Halo 3 Retail Game Research

Tural · Post by **Tural** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 11:31 am

I look forward to it. It's nice to have the plugins in a central location, and xzodia's is easy to navigate and find what you're looking for.

Prey · Post by **Prey** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 11:46 am

skatekr0oked wrote:Ok i know this is probarbly totally pointless and irrelivant, but just incase its not
[...]
sorry if they are pointless, posted just incase

They're tagRef's in a tag meta(s), but it doesn't really help just posting pictures of'em.. >_<

Tanasoo wrote:I, with help from Digital Marine (Who Helped me get up to speed with plug-in writing :O) Have managed to pound one out for the mode tag. I think I'll post it soon, but what forum should I put it in?

HERE for now I guess, at least until XZodia gets a site up =P

pokecancer · Post by **pokecancer** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 7:34 am

does anyone have a dump of their flash with the cpu key?

Shadow LAG · Post by **Shadow LAG** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 8:40 pm

I don't think many here are brave enough to push their 360's to the limit. I will see what I can do when I get my infectus when it comes out.

Prey · Post by **Prey** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 5:05 pm

Alright, just released 'Johnson'. You can find it at the bottom of the first post. It should hopefully really help in researching more into the map files, so.. enjoy =)

Edit: Take note that the meta sizes are in-accurate, they are just 'Bigger Offset - Smaller Offset', which won't always give the correct size as there are other things in-between the metas >_> ..you will still get the whole of that meta you are exporting though, just also something else along with it =P

StephenMalone · Post by **StephenMalone** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 7:56 pm

good job prey. You should have organized the form a little better, but other then that very nice. Very organized code.

EDIT:
Mirror For Source

Code: Select all

http://rapidshare.com/files/64277739/Johnson_src.zip

Tural · Post by **Tural** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 8:04 pm

Maximized. =x
http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/91/lawlmaxgn8.jpg

Patrickh · Post by **Patrickh** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 8:17 pm

just forgot to anchor them

Prey · Post by **Prey** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 10:49 pm

Aye. Fixed ver. is up >_<

Edit: Meh, ver1.2 is now up. Comes with lots of extra functionality... like the Analyser =P
Edit2: 1.3 is up, just a few tweaks and now the Zone Raw Table will also appear in the Analyser too - Had a lot of free time on my hands today.

Digital Marine · Post by **Digital Marine** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 8:48 pm

Has anybody figured out how to mod values on a burned disk?

My friend was pestering me about changing values of like the clip sizes and projectiles and such. So I decided to look at it...I'm now stumped. I changed a few values around here and there, fixed the CRC signature...wasted a disk by burning my modded salvation.map. I go into the lobby (with HDD and network cable OUT). The map DID NOT fail to load...but when I hit launch an Xbox message pops up saying the "Disk is unreadable". But every other map loads...and I didn't try to mod those. Any ideas of how this worked?

Prey · Post by **Prey** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 1:17 pm

I would assume because of the map hash?..

Anyway just updated the first post with what .map file corresponds with what map.

Edit:

shade45 wrote:Heres some of info i think its pretty accurate so far. I still haven't found the actual pointer to the raw data yet

RawID: A Raw ID helps us find the location of the tags raw information within the raw table.

[...]

The location in the raw table can be found either by scanning the table for the Raw Indent or simply going to the Index within the table.

Weren't these called 'datum index'es or something?

shade45 wrote:Raw Table: Is a list or information about the raw data for tags within the map. To reach, you must first go to the "zone - there they are all standing in a row" tag meta offset then take the reflex at 0x58 - map_magic

[...]

The pointers don't translate correctly I think when using the MapMagic, as they point, using Johnson's Analyzer as a reference here, in the firs meta group, and I think the Assets are located in the Undefined group above it. So we do need another magic then..

shade45 wrote:On a side note I've also noticed reflexives seem to always have a 4byte block of unused data following them.
[...]

I haven't checked, but is that from what you've seen in the meta? or the raw table?

shade45 · Post by **shade45** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 10:22 pm

Prey wrote: Weren't these called 'datum index'es or something?

Yeah that does ring a bell, I wasn't sure what to call em so i just called them that.

Prey wrote: The pointers don't translate correctly I think when using the MapMagic, as they point, using Johnson's Analyzer as a reference here, in the firs meta group, and I think the Assets are located in the Undefined group above it. So we do need another magic then..

Yes those are the Assests you can tell by the "FFFF FFFF" Padding. The first block in the Assests section is most likely Sound Raw as it doesn't have padding just like in Halo 2.

Prey wrote: I haven't checked, but is that from what you've seen in the meta? or the raw table?

From what I can see its consistent throughout all parts of the map.

Edit:

Just found how to find the raw from the header

Code: Select all

int Raw_Data_Offset; //1136(Map Magic Addr. Mod 1)
int Raw_Data_Size; //1160(Map Magic Addr. Mod 2)

How the magic is calculated suddenly makes more sense now

Prey · Post by **Prey** » Wed Oct 24, 2007 4:35 am

shade45 wrote:Just found how to find the raw from the header
Code: Select all
int Raw_Data_Offset; //1136(Map Magic Addr. Mod 1)
int Raw_Data_Size; //1160(Map Magic Addr. Mod 2)
How the magic is calculated suddenly makes more sense now

Nice find. So the Virt. Seg. Start minus the MapMagic is the same as what is found at offset 1136.. :O

Lawl. Well now just to find the magic, and what part of the blocks in the raw table tell you what map the corresponding asset is in.

Tanasoo · Post by **Tanasoo** » Wed Oct 24, 2007 8:01 am

: O! Does that mean you are closer to the model and bitmap rawdata???

Code: Select all

moralSupport ++; // :D

koekoek · Post by **koekoek** » Wed Oct 24, 2007 11:20 am

Can't you just use your knowledge about the halo 2 programs because the metatree is the same as the metaindex of your halo 3 maps.
Just use halo 2 progs and add a little change to it.

Anthony · Post by **Anthony** » Wed Oct 24, 2007 11:51 am

koekoek wrote:Can't you just use your knowledge about the halo 2 programs because the metatree is the same as the metaindex of your halo 3 maps.
Just use halo 2 progs and add a little change to it.

no

Tanasoo · Post by **Tanasoo** » Wed Oct 24, 2007 12:06 pm

If they could, don't you think they would have by now?

Prey · Post by **Prey** » Wed Oct 24, 2007 12:23 pm

Great example right there of people who are completely ignorant to what complexities go on with-in a Halo 2/3 application..

LuxuriousMeat · Post by **LuxuriousMeat** » Wed Oct 24, 2007 12:28 pm

Prey wrote:Great example right there of people who are completely ignorant to what complexities go on with-in a Halo 2/3 application..

Well, most people are completely ignorant when it comes to the work put into an application...

Prey · Post by **Prey** » Wed Oct 24, 2007 12:43 pm

LuxuriousMeat wrote:Well, most people are completely ignorant when it comes to the work put into an application...

K. I prefer to think that the people on this forum have some insight into what actually goes on when opening/editing a map file in an application, and so such blatant ignorance actually quite annoys me. We are doing it for free after all.