New Way to Measure/Scale Remakes

Forge remakes of classic Halo maps; you either love 'em or you hate 'em. Either way, the days of using warthogs, Forge blocks, step counts, and other imprecise methods of measuring out the dimensions of the originals may be over.

How can this be you might ask? Well today it seems I've struck gold in the form of the map files for EVERY HALO MAP EVER CREATED. This includes multiplayer, firefight, spartan ops, and campaign environments from Halo CE, 2, 3, ODST, Reach, and 4. Apparently the Halo Custom Edition community has been using the assets contained in these files for a while and created some unbelievably cool content (despite it probably being illegal).

For our purposes, having access to these files means that computer savvy Forgers like myself can extract the map BSPs to 3D editors like Blender and 3DS Max for viewing, thereby allowing us to obtain the exact dimensions of the map geometry. This would then render the previous, imprecise methods of measuring classic maps obsolete.

I'm currently working on a remake of Solitary from Reach's CE Anniversary DLC that was scaled using this method:



(As a side note, I could also use some help with the lighting at the moment)

Before I get into how to do this yourself, NOTE THE FOLLOWING DISCLAIMER: First of all, as I mentioned earlier, the legality of acquiring the map files is questionable at best, since they are technically still intellectual property. If this makes you uncomfortable, then I wouldn't recommend doing it. So far it hasn't stopped the Halo Custom Edition community from sharing and using the assets as part of their projects. Secondly, I am not the one who ripped the map files from the original games, nor am I the one who put them up for download, so I can't guarantee they're safe for your computer. The same goes for the software used to extract the individual assets from them. Just because I've chosen to risk compromising my computer doesn't mean you should too. If your not comfortable with the consequences, then don't proceed.

With that out of the way, on to the downloads:

You can find the .map files for the maps and environments here. I'll note again that I'm not to be held responsible if anything bad or unexpected happens as a result of downloading them or even visiting the site.

In order to extract the BSP files containing the actual map geometry, you'll need a tool called "Adjuntant" which can be found here on halomaps.org. I won't go into detail on how to use the software since I'm just learning it myself and tutorials are just a google search away. Again, I do not take responsibility for anything associated with downloading and running this software.

When all is said and done, you should have something that looks like this:



*Halo Reach's Powerhouse map in Blender

3D editors like Blender (free) and 3DS Max (free for students) allow you measure the map geometry using coordinate systems. You may need to scale the BSP to the grid before measuring however. To make things easy when Forging, I like to use graph paper or a CAD program to map out the dimensions orthographically ahead of time. Recently I've been using a free app called "Wedge" available on the Windows 10 Store. It's features are limited, but it gets the job done.

So there you have it, the most accurate means of properly scaling Forge remakes to date! Make sure to let me know what you think and try it out if you're willing to give it a shot. Happy Forging!

 

You can get the textures but you have to export the bitmaps separately and add them back within UE4. Might also have to correct the UV mapping a bit. Thanks for the feedback!

I'm not aware of any specific extractors for Mac, and Adjutant might be the only one that supports BSP extraction for the console exclusive games. If I find one I'll let you know. In the mean time, if you'd like I can directly send you the BSPs for whatever maps you need. If by chance you were planning on porting/updating Viking to the new water canvas, I've already got the Valhalla BSP converted and ready to go. My ultimate goal is to create a reference library containing the schematics of every single map.

Well that sucks. I was wondering why your profile said "needs work" when I went to invite you on the Xbox app. I figured you were either AFK or in a closed party with teammates. Would have messaged you but I figured you were just busy. If you're online next time I get on, I'd love some help with the lighting on Solitary. That's essentially all that's left of the map to do. Would have liked to include the broken window and frosted metal but the budget won't allow it.

 

I'm an idiot... Mistook you for No God Anywhere while replying in the early hours of the morning. Disregard that!

 

This is the challenging part. Some of the BSPs don't require scaling, as was the case with Prisoner. I was able to find that out using in-game reference objects on Reach which happened to be exact. I'm still figuring out the best way to scale the ones that do need adjustment though. The way Halo games work internally is that they pull models shared across all maps (bipeds, weapons, vehicles, etc) from a file called "shared.map". Assuming these models don't scale to the maps, the maps must then scale to accommodate the models, which suggests that there could be some "golden ratio" that the maps use to scale themselves appropriately. The problem would then be finding out what the ratio is. I'm gonna try some things today and I'll let you guys know if I come up with anything.

 

So I looked into the scaling issue today and this is what I can conclude:

Every Halo map to date has been built in an editor (Maya or 3DS Max) using the metric system, and as it turns out, the maps from all the games extract from Adjutant with the same scale factor using the 3DS Max import scripts. So if you want everything to import into your 3D editor properly, you'll need to extract the BSPs as AMF or EMF files. OBJ files tend to eat up your computer's RAM so they generally don't work. Both AMF and EMF files can only be opened in 3DS Max using the import scripts which can be generated with Adjutant. The good news here is that 3DS Max can be acquired free if you are a student (or pretending to be one). Once you have the map file open in 3DS Max, you can measure it there by using either the tape measure tool or by calculating the distance between the positions of individual vertices. You can also export it to another 3D editor for viewing/measuring as well. In 3DS Max, every 100 meters/units is equal to 1 Halo Reach Forge unit, and approximately 10 H5 Forge units.

Let me know if this works for you guys or if you have questions and/or run into trouble!

 

Hence why I like to use Blender. Getting the models into Blender is easy though. Just export the model from 3DS Max as an FBX file, but not before making sure you have the Display Units and System Units (found under the "customize" tab) set to centimeters. When you import it into Blender if you change the grid to use metric, 1 meter will be equivelant to 1 Halo Reach Forge unit, which is the same as roughly 10 Halo 5 Forge units.

The difference is that once you've got the model all set up and you know what you're doing, it becomes the quickest and most accurate way to get the dimensions of a map. Blender can display the coordinates of individual vertices as well as the length of edges. So if I want to know the length of a wall, all I have to do is select one of it's edges and it will display the length which I can easily convert to Forge units. (Measurements for lengths, angles, etc can be turned on by pressing the 'N' key and selecting it from the menu that opens) Alternatively, if you're trying to measure something that isn't one continuous straight edge, you can get the length by calculating the distance between two vertices by finding the difference in X, Y, or Z values. You can also create and scale cubes just like hill markers for getting ballpark measurements for large terrain based maps, only with much more precision and efficiency than you could have in game. At the very least, this method gives us a means to accurately find the dimensions of Halo 1 and 2 maps which could previously be measured using only footstep times and standard warthog or crate units.