HaloMods "Classic" Read-only Archive

To find out how to order the map data, we need the following information

nice, well done. very helpful for those people out there who are trying to achieve this.

I am working on an xbox bsp skelleton.

alrighty. At least someone has taken this idea somewhere. I'm working on figuring out the tags... or at least that's what I think I'm doing...

If bungie used magic so that they could change the size of sections of the map, why cant we?

We could create a map with all the junk space which is usually at the end in the BSP section, then we could use all of the SP BSPs in MP. Also many of the PC BSPs are bigger than the Xbox MP BSPs so this would have to happen.

I think (without checking) BG has 5mb of space at the end, this should be enough to enlarge the BSP section to take any of the SP BSPs and *maybe* enlarge the model and tag sections so we could have more scenery/vehicles (I'm not so sure about the last bit but is should be possible because there is a lot of spare space in the scenario).

But thats just a theory.

Here is What I think is going on for blood gulch.
Some of this is taken directly from spark edit or grenadiac.
If you have any other info please post it or private message me and I will update this simple tree and give you credit.
Once we get this format figured out we will be one step closer to importing our own maps. I know weather or bsp zoning is in there somewhere? Any thoughts?

-----BSP info-------
BSP 0 Name: levels\test\bloodgulch\bloodgulch 0235b290
BSP 0 Offset: 0x00000800
BSP 0 Size: 0x0013C800
BSP 0 Magic: 0x81869000 2173079552



sbsp 39120
unknown01 818A23A8
collision 818A2470 39470

3d nodes 818A24D0 394D0
planes 818C5AA4 5CAA4
struct BSP_PLANE
{
float vertex[3]; //x,y,z
float distance[1]; //d
}

leaves 818D7B24 6EB24
2d references 818E369C 7A69C
2d nodes 818FD28C 9428C
surfaces 818FF334 96334
edges 8190D9A4 A49A4
vertices 8193A6D4 D16D4
struct BSP_vertice
{
float vertex[3]; //x,y,z
int label[1]; //1,2,3..
}
unknown03 81944FD4 DBFD4
unknown04 81956AC0 EDAC0
unknown05 8196E1B0 1051B0
polygon index 81989768 120768
struct BSP_polygon
{
int vertex[3]; //vertex1,vertex2,vertex3
// see grenadiac bsp tut for more info
}
unknown07 81991864 128864 // shaders are matched to meshes here
unknown08 81996964 12D964
unknown09 819A13E0 1383E0
unknown10 819A1458 138458
unknown11 819A46D8 13B6D8
unknown12 819A47C8 13B7C8
unknown13 819A5AFC 13CAFC
unknown14 819A5B70 13CB70
unknown15 819A5BC0 13CBC0
unknown16 819A5D74 13CD74
unknown17 819A5DB4 13CDB4

wow
if any people can do it, its you guys.
Good Luck!

alpha112, I have to say that you've caught on to my idea entirely. The idea, of course, is to figure out how much empty space is left over in the cache files, and then create a skeleton map/blueprint that incorporates the extra space for use with all the tags, and most importantly, the BSP.

I think if we figure out what some of the unknowns are, we'll get somewhere.

BTW, I believe Unknown #3, and Unknown #4 are possibly the locations on the X-axis where the Halo textures are placed in the sky. Take a look. Load up sparkedit and bloodgulch, and proceed to clicking on unknown # 4, note the location, then go into the game, and note the location of the halo texture in the sky directly above the unknowns... they should be somewhat close....

Well, I was thinking is more space allowed for the SP maps then the MP maps in the cache files, or does the game load any size map for MP?

take a look at the original halo .map reverse engineering project page: http://huge.dyndns.org/~dbarrie/halo/ I recommend looking at the cpp files, and learn the xbox map format from there.

MP maps are limited to 47MB in uncompressed size
SP maps are 247MB (I think... it's been awhile since this mattered)
and the UI map is limited to something like 14MB...

well, I understood about 1/5th of everyting said above. But if i can help you guys in any way....plz ask.
Good Luck!

Im pretty sure most of the junk space is at the end, so just open up the offset list that you can make in SE, find the map size and take it away from the cache file size. Whatever this number is , start from the end and count back.

I used the old app "Halo Map Expander", and decompressed the map files off of the halo dvd. I then proceeded to record the amount of junk space that exists in the UI.map, and Bloodgulch.map files. I've found the following...

UI.MAP:
Junk Data Begins @: 0x02028ADF
Junk Data Ends @: 0x0232C18B

Total Junk Data: 303AC Bytes.

Total Junk Data Space: Approx. 3.01MB !!!

BLOODGULCH.MAP:
Junk Data Begins @: 0x02A7FA5D
Junk Data Ends @: 0x02F494D2

Total Junk Data: 4C9A75

Total Junk Data Space: Approx. 4.787MB !!!

If anyone would like the map decompressor, PM me. If you want to redevelop it, go to the link I posted above, as the source code listed there is the first version of the app that I have.

*bump*

If anyone wants to help me out with my new app "HeXTend", PM me for details. -- It helps with map information gathering... (not offsets)

well i did rebuild bloodgulch in hmt 3.5 but it didnt work
instead of usuing the cache i used the compressed map

the map turned out to be around 42-45 megs

Does all this mean we can't build our own maps for Halo (XB)??

Shadow_Fox wrote:Does all this mean we can't build our own maps for Halo (XB)??

You're surprised? You must be new.

Damn..We can edit them though..RIGHT!?

**Starts shaking wildly!!*
Can we still make new weapons and bases? and stuff like that? we just can't build new ones...right? details!

wow, u really must be new here.

Well, you now can with the new xinject, put in custom CE weapons and scenery. But you never could put in new bases. Bitmap edits and stuff....but no new models. And, yes, you can still edit them.

frozenflames wrote:wow, u really must be new here.

Well, you now can with the new xinject, put in custom CE weapons and scenery. But you never could put in new bases. Bitmap edits and stuff....but no new models. And, yes, you can still edit them.

Actually, sorry to contradict you, but have you played Vengeance?
It contains a brand new base I created in gmax.
New models are possible. Basically, you use the HEK to create them, build them into a map, extract everything from the CE map using Xinject, then inject everything into an Xbox map using Xinject.
It's not particularly simple, but it's not too difficult either.