Mainmenu Questions

AFuzySquirrel · Post by **AFuzySquirrel** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 2:05 pm

Hey guys well i want to know some things about the mainmenu

is it just like an ordinary map?

if it is, is it possible to change the BSP, add AI, and change the camera movements?

also the image that is the background for the pregame lobby... is that removeable so it still displays the BSP and camera?

can i make it so the background music doesnt end when i go to the pregame lobby?

i nees to know these thing cuz im helpin out with a map pack and im doing the mainmenu skin...

in my opinion skins are skins and dont change the feel a ton so i want to semi-redesign it... i want a BSP with flood fog and covenant and flood killing eachother.. i have music but i dont want it to end when i go to the lobby i want it to end when you hit start game.

Prey · Post by **Prey** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 2:27 pm

The only reason this has never been done, is because it means moving raw. Every map pretty much links to the mainmenu for something 'raw', be that models, bitmaps etc. When you add sound/bsp raw it shifts everything down; meaning the pointers in the other maps aren't pointing to the right place anymore.

Now you could just go fix the pointers in the other maps, but that would take a while and be kinda tedious (unless you could program..), it would also mean you could never use a clean map with it.

The solution would be for the app you use to inject the raw, to inject it after the bitmap raw. That is the last place in which raw can go and will mean no other raw is shifted.

Technically it is improper, as your not adding the raw where it should go...but it really isn't. Yes it won't follow the way Bungie decided to layout the map file, but that really doesn't matter in this case.

If you don't get what I'm saying, just open up a map in I_F's UberAnalyzeTool. You can see then what I mean from the positions of the raw.

There is no tool out at the moment though that will actually inject your bsp 'improper'ly...but you should be ok with sound. If I remember correctly, tfav's Halo2STs does actually inject the new sound after the bitmap raw anyway, so you're alright there, as for the other raw...

turk645 · Post by **turk645** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 2:29 pm

you cant change the bsp cause the menu is used for several bitmaps and if you inject stuff it shifts the raw and messes up the bitmaps in levels. You can move the cameralocations though, takes a lot of trial and error. And you cant have the bsp always showing, dont know why, its just something i never figured out.

AFuzySquirrel · Post by **AFuzySquirrel** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 3:56 pm

How hard would it be to put the BSP after the bitmap RAW.. also could i move the sound RAW after the bitmap and have them be larger thet way i have longer music?

EDIT also if i get what prey is saying then adding things is just liek adding Bipds to a map.. Insolence has to relink everyhting. so its basically the same thing but with raw?

could i add a bsp and not remove the old one then swap the ident?? obviously adding it at the end of the map file.

CaptainPoopface · Post by **CaptainPoopface** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 4:30 pm

I'd love to see a mainmenu with something other than the regular old BSP. So far, I think Turk's is the only one. Sometimes when I reboot with Yelo on, the camera stays zoomed on some random cloud, and I sigh with relief for not having to look at that stupid rotating white blimp.

Prey, you could cook us up an app that would do the trick. You seem to be one of the last surviving app makers around here. It could be...

1) A mainmenu content internalizer - for a given source map, the app internalizes everything that is indexed in the mainmenu.map. It would lead to larger maps/patches, of course, but at worst, the map size would be clean size + mods size + mainmenu size. It might still be smaller than some of the BSP conversions. People whinge about large patches but I certainly don't give a crap, and neither does my Xbox.

2) A map content shifter - feed it a source map and the mainmenu.map, and it adjusts the offsets as needed. This is probably what you had in mind. It would be swell if it could adjust the offsets for all the maps in the directory.

3) A mainmenu patch with the raw shifted by something like 100 MB as a placeholder for an alternate BSP. And then an app or series of patches that would adjust the offsets of the other maps. Using a fixed offset might preclude the largest of BSPs but might be easier to program and faster to run than something that has to find the actual offsets every time.

As a very cheap alternative, I'd be happy if I could kill the mainmenu camera track and make it stay zoomed on the clouds.

@Fuzy: You might be able to get longer music in the mainmenu by swapping the song references to song 3, which I think at 2+ minutes is the longest of the three. I haven't tried it and am not certain it's possible.

turk645 · Post by **turk645** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 4:36 pm

i only moved the camera, it was the same bsp. And darn you prey you beat me to the post.

AFuzySquirrel · Post by **AFuzySquirrel** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 5:50 pm

would it be possible to have it play a BIK instead of the BSP camera thing...

and can i add space at the end in a HEX edit?

also a good app to me would be a MainMenu re-linker... such as it has an image of were sertain RAW should be and it places all original raw correctly... any added raw is moved to the end

EDIT: also prey you said to do it right it involves moving the RAW. thats why its never been done... How do i do this manually as you say?