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Re: Fly through Halo 2 in 3D on your PC
Posted By: Stephen L. (SoundEffect) <soundeffect@hotmail.com>	Date: 5/23/08 5:23 p.m.
In Response To: Fly through Halo 2 in 3D on your PC (Jordan117) : NOTE: I am not a modder, never have been, and I don't keep up with modding : sites or techniques. So if what I'm gushing over below seems hopelessly : out-of-touch and naive, then forgive me, I'm a modding noob. : I've been working on a Forge map recently, a remake of a section of a Halo 2 : campaign level. I wanted to make this map accurate, but it was very : tedious to pop in the Halo 2 disc, explore the area for awhile, then : quickly switch back to Halo 3 while my memory was fresh. : To make things easier, I did some searching online to try to find some : overhead maps of the level, or some good screenshots, or some other : resource that I could leave open on my computer while I forged. : And it was during this search that I found something wonderfully cool. : Entity UE is a full-featured Halo 2 map editor created by and for modders. : Again, I am unfamiliar with modding practices and techniques, so I don't : know what 90% of those features do, but there's one particularly cool : aspect of the program that even the most tech-illiterate Halo fan can : appreciate: the BSP viewer. : This tool takes any given Halo map file and renders it on your computer in : 3D. The rendering process is a little CPU-intensive and may take a few : minutes on slower machines, but when finished you are essentially looking : at Halo 2 with a pancam. There are no boundaries, no death walls, and you : can look at the inside and outside of every structure in the game. You can : even view the map files for cutscenes, accessing formerly unseen areas : freely. : If exploring Halo 2 in this way sounds cool to you, here's a step-by-step : guide to setting up Entity UE on your computer: 1. Download Entity UE v1.6 : here and install it. : 2. Download the three base map files: mainmenu.map , shared.map , and : single_player_shared.map . Make sure to store them all in the same folder. : They're pretty big, but necessary to make the map viewer work. : 3. Open up Entity UE and select "Settings" in the Tools menu. : You'll see the names of the three map files I mentioned earlier. Using the : buttons to the right, browse to the location of each map file so the : program knows where they are. Do the same thing for the "Map : Folder" slot, browsing to the location of the folder you saved the : map files in. Leave the "Bitmaps" and "Patch Folder" : options alone. : 4. Alright, you're all set. Now, go to this page and download the map files : for whatever campaign levels you want into your map folder. (You can : download multiplayer maps too, but I haven't figured out how to make them : work yet). : 5. Once you have the files you want, open up Entity UE, go to "File : --> Open Map", and browse to the map file you'd like to view. : 6. After the program loads all the data, look at the left-hand column and : find the entry called "sbsp". When you find it, click the plus : sign to the left of it. It will expand into a list of all the sections for : that map -- for instance, the sbsp for the map file : "03a_oldmombasa.map" contains the subsections : "earthcity_1", "earthcity_2", "earthcity_3", : and "earthcity_cine_intro_bsp", which correspond to the opening : area of Outskirts, the beach section, the underground tunnel, and the : opening cutscene environment, respectively. : 7. If all goes well, the section data should load, and the plus symbol in the : upper-right corner of the program should turn blue. Click on the plus to : open its submenu and select "View BSP". This will open up a : separate window (the BSP viewer). Wait for now until the map loads -- it : could take anywhere from thirty seconds to five minutes depending on the : size of the map and the speed of your computer. : 8. Once the map loads, do yourself a favor and resize the window into a : square. If it's rectangular, it will stretch out the picture and distort : your view of the map. : 9. Now, here's how to navigate the BSP viewer: the WASD keys move you : forward, left, backward, and right, while the X and Z keys move you up and : down. You can look around by right-clicking and dragging. Also, just like : the Halo 3 pancam, you can adjust your movement speed with the + and - : keys. : Alright, that's it! You've got free range over the entire map. You can pass : through walls, go inside structures, view the entire map from above, and : generally explore all those secret nooks and crannies much more quickly : and easily than you could in the game. Here are some screenshots I took to : give you an idea of what you can find: Outskirts from above : New Mombasa from above : The space elevator from the cutscene : Cairo Station from afar : Enjoy! I know I did. I'll give this a try. Do you know if it's possible to export the sbsp's into a .obj file. I know some editors have been able to do this, but often only the first bsp in a map, not any subsequent ones. (For instance, you can export the initial Pelican crash site to the Zanzibar Hotel mesh from Old Mombasa, but it won't extract the next load point, which is the beach area and beginning of the enclosed highway.) Do you know of an app that can?

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Message Index

Fly through Halo 2 in 3D on your PC	Jordan117	5/23/08 2:27 p.m.
Re: Fly through Halo 2 in 3D on your PC	Urban Reflex	5/23/08 2:32 p.m.
Re: Fly through Halo 2 in 3D on your PC	Raulboy	5/23/08 3:25 p.m.
No Halo 2 Vista needed	Jordan117	5/23/08 7:54 p.m.
Fixed image links	Jordan117	5/23/08 7:52 p.m.
Re: Fly through Halo 2 in 3D on your PC	pete_the_duck	5/23/08 3:20 p.m.
Not as much as you'd think...	Jordan117	5/23/08 7:57 p.m.
Re: Fly through Halo 2 in 3D on your PC	Stephen L. (SoundEffect)	5/23/08 5:23 p.m.
I have no clue	Jordan117	5/23/08 7:59 p.m.
Works great, or at least how it's supposed too.	BolognaFire	5/23/08 7:41 p.m.
Oh no...	Raigns	5/23/08 8:35 p.m.
** Two points I neglected to mention... **	Jordan117	5/27/08 8:07 p.m.