Halo Legendary Trilogy [In developement]

[Espadon]

   All right, some of you might have groans, and others might have not, when you saw, oh, not another Halo mod...
   ...Well, Halo 3 is coming out soon, and you'd think there would be a sudden rush where all the Halophiliacs pop out and grab anything that looks remotely like a Master Chief....even that old green gummy bear tucked away in the couch.

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History:
   Anyways I've been working on this project for quite a while now, on and off for over 2 years. After playing Soldat for the first 2 months or so, I decided to make a needler, and that turned out to be the genesis of this project. I don't own any Halo games, so I depended completely on my Halophiliac friends and web material. I downloaded all the Soldat-Halo conversions I could find, but I must say, I was disappointed. Names were wrong, graphics were wrong, stats were wrong. I decided that I could make my own Photorealistic Halo mod.

   At that time Halo 1 was still in full swing. Then Halo 2 came out and I started updating my mod, which I initially wanted to keep all for myself, to accommodate Halo 2.
After a few month's hiatus and play-testing (and WoW, UT2k4, and Guild Wars), I came back just in time to  pore over 1UP's Halo 3 preview.

   In the end, I thought, hell, why not expand the mod to encompass the complete trilogy? After all, by that time, I had most of the weapons and gosteks down.

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   The main idea in the post here is that, after a few years of not participating in the Soldat Community, I've finally ventured out to ask whether or not some of you talented individuals may think this mod deserves your help.
   Firstly, for such a complete mod, a weapons changer is needed.  I've thought about using pre-existing ones such as Ivan's MS or Heretic Interface, but, a dedicated one would be much better. I hate people who half-ass a project and I certainly can't bring myself to do the same. I'm learning C++ and I will be able to program them soon, but certainly after Halo 3 has been released. If any of you reading can offer any services in this matter, I offer my thanks in advance.
   Secondly, while I pride myself in my graphical work, I must admit that I have no knack for sounds. My Halophiliac friend is an underachiever and gives me crappy sounds laced with background noise. Also, I don't own any copy of Halo 1/2 or 3 beta, so I can't record any sounds myself.  To boot, I also run on dialup, so downloading random sounds to fit isn't going to work (and is not my style). And I must also say that the sound on my computer is nearly always turned off, too. I'd appreciate it greatly if any of you can produce any quality sounds from any Halo game, thanks.
   Finally, I have a bit of experience with map-making, however, I am lacking in waypoint expertise. If any talented mapmaker feels this mod is worth his or her time, I would be obliged if they could make one or two Halo maps. Please do include bot pathing due to the extreme degree of modifications, online capability, while possible, appears very odd. Also, I've included MANY canonical, dedicated Halo bots, including a full complement of Flood, to play something akin to ZombieMode.

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   At the current stage, the Halo Legendary Trilogy Mod is taking advantage of nearly every advantage offered by version 1.4.1 -- recoil, and mostly, full PNG support. The non-reg'd interface has been fully alpha-tweaked so now it appears at 50% of normal transparency. Energy Sword and some weapons have also been converted to PNG to achieve the appropriate replication of actual Halo weapons.

   So here's some screenshots of my in-progress mod, both old and new:

[Current CP3-Stage 1.4.1 Halo 3]


   This is the current-stage Halo 3 part of the mod. Due to popular demand, the Spartan Laser takes the place of the otherwise more classic carbine slot.

Left-right, top-bottom:
MA5C vs SRS99D
PNG Energy Sword
2 Frames of the M7 in action
Dual M6Gs [Kelly - bot] killing a Flood
M90 Shotgun; note the shield effect
AIE-486 HMG on Lagrange
Spartan Laser cutting through 2 victims
M7 & Fred [bot] vs Flood
MA5C headshot
SRS99D PNG muzzle flash
Plasma rifle overkill
Needler kill
2 Plasma rifle frames
M7 PNG muzzle flash
MA5C PNG muzzle flash
AIE-486 HMG & Linda [bot]
M7 muzzle flash
Brute Shot vs Plasma pistol

[Interface Screenshots -- CP3]
[Weapons Menu]







[OLD Pre-1.4.1 Halo2 Preview]

   In this preview I've included pictures from both early and present version of the mod. You can tell them apart by the SPARTAN's color: Red is the early color, the bronzy-green is the present version. Believe me, it took a while to get the perfect Halo 2-3 MJOLNIR 'bronzy-green.' Also, the early versions have the crude Sangheili gosteks.
Here are picture descriptions:
1. Spartan with dual M6Cs after killing a Flood form. The yellow thing in front of the foot is a casing.
2. Energy sword-wielding Sangheili death by Covenant particle rifle
3. Early version. One Sangheili is holding an energy sword, the other, a particle rifle. The Spartan is firing a M7 SMG with early, four-point muzzle flash.
4. A picture of a lone Flood Combat Form. Its not right yet, because all of them have human bodies with Sangheili heads. I'll have to fix that.
5. Firing a M247 GP stationary machine gun. There are actually two versions (so I'm told) in Halo 2: the larger LAAG, and the smaller M247. I chose the smaller one, though they look the same. The name reference is from HaloLibrary.
6. Firing a particle rifle. I've tried to make the SRS99C-S2 AM and the particle rifle the same performance-wise. Even the bullet-gfx and gun-gfx dimensions are the same, but only the SRS99C-S2 AM has the scope.
7. Blowing away a pesky Flood with the M90 combat assault shotgun (CAS). [note, CAS is only used in the novel, official game name is M90 Mk. I and has been changed to reflect this]
8. More action against the Flood with an M7.
9. Powering through the horde with an energy sword.
10. The new, refined Sangheili, with a plasma rifle.
11. Burning through Flood with the same weapon as above.
12. A Spartan with a plasma pistol.
13. A busy Sangheili
14. Another of the same.
15. A Spartan with a M90 and no enemies in sight.

[Current-stage 1.4.1]

   Here is a Current-stage view; some Halo 2 weapons are shown because Halo 3 graphics have not been fully implemented yet. "White patches" on the M6Ds [sic] and M7 were intentional, but may be fixed so they're less glaring.
[EDIT: I was in a hurry to get the screenie, so I ripped out my M6Gs and put in the M6C pair because the M6G was still a semi-shrinked gfx. I couldn't remember while typing the name so I put in what sounded right (D'oh!). Please excuse the typo in the picture and on here, those are M6C Magnums.]

[Early 1.3.1 version of the Spartan Laser]


[RvB Botset]

   In addition to the canonical Halo botset, I've included a Red versus Blue Deathmatch botset. They come with comments from the actual RvB scripts.
1. Church
2. Caboose
3. Tucker
4. Tex
5. Sarge
6. Donut
7. Grif
8. Simmons
9. Lopez
10. O'Malley
11. Wyoming

[1.4.1 PNG Energy Sword]

   Here's a 2X blowup of the semitransparent Esword. Its hard to make out how transparent it is here, but it looks terrific in-game.

[1.4.1 Needles]

   Due to the fact that the Rambo Bow is the Drake Needler, normal (Halo 2 needler here) needlers can also use arrows to represent needles that stick into walls. They don't home in or explode, however.

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   I'm quite sure I covered everything I wanted to here. Again, I'd like to thank you guys in advance for any help offered. Any questions, feel free to express them. Criticisms, I'd like to hear them too, just no irrelevant disses, like "1 h4T3z0r h4L0." Thanks.

~Espadon

[T-Bone]

Holy ****.....that looks nice� 

The M7 looks great(EDIT: Actually they all look nice, i just love how the SMG looks), but the brute shot (which im sure you know) shoots projectile grenades and not bullets.....but i geuss you didnt have an option, unless you ripped a turret� 

Second EDIT:  You will have a hard time getting halo 3 sfx now since the beta is over :/

[mxyzptlk]

Well, there was always the porta-turret thats in halo3, but who cares!

Halo 3 mod!

Woo!

[Espadon]

In response to T-Bone:

I've done thorough research on all Halo weapons, and I'm proud to say that all weapons are correct. That means the Brute Shot does indeed fire grenades -- and is highly inaccurate too, with massive self-bink, movementacc, and everything I could do to make it like the descriptions in the novel and Halo mechanics.

The Halo 3 mod will have 3 different turrets: The M249, the Plasma Cannon (porta-plasma turret) and the Shade Turret (Halo 1).

And sorry I can't make them portable lol.

[Taehl]

Great stuff... I'm afraid I don't like Halo, though. Not Halo after Microsoft bought Bungie, that is. Original Halo had me drooling. But it's obvious you put a lot of work into this, and the inclusion of RvB bots was a great idea 

[Espadon]

For me, it's the entire innovative Halo universe and the intricate backstory that draws me to Halo. I'm not a fan of Microshaft either, especially it's new marketing pitch for Vista -- how Halo 2 for PC is Vista-only.

EDIT: This thread should have been in Partial Modifications Forum due to in-progress status, so any mods that come by, if you would be kind enough to move this, I appreciate it.

[Taehl]

"Intricate backstory"? Please, that's not even funny. Half-Life 2 has an intricate backstory. F.E.A.R. has an intricate backstory. Not Halo. /BUT/ I'm not going to flood this thread with back-and-forth with Halo fans.

And you misunderstood me, there. I actually happen to like Microsoft. I happen to like Vista. Microsoft is wonderful at making operating systems - people just overlook that because Microsoft isn't very good at making applications (for instance, MSPaint, Wordpad, Internet Explorer, etc.).

And I don't dislike Halo because Microsoft bought Bungie - I dislike Halo because it's a generic, mostly decent shooter, when before Halo was going to be an MMOFPS, with clan-controlled territory, the ability to walk all the way around Halo at your whim, multipilot vehicles that required teamwork, singleplayer with full and equal human and Covenant campaigns, and underwater actually existed.

But this thread is for this mod, which is quite impressive. I'll not fill it with Halo discussions or arguments.

[numgun]

Ok Mr. IKnowAlphaTransparency.

How do you do alpha transparency? I've got a paint shop pro 9.
Tell me a brief step by step guide how exactly do you do it on your program.

Other than that, this is going to be really nice. Although it seems its more for offline/LAN play than rather online play. (Needler uses arrows in WMs and the bruteshot as the minigun? Quite obvious.)

[Taehl]

I would offer http://www.justfuckinggoogleit.com if I was an asshole, but I'm not. I would go write a tutorial, but I'm in the middle of working on my mod. So how about you hop on msnmessenger, and I walk you through it?

[numgun]

Deal.

[York]

M6D's are the silver pistols from Halo 1. Those black pistols you have in the menu are Halo 2's M6C's.

[Espadon]

Yes, if you would be kind enough to read the later edit, I do admit that I wrote it wrong when I took that screenshot. I was working on the Halo 3 weapons so at the time they were M6Gs, but to make it presentable, I switched the graphics to M6Cs, but I couldn't remember the designation since I was swapping about 5 different graphics and names out to make that screenie. The actual mod won't be like that lol. Of course it would have the classic M6D from Halo 1, in the Barrett slot for the scope (gotta make it overpowered just to keep it faithful).

Taehl, the Halo game does not have as deep of a storyline as classics such as Half-Life 2 or FEAR, yes, but I specifically said "Halo universe." I dismissed Halo as an excuse for primitive gameplay at first, but later I changed my views. If you've ever read the Halo novels (the classic argument of, "What is it to be Human?"), and seen some of the discussions about how the "deeper," non-game Halo relates to real life, you might be, well, I'm not going to say impressed because you'll just say that you never get impressed. >.> But you're right, this is a thread about the mod, so let's drop it at that and concentrate on the mod. =D

I'd like to hear about your wants.
In the future, after the mod has come out, I'd like to add bonus packs, like Hunter, Drone, Grunt, Flood Infection Form, and Brute gosteks, etc.

What weapons would you like to see? Some will be near impossible to make correctly due to scale, like the Gravity Hammer, others due to game mechanics, like the Oddball, but it would be nice to throw around ideas.

EDIT: And Numgun, I think I did note in a post above that the mod was offline-content-oriented. The massive amount of dedicated bots are also a sure sign.

[York]

Change the knife to the oddball, that's what I did for my personal Halo mod. That's my suggestion. If you need sounds, tell me which ones and I will see what I can do. I have quite a few sounds already (guns, reload, flag taken/returned, powerups, etc...) but not all of them are top quality. But give me a list of what you need and I'll give you them. Or I can send you the whole sound pack, but I can't garuntee that ALL of them will be great quality.

[Espadon]

I did that quite a while ago, back in the days of 1.2.X, but I switched back due to alignment issues. Perhaps now with PNG support I can do it correctly.

Here's some more stuff:

[Particle Beam Rifle]


[M7057 DP "Flamer"]


[M6D HE]

Right now it's still a bit tall for my standards, but it's okay. I'll change it when I make the final adjustments.

[Fist Icon]

As with all my graphics, Fist.bmp was hand bitmapped. Palette is from the E3 Halo 3 trailer.

[Drake Needler]


[Drake Needler "RamboMatch"]

Drake Needler was an unofficial weapon back from between Halo 1 and 2 if I remember correctly. There was a rendered picture of an Elite dual-wielding these babies; it was pretty impressive. I think it was a protest about how weak the needler was, I'm not sure on that though. A render below:



[Covenant Carbine]

I finished this yesterday, I dunno why I had a grudge with it. I did make one a LONG time ago, before I started the mod, but I deleted it:

[For old time's sake]

...As you could see, it was quite inferior...

[Shivorken]

Wow ... just wow ... this mod is freaking excellent! As a Halo Fan ... BEST halo mod out there!

Good work =]

[Edit]: now that all of the pictures have loaded, i would like to say:
1) I absolutely <3 the in game transparent sword (i gotta learn this alpha transparency shiznat)
2) IMO, the weapon menu images need more dynamic shading. It's detailed - very detailed but weapons like the m7 and the br55 is a bit too plain and lacking in shading for my taste. The m7 is also a bit too fat (i'm not sure but this IS the smg from halo2 yes? If it is then it's too fat, if its a new weapon then my bad because i haven't even seen halo3 footage yet)
3) From your first collage, i can see that the blood is quite enchanced in your mod, and it looks to me, a little bit square-ish (from the middle right hand side image with the white background).
4) Gosteks are the epitome of sexiness =]

[-Skykanden-]

nice... but i don't like a lot, that looks nice but, bad forms, and i think it need have few colours with more good shading :/

[fast_ede]

woo! I've been waiting to see if you would finish this since you talked about it on soldatmods in october 2006! Looking good.

[Thrax]

Wow... That is extremely good. I want to see more mods from you

[blackdevil0742]

I'm impressed be the quality of the mod. Well done on doing it, everything looks great.

[Espadon]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Shiv, I'm disappointed that you didn't recognize your own work; I used your MJOLNIR gostek as a base skeleton (don't worry, everything's original actually, I just used the gostek dimensions).

I must admit that for 90% of the time I've been working on the mod, I didn't use any int-gfx at all. My philosophy is similar to Taehl's: In-game weapons count more. However, realizing that online, most mods are judged based on int-gfx, I decided to make some one night. For the most part, I used colors grabbed from the Halo 2 manual to keep the lighting consistent. I added the black outlines later, which made some weapons look fat, I know. Here what it looked like in the first iteration:

As you can see the contrast is low and the shapes aren't all correct. I boosted up contrast for all of them and redid the BR55's frontal section, and completely redid the SRS99C/D. The reason why the BR55's front looks so flat and plain is because I shifted some sections closer together, blotting out some detail lines -- I'm working to correct it after finishing my Halo 3 weapons. But yes, all my weapons are in "neutral lighting" and lack dynamic shading. I'll see what I can do about it.

M7 is quite fat, and it's incorrect. I was about to do a "thin" M7 and ask which one you guys like better, but you beat me to the point, Shiv. Brute Shot may be a bit fatter than I want, too. Mostly it's the dark weapon pixels blending into the black outline. =\

Opinions on the M6D?

EDIT: Blood is squareish, that's a bug in the old version of the mod. Fixed now. =) Ought to include purple (Elite) blood and Flood blood?

[Marine and S-III gosteks]

Here are two more of my gosteks, a UNSC Marine and a SPARTAN-III. Both right now are mounted on the MJOLNIR Mk VI armor gostek, but it's hardly noticeable in-game (except the Marines do look a bit Spartanish). Dedicated gosteks for both helmets do exist though. I'm going to reiterate my plea for anyone who may think he/she can lend a hand at creating a weapons/gostek changer.