What happened to OC? - CLOSED Carnage?!

Kavawuvi

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Everything posted by Kavawuvi

  1. Built these statues all of last weekend. Sceny is 2nd from left. I'm 2nd from right. I used up a lot of gold blocks when building these, especially Sceny's Iron Man skin (more like Aurum Man), but it felt worth it. Oh, Sceny suggested the mustache on the guy on the right. It looks good on him.
  2. There are some discrepancies when doing that, so I have a set threshold (70%), particularly for tags with reflexives. If it finds a 100% match, it'll stop searching for that particular tag. It also uses the tag name, followed by "_#" where # is the tag number, in case there are multiple matches of a tag. Example: "weapons\pistol\pistol_510".
  3. This is all I have so far: if(!automaticallyGeneric) { float best_match = 0.0; for(int map=0;map<map_count;map++) { if(maps[map].error != MAP_OK) continue; //fuzzy matching deprotection code here } if(best_match != 0.0) { deprotected = false; } }Not yet! That's coming up.
  4. It all helps.
  5. You either like pornography or you don't like it. I'm sick of these bible thumpers wanting to control what happens in my bed. Now they want to control my viewing habits on my computer?
  6. I've made a list of stuff it currently does as well as stuff in the to-do list. If you have any suggestions, I'll be open to them.
  7. Whoops, forgot to show that, too. Updated.
  8. I tried searching for z-team protected maps, but all of the maps I can find are shoddily protected with just tags renamed. There aren't any unknown tags or "prot" tags that can be found. Still looking, though.
  9. I learned how everything works by making a super powerful map protector myself. I did lots of experimentation on what Halo did. Every change either: Did nothing, but made the map harder to read. (what I want) Took away functionality. (do not want) Made the map unplayable. (do not want) I'm making my deprotector open-source, but when I release it. Right now, I need some maps that are protected so I can learn more. Maps that have prot tags are especially wanted. The scenario tag can be easily identified, as its tag ID is located right within the index. There is no reason to assume it's the first tag or search for it in some hackish method, as its tag ID is right there in the index. Alt may have misinterpreted this as something else. In fact, my map protector moves the scenario tag to the last tag and obfuscates the tag class name (scnr -> ¡™£å for example) to evade map deprotectors and inserts garbage where the old tag entry was. The goal of a map deprotector is to make it possible for map editors to open them, basically. Unfortunately, some changes I made cannot possibly be reversed without making the map unusable, due to the stupidity of Eschaton. Eschaton is a very dumb program, albeit useful. My first deprotector, Phantom, hit the issue of the map being unplayable after changing the names. I've since found a workaround on the open-source deprotector I've just started working on, and now the map can be played AND ripped from. No defects whatsoever, too. As I said, what I need right now are some protected Halo CE or Halo PC maps. If they have prot tags, even better.
  10. Went on Windows, opened Halo, went to Blood Gulch, started a game: I've done a bit of research a while ago and found that the engines are both equally shoddy. For instance, if you give the header an invalid filesize, the version on OS X will ignore it, but the Windows version will panic and close out. This is what made the first HaloMD mods, which were actually Demo -> Full Version conversions, not work, because Modzy made a tiny mistake in the programming of Pearl. Next, you guys all know this, but Halo PC, when in full screen, will show all monitor sizes that are smaller than native resolution. You need to create a shortcut or run Halo command-line to add arguments to force Halo to run at native resolution. The OS X version shows the correct sizes. Lastly, meta swaps are repairable. It's because HMT doesn't do it nicely is why the Mac version of Halo doesn't like it. For instance, I've actually gotten Bomb Run to play on OS X without any problems. Oh, also, some off-topic stuff, speaking of displays: The Halo engine will only keep track of 2048 objects, but will only display up to 256 objects. Objects include scenery, projectiles, bipeds, vehicles, machines, equipment, weapons, etc. The Halo engine will only keep track of 1024 particles, but you guys know how many particles it will display. Edit: Seeing as though most people are against map protections, how do people feel about if I released an open-source, cross-platform map deprotector? I need some protected maps to work with, though, and HaloMaps.org doesn't advertise that a map is protected or not.
  11. Oh, here's me doing another cool thing. This apparently broke the map I imported to before I did anything: What I did was I made Eschaton think that the dependency was 4 bytes later than what it really was.
  12. Oh, I probably didn't explain myself as much as I should. You think I mean inserting a random reflexive somewhere where there really isn't any purpose. This is what I meant: Here is the model dependency of the assault rifle. Highlighted will be where we will put our fake reflexive. I changed the last two bytes to 0x4045 so Eschaton would perceive it as a valid offset. Halo only uses the first two bytes. I added a count to our fake reflexive. I blanked out the "antr". Halo does not even use this, plus it's nulled out. This completes the fake reflexive. When trying the map out, there was no noticeable change. The assault rifle was still visible and worked just fine. When I spawned it in another map, though, using Eschaton to export and import the tag, it crashed Halo instantly. This was likely because I hid the tag identity, preventing Eschaton from even seeing it in the first place.
  13. A protection is pretty much made by exploiting flaws in map editors. Eschaton has a lot of flaws, too: Uses an outdated method of finding the map magic, by assuming the tag array comes directly after the map index. While this lazily works without the need of a constant, other than subtracting 0x28, Illusion protection exploits this by moving the tag array. Occasionally identifies tags by tag path instead of tag identity. Can hide all dependencies in all tags by replacing the table index in each tag identity with 0. It is limited to plugins, which aren't always entirely mapped out. This requires Eschaton to find reflexives itself by guessing the reflexives. I could insert fake reflexives into a tag... Eschaton assumes tags are packed, so it thinks reflexives come directly after the main chunk. This is what makes soft protection work. (still working on it, by the way - a little buggy at the moment) Eschaton assumes the tag class is the first tag class. For most tags, including the scenario tag, Halo doesn't care, as long as the tag class is somewhere in there. Object tags, it's not even required for that. The list goes on... If you reverse-engineer Halo, you will be virtually immune to all map protections.
  14. Well, I live in America, so we have it at 21. You've got alcohol (age 21) which is one poison, and you've got a commercial cigarette (age 18+) which can be hundreds of poisons (not to mention some bad breath). Of course, you've also got driving drunk leading to highway crashes, but adults of just about any age do that. Another thing to consider is that lots of people who start drinking do it before the drinking age. Growing up, I didn't see a lot of people who said "When I turn 21, I'm going to start drinking." They were usually either already drinking or they were never going to drink in their life. Hell, I know someone who drank when they were 12. A lower drinking age may not be as negative as we think. The problem with alcohol is not that it's being sold to young adults, but that it's being sold to idiots. Changing the drinking age to 18 will not change the number of idiots in the world, and they probably already drink. Do it. Of course, I don't think it'll change much of anything, and you risk making it more available to irresponsible adults. Just because someone's law-abiding doesn't mean they're particularly smart.
  15. That's a pretty technical question. I suppose you mean if it's considered stealing? There are a few sides to "modding" and stealing. One side states that modding in itself is plagiarism. Another side says that if you made it, you own it. Another side says it's fair use and if you give credit to the original modders. Lots of different countries have different definitions on what's good and what's not good with fair use. Most people who rip don't care. It goes on, basically. Personally, when I see a map protection, I see it as something that must be challenged and defeated. If people protect their maps, I am entitled to take content from it without permission.
  16. A basic protection involves changing all the tag names to be exactly the same. This makes it hard to identify the tags. Eschaton, being the dumbest map editor ever made, also blunders and uses tag names over tag identities sometimes, causing defects to occur if you rip a tag in this state. It cannot be truly reversed, but it can be "fixed" in one of two ways: Rename each tag to a generic tag name, but one that's different for each tag. Use fuzzy matching, comparing each tag to a tag in a map that isn't protected. This usually works, but you need to take into account that each tag could be modified, and that if custom edition tags are used, then it may find the wrong tag. Z-team protection reclasses object tags under a fake class in addition to the above protection. This can be solved by using palettes to recursively deprotect each object tag. Palettes alone aren't going to do this, as you're going to need to identify the tag based on the 16-bit integer at 0x0 of each object tag (this is the only part Halo cares about with object tags). This protection does not work on Halo Trial very well. Illusion protection does the above and also takes advantage of the stupidity of map editors and tag editors using the following facts: The index until the end of the map is loaded directly into 0x40440000. Using the above fact, 0x40440028 is not the primary magic. 0x40440028 is just a pointer to where the tag array is in memory. Halo Trial is dead, so stop using the subtract 0x28 method. Using the above fact, you can assume the tag array doesn't have to come directly after the map index. Moving the tag array will fool Eschaton and most map editors into thinking the map magic is something that it's not, causing Eschaton to be incapable of reading maps. Eschaton also assumes that the tag array is directly after the index, so it won't read the tags anyway. The scenario tag does not have to be the first tag. In fact, the tag identity of the scenario tag is in the index. The scenario tag does not have to be an scnr class. Halo only cares about the tag identity in dependencies. The tag class can be garbage. Halo does not care about object tags class name as long as it's not a pre-used class. Only one of the classes in many of the tags have to be the real one. The other two can be fake. Using the above fact, map editors that list tags by class will be useless if the first class is a random nonsensical number.
  17. Bought an HDMI cable. It should come here any time today before 8pm, they said......
  18. Hello!