Zeus

[Sparky 13]

I am developing an application called Zeus that will let you do awexome stuff with Halo tags and maps....

 

annnnnnyway, i'll update this post with the latest information on the development of Zeus.

 

 

 

 

Download: http://zeus.galaxyverge.com/Zeus.zip

 

Platform: OS X 10.6+

 

Version: pre-alpha 30

 

 

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Version pre-alpha 30 features making new ustr (unicode string list) tags that are compatible with Eschaton:

 

 

[NeX 1,756]

yay another cool program for mac. Oh wait.

[Sparky 13]

Oh wait.

Why do you say, "Oh wait"?

[NeX 1,756]

Because I don't want to buy a $2,000 facebook machine xD

 

I have a mac VM, but I love when tools are released for both for maximum useability.

[WaeV 5,049]

Because I don't want to buy a $2,000 facebook machine xD

You could buy a $2,000 Halo modding machine...

[Inigo Montoya 241]

Macs have better software because it's needed. When Macs find something their tools can't do, they have to make the tools to do it. When PC users find something our tools can't do, we open up Guerilla.

[WaeV 5,049]

Macs have better software because it's needed. When Macs find something their tools can't do, they have to make the tools to do it. When PC users find something our tools can't do, we open up Guerilla.

After reading this, my face matched your avatar.

[Sparky 13]

• Add a feature to automatically seal a 3D model to make it fit the infamous sealed world rules (should be pretty simple, just re-triangulate intersecting polygons and delete remaining polygons inside the volume)

http://unsc.galaxyve...ic.php?p=17#p17

 

How easy would that be? I'm thinking it would be really simple. That makes me wonder why there is no "sealed world" modifier or "model sealer" modifier in 3ds Max.

 

I would need to re-triangulate intersecting polygons, and then delete polygons with open edges and delete polygons inside the volume.

[Tiel 89]

I'd be lying if I said I shared your optimism as to that feature's feasibility, though I wish you the best of luck. It'd expedite map making a ton, fo sho.

[Sparky 13]

I'm working on mod2 (gearbox model) tag viewing. This means using OpenGL to render Halo model tags. I'm presenting the information in a slightly different way from how Guerilla from the HEK presents it, since in Guerilla, you can't do anything visually with the information. I'm basically adding a lightweight 3D modeling functionality to Zeus, so you can view and modify existing mod2 tags. Making new mod2 tags would be more complicated to do with Zeus, but I intend to include .obj model importing also, in which case, you would simply open the .obj file and it would be interpreted as a mod2 tag, and in the same way, you could save a mod2 tag as an .obj file (but note that if you do so, you would lose the marker and node information, since .obj doesn't really store that information).

 

 

I'm just writing this off the top of my head, but basically, you can expect some 3D graphics in Zeus, starting with the mod2 tag. And I intend to add .obj model file support for when you want to use model data between Zeus and modeling applications.

 

I'm also thinking about making Zeus into a fullscreen application soon, at least for the 3D graphics portions (mod2 and sbsp/scnr).

 

Since I am departing from the style Guerilla uses for its interface, my idea has been to combine three key tags into one document, for purposes of map design simplicity: scnr, sbsp, and matg. These would be within tabbed views, where you click on a tab to switch to its editor. The result would be a set of three tag files saved at once: the scenario tag, the scenario structure bsp tag, and the game globals tag. The sbsp editor would provide a fullscreen view for the terrain and give you controls to modify the terrain model and such, the scnr editor would again provide a fullscreen view of the terrain and give you controls to edit the layout of the objects in the scnr tag, and the matg editor would give you a convenient location to modify how it coordinates with the scnr tag references and such, letting you test interactively behaviors of the players, as if you were playing as that biped in the game. While editing the matg tag, you would be able to move around in the map using the player's physics (basically) as you've specified them in the biped and globals tags.

 

So I'll be making Zeus fullscreen for four tag types, and unifying the modification interface for three of those tag types. Mod2, Scnr, Sbsp, and Matg will have the 3D fullscreen rendering, and Scnr, Sbsp, and Matg will be modified together at the same time. Of course, you could choose an existing tag for any three of these tag types and edit that instead.

 

What I was talking about for sealing models would not be applied here. For sbsp, I would prohibit vertices from touching faces and such, but the main sealed world rules limitation would be applied to collision models, coll tags, which would also be rendered, and could be automatically calculated and generated for the user from a mod2 tag (or any other model).