Editing kit-look at this

[{XF}Lowsy]

Are you kidding me with this? hahaha, lol, lol

http://www.thatforumplace.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10053/h2v_export.gif

BTW, isn't it time to open up the editing section of this site.??

[{MMT} Pope]

lol thats funny

[Syuusuke]

Oh yea when I saw that I was thinking of all other file formats similar to that

[BobtheGreatII]

Omg, why did my post get deleted? Some rule I didn't know about. Anyways. LOL!

[DaneO'Roo]

wtf no no upfront Maya support?

Bungie themselves use maya. What the shit.


Yet another reason i Probably wont get this game. Shitted online, locked up editer, and no fucking exporter for my package. Nice one.

[BobtheGreatII]

^Sounds like a personal problem.

[CtrlAltDestroy]

Uh, dano, they only use maya for animation, besides, halo ce was 3ds max only, wasn't it? <_<

Also, iirc, they said that they would include a kit or something along those lines to create exporters for other programs.

[Kornman00]

Its not a kit, its a specification of the ASS file format, its included in the help document...which isn't very help like >_>

[Digikid]

LOL!!!!!!!

Ass. hehehe.... :D

[Amit]

STFU and GTFO. Just kidding but you sound like a perverted little child......"He He He"

[{XF}Lowsy]

STFU and GTFO. Just kidding but you sound like a perverted little child......"He He He"


You try reading the HEK tutorial with all the .ASS references.. OMG, it's hard to get through a page and stay focused.. "HEHE"

[Timo]

It's honestly not that funny. :eyesroll:

[bleach]

ya..it isn't that funny, i wonder what a .ass file stands for...i hope H2V editing kit is a lot more easier than using a combo of Kornman00's HEK+ (to rip tags) and the HEK (to mod and etc.). The H2EK comes with tutorials?

[Roostervier]

Well, seeing as how assets were mentioned alot when I read it, I think it probably is short for asset or something.

[Xegrot]

Meh.

*Lets out a fraction of lol*

[Kornman00]

ya..it isn't that funny, i wonder what a .ass file stands for...
amalgam scene specification

[Timo]

ya..it isn't that funny, i wonder what a .ass file stands for...
amalgam scene specification.



The H2EK comes with tutorials?

Yes, but it's not very in-depth, no easy to follow screen shots.

[Roostervier]

Ok... I suppose I was completely wrong... heh. Shows what a nublet I am.

[Lightning]

Kornman00's HEK+


*SteelixB

[{XF}Lowsy]

It's got to be short for assets.. right? My graphics dept talks a lot about assets as well. I call them pictures, but they call them assets.

[SnaFuBAR]

haw haw......NOT. fail.

[Kornman00]

It's got to be short for assets.. right? My graphics dept talks a lot about assets as well. I call them pictures, but they call them assets.
Read (http://www.h2vista.net/forums/showpost.php?p=65459&postcount=16)

[jstatz]

wtf no no upfront Maya support?

Bungie themselves use maya. What the shit.


All of the maps, objects, etc for Halo are built in Max.

That said, if you check the help file there's a section called ".ass File Specification". This is a detailed rundown of the structure of an .ass file, which is the intermediate format any Halo 2 map starts out in. The intent here is to help any third parties who want to create exporters for Blender, Lightwave, Modo, Maya, or what have you.

The hope was that this would significantly streamline any community efforts in that direction, by not requiring reverse-engineering on their part to work out the file format.

[ejburke]

The hope was that this would significantly streamline any community efforts in that direction, by not requiring reverse-engineering on their part to work out the file format.

Except that the file format is weaksauce and now someone has to unearth the Halo 2 equivalent of JMS and reverse engineer THAT.

I know JMS and you, ASS, are no JMS!

[klange]

JMS is / was a GBX file format, though...

Hmm... Seems to me that we're in quite the pickle...
Does anyone here have lots of money and an uncanny ability to persuade anyone to do anything?

[Kornman00]

jms is not a gbx file format, its bungie's, and its still supported (not saying that your hce jms plugin will work mind you)...

[ejburke]

Is it even possible to figure out H2 JMS/JMA? We don't have any examples and we can't create them. We don't have much to go on at all.

It's scary to think that someone might have to go to the trouble of making a tag compiler from scratch with open file format support to accomplish what we want to accomplish in Halo 2. I guess that's what Prometheus is, but we can't exactly count on that being released soon enough.

[Patrickssj6]

00405920 . B9 14D67600 MOV ECX,H2Gueril.0076D614 ; UNICODE "BORK BORK BORK!"Very funny Bungie.

[teh lag]

Oh sweet jesus my eyes :gonk:
http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/5082/untitleddf7.png
^ Warning : may blind due to exposure to (presumably) a Bungie employee's butt

[Kornman00]

What the shit...

Thats in the launcher?

[teh lag]

3ds exporter.

I am afraid to make maps now D:

[jstatz]

The hell? I remember that error, we got rid of that.


Oh sweet jesus my eyes :gonk:

^ Warning : may blind due to exposure to (presumably) a Bungie employee's butt

[Bill Roeske]

We did. Can someone post either a screen shot or a description of what happens when they go to export an .ass file? Specifically, does a dialog box pop up with an option to run H2Tool after export? How about an option to export hidden geometry?


The hell? I remember that error, we got rid of that.

[CtrlAltDestroy]

Question: why .ass? :rolleyes:

[Kornman00]

ask bungie, they're the ones who thought it

[ejburke]

Holy crap, the Pi guys are here! (They "polished" the H2EK, not HG as is the common belief)

We know you guys were just doing what you were hired to do. We're just really disappointed with the limitations that have been imposed on us vs the Halo 1 kit. 'Little help? :D

[Nick]

This is where they tell us they accidentally left in an "undocumented feature" key combination that unlocks everything.

Right?

Oh well :P

Nick

[ejburke]

I was actually hoping for, like, documentation for the missing intermediary file formats (models, animation). I think we can handle everything else.

But, hey, I'm all for the waving of magic wands.

[Kornman00]

JMS and various JM* extensions are still used for models and animations, so not much has probably changed but rather added. Just need a tool option to import them...

or maybe they didn't want to release it without documenting the format for advance users, or a few bugs are still to be worked out ;o?

[StankBacon]

lol

[SMASH]

It's possible, and I sure hope that there is a way...In my digging through guirilla, I've found several interesting things:
1. The weapons and hidden stuff is still in there (easy).
2. I found a class (or whatever) that's used to grey or delete menu items. It can possibly be used to undelete those items.I'm a beginning programmer so whatever, if you want to know more, like the line of that code, just PM me.I use IDA Pro to do my dissembling.

[ejburke]

JMS and various JM* extensions are still used for models and animations, so not much has probably changed but rather added. Just need a tool option to import them...

or maybe they didn't want to release it without documenting the format for advance users, or a few bugs are still to be worked out ;o?

Hmm, I guess they wouldn't have had to change the old formats much, if at all. Animation and model data is animation and model data, afterall. I guess I was assuming that they had been changed and that H2 Tool wouldn't know what to do with the H1 JMS/JMA. In which case, we wouldn't have much of an idea as to what was changed and we'd need the file format specification, barring another one of your cracking miracles. :)

[madworkz]

Finally They made it super easy/lazy to add decrative structures and stuff without having to maintain the sealed world laws. I dont have the game but was sent the .ASS example map file. and if you read about the .ass file type you will find you can have tons of diffrent nodes allowing diffrent features. Open the .ASS file in notepad and scroll to the bottom where it says "instances" you will see they have "decrotive_brace".... this is the scenery that is being placed in MAX in the h2v trailer. Very cool, who the hell liked having to weld it into there bsp, Not I :) Also its easier to place static objects in max anyway. sapiens gizmos sucks. Also they will cast shadows when radiosty is run. Wonder how many diffrent node options you can have in your .ass. hmmm maybe ill just have to create a nice scenery package for Max incase we cant create are own scenery yet. Could someone verify this. Make a box map and create multiple objects. And then create a node for each peice of mesh. Make sure to link each node and mesh. also lable each node diffrently but maintain "instance" for the root name. example< "instance 1" instance 2" and so on. Also looking at the nodes in the .ass file they use the &#37; infront of the name. example "%instance 1". % probably makes the mesh collidable, not sure. Could some test this out ?

EDIT.....name the node "instance",,,,,,,,,USE the % infront of the name you r calling your mesh. i messed up when i said use infront of your node name

also if you have no idea what im talking about, ill just test it out when i get the game tonight :)

[jstatz]

Could someone verify this. Make a box map and create multiple objects. And then create a node for each peice of mesh. Make sure to link each node and mesh. also lable each node diffrently but maintain "instance" for the root name. example< "instance 1" instance 2" and so on. Also looking at the nodes in the .ass file they use the &#37; infront of the name. example "%instance 1". % probably makes the mesh collidable, not sure. Could some test this out ?


The %object_name in max is tremendously useful. It'll maintain your instancing in Max, so if you have architectural features that are repeated you can avoid stitching them in, but still have collision and proper lighting, etc.

The big upside here is that it also instance renders that object in-game, so you actually get a speed improvement for doing things this way. Probably not worth it for tiny simple stuff like a light plate, but if you've got a medium-complexity object go for it.

If you look at Uplift, for example: all the light pillars scattered around are instanced, the palm trees are instanced, the various support-beam things inside the bases are all instanced, the door frames are instanced (which means portals can be a lot simpler shapes, too), and big arms/ring on the needle structure are also instanced -- they're the same object rotated four times around the centerpoint. You can get a ton of usage out of this and end up with cleaner geometry that also runs faster.

The instanced objects themselves need to be sealed still -- typically I put a nodraw material on the faces that end up against walls, under the ground, etc. You don't need "instance" in the name itself, all you need is the %. Like in uplift the palm tree objects are called %palm1, %palm2, etc

[madworkz]

WOW thanks for quick reply, see guys there are alot of awsome features for use vets. :) Glad i figured this out. haha mb there still hope will see this and the rest of my stuff in game. :) come on kornman :)

what helped me out figuring this method was also watch the h3 VIDEO DOC. i saw that the trees in vahalla where actually placed in max then rather sapien. sapien Sucked placing rocks and trees. also the fact there colliable is awsome. Time for the community to come together and make a master scenery/stucture/prop 3D database. so we can have a huge varity to chose from.



http://www.madworkzstudio.com/halo/tu.jpg

[Bill Roeske]

Pretty much spot on :) Also check out the "Instanced Geometry" section of the help file for a table of symbols that can be used with instances in an .ass file.

For those that are curious, the "Materials Overview" section a contains a similar guide.

Edit: fixed up some grammar

[Bill Roeske]

A couple of people have pointed out that H2Sapien is a lot more tolerant of leaks and other BSP errors. I also wanted to point out real quick that portals have changed a bit since Halo 1. A lot of it is covered between the "Portals" and "Materials Overview" section of the help file, but essentially portals are a lot more flexible now. They can contain bends and creases and have been given some more control over their behavior via shader symbols.

[madworkz]

Bill id like to say thanks for answering my questions. I can already tell that my work flow will increase 50&#37; with these new features. Its easy for people to bash new things because they are afraid of change. Although we dont have access to all the tools we had befor (as of right now), but i can asure you there are many people like myself that will love all of it. Feel free to make H2vista your home for posting as this is the home of the hardcore mapmakers :). Hopefully ill obtain my copy tonight and you could be playing my maps in the next two weeks :). cheers


edit' Might want to sticky this thread, as we have some Q&A going on with a few DEVS :)

[klange]

JMS and various JM* extensions are still used for models and animations, so not much has probably changed but rather added. Just need a tool option to import them...

or maybe they didn't want to release it without documenting the format for advance users, or a few bugs are still to be worked out ;o?
Or maybe the command is there, just not mentioned in tool?
Just because the command exists doesn't mean that they would have to put it in the the short little command list...

[Lightning]

We did. Can someone post either a screen shot or a description of what happens when they go to export an .ass file? Specifically, does a dialog box pop up with an option to run H2Tool after export? How about an option to export hidden geometry?

I experience none of this. It just exports the file and closes normally (just like saving a file normally)


Why the shader collection things? D:

That makes materials so much more complicated.

[StankBacon]

when i exported, i didn't get any dialog box or anything.

[Kornman00]

Or maybe the command is there, just not mentioned in tool?
Just because the command exists doesn't mean that they would have to put it in the the short little command list...
The interface to call the actual implementation of the import class isn't there, so if it is there (Iyes, I've seen some things hinting at the fact some code still exists for it h2tool) its not complete for use as a option