MGM Modding Pro Challenge

[Moxus]

You wouldn't.

[Sparky]

...so you want people to record in their voice "Orange team, flag return" and inject it into the map...? o_o what about you do this stuff too, sparky? but using mac tools only.
Try using halo sounds injector, see if it works. :-\

also

1. Make the two teams (and their flags, text displays, announcer voice sounds, HUD images, and related stuff) orange vs. green instead of red vs. blue, respectively.

you mean different huds for each team? orange team should have orange text? green team, green text? how would you do that!!

The flag colors on each team's HUD

[TaxiService]

oh, that icon that takes your armor color on the left side of the shield bar? o_O


...its color still cannot be modified! Not even with CE, i bet!


...unless you paint it yellow!

[dirk]

I would try, just don't have the time with my oni modding tool and a personal project and going back to school.

[Pielogist]

Well, all the things seem... doable, except for maybe the things taxi and friends pointed out. But I think this whole thing is extremely time consuming and troublesome... I mean, I don't really want to place 5 pelicans, or to move all the player spawns... or to build a map with hangerwall...

7. Add artificial intelligence: banshees that fly around, high above the map, and that shoot at each other but don't destroy each other. They should not shoot at other players, either.

I'll try to tackle this, simply because it seems like fun.

[Smythe]

yeah, try choosing somethings that are at least possible with CE.
Unless you can make this mod by yourself then don't expect anyone else to be able to.

[Mgalekgolo]

the banshee seems possible to me. we can put them high and then change the sight and hearing to way lower

[TaxiService]

the problem is: how do you make them attack each others?

[Smythe]

You can't do that without CE.

[Zanghfei]

I really like the idea! It will be good to have people to make mods that require general knowledge!


but wow, sparky. o_o what the shit is this.

1. Make the two teams (and their flags, text displays, announcer voice sounds, HUD images, and related stuff) orange vs. green instead of red vs. blue, respectively.

we cannot even change team colors yet! i was kidding when saying that putting a yellow bitmap instead of a white one will yield orange and green!!


and this!!

7. Add artificial intelligence: banshees that fly around, high above the map, and that shoot at each other but don't destroy each other. They should not shoot at other players, either.

we are not on CE, man! we cannot do that yet!!

i ask for a revisitation of the minimum requirements!

That yellow show up that mean is possible.
So, I need people can do that on "matg: Global" / Global / Reflexive / Multiplayer Information / Multiplayer Information 1 / Dependencies / Unit. <= Yeah i know is only "Bipd Cyborg D:"

If someone or sparky made a PLUG-IN For "Matg: Global" with UNIT 1 (RED) And UNIT 2 (BLUE)
That IS EASY.
But, I can't o_o

But I don't know if sparky already do that on other tags section.

[Sparky]

I was able to change the spartan colors to orange and green. There is a reason why I chose those two colors, by the way:

(thanks to Ninja, Hot Rex, and Charlie for posing for me in this screenshot (Charlie is standing on my shoulders))

The above still has the blue HUD flag color, which I didn't change yet. But everything else is already changed, including my customized voice sounds for the two teams (I sound funny ).


This picture has most of the HUD nulled. (I was joining another game, so I couldn't use gravity rifle, and I was pressed for time, so the entire thing is not nulled.)

I am close to discovering how to change the color of that top-right flag icon. Have you noticed how its background bitmap is doubled when you enter the warthog?

I think it's worth pointing out here that you can null the armor colors by making the cyborg armor bitmap have black armor instead of white armor.

EDIT: After trying for several hours on the icon at the top right, I think I'm giving up on that. I'll exclude that one from the list, because I can't seem to figure out how to make it look precisely how it should. Same goes with the text color. I don't think it's fair to add that one either. But if you can do it, kudos!

Also, here is a sample from the guide I'm writing (YOU SHOULD NOT READ THIS IF YOU WANT TO DO EVERYTHING ON YOUR OWN):

Before you begin, set up a working project folder in the Finder. Call it "Modding Pro Challenge". This project will take a while to make.

Challenge 1
Make the two teams (and their flags, text displays, announcer voice sounds, HUD images, and related stuff) orange vs. green instead of red vs. blue, respectively. EDIT: You don't have to change the scoreboard name colors or the flag color at the top right hand side of the screen, but you can if you want.

Open a default Bloodgulch.map file with Eschaton.

Export the following bitm images and save them to appropriately-named folders:

characters\cyborg\bitmaps\cyborg
characters\cyborg\fp\bitmaps\cyborg hands
levels\b30\bitmaps\lights small strips
levels\b30\decals-environment\bitmaps\decal fore symb blue
levels\b30\decals-environment\bitmaps\decal fore symb blue b
levels\b30\decals-environment\bitmaps\decal fore symb red
levels\b30\decals-environment\bitmaps\decal fore symb red b
levels\test\bloodgulch\bitmaps\cap_ramp01
levels\test\bloodgulch\bitmaps\cap_ramp02
levels\test\bloodgulch\bitmaps\mp lights small strips red
ui\shell\bitmaps\team_icon_ctf
- do the above bitmap only if you want to change the top right flag icon color
weapons\flag\bitmaps\flags_blue
weapons\flag\bitmaps\flag_red

Expand the map.

Internalize all of the above bitmaps, including rasterizer\vector normalization.

Rebuild the map.

Open the rebuilt map file with Eschaton.

Using your favorite image editor application, edit the following saved images so that they are ORANGE:
levels\b30\decals-environment\bitmaps\decal fore symb red
levels\b30\decals-environment\bitmaps\decal fore symb red b
levels\test\bloodgulch\bitmaps\cap_ramp01
levels\test\bloodgulch\bitmaps\mp lights small strips red
weapons\flag\bitmaps\flag_red

Using your favorite image editor application, edit the following saved images so that they are GREEN:
levels\b30\bitmaps\lights small strips
levels\b30\decals-environment\bitmaps\decal fore symb blue
levels\b30\decals-environment\bitmaps\decal fore symb blue b
levels\test\bloodgulch\bitmaps\cap_ramp02
weapons\flag\bitmaps\flags_blue

Now import these images into their corresponding internalized bitmap tags. Note that when using Eschaton, the alpha of the flags will not be perfect, but it's close enough for Jazz, so to speak

You can test your map in Halo Demo now. Notice that the announcer voice, player colors, light beacons, HUD icon and scoreboard name colors are unchanged. We will now change these, in addition to the written text that you see in the game.

Using Sparky's Plugins in Eschaton, change the following tags:

ligh: scenery\blue landing beacon\blue landing beacon - change this ARGB color to GREEN
ligh: scenery\small beacon\small red beacon - change this ARGB color to ORANGE
ustr: ui\multiplayer_game_text - change all instances of "Red" to "Orange" and "Blue" to "Green"; improvise where necessary
ustr: ui\shell\multiplayer_game\pause_game\pause_game_options - change "RED TEAM" and "BLUE TEAM" to " ORANGE" and " GREEN" (use a double space before "orange" and a single space before "green" to center the text).

Now export all the following sound tag permutations with Eschaton, and use a sound editor to record your voice and paste your voice sound over the existing sound files. Make sure the length of the sound file is the same, and make sure to record it at 44.1 kHz (this is important!). You might want to speak very quickly, as your voice might otherwise get cut off in-game. Then use the Halo Sounds Injector Alpha application to import your new .ogg sounds in place of the existing ones (zip archive a backup of your sounds.map file first). Then check your sounds in-game, re-record if necessary, and finally, internalize these tags with Eschaton.

snd!: sound\dialog\multiplayer1\blue_team_30_to_win
snd!: sound\dialog\multiplayer1\blue_team_ctf
snd!: sound\dialog\multiplayer1\blue_team_flag_returned
snd!: sound\dialog\multiplayer1\blue_team_has_the_flag
snd!: sound\dialog\multiplayer1\blue_team_minute_to_win
snd!: sound\dialog\multiplayer1\blue_team_score

snd!: sound\dialog\multiplayer1\red_team_30_to_win
snd!: sound\dialog\multiplayer1\red_team_ctf
snd!: sound\dialog\multiplayer1\red_team_flag_returned
snd!: sound\dialog\multiplayer1\red_team_has_the_flag
snd!: sound\dialog\multiplayer1\red_team_minute_to_win
snd!: sound\dialog\multiplayer1\red_team_score

Find the shader that is used by the cyborg's armor. Change all its color values in meta data to yellow. Then colorize the cyborg armor to make the white and gray areas a dark or bright yellow. Repeat this for the first-person model shader, used by the hands. You have now changed the cyborg armor colors to orange and green!

Challenge 2
Null the BSP and make a new map completely out of Hangar Walls. You are allowed to include additional scenery and objects, if you want. Organize the layout however you want, but make sure that everything affected by gravity falls onto a surface at the start of the game. You should use a large portion of the original map's available 3-D space.

This challenge is rather simple to understand and explain. It should not take you as long to accomplish as the previous challenge.

Open and expand your map with Eschaton, and import some Hangar Wall tags. These are commonly available from one of Moxus' mods called "Crossing", available at HaloDemoMods' Mod Database page (http://mods.halodemo.net/). Open the Crossing map with Eschaton and find the hangar wall scen tags, recursively extract them (cmd-shift-E), then click on your expanded map, import the tags, and rebuild your map. Now you have the Hangar Wall scenery inside your map file.

Sparky's Plugins for Eschaton make it very simple to null the BSP. Simply click on the sbsp tag in your map and look around the tag Meta Data for the three required steps and change their values as instructed. For now, leave that one value at offset 910 as it is. We'll change that one after modifying the scenario.

Select the scnr tag and go under Reference Swapper. Change the fallen log scen reference to your new hangar wall scen type.

Quit Eschaton.

Now open A DUPLICATE COPY of your map (you REALLY need to backup your map at this point!!) in SwordEdit. Any version of that app will do.

In SwordEdit, select one of the existing scen objects and change it to the hangar wall type, then duplicate that wall and place the walls around the map, as desired. Be sure to cover the majority of the map area, and you should think in three dimensions in order to make your map more interesting. Save your map AND QUIT SWORDEDIT.

Play your map in Halo Demo. If anything falls into the infinite pit of doom, then either give it 0 gravity (if it's a player spawn point, check "flying" in the bipd tag's bitmasks; if it's a vehicle, give it a gravity multiplier of 0 in its phys tag; if it's a weapon or powerup, check "unaffected by gravity" in its eqip or weap tag's bitmasks - or wherever that flag is, I forgot), or you can move a platform underneath the object that fell to its doom.

That's it! Wasn't that straightforward? Ain't I a nice guy? *snicker*

Challenge 3
Change the appearance of an existing weapon, then colorize its HUD pickup icon, give it a new name and projectile, change the projectile behavior and modify the ammo type and count, then use an appropriate existing HUD.

You've got free reign on this one, the guidelines are pretty loose. All you need to know is that the weapon's shader affects its appearance, the HUD pickup icon is something you can see an example of right here (hint: it involves a bitmap called "ui\hud\bitmaps\combined\hud_msg_icons", and each icon in there gets an index number), the new name can be found under ustr, the projectile you can change however you want and is referenced within the weap tag type, the behavior of the projectile is found under the proj tag type, the ammo type and count are under the weap tag type (see magazines and triggers in the Reflexives section for ammo values), and like I said, the HUD can be whatever you want. Experiment and have fun with this one!

Challenge 4
Modify the motion sensor. Change its general appearance, make it huge in size, increase its effective distance and sensitivity, and place it in the middle of the HUD.

This one is a bit tricky and requires some 'insiders' knowledge about a bitmap template set I recently released at MGM and HDM. I'll give you the link to the template tags in a moment.

[002 doesn't wanna login]

we cannot even change team colors yet! i was kidding when saying that putting a yellow bitmap instead of a white one will yield orange and green!!

Tint the cyborg's armor skin yellow.

[Zanghfei]

002 doesn't wanna login

Empty cache and reset safari?


@Sparky: Can we change the green triangle thing?
Like CMT?

[Mgalekgolo]

bitmaps im guessing

[Sparky]

The teammate arrows are a bitmap with the word "multiplayer" in the ui/hud path.