The Halo PC Engine

[TM_updates]

TM would like to introduce 343industries to our custom single player series of levels, which is the result of a great team-effort and goes by the name of Project Lumoria.

Project Lumoria is a 2 map episodic series of Halo Custom Edition single player levels set in an exciting new environment at the start of the war between Humans and Covenant.
The goal of this project is to go back to the roots of the original Halo 1 gameplay and offer an enjoyable experience that feels like something that could stand right alongside the original campaign.
That said we do include some custom assets, but we do our best to make them feel like they could fit in the default tagset. We also tweak existing default tags to better suit our needs for our intended gameplay experience.

One example of one of our custom additions is the inclusion of the Halo e3-2000 shield wielding elite:


And another example is the inclusion of the e3-2000 Covenant Shadow vehicle, illustrated below:


-PROJECT LUMORIA: EPISODE ONE-

Description: At the start of the Human-Covenant war, a scientific expedition into the outer regions of human space stumbled upon a previously unknown planet, later to be named Lumoria. The planet was home to various new species of fauna and flora, and several mysterious structures appeared to be dotted across it's lush environments. They would later realize that Lumoria was in fact an artificially constructed planet, carved into what it is now by the "Forerunners". Shortly after the planet's discovery however, the Covenant made landfall and disabled the expedition's ship. Most of the crew was killed or captured, though some managed to stay hidden and set up a beacon. Several days later the UNSC would pick up the distress signal.



Now The Endless Horizon, a frigate class ship, is sent in to execute a low-profile search and rescue operation.
On board is May, a female Spartan II supersoldier. Bred for combat, built for war.
Along her side are a hardy group of higly trained ODST's, lead by Gunnery Sergeant Brandon Keiffer.

Here you can see the official (but now outdated) trailer for the first release of Project Lumoria: Episode One



And here you can see a small gameplay preview we did for episode one when it still was in an early development stage



Here are some screenshots of Lumoria: Episode One, along with a handy .zip file for those who want to download them to their pc



And here's the rest of them:

[smshot]http://i.imgur.com/50Bbll.jpg[/IMG]

The .zip file containing the 25 screenshots:
http://www23.zippyshare.com/v/63077802/file.html

More Media can be found at the bottom of this post, including several Vidocs we have done during our development process.

Project Lumoria: Episode 1 was released last year and updated a bit later. But after more user feedback we decided to work on another update, which will be released alongside Episode 2 when it is completed.

Project Lumoria was very well received amongst players, totaling over 20 000 downloads from various hosting websites.
It averaged a user rating of 9.2/10 on hce.halomaps.org and an average rating of 9.1 on www.modDB.com, making it the highest rated customly crafted single player level for Halo CE to date.

An example of how we approach our level design is detailed below:
http://www.modacity.net/forums/showt...Player-Mapping

The initially updated version of Episode 1 can be found here:
http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=5909

A detailed and honest review of the initial release can be found here:
http://halosource.forums.gs/t156-dev...s-reviews#1519

Devil Mingy sums up his review with these inspirational and motivating words:

"I know what you're saying. It's too harsh to judge a fan-made mod like this. I shouldn't be comparing it on the same scale as Bungie's work. However, for as negative as the review has been, the scale that I'm grading it on is the best compliment I can give it. This map is so good that is deserves to be judged on the same level; the first custom level I have ever played for Halo: CE that feels like it could've been made by Bungie. It may not try to stray from Bungie's established encounter structure, but the fact that it can match and, at times, surpass it is a triumph. Anybody who owns Halo PC should try this map out. "

-PROJECT LUMORIA: EPISODE TWO-

Currently TM is working on Project Lumoria: Episode Two, which will conclude the story-ark that you embarked upon in the first episode.
For episode two we have further improved upon our level design, taking all our experiences and user feedback from our first episode into consideration.



So far we are about halfway in the development process of Episode Two.

We have shown off one of our new encounters in the Halo CE3 event, shown here:



Below are some screenshots showing off Lumoria: Episode Two at an early stage of development:



And here's the rest of them:

-MEDIA-

Teaser
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqaomsxv3Sw

Vidoc 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouxPcOfZTq8

Episode One gameplay preview by Higuy (Vidoc 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJuaLgFDdSY

Episode One gameplay preview by L0d3x
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSbc4QHseNw

Vidoc 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7slkG4Qfps

Official Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_v6P63k_KA

Episode Two gameplay preview at Halo CE3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7slk...layer_embedded

DOWNLOAD EPISODE ONE:
http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=5631

EPISODE ONE RELEASE THREAD:
http://forum.halomaps.org/index.cfm?...&topicID=35231

Moddb page
http://www.moddb.com/mods/project-lumoria

Our website
http://www.lumoriace.com

Halomaps Episode Two thread
http://forum.halomaps.org/index.cfm?...&topicID=37905

Modhalo Episode Two thread
http://www.modhalo.net/index.php?/to...a-episode-two/

-CONTACT-

If you would like to contact the team behind Project Lumoria you can do so by sending an e-mail to: mail@lumoriace.com

E:@Moderators: feel free to delete the attachments, wasn't sure how much quota I had so went with Imageshack after all

[Higuy]

Besides from Lumoria, like L0d3x posted, I have worked on other various multiplayer maps:

Garden CE
http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=4863




Highlands
http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=3964




Peril
http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=4096




Immolate (made with Sheer and thanks to DEElekgolo for lighting)
http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=4880




(just a few of about 10 or 12 multiplayer maps I've created that have been decently popular, Garden CE was also ranked #2 in halomaps.orgs 'top 50 maps of 2010')

I've also created a few tutorials, in PDF and video.

Guide To Single Player Mapping (PDF)
http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=5361

Modeling Terrain for Halo CE (video)
http://vimeo.com/11781231

Creating a basic encounter in Halo CE (Video)
http://vimeo.com/12915248

Converting sound files (Video)
http://vimeo.com/18808279

As others said, this is quite possibly (even though old) the coolest, and most easy engine to work with that creates quality work. If your looking for stuff for Halo 4, upgrading the engine, or even just looking around, its nice to know that others outside our community still are curious to see what where up too.

[sehe]

Hy all!
I think the first and most important thing is to finally make a correct multi-player engine, so players wouldn't have to shoot before the other players, like in the other multi-player games. Also there is a lot of things to fix/change;
- chat is horrible, you should divorce events (join, quit, kills, deaths etc.) from real chat messages, put some anti-spam stuff, and ofc, fix textlag witch is happens when u minimize halo to the taskbar.
- optimizing hud for wide-screen
- if a player gets a corrupted package he/she gets DC immediately or even crash.
- server is still vulnerable for halofp
- logging is buggy too, u can crash the server several ways using this bug
- for example with rcon, and its not even have to be enabled, or u don't have to know the password
- put some bruteforce protection to rcon
- implement some function from current server apps like sapp (xhalo.tk =) such as afk kick, ping kick option, admin system, map skipping, ipban oh and, since lot of players using portable halo (~ dynamic cd-key), and have dynamic IP too, you should identify player by their MAC Address instead of CD-Key, and make a banning system based on this :P
- optimize dedicated server's engine, cuz they using so many resources, even if they are empty they using 5-10% CPU, and about 20% when they are full
- put some basics DLL- injection protection into haloce.exe, cuz there are too many cheaters already... yes some ppl will bypass it, but its still better than nothing

Well, i think these are the most important things, i hope i didn't forgot anything

[Tnnaas]

@sehe
Rather than posting what needs to be done, you should post what has already been done.
The HaloCE Releases thread has a great collection of valuable applications.

It should also be noted that we haven't just been making maps and apps, we've been tearing into every type of tag file and making our own as we wish. We have better understanding of how most tags work, how the engine runs, and tons of other things. While some things are a bit random and confusing (portals, sounds, etc.), we've managed to find ways to make these things work. Hell, we've been pounding this engine for years.

In the eight (give or take) years the game has been out, we've dominated just about every aspect of the engine through time, patience, and trial-and-error. I know I've been a part of the CE community for just under a year (playing the pc game for five), but the explosion of new resources once closed off to me from a play-only stand-point swept me along at a great pace. I personally have learned more about the Halo engine in the last nine months than an entire decade of playing and studying the game. And that's all thanks to the various accomplisments and pioneering efforts of others. Tutorials and the like have given me an in-depth explanation of how things work so I could now make my own maps, vehicles, or scenery (you'll get your ponies soon enough, Freelancer). Going through the various tags and maps on Halomaps.org I see that, while some look to be ameturish work, others are genuinely, what's the word? Beautiful. Single player campaign missions, like that of Lumoria, strike me with awe. Even the multiplayer maps like Portent, Snowcast, and Revelations are impressive. I know for a fact that I couldn't even come close to their level of quality. And while we've been cut off and forced to play with the lovely sandbox known as the Blam! engine, I'm sure everyone would like to see everything updated from net-code to graphics. But between maps, tags, and apps, it's amazing to see what we already have and even to see what comes out next.

I honestly don't think there has been a better Halo community than the PC/CE community.

[mootjuh]

Well, this is what i have right now, a BSP I am working on for a Firefight.



This is a sniper rifle i was working on, It wasfrom a Halo Wars concept art by Ensemble Studios. The scope is from Halo 3 though. It is lowpoly because i actually want it to get it in Halo: CE and high poly weapons are bad there.

[Donut]

This was my favorite game for a long time. I gained most of my 3D modeling experience modding this game. I ultimately stopped due to engine limitations like graphics, netcode that only transmits certain things (and thus required a shit ton of workarounds to make anything custom sync), the vehicle limit, limited animation space and options (ie: first person permutations), and other stuff like that. The aim leading in multiplayer isn't bad, but the limitations of the engine are what stopped me working in it.

[Limited]

This is what I love about the community, the fact that we are such a diverse group of skills who work on different areas in development, yet aiming towards a single goal. Scenery, bsps, texturing, shaders, effects, sound, music, external apps.

Some of the videos below date back to 2008, yet that seems to fresh in my mind. I remember working on programs back in 2005.

Some of mine and Skylines collaboration in application development - shame skyline unlisted his videos from his youtube.

Latest app, edits the FoV, third person, easy-to-use sightjacker, death camera movement using mouse (disabled in default Halo).


Score indicator using kornmans OS SDK to render DirectX boxes onto the screen and determining what type of score to show dependent on gametype, showing the top 2 highest scores.


Adapting RobOplawars script idea for screen bluring when you have taken damage and packages it nicely in a 3rd party app that works on any map and does not require scripts.




Spawning warthogs in a modified dedicated server which has custom methods, e.g. spawning single banshee, single ghost, single warthog.

[neuro]

It's a shame I never published anything I did with Halo in ye 'olde days.

I keep thinking of wanting to get back into Halo, but then I remember the hard limits on the rendering engine, which above a certain number of polygons decides to just NOT draw stuff, and I stop wanting to get back into it.

[Wholfe]

faking shader transparent generic.



quality thanks to sapien.

basically the pc version of the game has a broken/missing shader type, the "shader_transparent_generic" and it sad to say that alot of the the games shaders used this type. the jackal shield, the covenant dropships, and a bit of other things.

now i cant exactly replicate all the effects that the shader type did in the xbox version, such as distortion and even the offset maps arent entirely the same, but shader plasma CAN be masked, and offset maps are indeed usable. not to the same extent, but with some practise with the blending modes ive come up with this efficient way of faking the shader_transparent_generic.

[ThePlague]

As an environment modeler it was great to be able to whip up a map, put the textures and such I wanted on it, export it, and be able to play it. Ever since I started, I haven't found another game engine that i've been able to stick with, because to me it just doesn't feel the same. I grew up with Halo CE, and it's an amazing engine to utilize.

I've made countless maps, but the only real thing I released was this:
http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=5191




I loved modeling and creating environments for Halo: Custom Edition because of the forerunner. Once you figured out how the aesthetics of everything was, you could create beautiful environments, bases, towers, and even cities. And then put those things into a map, and be able to play it with your friends.

If the engine was updated, or if things were added, i'd probably go back to creating things for this game. It's an all around amazing engine, and a hell of a lot of fun to use.