Replacing the Halo Editing Kit with free software

[Kavawuvi 7,026]

I've updated the topic to reflect the efforts of H2V-Blender-JMS-Exporter. We now have a means to make gbxmodel and physics tags from purely open source software.

[Kavawuvi 7,026]

We are just five features away from replacing the entire Halo Editing Kit with open source software!

 

 

What we need is the following:

• A collision model compiler (JMS -> .model_collision_geometry)
  • How hard can it be?
• A BSP compiler (JMS -> .scenario_structure_bsp)
  • The collision model compiler is required to generate the actual BSP tree, since collision models are also BSP trees.
  • Prepare for utter hell.
• A 3D scenario editor
  • We need an accurate renderer.
  • Presently, I'm working on a Vulkan renderer, but I can't focus all of my time on this because Chimera desperately needs tended to.
• Lightmap baking
  • Blender could be leveraged for high quality lightmaps thanks to Cycles, but ideally we should have a command line tool for this so people can essentially mass produce lightmaps.
• Script compilation
  • Invader needs to do this in order for invader-build to be feature complete, since tool.exe compiles scripts when merging child scenarios.

[DSalimander 213]

Please don't force external 3d modeling programs for radiosity. This would simply be a compromise of ease of use for an open source sticker. My experience with Aether and Open Sauce directional lightmaps was not pleasant. The results were often worse than what Halo could produce and at significantly more effort. Many of the lighting settings in modern 3d programs can be overwhelming compared to the simplicity of how Halo's tagging system allows you to automatically configure level lighting via object attachments, shader radiosity, and skyboxes. Too many lights would have to be manually placed and configured correctly. Extra steps of running multiple commands in plugins/scripts and using multiple programs is annoying as well. Unless you manage to produce a single step solution that automates this entire process, I hope you just find a way to mimic the tool lightmaps command.

[Kavawuvi 7,026]

13 hours ago, DSalimander said:

Please don't force external 3d modeling programs for radiosity. This would simply be a compromise of ease of use for an open source sticker. My experience with Aether and Open Sauce directional lightmaps was not pleasant. The results were often worse than what Halo could produce and at significantly more effort. Many of the lighting settings in modern 3d programs can be overwhelming compared to the simplicity of how Halo's tagging system allows you to automatically configure level lighting via object attachments, shader radiosity, and skyboxes. Too many lights would have to be manually placed and configured correctly. Extra steps of running multiple commands in plugins/scripts and using multiple programs is annoying as well. Unless you manage to produce a single step solution that automates this entire process, I hope you just find a way to mimic the tool lightmaps command.

Well, no, of course I wouldn't want to do that.

 

Blender is a good modeling tool, and its Cycles renderer is really good for making lightmaps, but even that requires a lot of set up to get it right. I suppose the tags could be used to import these lighting settings, and I might try writing something that can let you do that in a later date.

 

However, I'd prefer a 'headless' option which just lets you run a command to bake lightmaps into something that resembles traditional Halo lightmaps. This is easier for the user and possibly even less demanding on hardware.

[Kavawuvi 7,026]

invader-script now does scripts, further advancing the goal of making a complete, free suite of tools.

 

 

This leaves us with four more things we need to do: BSPs, collision model, lightmaps, and visual object placement