Section Rules - Halo 3 Modding Q&A

Choking Victim · Post by **Choking Victim** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 3:20 pm

Eaton wrote:I have a question.

What is the "zone" tag? I know that it probably has to do with raw data, but I am curious if there is more to it because the current zone plugin doesn't have any named values.

In the beta, the "zone" tag contained the raw offsets and sizes. In the retail game, the zone tag still contains values that pertain to the raw, they just point elsewhere now, or are masked in some way.

doogie1012 · Post by **doogie1012** » Sun Oct 05, 2008 4:09 am

I have a question, how come there are 'host-only' maps. Shouldn't the user download the entire user-created map file and thus get extra scenary and etc.

It would be great if I could learn the reason behind this data not being sent to the other clients.

Tural · Post by **Tural** » Sun Oct 05, 2008 4:59 am

Because the game isn't designed to pass the locations of static objects between clients. The objects in question, such as the first mod here, are expected to be in the same place in every instance of the map. They can't be moved or deleted in-game, so their locations are simply inherited from the map files, rather than interpreted by the Forge engine. The difference with host is that, I presume, it does interpret all item locations, so that it may sync them with the clients. When it reaches what it knows to be a static object, it doesn't push that information to the client, because it expects the client's location of that object will be the same, as it is inherited from the map file. The client having the usermap makes no difference, because all of the information still comes from the host. When you have the same map on your hard drive, the game doesn't read the data from there, it gathers it from the host. It doesn't run a comparison before the game starts to determine if you should take the data from the host or use your own, as that could create syncing problems.

In short: It's a waste of resources to sync items that the game expects will always be in the exact same place, in every user's map. The game doesn't read your hard drive's usermap when you play with someone else who has it, even if it is the same, so that element of the question is irrelevant.

King_Kilvas · Post by **King_Kilvas** » Sun Oct 05, 2008 6:56 am

Guess its half on topic, don't any of the people here whom have access to modding tools for Halo 3 fear getting hacked for them?

..not that I'm thinking of doing it haha just curious.

Tural · Post by **Tural** » Sun Oct 05, 2008 6:57 am

I hope someone smart enough to hack one of them is smart enough to know that they can't use the tools. The people around here with devkits, for the most part, have the necessary tools already. The guys here aren't sitting on some advanced tools that everyone can use. The stuff they have is only functional for devkits right now, and stealing something the hacker can't use would be utterly pointless.

Gruntlord5 · Post by **Gruntlord5** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 12:00 pm

Anthony wrote:
M715ForLife wrote:
Anthony wrote:Worked for me...

ehhh I don't really think it should be released.. I will think about it for a while...
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r180 ... C03664.jpg
hahahahahhahaha

man i wrote that first..........

anyway, has anyone flown the pelican yet?

Veegie · Post by **Veegie** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 12:12 pm

ManBearPig_06 · Post by **ManBearPig_06** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 12:58 pm

Tural wrote: In short: It's a waste of resources to sync items that the game expects will always be in the exact same place, in every user's map. The game doesn't read your hard drive's usermap when you play with someone else who has it, even if it is the same, so that element of the question is irrelevant.

If only they would have done it with film clips...

unknownv2 · Post by **unknownv2** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 1:05 pm

Is the player biped the only modded thing that gets "saved" with campaign saves?

Veegie · Post by **Veegie** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 1:17 pm

unknownv2 wrote:Is the player biped the only modded thing that gets "saved" with campaign saves?

No...
That doesn't even make sense.

unknownv2 · Post by **unknownv2** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 1:53 pm

Veegie wrote:
unknownv2 wrote:Is the player biped the only modded thing that gets "saved" with campaign saves?
No...
That doesn't even make sense.

I mean since the player model stays modded even with clean maps, what else can be modded like that?

Shock120 · Post by **Shock120** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 1:57 pm

Has anyone ever played inside a Saved Film? is it even possible?
(Playing as yourself, while the Filmed counter-parts are running)
This would be lolz

especially on Co-op.

Veegie · Post by **Veegie** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 2:57 pm

Shock120 wrote:Has anyone ever played inside a Saved Film? is it even possible?

No.
Yes.

unknownv2 wrote:I mean since the player model stays modded even with clean maps, what else can be modded like that?

Lots.

DarkShallFall · Post by **DarkShallFall** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 3:50 pm

Not that much. Vehicles, weapon ammo, grenade count, health amount all that stuff that would normally save.

Anthony · Post by **Anthony** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 1:59 am

anything that is in the gamestate buffer, which is usually deterministic world data.. such as players, objects, physics, scripting, AI, etc..

sneakyn8 · Post by **sneakyn8** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 5:55 am

what do you mean by players

Tural · Post by **Tural** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 5:58 am

What kind of question is that? He means players. Players playing the game.

sneakyn8 · Post by **sneakyn8** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 9:39 am

Tural wrote:What kind of question is that? He means players. Players playing the game.

but amount of players? name of players? what?

latinomodder · Post by **latinomodder** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 9:56 am

Anthony wrote:anything that is in the gamestate buffer, which is usually deterministic world data.. such as players, objects, physics, scripting, AI, etc..

Meaning I could spawn a banshee hit a checkpoint with it and the save would work? I mean its in the world data as you call it...

kornman00 · Post by **kornman00** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 11:09 am

Yes, depending on how you go about spawning it

And n8, anything and everything about the players. But you're not going to make it allow more players if thats what you were trying to get at