Version: 0.052
(The authors at bottom, written from DeToX's point of view, iBotPeaches did nothing)
As you can see, it's a beta. We are far from Version 1.0, development was scarce, and for most of the time, I was either doing other projects, or home brew, while Anthony would be making some tweaks to it once in a while. Considering what work was done, I'd say about a month (or half) was going full throttle with this program, and some research.
So starting from scratch, commentary being I'd say 3/4 of our code, we're a decent fraction of a million lines of code now. This version however has been stripped down to exclude certain things only we'd like to do, these features may be added in later if we stop developing, but want people to keep using it, so we might enable those feature in an update.
Regardless, since the start of Halo 3 modding when I first received my means to make modding possible, an initial tool was made called Decrypt, a buggy piece of garbage made in some 10 minutes to verify that RTH works (thank you kornman for the debug port number (730) ). Later after RTH was successful, Anthony contacted me in means of helping me, thus the creation of the XEX, once he found checks, and we removed them. From that point plugins were generated, and time was slow from then on.. with very little being done to the program, and some more being done to plugins by Me, DarkShallFall, Veegie, Anthony, and Leo (he found project speed, hoorah?).
Things aren't exactly perfect, you'll obviously find bugs.. This program was never made for compatibility because we never cared, we assumed it'd always be private, so long story short.. (EDIT: Desktop Composition Issue Fixed*). And even then, this tool was made for people with development consoles, so you'll need the XDKSetupXenonXXX ( Microsoft Xbox 360 SDK, as it uses a wrapper in there to use debug features. Otherwise you'll be thrown a nice error. You'll also need .NET framework 2.0 (I code in VS2005). More bugs might include a memory leak in the meta editor, maybe some other crap.. not sure. If you find any.. I'd rather you report it to me at my AIM: xL DeToX Lx then post in public about it.
So remember.. It's a beta, give it a break, it's the tool we've been using that gave us all the research all you halo 3 kiddies use.. So if you'd like to complain, please.. show us you can atleast do more than what we've done with your own tools..
Pictures
Some of these features may require a special Halo 3 XEX that Anthony and I developed. It's not just any XEX that removes .map checks.
Features:
- Meta Grid
- Meta Editor
- Library System
- Tag Renaming (requires a special XEX)
- Locale Editor w/ any string lengths (may require special XEX)
- Screenshot - Captures a framebuffer from the Xbox 360, decodes it(format is A2R10G10B10 if I remember)
- Xbox Debug Communicator - include a file system tool, can send commands and receive responses to/from the Xbox.
- Map Package Creator - Add your own maps to your mainmenu. I made my own imaging classes so you only need to supply one image and the program will process it to make the others(gametype, etc). Requires a special XEX.
- Protect maps
- Generate Plugins - Will appear frozen (saves time not rendering UI), it is not.. It is also very time consuming.. And not perfect.. I don't suggest using it.
- Rename Plugins - If you have our .ent plugins, put them in the \Plugins\ folder, and run this, and itll rename the .ent to .alt, which is our plugin format, same thing really, different file extension
- Container editors.. (hasn't been worked on in forever, totally forgot about it till now, only opens usermaps, and doesn't edit.. Whoops..)
- Create/Apply patches - This will definitely be redone soon since when you rename tags, it changes map file size..
- Change Fill Mode - Hell I don't even know what Anthony did here, it changes fill mode(wireframe, point, etc) but it only works on some maps, and takes a bit(10 seconds?) to take effect. It's something to do with the actual game if I remember what Anthony said..
- Print Cam Debug Info - Enabled the pancam text which tells you where you are ingame, coordinate wise.
- Create/Apply RTH Data - When you make changes in the Meta Editor, instead of poking, you can save these changes to a file which you can RTH/Apply to memory later.
- Raw Table Viewer - Views Raw Table. This is used specifically for research. It contains a Raw Locations Index( a reflexive in the [play] tag, and points to the Raw Pools reflexive.. It's messy business hehe.
- Go to Tag(in Meta Grid) - Allows you to click an Ident, and open the tag you selected.
- Multitabbed - If you don't notice this feature, good job. The program has multiple tabs, so you can right click your document containing your Meta Editor/Grid, etc. And click New Document, and use that. Any tag you click, or editor you open, will open in your actively selected document.
- Poking/RTH - Duh. The reason this program was made.. Real time researching allows you to instantly make changes to certain values as you play. The only values that cant be changed are ones that are loaded somewhere else in memory from the start. For instance.. if I poke a mainmenu widget, it must be reloaded to take effect, so I'd click custom games, and go back to the mainmenu and it'd be there. Another example is if I edit some things in the bipd, I might need to die, so I respawn with my changes. But most values are normally pokeable without this problem anyways.. Keep in mind.. it's not a program problem.. It's how the Halo 3 works.. Don't like it? Go bitch to Bungie that you can't mod the way you want to, so they can laugh in your face.
- View Value as (In Meta Editor) - Right click a value, and view it as if it were another value, good for researching.
- Copy structure information (In Meta Editor) - Copy the pointer, offset, size, and count of chunks in a struct. Also copy and paste chunk data and overwrite others.
- Script Decompiler - Done by Soldier of Lite, decompiles scripts from the map file.
- And so on..
- Chunk Cloning, insert new chunks into the map.
- Tag Duplication
- Will do stringids sooner or later
- Will enable raw editing sooner or later.
- Will continue usermap editing.
- Will do all other Halo 3 CON types (except for personalXXXXXXXX files, we don't want those out yet.. )
- Will make a Map Analyzer, since Johnsons was incorrect.
- Remote Poke - Poke other people's development consoles.
So here are all the people who actually did something to help in the modding community:
- Xenon.7 - That's me. Had the idea of this program in the first place, and was the lead developer.
- Anthony - My partner in all of this. We worked together from the start, and will work together to the end. I'm glad I could get him into the scene. Also found the XEX checks. Pancam, Fillmode.
- Kornman00 always is the first to do anything and everything, without ever saying a word, that's probably why we don't ever count him in half the stuff we do.Though he didn't help too much, he's still being a good influence.. And teaches people the simple moral when they beg him for stuff, which is.. the developer of a program or the researcher of said research, is entitled to his own work, and is allowed to do anything with his own work. That's how it is in the real world, and that's how it is here. Learn to respect what's given to you. Kornman00 from the start specifically told me I will never be given a direct answer, and I never really was, and it had to be the best damned thing a person could do. You don't learn from feeding off other people's work and acting like you did something.. You get a little push, and you are the one who needs to start running and keep it going without tiring yourself out.
- DarkShallFall - The best tag researcher I know now, used to be good in Halo 2, but learned much more when he joined Halo 3. I found he was the most trustworthy person I knew, everyone would leak, and do anything they could to benefit themselves. He's never really let me down, and knows me perfectly. The best tester as well. Mapped out many plugins you may use today.
- Veegie - Came before DarkShallFall, knowing not much about viewing data, but knew he wanted to do something with the availability to mod. Mapped out most of what was done so far. Completed some tag layouts, though you may find some crap like Chad Warden(StringID), and Nigger1, Nigger2, Nigger3. He's been an amazing asset.
- Leo/Latinomodder - Found projectile speed(hoorah?) and was a tester, and a great friend, also suggested some things for the program. Everybody give him a round of applause for being so damn mexican.
- Tural - Bald.
TO USE DEBUG FEATURES, YOU NEED TO COPY \Program Files\Microsoft Xbox 360 SDK\bin\win32\xdevkit.dll TO YOUR ALTERATION FOLDER.
Also..
Though I doubt no one will ever release their tools to reboot into a modded kernel, I really hope none of you cheat over the Xbox Live service ever. Cheating is lame. This tool was strictly made for researching, because we all appreciate Bungie's work, and loving finding everything out, and seeing how everything works. They made a beautiful engine, and everyone should given them a round of applause.
So enjoy a public beta test ride.. of the program that made it all happen..
Alteration.rar 2.7MB
949 downloads
Edited by iBotPeaches, 24 May 2009 - 05:34 PM.
Updated download
