Hello, I have recently decided to toy around with Halo ce again. Though I have some questions regarding Sapien and map compiling.

I'll be honest, I am still quite new to using these programs, so do please bear with me.

1. Within Sapien, I have been toying around with AI a fair bit and have noticed that there are no explosions from their grenades thrown or sounds of weapon fire. I am curious if there has been an extraction issue or that is simply how Sapien runs the game.

2. How do you make AI spawn later within the map? I have tried squad delays, ticking not initially made/spawned and tried to tamper around with respawn times.

3. Once I am done with tinkering around with my map, how would I be able to play it? I know this is a newbie question and I have checked around on other forums. Though from what I have gathered I need to make use of the Tool.exe and perhaps even compile scripts.

As I said, I am quite new. I'm not sure if I could have got all my answers from other sources on the internet, so I decided to post up here instead.

Apologies if this is seen as spam.

First thing's first, did you make your map singleplayer or multiplayer?

If it's single player, you can make the AI spawn later by having the player walk through a trigger volume with scripts. (I'm not a scripter so I dunno much about that).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXa_ZPRehas
MattDratt outlines some cool stuff here.

To play your map, you save your scenario in Sapien, and open up cmd.exe (copied from your system32 folder into your Halo Custom Edition directory), and compile using "tool build-cache-file *your .scenario directory here (e.g. levels\test\tutorial\tutorial)*". Exclude the quotation marks.
If it's multiplayer, you should be able to just open up a lan game with it right away.
If it's singleplayer, you have to open it with devmode. Make a shortcut to the Halo Custom Edition.exe. In properties you should see Target. At the end of it add -devmode -console. Click OK. When you go double click this shortcut you've now opened CE with devmode. Hit the tilde key "`" and type "map_name *your scenario name here*" with no quotations and it should load up.

This might seem really complex but it really isn't. It'd be a lot easier to show with a video...

My apologies, I was not specific enough.

I am using the multi-player map "hangemhigh".

I intend to check out the channel that you provided, thank you.

I attempted to follow your instructions, I was not entirely sure what I was doing so I was expecting not to get it right the first time.

I copied cmd.exe into the halo ce directory, I then ran it and typed what you instructed (or so I think), which left me with the following on my cmd screen..

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.10240]
(c) 2015 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition>tool build-cache-file *tags\levels\test\hangemhigh\Autum stand off.scenario

I then hit Enter and the following occurs..

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.10240]
(c) 2015 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition>tool build-cache-file *tags\levels\test\hangemhigh\Autum stand off.scenario
Couldn't read map file './toolbeta.map'
usage: tool verb <options..>
build-cache-file <scenario-name>

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition>

I also received the same outcome when I done a space before "tool". I have a feeling that I have made a mistake.

Also does your Sapien have the "phenomena" that I described in my starting post? For example grenades not exploding and no firing sound effects.

Thank you for responding.
Edited by Agoodusername on Nov 11, 2015 at 01:02 AM

>> UPDATE <<

Just an update.

I was watching a video I downloaded from youtube and it made mention of making a cmd shortcut in the folder and making sure the "Start in" command in the properties is the Halo ce directory. So I decided to do that, I then just typed tool and hit Enter to see the result, the following happened.

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.10240]
(c) 2015 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition>tool
Couldn't read map file './toolbeta.map'
usage: tool verb <options..>
model source-directory
animations source-directory
strings source-directory
unicode-strings source-directory
bitmaps source-directory
bitmap source-file
structure scenario-directory bsp-name
structure-lens-flares bsp-name
structure-breakable-surfaces structure-name
collision-geometry source-directory
physics source-file
sounds directory-name platform<xbox,wav,ogg> ogg_only_value_flag<quality or bitrate>
sounds_by_type directory-name type <round to 64 samples:yes/no>
build-cache-file <scenario-name>
windows-font
hud-messages <path> <scenario-name>
lightmaps <scenario> <bsp index> <quality> <stop threshhold>
process-sounds <root path> <substring> <gain+|gain-|gain=|maximum-distance|minimum-distance> <value>
merge-scenery <source scenario> <destination scenario>
zoners_model_upgrade
import-device-defaults <defaults|profiles> <savegame path>

I then decided to do it with the full command line that you (Spartan) advised. This was the result of doing so.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition>tool build-cache-file*tags\levels\test\hangemhigh\Autum stand off.scenario*
Couldn't read map file './toolbeta.map'
usage: tool verb <options..>
model source-directory
animations source-directory
strings source-directory
unicode-strings source-directory
bitmaps source-directory
bitmap source-file
structure scenario-directory bsp-name
structure-lens-flares bsp-name
structure-breakable-surfaces structure-name
collision-geometry source-directory
physics source-file
sounds directory-name platform<xbox,wav,ogg> ogg_only_value_flag<quality or bitrate>
sounds_by_type directory-name type <round to 64 samples:yes/no>
build-cache-file <scenario-name>
windows-font
hud-messages <path> <scenario-name>
lightmaps <scenario> <bsp index> <quality> <stop threshhold>
process-sounds <root path> <substring> <gain+|gain-|gain=|maximum-distance|minimum-distance> <value>
merge-scenery <source scenario> <destination scenario>
zoners_model_upgrade
import-device-defaults <defaults|profiles> <savegame path>

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition>

I'm not sure what exactly happened, I am assuming something done incorrectly on my part. It is a step forward anyway.
Edited by Agoodusername on Nov 11, 2015 at 05:04 AM

My bad. I should have said to remove the asterisks as well.

First off, let's rename your .scenario file.
Rename it to autum_stand_off.scenario.

Next, go into cmd (run as administrator just in case):

tool build-cache-file levels\test\hangemhigh\autum_stand_off

That should do the trick. Once that's done you should see your map among the multiplayer levels.
As for Sapien, I haven't messed with AI in a long while so I dunno if that's the case for me. If you run the map ingame and all is well, it shouldn't be too big of a problem.

I done it and the following happened..

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.10240]
(c) 2015 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition>tool build-cache-file levels\test\hangemhigh\autum_stand_off
Couldn't read map file './toolbeta.map'
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 'levels\test\hangemhigh\hangemhigh' is 0.73M
tag headers and names are 0.28M
streaming model vertex and index buffers...done
streaming tags..................................done
writing vertex and index buffers...done 8.98M
writing tags...done (3458 tags for 8.24M)
total tag size is 8.96M (14.04M free)
compressing 54.78M...done
successfully built cache file.
Cache pack file bitmaps hits: 820 for 46.30M
Cache pack file bitmaps adds/misses: 100 for 2.68M
Cache pack file sounds hits: 664 for 12.04M
Cache pack file sounds adds/misses: 1970 for 35.14M
Cache pack file loc hits: 104 for 0.22M
Cache pack file loc adds/misses: 0 for 0.00M

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition>

So it worked! I now have a map file of autum_stand_off. With that said, I now face a new issue that I did not expect to occur. My Halo ce wont actually launch.. I should be able to sort that myself.

Thank you for your help, it was great to see such a quick response. A shame I can't return the favor.

1. Effects don't seem to occur in Sapien. Explosions, decals, lights, etc. Which is why grenades in Sapien don't do much.
2. The spawn delays and timers work, just make sure that min respawn count is less than the maximum. The minimum count is kinda like "there must be this amount of this squad on the map at all times, regardless of circumstances." Spawn timers kick in when the minimum count is reached, and spawning is temporarily disabled when it hits the max count.
Edited by game user10 on Nov 12, 2015 at 08:29 AM