New Modding App

OwnZ joO · Post by **OwnZ joO** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 5:00 pm

Hey guys, I'm working on a new modding app for halo 2. Eventually I want it to have a lot of the features that Entity has without all of the extra features(bugs). Right now it loads the maps pretty quick and has a lot of information on them. But it still needs a lot more work. I probably won't work on bsp conversion for the smaller maps, because h2core and entity already convert bsp's, but I will work on a good meta editor and fast loading. It already has sorting for the reference viewer, and a goto function, and it will have multiple dependency swapping, so it has a good start. I'm not ready to release anything yet, but hopefully some of you will help me out with the map format because I'm not gonna pretend to know everything about it. Good to know that if I make a good enough program, it might get some use.

Post by **JacksonCougar** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 7:17 pm

I don't know enough about code to be a help, and next to nothing about the actual .map files, but if I can be a help in another way I will try my best.

Post by **Grimdoomer** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 9:17 pm

I can help you what do you need help on right now?

PS you can reach me fater through AIM = xXplayerificXx

OwnZ joO · Post by **OwnZ joO** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 12:20 am

Nothing really in particular, when I get stuck on how the map structure works i'll come here for help though. I have a lot of code to look off of from all the open source programs released, but a lot of them did things wierd/bad(entity) from a programming standpoint, so it's hard to see what they're doing easily.

Post by **Grimdoomer** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 12:31 am

Im writing a tut on programing apps for halo 2 right now, if you want i can send you my source wich has everyhting up to dependacys and such. I can tell you it is very very easy to read and organized, also i have comments over almost every line of code. You just have to promise not to send it to any one or upload it any where.

hit me up on AIM - xXplayerificXx

OwnZ joO · Post by **OwnZ joO** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 5:41 am

I'd like to see your tut to reference what you do and compare it to the way I do it, I won't release your stuff, but I'm guessing I'm farther along than your tut in my app development, Xzodia saw it a while ago, but I've updated it since then. I think it's pretty fast, and hopefully it'll have good features when I'm done with it.

Post by **Grimdoomer** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 11:02 am

well I posted that basics on progra,ing, i still have to add C# code though, but i will convert my map class to C# so im gueesing you want like the header, index and tags?

OwnZ joO · Post by **OwnZ joO** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 3:56 pm

Nah, I have all those, and dependencies, idents, reflexives, and string references loading, with sorting in the listview for each column, and Unicode and StringIds loading. Just wanted to know if people would help me with their superior map knowledge(those who have been around longer most likely).

Post by **Grimdoomer** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 7:20 pm

ok I just have to fix one problem I have with dependancys and then i can show you how. String ID's are pretty simple but each map has close to 10,000 stringID's takes a lot of ram.

OwnZ joO · Post by **OwnZ joO** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 12:55 am

I don't think it takes that much ram if you store it right. I got my program to scan all the references manually, now I need to fix it so that it does it in one pass.

bumlove · Post by **bumlove** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 11:52 am

I'm liking the sounds of this, can I offer ideas of things to put in and things that bug the cr*p outa me about entity
Things I would love to see
we know go to function is handy but I sometimes would like to see what points to that tag, eg BR empty sound is used by lots of weapons and I would like to see which ones quickly (probably not an easy task)
also when skinning a mass Ident nuller & swapper would speed things up when bsp shader mapping

Things I hate about entity

the done button, what use is it? just make a noise and go away
duplicating anything closes the tag you where just in, like you no longer want to do anything with a newly duplicated tag
multiple ident swapping, who thought it would be a good idea to have the box move a bit

OwnZ joO · Post by **OwnZ joO** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 4:57 pm

bumlove wrote:I'm liking the sounds of this, can I offer ideas of things to put in and things that bug the cr*p outa me about entity
Things I would love to see
we know go to function is handy but I sometimes would like to see what points to that tag, eg BR empty sound is used by lots of weapons and I would like to see which ones quickly (probably not an easy task)
also when skinning a mass Ident nuller & swapper would speed things up when bsp shader mapping

Things I hate about entity

the done button, what use is it? just make a noise and go away
duplicating anything closes the tag you where just in, like you no longer want to do anything with a newly duplicated tag
multiple ident swapping, who thought it would be a good idea to have the box move a bit

You can select all the idents or dependencies depending on what you're viewing at the same time, you can swap them all with the same swap dialog, and you can null them all out with the null out feature. I'll work on a better way for letting the user know they're done, maybe a label or something, unless you want your computers annoying beep sound, I could do that. So that's most of what bugged you from entity, well I have most of that already in the program. If I forget to leave out the messageboxes just remind me. Duplicating without closing the tag will be hard, the reason they close the tag is because they close the map and open it again to get all the changes, I'll try to just update it in memory and not change everything, but I can't guarantee that. But yeah mass dependency swapper and nuller accomplished. Also, you might wanna check out ADI and go into the dependency swapper, and right click and select inverse dependency mode, I think that's what you're looking for with the tags that point to it. I might try to implement that, I'm sure I could, but it'll be really slow.

Post by **Grimdoomer** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 7:33 pm

well if you dont have something that says done how are you gunna know when its done, and when the tag list closes it reloads the tags to get the new one, but it would be hard to go back to the tag you where at or better yet your duplicated tag.

OwnZ joO · Post by **OwnZ joO** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 10:26 pm

Grimdoomer wrote:well if you dont have something that says done how are you gunna know when its done, and when the tag list closes it reloads the tags to get the new one, but it would be hard to go back to the tag you where at or better yet your duplicated tag.

It would be hard to do that, you're right, that's why I'll probably reload the map like entity, at least at first, maybe i'll work try to make it work without reloading after I get it all working.

Post by **Grimdoomer** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 10:48 pm

you dont have to relly close the map you could just call teh readH2Tags() again im guessing you have it in its own class? eather way just call that again and then befor you could save the tag path you last selected wich would be the original of the duplicated adn write the tag class and path to some strings then just use like TreeView1.Selected(i think or items.selected) = Dupedtag.Path just make dupedtag a new H2Tag structure.

Post by **XZodia** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 4:33 pm

it wouldn't be difficult to just add the new tag to the treeview, assuming you store the tag data the right way

daniellevenson · Post by **daniellevenson** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 3:26 am

What programming application are you using to write the program?

I am not sure it's not just an idea right now; how much coding experience do you have?

OwnZ joO · Post by **OwnZ joO** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 3:33 am

I'm using visual studio 2008 express edition.

daniellevenson · Post by **daniellevenson** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 3:37 am

Alright; cool that makes me much more confident.

bumlove · Post by **bumlove** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 7:51 pm

Oh another thing that bugs the c*ap out of me about entity chunk deletion in the cloner, it would be nice if you could Ctrl and select or Shift select all the unwanted things in one go, I can't remember specifically when I needed this function but it would be nice, once more I don't know how possible it is and am willing to stand corrected/reeducated

OwnZ joO · Post by **OwnZ joO** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 8:27 pm

I'm a way off chunk cloning, but it is in the plans. I doubt I'll come out with my program as quick as Entity came out, because I'm working slow instead of just pumping out as much as possible. I've got mass dependency and ident swapping, reflexive viewing, and string id viewing for all tags except ltmp and sbsp. I have basic meta extraction, and need to work on raw data and meta editing next I think. I started to work on bitmaps, but couldn't focus on it so that's why I started on meta extraction. I won't lie, the GUI is ugly right now, I'm not that great at designing them, I don't pride myself in that though, I'm sure i'll have a good looking version eventually so don't worry.