Flare is a gametype editor that creates game variants for both Halo PC and Halo Custom Edition. One of its primary uses is its more efficient interface. Rather than going through seven different menus to change your gametype, it's organized into three tabs with its content grouped together.



Another one of its uses is to bypass some of the restrictions the Halo gametype editor places on you. You can go crazy with a 1 billion CTF cap limit for those of you who want endless CTF. Do 2 billion if you want. Want to punish TKers? Make them pay with a 60 second respawn time for each betrayal. It also lets you have up to seven vehicles for each vehicle type on each team if the map supports it. That means you can have seven banshees, fourteen warthogs (7 normal + 7 rocket), seven ghosts, seven scorpions, seven gun turrets... per team. 7 x 6 x 2 = 84 total vehicles on the map, versus 48. Again, the map actually needs to support this (most maps don't).

Here's a screenshot of a map with fourteen machine gun warthogs (seven for red, seven for blue):



Know that holding F2 in Halo Custom Edition will show the lowest possible value for non-standard instead of the actual value because Halo uses text in the unicode string tags for representing gametype data. Editing the gametype in Halo's gametype editor will probably mess up the non-standard values as well.

Lastly, all gametypes saved are compatible with both Halo PC and Halo Custom Edition, and it can open gametypes from either version. For example, if you wanted to make your Halo PC gametype work on Halo Custom Edition, just open it in Flare and re-save it. The same goes for making Halo Custom Edition gametypes work on Halo PC.

Flare supports Windows 7, Windows 8, and the Mac on OS X 10.7 or higher. It probably runs on Windows XP, but there are no promises there.

To get Flare, download links and screenshots are posted at http://halo-flare.opencarnage.net



FAQ

What OS does Flare run on?
The Windows version will run on Windows 7 or 8(.1) on desktop mode. If you have Windows XP or Vista, it might work, but I haven't tested it on that version. The Mac version runs on OS X 10.7 (Lion) or newer.

What games?
Halo: Combat Evolved for the PC, including Custom Edition.

Does Flare add anything to gametypes?
I've pushed it to the limits that a gametype can have without rewriting any Halo code. While it has a lot less restrictions that the Halo gametype editor has, a gametype file will not do magical things like more than two teams, multi-team vehicles, make Zombies gametypes, or send your annoying sister to the moon. If you want to extend your game any further, you can use SAPP or Phasor, which are both available for free.
Edited by 002 on Feb 7, 2015 at 01:34 AM

wow this looks useful

thank you

Can it be used for Infection/Zombies gametypes?

Literally the first comment.

I stopped visiting OC over a year ago, I think because a mod got upset with me for being a bit on the mean side with 002 about a server or something.

I don't recall having any interaction with you on that site whatsoever; if there was, it evidently wasn't meaningful enough that I should have cause to remember. In all honesty sparky you seem to suffer from something resembling autism. I don't make that suggestion lightly - I'm the only one in my batch to not end up with that or something worse, so I'm familiar with the signs. And...they're there for you.

getting back on topic.... Thanks for sharing the utility.

You'll have to make a Infection/Zombies script for Phasor/SAPP. After all, Flare has all of the functionality that the in-game gametype editor has.
Edited by 002 on Jan 29, 2015 at 12:21 PM

No problem. That's originally why I made it, actually. It has some other uses that I noted in the original post, like not having some of the limits that Halo's normal gametype editor has. You can make a nearly infinite CTF game by setting the score limit to two billion if you wanted to, or use 7 vehicles instead of 4 assuming the map supports it. It really opens up a lot of possibilities.

Och this is just the worst kind of awesome thing ever.

Thanks for creating it and more importantly sharing it too.

can this help you to have a 3 teams gametype?

No. If you wanted three teams, you'd have to change Halo's code or write a SAPP/Phasor script for three teams.

I created a FAQ on the OP with some basic information. As I've said before, it only pushes the limits of the gametype as far as they can go without writing Halo code. If you want to do any more, use SAPP or Phasor.
Edited by 002 on Feb 2, 2015 at 09:48 PM

edit: I fixed a few bugs on the Mac version of Flare that fixes a crash that would occur if one were to try to save a gametype with a name that goes over 23 characters. The check that I had was faulty. :|
Edited by 002 on Feb 6, 2015 at 01:58 PM