Introduction and a few possibly nooby questions about the engine.

[JohnAbyss25]

Hey guys, I'm a new member, my name is John and I wanna get into Halo CE modding. I've been modding Half-Life and it's sequels for a few years now and am an avid fan of both Half-Life and Halo. Since I've become proficient at modding the Half-Life games I guess it's about time I move on to modding my second favorite franchise. :P

For the record, I'm not a noob. I'm proficient at texturing, basic 3d modeling and UV mapping and to some extent I can map also. I'm the lead texture artist on the source mod "For Hire" and I also do modeling and texturing for my own projects.

I've downloaded the OpenSauce Halo CE SDK Update #2 (RC) and I've been experimenting with some of the included tools but have a few questions about the engine.

- Can bump maps/normal maps and specular maps be used on weapon models? Most of the weapons I've seen in custom maps don't have any trace of a bump map on them, I think I've seen some kind of specular on them though.

- Can the sun be made to be a dynamic light source? I want all the bump maps in my upcoming project to react to the sun the same way bumpmaps react to the flashlight in default maps.

- How does the engine handle diffuse, normal and spec maps? Is it like source where sometimes the specular map in contained in the alpha channel of the normal map? I want tons of details on stuff like that. I also want to know how to manipulate the shaders on certain materials in similar ways to how you can manipulate them with commands contained in a .vmt file in source.

If you guys have any answers or would be kind enough to point me in the direction of a few thorough tutorials that would be great. Thanks.

[Disaster]

The game cannot render normal maps on anything other than bsp.

Specular maps are not your typical specular maps. They are controlled by a thing called a multipurpose map which contains several maps in one, the specular, illumination, and reflection.

Yes the sun can be made a dynamic light but I'm not sure how to do it.

[PopeAK49]

The sun can be made dynamic, but it makes your fps very low.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh1SFHj_jqs

[JohnAbyss25]

The game cannot render normal maps on anything other than bsp.

Unfortunate but not unexpected given the age of the engine.


The sun can be made dynamic, but it makes your fps very low.

Again unfortunate but at least the effect is what's desired. The guy who made the vid said that the low fps is just the frame rate of the video though in one of the comments so there's hope yet.

Thanks both of you guys.

Anyone know the maximum texture size? I'm thinking of starting my venture into modding halo with a retexture of one of the default maps with some custom weaponry (MA5C, that ODST socom pistol thing, etc.) I'm thinking I'll do one of the outdoor maps thus my question about the sun as a dynamic light. So yeah, a link to a tut about how to get tags and animations into the engine would be nice too.

[the1]

The game cannot render normal maps on anything other than bsp.

Specular maps are not your typical specular maps. They are controlled by a thing called a multipurpose map which contains several maps in one, the specular, illumination, and reflection.

Yes the sun can be made a dynamic light but I'm not sure how to do it.

bsp's can't even use normal maps... they use bump maps... they do 2 completely different things... hard to get them confused XD... normal maps add depth to a model where as bump maps... they render light hitting a surface differently from different angles

[JohnAbyss25]

They can be used to achieve similar effects. It's more the method in which they do it that differentiates them.

[PopeAK49]

bsp's can't even use normal maps... they use bump maps... they do 2 completely different things... hard to get them confused XD... normal maps add depth to a model where as bump maps... they render light hitting a surface differently from different angles

Wrong, you can use normal maps on bsps. My proof is the normal map used on the ice texture for the single player level a.o.t.c.r.

When I stated that dynamic lighting causes extreme drops in fps, I meant that to the guys with the low end computers. But then again. Who doesn't have a computer these days that can run halo at full settings.

[Ganon]

Who doesn't have a computer these days that can run halo at full settings.

FRain

[FRain]

bsp's can't even use normal maps... they use bump maps... they do 2 completely different things... hard to get them confused XD... normal maps add depth to a model where as bump maps... they render light hitting a surface differently from different angles

Dude, shut up.

Baiscally, if you set it right, the engine will compile the height map into a normal map.

I can run halo at 1024 full settings and get a stable 27fps usually. :downs:

[Hunter]

Could we see some of your texture work?

[JohnAbyss25]

Some Opposing Force arms I retextured (Not my model): http://i31.tinypic.com/2vt9vmb.png

Flesh there is hand painted no photos.

WIP SKS texture for a mod, heavy diffuse painted highlights. Not intended to be a shader heavy piece: http://i36.tinypic.com/241t9ih.png

Note that those two are rendered at 100% self illumination so all you're seeing is the texture. I'll try to find some of my dynamically lit shader heavy pieces from before the reformat.

EDIT: SKS isn't my model either.

EDIT2:

Shotgun WIP (My Model): http://i29.tinypic.com/4t6a9z.jpg

Colt M1911 Texture WIP (Not my model): http://i26.tinypic.com/2q8qyd2.png

Grenade Texture, diffuse, specular and normal (Not my model): http://i40.tinypic.com/2vccdbk.png

Custom Half Life arm model texture (not my model): http://i40.tinypic.com/2drgiv9.jpg

[Hunter]

Seem good. Colt texture looks interesting.

[Con]

- How does the engine handle diffuse, normal and spec maps? Is it like source where sometimes the specular map in contained in the alpha channel of the normal map? I want tons of details on stuff like that. I also want to know how to manipulate the shaders on certain materials in similar ways to how you can manipulate them with commands contained in a .vmt file in source.

For anything bsp, specular is contained the the diffuse alpha, and the bump map alpha is for transparency. You can compile a normal map and use that, or you can edit the bitmap tag to say it's a height map and it will convert bump maps to normal maps when your recompile the bitmap.

In a shader_model, the diffuse alpha controls transparency and the shader uses a multipurpose map with channels: green=self-illumination, blue=specular, and alpha=colour change (ie team colour). Ignore the key in the shader for multipurpose maps, I believe that's what they used for xbox.

[Delta4907]

In a shader_model, the diffuse alpha controls transparency and the shader uses a multipurpose map with channels: green=self-illumination, blue=specular, and alpha=colour change (ie team colour). Ignore the key in the shader for multipurpose maps, I believe that's what they used for xbox.
I thought red was specular, and blue had something to do with the detail map?

[SnaFuBAR]

Hey, welcome to the forums, i recognize you from CDG.

[itszutak]

I thought red was specular, and blue had something to do with the detail map?

Green is lights.
Blue is specular.
Red is detail maps.

Mixed colors do what you'd expect

[JohnAbyss25]

Hey thanks for the welcomes and info guys. I think I've got enough atm to start making new textures for Blood Gulch. Let me tell you this is gonna be one sweet map retexture. What would you guys like to see for a weapons set? I'm going to be making a few new weapons for the map, I'm swinging toward halo 3 stuff but what would you guys like to see?

[Ganon]

I can tell you we don't want to ever see bloodgulch again :saddowns:

[Higuy]

halo 1 weapons are the best
either remodel them or retexture them (or both) but keep them the same thing basically.

[JohnAbyss25]

I'll retexturing the defaults for this map then.

http://i38.tinypic.com/2iwaj54.jpg

I totally half-assed the bake. The high was just a turbo'd low, lol. Still turned out okay. I'm going to try to get it into the original halo anyways which just has a crappy chrome shader so it's not like it matters.