Halo mapping tool (HMT) Basics
This program will alow you to easily see what is in a map and change that within certain limits. To use it you must also have framework1.1 installed.
First of when you opened it go to file, press open and search the directory where you have stored your maps (this is probably under program files/microsoft games/halo/map). You will now see different tags, all these tags are names for a collection of a certain type of thing that is in the maps. It can be the way things are textured (under bitmaps) the way things are modelled (like the shape of a
gun) and just weapons and vehicles. To for example weapons belong bullets, those bullets are named projectiles and are under that tag. When you for example change the projectile of an assault rifle for that of a rocket launcher
your assault rifle will shoot rockets.
To do this first click under projectiles the rocket launcher. Now where it says meta there is a box with 6 numbers or letters. Copy those and click the assault rifle, now paste the numbers you just copied over the numbers that are with the assault rifle projectile. You have just swapped meta as this is called.
You can do the same within plain weapons or vehicles and you can also swap vehicles for weapons (the spawned weapons) or even swap vehicles with projectiles so that you would shoot vehicles. However when you change something and load up your map in halo and it will say gattering exception data, that will mean the thing you did isnt possible.
Now the next easy thing: When you want to dont want to swap the bullets but just the damage of a bazooka to that of another gun you can also just adjust damage.
To do this you need something that are called plugins. Plugins will give you a sort of option menu. For example go back to projectiles. If you would click on one and have a plugin you would see things like speed, explotion delay, weight etcetera.
Map rebuilding
Map rebuilding is a tool in HMT that will allow you to add things from one map to another, here we will add a sentinel into bloodgulch.
1.Open Halo Map Tools 3
2. Open any map that contains the sentinel, I’m using Two Betrayals (c40).
3. When you have opened the map, go to the tag Weap, which are weapons of course.
4. Select characters/sentinel/sentinel
5. Since we want to extract this to Blood Gulch, we are going to extract its meta, click the checkbox next to Recursive. This means it will extract all its reflexives and dependencies with it, which is what you need for the weapon to work. With Recursive checked, click save meta.
6. Save the meta to a new folder. I have mine organized for each item extracted, here
it is Sentinel, choose the folder and then click ok. Wait a little while and it will say
finished extracting like shown below.
7. Now that you have that extracted, you want to put it in Blood Gulch, close this
map. Make a new folder anywhere, I named mine blood gulch meta. Once you have
the folder created place a copy of bloodgulch.map in it.
8. Back in HMT open your bloodgulch.map. Under tools choose batch extract. ONLY
extract metadata. For destination select the Blood Gulch Meta folder. Click batch
extract and wait for it to finish.
9. When it is finished in My Computer go to the Sentinel folder. You will see the
folders characters, effects, and sounds. Select all and copy.
10. Now that is copied, Open your Blood Gulch Meta folder, paste here and choose to
over write all files.
11. Now that you have copied it, once again open hmt. Under tools choose Rebuild
Map. For original map open the bloodgulch.map in Blood Gulch meta folder. It will
ask for auto fill. Choose yes. It should then look like this.
12. Now you want to add the sentinel weapon. Click the add button under Additional
files. Choose Blood Gulch meta/characters/sentinel/sentinel.weap.meta.
13. Select Build, and wait for the map to rebuild. If you done it correctly nothing will
popup until it has finished, which looks like this.
14. You have finished this map rebuild! All you have to do,is delete bloodgulch.map
from your halo pc maps folder,then copy the bloodgulch.map.rebuild into it. Then
rename to bloodgulch.
15. Once you have renamed it, open hmt and choose weap.
Click plasma pistol or another weapon you start with in the map, click swap,and choose characters/sentinel/sentinel. Close hmt. Run Halo Pc, select bloodgulch and you will have the weapon!
Perfect model injection with HMT 3.5
You
can replace the wraith with whatever you want. I suggest using it so
that you will have a sure fire way not to mess up.
this
is the folder layout i will use:
/project/bg
meta
/project/bg
bsp
/project/wraith
/project/build
1.
Open B40.map with HMT
2.
Open the vehicles tab and select the wraith
3.
Now recursively save the meta to the /project/wraith directory
4.
now click tools, generate raw model offset
5.
save it to the directory of your likings
6.
tools, extract, raw model, and open the .cvs list from where you
saved it
7.
scroll down the list and find the /vehicles/wraith/wraith and save it
to the /project/wraith/vehicles/wraith/ directory to put it next to
the .mod2 file of the wraith.
8.
now close out of that map and open up Blood gulch
9.
batch extract the metadata to the /project/bg meta/ directory, if it
asks about a bsp thing say yes
10.
now go to tools, extract, bsp/model sections and choose the
/project/bg bsp/ directory to save
to.
wait for this to pop up a confirmation.
11.
Now go to tools, decrapifier. right click the top box and add the
/project/wraith/vehicles/wraith/wraith.mod2.meta
12.
now add for the rest of the fields the files in the /project/bg bsp/
there are 3, a verticies, indicies, and bsp. click the button on the
bottom and wait for a confirmation.
13.
now go to the /project/bg bsp/ directory and copy the
bloodgulch.sbsp.meta and paste it in the projects/bg
meta/levels/test/bloodgulch/ directory and say yes to the over write.
14.
now copy the folders within the /project/wraith/ directory over to
the /project/build/ directory
15.
now copy the contents of the /project/bg meta/ folder to the build
folder and say yes to all in the folder overwrite confirm diologe.
16.
now make sure to put a copy of the BloodGulch.map in the
/projects/build/ folder
17.
now go to rebuild and select the bg map that is in the build folder
and say yes to the auto complete feilds thing.
18.
now add /project/build/vehicles/wraith/wraith.vehi.meta to the
additional files box at the botom. click build
19.
it will pop up asking if you if you want to use modified verts,say
yes and go to the /project/bg bsp/ and click on
bloodgulch.vertices.new for the verts one and bloodgulch.indicies.new
for the second popup. and if it asks you about changing th starting
point or what ever, say yes.
20.
when its done, open the rebuilded on and swap out the meta on the
ghost with the wraith.
21.
you now have the wraith on BG perfect!
SP->MP Conversion with HMT3.5
.: Prepare your
Project
1 - Create a 'Project' Folder on your Desktop
2
- Create 'SP BSP Extract' folder [inside Project folder]
3 -
Create 'MP Extract' folder [inside Project folder]
4 - Create
'Build Items' folder [inside Project folder]
5 - Create 'MP BSP
Build' folder [inside Project folder]
6 - Create 'Build Folder'
folder [inside Project folder]
.: Extract the Base MP Map
7 - Open the MP Map of choice in HaloMapTools V3.5 and
Tools > Extract > Batch Extract.
8 - Select 'MP Extract'
folder as the destination folder.
9 - Select Extract Metadata.
10 - Start 'Batch Extraction' [Select 'Yes' for 'Extract BSP'
prompt]
11 - In HaloMapTools v3.5 [with MP map of choice
still open] go Tools > Extract BSP/Model Section.
12 - Select
'MP BSP Build' folder as the destination folder.
.:
Extract the SP Map BSP being Converted
13 - In
HaloMapTools v3.5 open your SP map of choice & Tools > Extract
> Individual BSP.
14 - Select a BSP Fragment [A/B/C etc] from
the list & 'Extract BSP'.
15 - You will be prompted for the
existing MP BSP, Select relevant .sbsp file in 'MP BSP Build' folder.
16 - From the 'MP Extract' folder navigate to
levels/test/mapname/ and select the relevant .scnr.meta file.
17
- Select 'SP BSP Extract' folder to Save the BSP Dependencies.
.:
Prepare the extracted SP BSP for Injection
18 - Navigate
to the 'SP BSP Extract' folder & Rename the relevant '.xml' file
to '.sbsp.xml'.
19 - Open this file in Notepad and find
'<Tag>rncsÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ</Tag>'
[it should be the 5th line].
20 - Change the line so that it
reads '<Tag>psbsÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ</Tag>.
21 - Below find a line that reads
'<Filename>levels\mapname\mapname</Filename>'.
22 -
Change the line so that it reads
'<Filename>levels\test\mpmapname\mpmapname</Filename>'.
23 - Save the changes.
24 - Copy this file to the 'MP
Extract\levels\test\mpmapname' folder overwriting the existing file.
25 - Copy mpmapname.sbsp from the 'SP BSP Extract' folder
into the 'MP BSP Build' folder, overwriting the existing file.
.:
Build the BSP Chunk
26 - Go to Tools > Model
Decrapper/BSP Builder.
27 - For 'Existing Vertex Area' browse to
the 'MP BSP Build' folder and choose the 'mpmapname.vertices' file.
28 - For 'Existing Index Area' [you should be in the same folder]
choose 'mpmapname.indices'.
29 - For 'Existing BSP Block' [same
folder again] choose 'mpmapname.sbsp'
30 - Click the button
entitled 'De-Crap These Models and Build a New BSP Chunk While We're
At It'.
.: Copy assets to the Build Folder
31
- Copy the entire contents of 'SP BSP Extract' to the 'Build Folder'.
32 - Copy the entire contents of 'MP Extract' to the 'Build
Folder' (overwriting any files).
33 - Copy the
'mpmapname.sbsp.meta' from 'MP BSP Build' to the 'Build
Folder\levels\test\mpmapname' folder. (overwriting the existing
file).
.: Build The Conversion!
34 - Tools >
Rebuild Map.
35 - For 'Original Map' copy mpmapname.map from your
'Halo/Maps' folder to the 'Build Folder' and select it.
36 -
Choose 'Yes' to auto-fill the filenames in the rest of the fields.
37 - In the top right corner of this prompt, tick the 'SP->MP
Mode' checkbox.
38 - Click build for the final part of the
process.
[You will recieve several prompts, it is important
that you choose the correct steps]
'Have there been any
new vertices added to the BSP Chunk?'
39 - Select 'Yes' and
browse to the 'MP BSP Build' folder and select
'mpmapname.vertices.new'.
'Have there been any new indices
added to the BSP chunk?'
40 - Select 'Yes' and in the same
folder select 'mpmapname.vertices.new'.
'Browse for the SP
BSP that you are using for this Build'
41 - Select from the
same folder 'mpmapname.sbsp'.
Use modified offset?
42
- The final prompt will ask if you would like to use the modified
start offset, select 'Yes'.
Congratulations, you've just
completed an SP->MP Conversion!!
However to make it playable you need to move all of the spawnpoints inside the map, because now they are below the map. You can do this with Spark Edit.
If Spark Edit says: “Seek failed on an unnamed error” do this between step 17 and 18:
-when
you extract individual BSP from SP map. go to "C:/Project/MP
name Extract/levels/test/MPname" and look for
"MPname.scnr.meta"
-Open
"MPname.scnr.meta" in a Hex Editor and go to the end of the
file and you should see "psbs" and maybe some other letters
around it.
-From
there, Count back 16 bytes. and replace that with "0008 0000"
Save the file and follow the rest of the tutorial and it should work
just fine, if you did it right.
There
is the file you need when you use caroesel (just an example).
Notice
the "psbs" on the left side. (Scroll down all the way down)
You'll
have to count back 16 bytes and replace the values shown (on the
right) with "0008 0000"
There
we have it replaced. File>Save and follow the rest of the
tutorial.
NOTE:
You won't find the values exactly at the same place for every BSP, it
matters, so count back 16 bytes. don't just do whats in the picture.