Halo 2 and Halo 3 Mod Tools released for Halo MCC on PC

Veelk · Oct 15, 2021

This is kind of insane. I am imagining the campaign possibilities.

To be honest, I mostly just want someone to give a RE-HD treatment to Halo CE, where give HD textures to the environment but keep to the original art direction, and that hasn't quite happened yet

but with this, they can do so much. I'm imagining a Halo 3 campaign with both Brutes AND Elites. Hell, you could do a lot with all the campaigns. A SVP3 type remake for all the Halo's.

I'm really happy with how bright the future looks for Halo.

wwm0nkey · Oct 15, 2021

Tagyhag · Oct 15, 2021

Come ooooon Cursed Halo 2 and 3.

Deleted member 23475 · Oct 15, 2021

Mods are going to be huge in some months! I really hope 343i can create some kind of official mod browser in MCC for Xbox & PC like on Skyrim/Fallout. That would simply be incredible.

wwm0nkey · Oct 15, 2021

AceParty said:
Mods are going to be huge in some months! I really hope 343i can create some kind of official mod browser in MCC for Xbox & PC like on Skyrim/Fallout. That would simply be incredible.

It's getting workshop support on Steam

wwm0nkey · Oct 15, 2021

People are going to town already lol

ray_caster · Oct 15, 2021

Now I am just dreaming of the day they release the source code.

iFirez · Oct 16, 2021

I was working on a new map for CE earlier this year... already ported it to H3 and I love it even more:

wwm0nkey · Oct 16, 2021

iFirez said:
I was working on a new map for CE earlier this year... already ported it to H3 and I love it even more:

Man these tools really do seem nice to use

wwm0nkey · Oct 16, 2021

wwm0nkey · Oct 17, 2021

Gonna commit a sin in the triple post, but this stuff is getting fun

StarsAreStuff · Oct 18, 2021

Cannot wait for 4 and reach to get these tools.

DemonCarnotaur · Oct 18, 2021

some of this stuff is insane and I can't wait to see where it goes

will they ever make some of the mod work playable on console?

Lukar · Oct 18, 2021

DemonCarnotaur said:
some of this stuff is insane and I can't wait to see where it goes

will they ever make some of the mod work playable on console?

It'd be extremely cool if they made a community playlist or something that was nothing but 343-approved custom maps.

boris_feinbrand · Oct 18, 2021

Metroid and Halo making a triumphant return in the same year? Never would have believed it. So Metroid already stuck the landing, now fingers crossed for Infinite (mostly campaign, MP will be amazing going by the tech preview)
The MCC is just such amazing value, and it's insane to me how they're still updating it, and supporting the community. Looking forward to what we're going to see in terms of mods.

Lentic · Oct 18, 2021

wwm0nkey said:
Soon...

I miss this map. Why doesn't it show up in matchmaking? Now that I think about it there's quite a few maps I haven't played on in a while.

wwm0nkey · Oct 19, 2021

You can backport maps too

iFirez · Oct 19, 2021

I managed to get light emission materials working in H3, they weren't a standard option in shaders like previous games but it works perfectly in a round about way.

Lightning · Oct 19, 2021

iFirez said:
I managed to get light emission materials working in H3, they weren't a standard option in shaders like previous games but it works perfectly in a round about way.

👀

I might need to seal your secrets. I've been finishing up my HCE maps from YEARS ago but just releasing them in H3 instead is looking more and more exciting...

Do we know if H3 has syncing devices (switches/lightbridges/etc)?

Maple · Oct 19, 2021

wwm0nkey said:
btw you can pretty much direct import Halo CE maps into Halo 3

*Not mine

Is it possible to download these on the Xbox version of MCC?

wwm0nkey · Oct 19, 2021

iFirez said:
I managed to get light emission materials working in H3, they weren't a standard option in shaders like previous games but it works perfectly in a round about way.

Got any good resources for bitmaps/shaders? It's the last thing eluding me atm

Tuorom · Oct 19, 2021

I am excited for the eventual MCC all campaigns in one playthrough, all in Halo 3 with destructible vehicles in CE and the pistol being good in all of them :D

NippleViking · Oct 19, 2021

Man, perhaps a pipedream, buy really hope 343i throws console players a massive bone here and officially implements some of these mods, tweaks, and UGC. Backported maps would be amazing

iFirez · Oct 19, 2021

Lightning said:
👀

I might need to seal your secrets. I've been finishing up my HCE maps from YEARS ago but just releasing them in H3 instead is looking more and more exciting...

Do we know if H3 has syncing devices (switches/lightbridges/etc)?

Happy to share with all :) Would you happen to be Lightning from back in the CE days or is the name just a coincidence? I'm always surprised when I see folks from the old days around… especially on Era, if you are them. I was 12-15 back in the old CE days and now I'm almost 30 so I feel like I've been tinkering with Halo stuff for almost all my life at this point.

wwm0nkey said:
Got any good resources for bitmaps/shaders? It's the last thing eluding me atm

There's no good resources out there at all, I'm just trying to figure stuff out and I've just been joining discord's to spread what I've discovered and learn from others too. The community is going hard on trying to discover everything.

Also, tweaked the lighting and really love how lighting looks and works in Halo 3:

Edward850 · Oct 19, 2021

Maple said:
Is it possible to download these on the Xbox version of MCC?

No. Without any kind of system to import custom map files built directly into the game (something along the lines of the console mods for Skyrim), there's no way you can just add content to it. No forge levels aren't the same thing.
And if you thinking was any unofficial methods, even more no, the Xbox One has proven to be very air tight.

Jack Scofield · Oct 19, 2021

wwm0nkey said:
btw you can pretty much direct import Halo CE maps into Halo 3

*Not mine

This is going to be a really dumb question. I always thought the joke of copy and pasting a level from a game into another was a highly reductive take on the situation and that in reality it's very difficult. But then how come it's so easily done with a mod?

Jaaake · Oct 19, 2021

Jack Scofield said:
This is going to be a really dumb question. I always thought the joke of copy and pasting a level from a game into another was a highly reductive take on the situation and that in reality it's very difficult. But then how come it's so easily done with a mod?

Might be mistaken but I believe the engines used in the Halo games are just iterations of each other. Very similar across all titles

Yiepekaiyei · Oct 19, 2021

Should've bought this a few weeks ago when it was on sale on steam. Now I'll have to wait for the next sale. Oh well...

Edward850 · Oct 19, 2021

Jack Scofield said:
This is going to be a really dumb question. I always thought the joke of copy and pasting a level from a game into another was a highly reductive take on the situation and that in reality it's very difficult. But then how come it's so easily done with a mod?

Jaaake said:
Might be mistaken but I believe the engines used in the Halo games are just iterations of each other. Very similar across all titles

Something like that, yeah. The data that makes up levels can be broken down into the same primitive structures, and then imported back into the other tools. It helps that the tools themselves would have been iterations of each other as well.
You can do kind of the same thing between any Quake based game (including Doom3 somewhat and the Source engine) up to a point. You do lose some aspects, obviously anything unique to that game will need to be reconstructed. Notably with Halo, it seems the level meshes transfer, and even some aspects of the lighting, but any map objects such as weapons and player spawns need redoing by hand? That's what it looks like currently, anyway.

It's not a simple copy and paste, but with some work you can break the process down into the same repeatable steps.

Jon God · Oct 19, 2021

wwm0nkey said:
You can backport maps too

Now this has my attention.

killerrin · Oct 19, 2021

Defect said:
People about to port MCC into Halo 3

No kidding. Halo 3 is about to become even more popular than it already was.

wwm0nkey · Oct 19, 2021

Eyyyy figured out shaders

vixolus · Oct 20, 2021

wwm0nkey said:
Eyyyy figured out shaders

Is that the village from ocarina of time? Lol

DemonCarnotaur · Oct 20, 2021

wwm0nkey said:
You can backport maps too

it's really interesting how the Halo 2 engine handles this and kinda changes the feel of the visuals, cannot wait to see more like that

The Real Napsta · Oct 20, 2021

H2 Guardian would be awesome. Or H2 The Pit

RAWRferal · Oct 20, 2021

wwm0nkey said:
Eyyyy figured out shaders

Lol, should play Saria's Song on a loop in the background whilst playing.

Zombegoast · Oct 20, 2021

Can we get Hugeass back? Remember Hugeass from Custom Edition?

iFirez · Oct 20, 2021

Zombegoast said:
Can we get Hugeass back? Remember Hugeass from Custom Edition?

It'll be back. I remember alpha and beta testing Hugeass back in 2005, Tiamat ruled as a fun/weird/creative map maker.

Rejected Shotgun has been making a big open level with longswords and pelicans, its very reminiscent of Hugeass.

BobsReset · Oct 20, 2021

Woah, this is insanely cool. The fact that maps can be ported between games without too much fuss is mind blowing. Maybe a silly question but would it be possible for modded maps etc to go on peoples fileshares so console players can get access to them or is this all in a closed off environment?

iFirez · Oct 20, 2021

BobsReset said:
Woah, this is insanely cool. The fact that maps can be ported between games without too much fuss is mind blowing. Maybe a silly question but would it be possible for modded maps etc to go on peoples fileshares so console players can get access to them or is this all in a closed off environment?

Right now there's no real way to share maps easily at all, you have to rename a map to replace one of the current ones to load it ingame. They have talked about giving us Steam Workshop support in the future to share maps and have them appear properly as functional maps ingame but that doesn't look like anytime soon and it doesn't look like it would support anything other than the Steam/PC version.

BobsReset · Oct 20, 2021

iFirez said:
Right now there's no real way to share maps easily at all, you have to rename a map to replace one of the current ones to load it ingame. They have talked about giving us Steam Workshop support in the future to share maps and have them appear properly as functional maps ingame but that doesn't look like anytime soon and it doesn't look like it would support anything other than the Steam/PC version.

Makes sense and kind of what I thought! Either way still incredibly cool!

wwm0nkey · Oct 20, 2021

iFirez said:
Right now there's no real way to share maps easily at all, you have to rename a map to replace one of the current ones to load it ingame. They have talked about giving us Steam Workshop support in the future to share maps and have them appear properly as functional maps ingame but that doesn't look like anytime soon and it doesn't look like it would support anything other than the Steam/PC version.

Workshop is coming once all the tools are out

Smash Kirby · Oct 20, 2021

I am excited to see what comes out of it, I know my Brother would've loved it.

Sibylus · Oct 20, 2021

Really cool stuff, would love to see Waterworks in 3.

iFirez · Oct 20, 2021

wwm0nkey said:
Workshop is coming once all the tools are out

Yeah, I imagine they'll all be out and out for a while THEN we get workshop a few months after that. Still, the amount of stuff you have to do to get maps to load ingame kind of sucks right now. I wonder if they'll let us set custom icons and such too for maps.

wwm0nkey · Oct 20, 2021

iFirez said:
Yeah, I imagine they'll all be out and out for a while THEN we get workshop a few months after that. Still, the amount of stuff you have to do to get maps to load ingame kind of sucks right now. I wonder if they'll let us set custom icons and such too for maps.

From what Farn was saying they want it out when or very soon after all tools are out. They are working on the last of them + workshop + in-game UI updates at the same time

wwm0nkey · Oct 20, 2021

Yooooo

Veelk · Oct 20, 2021

I wonder if this means Halo CE can be basically remade in the Halo 3 engine.

I just want Halo CE with upgraded graphics that don't turn the game into visual soup like the Anniversary version does, guys, please

wwm0nkey · Oct 20, 2021

Veelk said:
I wonder if this means Halo CE can be basically remade in the Halo 3 engine.

I just want Halo CE with upgraded graphics that don't turn the game into visual soup like the Anniversary version does, guys, please

Someone is working on getting the first level ported over with the OG chief model

StarsAreStuff · Oct 20, 2021

wwm0nkey said:
Yooooo

rad

Halo 2 and Halo 3 Mod Tools released for Halo MCC on PC

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