire referencing system, are they not?
Endianness is just the ordering of data. Say we have the big endian version of 0xBAD0000, the little endian version would be 0x000D0BA. They still have the same value, just a different byte order. The way Eschaton, Pearl, and other Halo apps work is by setting their file reading streams to read in little endian, this can be easily changed to read in big endian for HAE maps.
Re: Halo: anniversary modding [Modzy, I think you can help]
Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 5:22 pm
by Mgalekgolo
I'm having my "source" send me the file, along with a compressor/decompressor which i'm not sure I'll need or not. This will be a10. I will probably have it tomorrow.
Re: Halo: anniversary modding [Modzy, I think you can help]
Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2011 9:24 pm
by Mgalekgolo
Double post.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=AY3N9CZ1
For some reason there is a decompressor and recompressor. I'm testing all this now. Its a30 btw.
edit: Ok did a hex edit compare and they seem pretty different. Modzy, could you check it out and tell me what you think?
Also I uploaded the map decompressed for ease of access.
http://www.mediafire.com/?65yo8jjo9c5odcp
Comparing both sizes

The last thing, the guy said this, I have no fucking idea what he's talking about lol but basically he uses a "streamwriter' and something else to edit the map "realtime".
guy on youtube wrote:as well if we do get a program to load these maps the next thing we would need to set up is the program to take the offset of each byte and subtract the map magic and send the info out to a console at that new offset. which is how we realtime edit a game.
Re: Halo: anniversary modding [Modzy, I think you can help]
Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2011 10:37 pm
by Modzy
Oh man, this is pretty beautiful. Looks like the maps are identical to Halo Full PC maps, just in big endian and a different magic.
Re: Halo: anniversary modding [Modzy, I think you can help]
Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2011 11:48 pm
by Modzy
Here's Eschaton with the map loaded, however, none of the editing controls function and it would take quite some time to fix that:
Here is a modified version of my old Emergence editor, which I at least got reference swapping functioning:

Re: Halo: anniversary modding [Modzy, I think you can help]
Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 1:01 am
by kiddten
Captain hammer does it again.
Re: Halo: anniversary modding [Modzy, I think you can help]
Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 7:58 am
by Mgalekgolo
Thats great! Do all the tags swap or just scnr? Also if you do get an app working, it'd need to be windows compatible. Maybe you can send me that swapper version, testing and all that. I think I have an old copy of emergence lying around somewhere...
Re: Halo: anniversary modding [Modzy, I think you can help]
Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 6:59 pm
by Vegerot
So wait, what exactly do we want from this? If this works would we be able to use the new features like updated graphics? Or could we only play it just like we did 10 years ago. And if so, what's the point?
Re: Halo: anniversary modding [Modzy, I think you can help]
Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 7:10 pm
by Mgalekgolo
We would be able to mod with the new graphics.
Re: Halo: anniversary modding [Modzy, I think you can help]
Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 7:13 pm
by Vegerot
Would we be able to play it though, on our Macs? Or would we have to import it back onto our Xboxes and play it there?
Re: Halo: anniversary modding [Modzy, I think you can help]
Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 8:25 pm
by Mgalekgolo
Xbox.