Misc: Installing Mods For Dummies

Duffman · Post by **Duffman** » Thu May 13, 2004 1:59 pm

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be sure to back up your maps before modding... here's how:

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If you just selected "express install" or didn't mess with the install directory:
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1. Go to My Computer, then "C:Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\MAPS"

2. press "ctrl" + "a"
3. Go back up to the Halo folder, and create a new folder. Title the folder "BACKUPS"

4. Go into this folder, and hit "ctrl" + "v"

5. wait a few moments for the copy operation to complete. On Windows XP platforms, this should only take about one minute max, depending slightly on your HD rotating speed and sometimes processor speed (which would only influence the write speed if it were a slow processor, like say, 700 and below).

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Else If ("you selected your own directory" = 1)
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1. follow the tut as above, except use the directory you used to install Halo in.

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To install a mod, you must affect a map in your "MAPS" folder. This is done in a different number of ways, depending on what file types you recieve:

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If it's a .map file
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1. Right-click the mod you want installed and hit copy

2. Go to "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\MAPS" again, and select paste. If it doesn't overwrite another file, you have a problem and have rights to ask about your problem in the thread you found the mod...

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If it's a .ppf file
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(you will need PPF-O-Matic for this)

1. Go to ppf-o-matic (search files.halomods.com for it)

2. Where it says "ISO file", click the little disk next to it.

3. click on the "ISO" box, and select "all files" instead.

4. browse to your "MAPS" folder

5. select the appropriate map to apply the ppf to (the filename should tell you this), and click "open"

4. Hit "apply". If it says "file sizes are not the same!", or something like that, you have either applied the ppf to the wrong file, or the ppf is fucked (a rare occurance, dont immediately go for this explaination)

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If you recieve a ".rar" file:
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a rar is a compressed file, much like a ".zip" file. it can be extracted by winrar, found at http://rarlabs.com/ (note: be sure to get Winrar, and not anything relating to ".tar", which is a very old file type designed only to bunch files together in one file uncompressed)

1. double click on the file; it should open in Winrar. Simply find the "extract all" (or whatever it's called) button, and why not check the "open in explorer" button in the bottom left corner to save us the trouble of finding the decompressed folder by ourselves?

2. there should be files in your new folder, either (magically!) .ppf's or .map's! miracle, no? follow the above steps to apply them

A random piece of advice that I've never seen to be useful, but why not...

3. if you recieve any .exe, .bat, .vb/s files or anything else besides ppf's, map's, text documents, or image (.jpg, .bmp, .gif, .png etc.) files, they could be infected with viruses or other malicious files, and shouldd not be trusted.
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keep in mind that often times you will be required to install multiple .ppf files or a .map file and a .ppf file.

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Installing Skins
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You need HMT for this. Get it at Files.Halomods.com in the Utilities section.

1. Unzip the file your skins came in using WinRAR and place the skins in a folder.

2. Start up HMT.

3. In HMT, open up the map Bloodgulch. It's in Mycomputer/C: localdisk/programfiles/microsoftgames/halo/maps.

4. Once you've opened Bloodgulch, go to "bitmaps". It's near the top of the list of stuff that showed up when you opened Bloodgulch. Duh.

5. Find which thing the skins are for and install them. i.e. If it's for the chaingun on a warthog, go the "Vehicles/warthog/bitmaps/warthog chaingun.

6. Click "inject texture".

7. Browse for the skin you want to install and hit ok.

8. Fin.

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For HaloCE
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For this tutorial, I'm going to assume you've downloaded HaloCE. If not, go to the gearbox forums. Try all the links till you find one that works.

1. Create a folder for your HaloCE stuff, otherwise it gets crowded. I would suggest putting a shortcut to the HaloCE maps folder for easy access.

2. Download a map. The best place(IMO) is haloworld.halocity.org

3. Save the map to the folder you created for HaloCE

4. Open it up using WinRAR

5. Take the .map file out of WinRAR and place it in the HaloCE folder you made

6. Copy and paste into the map folder for HaloCE

7. Done
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Duffman · Post by **Duffman** » Thu May 13, 2004 6:35 pm

this should be like, stickied or something

Duffman · Post by **Duffman** » Fri May 14, 2004 12:24 pm

seriously, stickieness

Duffman · Post by **Duffman** » Fri May 14, 2004 3:38 pm

or maybe it could be moved into pc modding and stickied. Seriously though, I had this problem when i first joined and there are NO topics about it that i could find.

Excal · Post by **Excal** » Fri May 14, 2004 6:17 pm

same here

Duffman · Post by **Duffman** » Sun May 16, 2004 3:43 pm

i sent it to ang88, hopefully he'll sticky it

EqUiNoX · Post by **EqUiNoX** » Sun May 16, 2004 3:52 pm

ok...I am planning something, I have no halo maps on my computer and the the directory's for all of the maps on your machine...just the standard directory...and can you PM them to me...that would be good...I need the exact directory of every map file...

Duffman · Post by **Duffman** » Sun May 16, 2004 4:38 pm

what do you mean? and what does this have to do with installing mods?

EqUiNoX · Post by **EqUiNoX** » Sun May 16, 2004 4:40 pm

I am going to make a program that will make a directory called BACKUPS and copy all the maps there...hopefully that will help...just tell me the names...I will do it in C

HunterXI · Post by **HunterXI** » Sun May 16, 2004 9:11 pm

all maps are in the MAPS folder.

The Nobody · Post by **The Nobody** » Tue May 18, 2004 7:28 pm

Somebody who knows at least a little PHP

Else If ("you selected your own directory" = 1)

^^^ Proof, by the way, someone should sticky this, Ang88 may...

HunterXI · Post by **HunterXI** » Tue May 18, 2004 9:49 pm

Equinox, just check if the standard directory exists. if not, prompt the user. if so:

C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Games\\Halo\\MAPS\\{mapfile name}.map

a10
a30
a50
b30
b40
beavercreek
bitmaps
bloodgulch
boardingaction
c10
c20
c40
carousel
chillout
d20
d40
damnation
dangercanyon
deathisland
gephyrophobia
hangemhigh
icefields
infinity
longest
prisoner
putput
ratrace
sidewinder
sounds
timberland
ui
wizard

TheExecuter · Post by **TheExecuter** » Wed May 19, 2004 2:14 pm

you know what would be cool....

if MonxideC co-authored a book with some other super-modders and made a book all about halo modding and published it and you could order it directly from this site!

I would buy it.

EqUiNoX · Post by **EqUiNoX** » Thu May 20, 2004 8:50 am

I am gona make the program in C, hopefully I will be able to do this as easlt as possable, I am not that familliar at C++ so I am gonna do it in C

EqUiNoX · Post by **EqUiNoX** » Mon Jun 07, 2004 8:08 am

I am gonna sticky this cus it is reallly useful, but no more flaming....please...

Duffman · Post by **Duffman** » Mon Jun 07, 2004 9:39 am

friggin finally

Duffman · Post by **Duffman** » Mon Jun 07, 2004 11:52 am

Ok, I updated it for HaloCE. Tell me if it makes sense to a newbie, and if I need to make any changes.

Duffman · Post by **Duffman** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 10:27 am

hello??? tell me if the HaloCE part is good

[lotr]lglas · Post by **[lotr]lglas** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 11:54 am

thanks... helped me

D3V0N · Post by **D3V0N** » Mon Aug 02, 2004 11:07 pm

Cleaned & Locked.