Opensauce Halo1 Ce 20120117

• User Rating:

• pending

• File Category:

• Halo Utilities

• Author:

• Kornner Studios

• Date:

• 01/20/2012

• File Size:

• 9.5M

Description:

File Notes

First things first, what is OpenSauce (abbreviated as OS)? OS is an open source project aimed at extending and interfacing with the Halo games and their data. What does that mean for HaloCE (ie, Custom Edition, the only true "CE", that Combat Evolved marketing bullshit can GTFO)? For HaloCE we've made DLLs which contain custom code which is hooked into the engine code in both the runtime (ie, haloce.exe or haloceded.exe) and the various Halo Editing Kit programs (eg, tool.exe). The custom code in these DLLs is how we extend the functionality of this 10+ year old engine.

These engine extensions benefit developers, modders, and gamers alike. If you're a code developer, we're open source so you continue the practice of extending the engine. If you're a modder, we've added additional features to the engine which you can take advantage of in the HEK. If you're a gamer, not only do you get to play the content the former two produce, but you also get some settings of your own to tinker around with via our in-game menus.

What kind of extensions exactly? Well as you saw in the teaser video, we've built on the engine's existing rendering code to allow normal mapping and phong-based specular highlighting on dynamic objects. Beforehand, you could only apply normal mapping to static world geometry and game had no support for phong highlighting at all. Additional GFX enhancements include things like postprocess shaders. Such shader enhancements are how CMT does their VISR mode in their upcoming SPv3 release of Truth & Reconciliation. P.S. you can thank TheFieryScythe for most of the GFX enhancements, plus some behind-the-scenes systems. Sure made my life easier!


The game enhancements don't stop at the GFX layer either. We've worked to expose new script functions/globals and tag groups to help make campaign and multiplayer maps that much more tweakable by modders. With the new script functions and globals you can do things like tweak the game's gravity. Modders aren't the only ones who can take advantage of some of these script functions. Eg, anyone can activate the in-game console and type in "physics_set_gravity 0.5", and the current game will have half the normal gravity! Sure, you could turn on cheat_super_jump, but that only makes you jump higher. It doesn't make objects stay in the air or go farther when pushed, etc. If I wasn't so tied of mucking with this engine, I myself could probably spend a couple of days re-playing the campaign with various different gravity settings!
Note: for those of you who do try to do this, some parts of the campaign won't work. Eg, you know how a pelican flies in and drops troops off in T&R's hanger? Well Bungie did this using their "recorded animation" system. This basically plays back control input (moving, looking, jumping, etc). So changes in gravity will greatly affect how the "recored animations" play back.

I could go on, but you're better off checking out the various documentation entries we have for Halo1 in our project's wiki. If you're just a casual HaloCE gamer, you're best off checking out the Getting Started and User Settings entries. Please note that our documentation is continuously being updated based on user feedback and questions. The best way to comment on our wiki articles is to use the comment box found at the bottom of each article.

All bug reports should be posted to our Issues page. If posted anywhere else, they will be ignored and/or deleted. If you really want us to fix our shit, fill out an issue slip.

Note: We're not taking feature requests. We will only take bug reports which, again, must be submitted via the projects Issues system. All other comments can be posted to this article, or in the OpenSauce for HaloCE thread here on Halomods.


OpenSauce for Halo1_CE is developed by Kornner Studios, with code contributions from ChokingVictim. Special thanks to CMT for internal testing efforts. Extra special thanks to Bungie (esp. 'ROGR') for putting up with Halo game after Halo game for over 10 years.

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