Mac Gaming Mods

Sparky wrote:I think it would be neat as a palette window off to the side that can be toggled from the Window menu. It would need to update when an item in the main window is clicked.

Modzy wrote:*Image*

Editing controls without space, like bitmasks, will use the info button. Info window is now a floating window.

Welcome to Sparky's Eschaton Plugins!

These plugins were created between June and August of 2010 and are the product of many days of work. Everything was hand-coded, of course, although I reused data where I could to promote efficiency and consistency.

If you find any errors whatsoever, including spelling mistakes, please inform me at my e-mail address shown at the bottom of this file. In regards to spelling, I corrected any spelling mistakes that were present in the original HEK application, Guerilla, during the transcription process. I also used full text instead of abbreviations; for example, I wrote Multiplayer instead of MP and Split-Screen instead of Splitscreen, which is more dictionary-friendly. I was wary of scripting nomenclature, however, so I avoided respelling and (I think) even capitalizing terms used by scripts, so that you would be able to recognize them as script-related terms where they appeared.

Thank you for using these plugins. If you want the fastest access to them while modding, please drag them to the top of your plugin list in Eschaton's Preferences window so that they will appear first when clicking on a tag.

For more information, you may read the MGM forum topic I used while making them: sparky's plugins

Sparky
Sparky@halodemo.net
August 15, 2010

These plugins were finished in version 3.0 as of Friday, August 20, 2010 at 1:15 AM.
These plugins were finished in version 4.0 as of Monday, September 20, 2010 at 1:31 PM.


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Eschaton 0.8.1.1
by Modzy and Sparky

I was fortunate to be able to collaborate with Modzy in the development of this version. If you like, you can read our initial discussion while he worked on the application and I worked on the plugins.

Version 4.0 of the plugins is included as the default plugin set for this version of Eschaton. There are two available plugin types, "default" and "experimental".

The "experimental" plugins include many of the values that are not accounted-for in the Halo Editing Kit's Guerilla application. These values may or may not be of interest to you, and some may actually crash your map file. Since these can be volatile values, they are labeled saliently as "EXPERIMENTAL".

The "default" plugins include all the verified values that represent a complete mapping of tag information that Eschaton can use at this point in its development. All the tag information included in Guerilla is included in these plugins; the exception to this is that Eschaton does not currently allow references to information in the map data outside the area where the tag data is located, at least as far as an organized approach is concerned. Therefore, tag types like mod2, coll and sbsp may not have all their model data information available in the meta data location. In situations where any such information was unstable or unusable, it was removed from the "default" plugins and remains in the "experimental" plugins.

Eschaton currently has issues with Index values, and also particularly with its scrolling controls layout, so I made an additional plugin set called "default scrolling" that lets you safely use every tag type with the scrolling controls in Eschaton. I tested every Halo Full tag type with the scrolling controls, so you should be alright. However, if you are using scrolling controls while viewing either coll, effe or weap tag types and then switch to another plugin set, Eschaton will crash with an exception error message window. This is because Eschaton 0.8.1 / 0.8.2 doesn't handle the Index data type properly in scrolling controls view. You may, of course, switch to classic controls view and then use the normal "default" or "experimental" plugin sets.

I therefore recommend that you organize your plugin set priorities in the following order under Eschaton Preferences:

default scrolling
default
experimental

This will ensure that you can use the Scrolling controls if you so desire. Remember that if you want to use Index types in the coll, effe, or weap tag types (under Eschaton 0.8.1, 0.8.1.1 or 0.8.2), you can switch to classic controls under Preferences and then select the "Default" or "Experimental" plugins. Unfortunately, these versions of Eschaton do not let you switch the values for Index chunks, so all you can do then is read the entry's offset, copy the Hex offset, and use another Hex editor application to go to that offset location, then change the value from that other Hex program. I recommend that you don't try this the first time on a delicate map project, but REMEMBER TO MAKE BACKUPS (thanks, Kayar ☺) and then modify the chunk value as you like:

FF = None Selected
00 = Chunk 1
01 = Chunk 2
03 = Chunk 4
…
0A = Chunk 11
…and so on.

Another snafu here is that Eschaton may crash if it tries to modify a map file while that map file is opened with another Hex Editor program, so close the map from the Hex Editor's end before trying to have Eschaton make changes to it. You can, however, make changes to the map from the Hex Editor's side and then see the value updated in Eschaton when the view is refreshed.

Thank you again for using what the MGM community has worked so hard to improve. If you have any questions, you may contact me via my e-mail address below or at the MGM forum.

Sparky
Sparky@halodemo.net
September 5 - 20, 2010