[WIP] Zeus: Pre-alpha 1 release

[Mgalekgolo]

pretty much the WSDFTG thing...
you have to hold the middle button, which doesnt work on my laptop -_-
also the TG thing is annoying, since i have to click them to go up and down.

[ThePolice]

whoa whoa whoa!
so this thing can make stuff i could put into halo 3 on my x-box?
I'm excited for this!

[Mgalekgolo]

maybe, but it will probably be a long time before this comes out. i just want h2-h1 conversion. the problem for me is the dual weild. it will be way underpowered without it, and cinematics may get messed up(that dual smg thing, and the pistol whatever thing).

[Sparky]

Zeus will include a front-end to the HDM Mod Databases (like HDemoLauncher, but so that you can upload your mods to the wiki and publish them on the Mod Database pages). Each mod will get something that looks like an index card that has all the author's notes and useful details about the mod, including a screenshot. When you choose a mod in the list, the mod's "index card" is displayed and you can see the information before downloading it. This is a front-end to the wiki Mod Database pages for the several versions of Halo. This means that with the rise in Halo 2 and 3 mods, these mods will also be able to be published at HDM.

Zeus will also include access to the INCY Online, but there are currently no plans to incorporate the Incyclopedia with HDM using the wiki software. Instead, Zeus will be the only means of using the INCY Online, because it needs to check for file differences and do other things that are better handled by an application than a PHP script.

Zeus will allow you to easily combine features from two or more mods to create a "combo" mod, like if you want to use the weapons from Weapons Evolved, the scenario from Crossing, and the HUD from a Halo 2 map. There will be an option to merge maps, where you will choose which maps to use and then specify which tags (or general terms like "vehicles") to include from each map.

[Sparky]

Update:

I'm almost finished learning Objective-C, Cocoa and OpenGL. I have been studying these three things that would be necessary in order for me to achieve this project goal. When I'm done, I'll start writing classes for the application that will handle map file reading for each platform of Halo 1. I've got a lot more of other peoples' research to fall back upon than Altimit01, Sword, Grenadiac, and others had in the making of Eschaton, SwordEdit, and our other current modding apps. Of course, the plan is to make the classes well-organized and documented because the project uses open source code. We don't have many programmers here, but I think someone who hasn't studied the languages should be able to understand the inner workings of the application this way - to an extent.

I've been experimenting with various interfaces, but I'm leaning towards a full-screen mode with a HUD window just like Samuco's SwordEdit has now. For the various features like meta editing and modifying the hex code directly, I hope to include existing classes like the hex field viewer/editor from HexFiend.

That's a simple summary of the situation for now. Again, I don't plan upon releasing any big mods until I'm pleased with the status of this project. I expect full-featured support, which means making it easy to do anything previously thought difficult.

• Scripting (for now only available with Single Player) should be einfach
• Handling of models, sounds, and images will have tighter integration with the OS
• You can directly make completely new bitmaps.map, sounds.map, b30.map, bloodgulch.map, and ui.map files
• The scenario viewer and editor will be FUN to use
• New approaches to non-scenario-specific metadata will make modding so easy... even a cave man can do it

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These are my current main goals. What I don't want is to copy what Altimit01 and Sword/Samuco have done, but of course we wouldn't have the fun mods that we now have without their work, and the modding community would be worse without their contributions.

[Samuco_]

• The scenario viewer and editor will be FUN to use

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What I don't want is to copy what Altimit01 and Sword/Samuco have done,

You don't find starlight fun to use? This makes me very sad Back to the drawing board

(Rather back to flood (not the halo flood)... but the idea of sweeping a tonne of mud isn't appealing.)

[dirk]

you may have learned to code, now please go read the HIG before you even put a hand on that mouse.

[Smythe]

• The scenario viewer and editor will be FUN to use

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What I don't want is to copy what Altimit01 and Sword/Samuco have done,

You don't find starlight fun to use? This makes me very sad Back to the drawing board

(Rather back to flood (not the halo flood)... but the idea of sweeping a tonne of mud isn't appealing.)

I don't think that's what he meant, because Esch's scenario viewer isn't all that fun.
If it's not textured, can it have that colour changey thing that Eschaton has? it's very purdy.

[Sparky]

you may have learned to code, now please go read the HIG before you even put a hand on that mouse.

Apple Human Interface Guidelines?

• The scenario viewer and editor will be FUN to use

[/color]

What I don't want is to copy what Altimit01 and Sword/Samuco have done,

You don't find starlight fun to use? This makes me very sad Back to the drawing board

(Rather back to flood (not the halo flood)... but the idea of sweeping a tonne of mud isn't appealing.)

I don't think that's what he meant, because Esch's scenario viewer isn't all that fun.
If it's not textured, can it have that colour changey thing that Eschaton has? it's very purdy.

Here's what my imagined goal is right now: you open up the application for the first time, it has you locate the appropriate game folders under the Preferences window, you open an existing map file (can't create a new map file yet), it presents you with a "fullscreen" mode like SwordEdit Starlight does, then you can intuitively navigate the map using controls similar to the Halo game player controls. There are two camera modes: one that locks the camera to the bsp ground and simulates the spartan's view using the metadata of the biped and globals (like camera height and movement speed) so that it's just like you are running around and playing in the game, but without a gun or HUD. The second camera mode is a flyby camera like SwordEdit now has, where you are not locked to the ground. (I probably won't have issues with planes like water, since they are not part of the bsp collision model.) After flying around a bit to get an idea of your map environment, you can use the panel window on the side to drag-and-drop objects into the map to populate the scenario. With a simple keystroke, cmd-downarrow, you can drop the object to the ground. Pressing it once drops its spawn point to the ground and pressing it twice drops its visible model to the ground... This is the scenario editing environment that I'm envisioning, which is intuitive, easy, and fun to use.

In the panel window of resources, you will see lots of preview-rendered models and they will be organized in the following way:

Code: Select all

Machines
     (-bitmapped preview of model-)     Door 1 
     (-bitmapped preview of model-)     Bridge 1 
Scenery
     (-bitmapped preview of model-)     Rock 1 
     (-bitmapped preview of model-)     Rock 2 
Vehicles
     (-bitmapped preview of model-)     Banshee 
     (-bitmapped preview of model-)     Ghost 

So the Resources list includes every tag you can use to populate a scenario, and each resource includes a preview image next to its name. The preview images are generated from the model and bitmap data in the map and its resource maps.

Camera Controls (based upon my in-game controls):

Caps Lock - toggle between simulated and flyby camera modes
E - move camera forward
D - move camera backward
S - move camera left
F - move camera right
Z - crouch / move camera vertically down
Space Bar - jump / move camera vertically up
A - ?
Q - ?
W - ?
R - ?
T - ?
C - ?
V - Draw a "laser beam" and show distance from camera to object aimed at (distance displayed both in world units and game meters)
G - ?
Shift - ?
Tab - ?

...you can see I have lots of extra controls to delegate to functions. Maybe they should be configurable in the Preferences window?

[Sparky]

You know, it just dawned on me: why not make this a collaborative editor?

4 people have Zeus. 1 person hosts a "multimodder" (coined from "multiplayer") session, the other 3 join. The scenario can be edited by all 4 modders at the same time; each simply downloads the current map and its session state from the host modder. If you've ever played Sauerbraten, it would be similar to that, where you see what the other person is doing in realtime, so collaborations can be done in one or more group sessions.

At the very least, this could be a feature built on top of the existing classes for Zeus, since it's an object-oriented program anyway. I'm sure Samuco could make this feature himself, since he's already made the Halo Server Sync app, which does basically the same thing.

Comments? For example, do you think downloading from a single "host" player is the best method? Or should these multimodder states be read from a directory on the HDM server? And also please let me know what you suggest for the other camera controls, if you have any ideas.

[Sparky]

Making New Maps & Modeling with Zeus

Testing a Galaxy Wars environment, here's what I did:

1. Generated a landscape with potential using the program Terragen.
2. Exported the landscape as an .obj file (works with the Windows version only).
3. Imported and fixed-up the landscape in 3ds Max, and skinned it with nice patterns from Genetica.
4. Exported to the HEK tools and built a test map.

Using the same principles, one would make a brand new map in the following way on a Mac:

1. Generate a landscape with potential using the program Terragen (v1 or 2 for Mac).
2. Export the landscape to lightwave format.
3. Import the lightwave model into Blender or Wings3D, fix it up and skin it appropriately.
4. Export the new model as an .obj file.
5. Import the .obj file into Zeus as a structure bsp tag.

Thus, the tools used in making a new map from scratch will be: Terragen, Blender/Wings3D, and Zeus. If you want to modify an existing structure bsp, Zeus will also be able to export the sbsp model as an .obj file that can be imported into Blender or Wings3D for modification and then reimported into Zeus again as an .obj file. Zeus will handle models in .obj, sbsp, and mod2 formats for Halo 1, and any other appropriate model formats for other versions of Halo.

[Sparky]

Zeus's Wiki Page
- includes a complete feature list and the current status of the project
- user guide will be updated here

[Mgalekgolo]

heres a little tip, make the list easier to read. i get bored at the third feature. (meaning i dont have enough time to read it all)

[Dead Site]

This is like Guerilla / Eschaton, Sapien / SwordEdit, and Tool combined, but without all the bugs. It's also totally easy to do even the most complicated tasks.

The combination is good, but it's never safe to say that it'll be without all the bugs. Ever.

[Sparky]

This is like Guerilla / Eschaton, Sapien / SwordEdit, and Tool combined, but without all the bugs. It's also totally easy to do even the most complicated tasks.

The combination is good, but it's never safe to say that it'll be without all the bugs. Ever.

I said that because one man was charged with the task of making one or more of those programs and he only had a month to do it. He did a great job, but it was for internal development use only. Zeus will be open source and is obviously taking me more than a month to make, besides all the previous modding work that rests at its foundation.