Mod that replaces the loading screens?

dexx · Post by **dexx** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 2:07 am

Ok, that's the last thing I don't like about Halo PC - the loading screens. I'd prefer just a black screen instead of that low-res picture of the ring. Can anyone mayb post a screenshot of how the loading screens look on the XBox version? Is it the same? If it's the same I maybe live with it, but if they got anything better - I go for a black screen at least

I once installed the mod pack, ce etc. myself and edited this. I made the loading screen black for the first map, but you have to do this for every map (as far as I know), since the loading is a bitmap stored in the .map file of every level (not really that sure, though).

Has someone maybe already made such mod?

Thanks in advance for any hints!

phoenix · Post by **phoenix** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 3:11 am

Have you heard for HMT???Go in [Bitm] tag or see UI.map with HMT

dexx · Post by **dexx** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 3:46 am

And then I can just "inject" black textures instead of the loading screen for all maps?

phoenix · Post by **phoenix** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 4:07 am

Its not so easy ... you have to convert it do DDS , use DXTbmp and then you can inject them...

dexx · Post by **dexx** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 4:14 am

Ok, all done! I just found out that you need to "inject" a black texture only into ONE map file. I chose c10.map for example, searched for the "background" bitmap (that's how that loading screen is called, it's NOT the "loading" bitmap, to anyone who cares). I just filed the original background1.dds (256kb or something) with black (has to have the same size after compression, so I had to save it without any mipmap creation) and then injected it into the map file. As I was about to do this to the rest of the maps, every map I opened already showed my black texture for "background". I assume the game uses some "shared" texture stuff there or something..

Still, now the game looks really smooth and that image is not distracting you from the gameplay. Also the levels now fade "in" from the dark, kinda nice little effect, I suggest everyone who's interested to just test it (make a backup of your chosen .map first), looks fine

Mo|)_M4n · Post by **Mo|)_M4n** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 4:36 am

You would actually backup your Bitmaps.map. Because, when you inject a texture, it saves it there. But, it works very nice!

dexx · Post by **dexx** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 4:41 am

Interesting, so in fact I modified my "bitmaps.map"? Because that one wasn't touched by the programm, only the c10.map had a different "modified date".

phoenix · Post by **phoenix** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 4:43 am

Its because you open'd it not bitmaps.map , thats the reason

Mo|)_M4n · Post by **Mo|)_M4n** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 6:08 am

Plus, if you take out the Bitmaps.map from the MAPS folder, you wouldn't be able to see ANY of the images.

phoenix · Post by **phoenix** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 6:09 am

No , Halo will Crash