Hello,

I'm new at HMF. I am a halo stunter and I registered here to ask a question about a map that I downloaded for a video I am making. I downloaded the map "green-screen" to create some very advanced titles for a stunting movie/tutorial. When I found out that the terrain type in the map was set to derender objects the second they touched it, I was dismayed. This is extremely problematic because for what I wanted to do I needed to use explosives that did not derender/dissapear on impact.

I'm not sure what you guys exactly call this texture, but hopefully you'll understand what I mean.

I would like to convert the map texture so it will not derender the grenades/shots. I do not know how to do this, and I do not have any xfire friends who know either (since I am not very involved in hce map making).

I would like a walkthrough on how to change the texture type, or, you could modify the map for me (which would be quite awesome).

Thanks in advance,
Mator

EDIT: I am hitting the skybox. Ok so, how do I fix this? Obviously I either need to change the skybox attributes (not possible I'm guessing) or place terrain/a texture inside of the skybox.
Edited by Mator on Aug 17, 2009 at 11:19 PM

I've never played that map, but I assume your hitting the skybox.

YES!

Thats it...

So thats a common skybox trait?

I guess in that case, it wouldn't be very feasible to fix this eh?

hmmm...

So basically the map is just one big skybox.

Is there any way I can change the properties of the skybox so it acts differently in relation to objects (grenades, shots, etc.)

Or do I need to do something completely different where I might as well just create an entirely new map?

Help please ^_^

Make a huge box. Give all the walls a green texture.

Should be pretty simple to do.

Ok so you want me to go into 3ds max (or GMAX) then open the map file and create a new box inside of the skybox with green texture?

I'm sorry but I'm completely new to this. I have absolutely no expierence whatsoever.

If you would be so kind, could you do that for me? If it is so simple...

Link to Map: http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=2951

Edit: If you/someone else is going to edit it, follow these guidelines please:

Make the box no bigger than 1km by 1km (Width x Length) And make sure the vehicle spawns are the same as the original map and remove the pelicans while your at it.

Thanks,
Mator
Edited by Mator on Aug 17, 2009 at 11:25 PM

What do you mean it "Derenders"? I've used the map before and had no problems.

Well... Whenever I throw a nade or fire a rocket I am always hitting the skybox. Thus, the explosive instantly dissapears and does not explode. This is not the result I'm looking for, and will not work properly for just about every stunt I try.

He says he wants his stuff to explode instead of just disappearing in the skybox.

Oh, that's what you mean. Then ya Chrisk is right.

I'm not sure if adding a box inside of the skybox would help because the game would render the box black because there are not lights inside of it. Then if you added lights the green screen wouldn't be lit up correctly.

Lol.

That is a funny way of saying it :P

But yes. I don't want my stuff to go "fizzle fizzle poof." I want it to go "BOOM!!!!!"

Edit: :/ I was afraid this would become to complex. Is it really that hard? Eh well, I'm sure you crazy map makers can solve this. amiright?
Edited by Mator on Aug 17, 2009 at 11:38 PM

It should be super simple. I would make it, but my globals aren't set up for the normal Halo stuff.

I can walk someone though how I would do it.
Edited by chrisk123999 on Aug 17, 2009 at 11:42 PM

Please, walk me through it. ^_^

And get as basic as you can, keep in mind, I have no expierence whatsoever with any application that you may use! I'm a complete noob! So be simple and precise. Thnx. :D

-Mator

Do you have Gmax?

lol u could extract it and in sapien add somthing that doesnt derender anything to the walls. like the hanger wall tags i found in the scenery folder. its just a black wall.

I can make the whole scenario, I just need someone to compile it with their globals.

ill give u mine. whats ur xfire?

Well I'm glad I asked here. Looks like you guys are figuring it out.

My xfire is matortheeternal, if anyone needs it.

Thanks for everything assassin, chrisk, and others.

Right now I have 3ds max. But I can DL Gmax if I want to.

-Mator

There, done.
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1455347/Chris%20-%20Green%20Screen.zip
Read the readme. You need to copy the tags folder included onto yours. Then run the included bat file to make the map file.
Edited by chrisk123999 on Aug 18, 2009 at 12:43 PM

k

I did everything but I haven't gotten an output file...

Here's exactly what I did:

I extracted the zip and copyed the tags folder over my tags folder in D:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition
Clicked yes to all for overwrite notice.
Looked in tags folder and found a folder called "chris."
Then, I copied the Run Me.bat file to my tags directory and ran it. It wanted to extract to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition. So I created that folder and tried extracting. Nothing appeared in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition or D:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition or D:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition\maps or in my tags folder.
I ran the bat file multiple times with no result.

What did I do wrong?

/confuzled.

EDIT: I moved the run me.bat to D:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition and ran it. I got a better result, this is what it said:


D:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition>cd C:\Program Files\Microso
ft Games\Halo Custom Edition\

D:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition>tool.exe build-cache-file "
chris\levels\chris - green screen\chris - green screen"
Couldn't read map file './toolbeta.map'
file_open('tags\chris\skys\basic\basic.sky') error 0x00000003 'The system cannot
find the path specified. '
couldn't open sky tag 'basic.sky'.
failed to load scenario tag 'chris\levels\chris - green screen\chris - green scr
een'
file_open('tags\chris\skys\basic\basic.sky') error 0x00000003 'The system cannot
find the path specified. '
couldn't open sky tag 'basic.sky'.
failed to load scenario tag 'chris\levels\chris - green screen\chris - green scr
een'
need to get the following tags:
chris\skys\basic\basic.sky

### FAILED TO LOAD SCENARIO.

Cache pack file bitmaps hits: 0 for 0.00M
Cache pack file bitmaps adds/misses: 0 for 0.00M
Cache pack file sounds hits: 0 for 0.00M
Cache pack file sounds adds/misses: 0 for 0.00M
Cache pack file loc hits: 0 for 0.00M
Cache pack file loc adds/misses: 0 for 0.00M

D:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition>pause
Press any key to continue . . .

-Mator
Edited by Mator on Aug 18, 2009 at 01:09 PM

Oh, um. You have to have HEK installed before you do that. So download the Halo Editing Kit, and install it. Once it's finished, you'll have 2 options. Play, or uninstall. Close the installer. Then, recopy the folder he uploaded, and merge it with the tags folder. Overwrite if asked. Then run the "run me.bat" file.

I have HEK installed.

Edit:
My guess is that it is freaking out because the batch file is coded for my Halo CE directory to be C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition. When it is really D:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition.

Edit 2:
I am moving my Halo CE to my C:\ drive and I'm going to try it there.

Edit 3:
Moved Halo CE with all files, tags, maps, etc., to C:/ drive. This is what I got:


C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition>cd C:\Program Files\Microso
ft Games\Halo Custom Edition\

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition>tool.exe build-cache-file "
chris\levels\chris - green screen\chris - green screen"
Couldn't read map file './toolbeta.map'
file_open('tags\chris\skys\basic\basic.sky') error 0x00000003 'The system cannot
find the path specified. '
couldn't open sky tag 'basic.sky'.
failed to load scenario tag 'chris\levels\chris - green screen\chris - green scr
een'
file_open('tags\chris\skys\basic\basic.sky') error 0x00000003 'The system cannot
find the path specified. '
couldn't open sky tag 'basic.sky'.
failed to load scenario tag 'chris\levels\chris - green screen\chris - green scr
een'
need to get the following tags:
chris\skys\basic\basic.sky

### FAILED TO LOAD SCENARIO.

Cache pack file bitmaps hits: 0 for 0.00M
Cache pack file bitmaps adds/misses: 0 for 0.00M
Cache pack file sounds hits: 0 for 0.00M
Cache pack file sounds adds/misses: 0 for 0.00M
Cache pack file loc hits: 0 for 0.00M
Cache pack file loc adds/misses: 0 for 0.00M

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition>pause
Press any key to continue . . .
Edited by Mator on Aug 18, 2009 at 01:22 PM

Never mind. I can't compile it. I'll have someone else do it.
Edited by Gamma927 on Aug 18, 2009 at 01:27 PM

So you can't compile it either?

Dang...

Who wuda thunk that this wud be so hard?

Someone compile this for meh!
Edited by Mator on Aug 18, 2009 at 01:32 PM

Eh, or I can quickly tell you how to fix it, because I can't seem to find anyone.

1) Move everything back to where it used to be.
2) Right click the "Run me.bat" file
3) First line says "cd C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition\"
Change it to "cd D:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition\" without the quotes
4) Open up guerilla.exe
5) Open up D:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition\tags\chris\levels\chris - green screen\chris - green screen.scenario
6) At the top, under "sky", there should be red text. Click the 3 dots next to it. Browse to tags\sky\clear afternoon\clear afternoon.sky
7) Save
8) Re-run the modified .bat file.

Sweet...

So this will still have the green effect? Ok this is output:


D:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition>cd D:\Program Files\Microso
ft Games\Halo Custom Edition\

D:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition>tool.exe build-cache-file "
chris\levels\chris - green screen\chris - green screen"
Couldn't read map file './toolbeta.map'
WARNING: 1 clusters in structure_bsp chris\levels\chris - green screen\level hav
e no background sound or sound environment.
culling uncompressed model vertices...done
culling uncompressed structure bsp vertices...done
culling uncompressed model animation data...done
building predicted resources for structures...done
structure bsp 'chris\levels\chris - green screen\level' is 0.01M
tag headers and names are 0.18M
streaming model vertex and index buffers...done
streaming tags......................done
writing vertex and index buffers...done 6.64M
writing tags...done (2286 tags for 4.73M)
total tag size is 4.73M (18.27M free)
compressing 12.04M...done
successfully built cache file.
Cache pack file bitmaps hits: 768 for 33.63M
Cache pack file bitmaps adds/misses: 4 for 0.67M
Cache pack file sounds hits: 662 for 10.45M
Cache pack file sounds adds/misses: 0 for 0.00M
Cache pack file loc hits: 104 for 0.22M
Cache pack file loc adds/misses: 0 for 0.00M

D:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition>pause
Press any key to continue . . .

Lets see if map is in maps folder...

IT IS!

Ok lets test it in halo...

Edit: It works!!!!

Only problem is distance fog is enabled... I think I can fix that... :P

Take that back... I don't know how...

:P

Can someone tell me how to disable fog?
Or do it yourself if you don't want to tell me... :P
Edited by Mator on Aug 18, 2009 at 01:47 PM

um u go into sapien and open the scenario and under cluster properties go to fog and in the dropdown menu select none. and that should work. now u hav to recompile it. with the run me.bat
Edited by darkassassin14 on Aug 18, 2009 at 02:01 PM

O sorry, I forgot to include the sky I used.

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1455347/tags.zip

There ya go.
Edited by chrisk123999 on Aug 18, 2009 at 02:14 PM

Thanks everyone, works like a charm ^_^