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Halo2.com Goes Live
As many have already noticed (and as could probably be guessed, by many hardcore fans), Microsoft scooped up the Halo2.com domain – and has used it to launch a new Flash-based promo site. There isn’t much info there that isn’t elsewhere, as well – but there’s plenty of room for expansion!
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Videos to fill your hard drive
The saturation coverage continues; Gamespot has a 235 mb version of the Halo 2 demo from the Press Conference available for Gamespot Complete members. (They’ve also put up their own ‘Impressions‘ article.) IGN has put up a 340 mb WMV raw feed of the entire conference itself (minus a 5 minute parody show that MS wouldn’t let them film) for Insiders. IGN’s Halo 2 media page contains 5 new short movies – low-res WMV versions for the masses, hi-res QuickTime for Insiders. I’m sure there’ll be more – but this is a reasonable start. (Remember, ALL of this stuff is shakeycam footage. Some of it is very GOOD shakeycam footage – but it’s not direct feed. That won’t come until later.)
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No silly title necessary
At the conclusion of Microsoft’s press conference, a ton of new Halo 2 content hit the net. Firstly, Bungie.net has 8 new screenshots from the Zanzibar level being shown off at E3. Secondly, there’s some info on the Halo 2 Limited Edition, which was only just revealed at the event. Thirdly, TeamXBox was the first site to post a shakycam video of the Halo 2 portion of the event, which is available in 4 parts here. That ought to keep you all busy for a while 😛
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A little bit of history repeating
So I think it’s now quite obvious why I haven’t updated in a month or so.
Linky
Since I’d probably get severely disciplined by the Bungie Webmaster if I scooped bungie.net, I thought I might reminisce a little bit today. Gearbox finally released the HEK (Halo Editing Kit for my parents), so now you all get to see what I got hired by Bungie to do three years ago. I’ve read some of the comments people have had over the quality and breadth of the tools in the HEK, and I thought I’d answer a few of them.
Firstly, if you have issues with the learnability of Sapien, you should understand that it was developed with the intent of always having a programmer (namely, me) on call to handle support issues. So, most of what is in Sapien is not documented anywhere. It also does not have any loading progress visualization, so if you see Sapien load up and then just sit there, it’s (probably) not hung, it’s just loading.
Secondly, if you’re wondering why Sapien doesn’t support more mapmaking features that you’d find in other game modding packages, namely, map creation, it’s because the primary goal of Sapien was to be what 3dsmax and Maya are to artists for designers. That, and it’s much more cost effective to buy an off the shelf 3d art package and write an exporter than to create a 3d modelling tool from scratch. It’s unfortunate that currently you need to own MAX 4.x-5.x, but as I understand that, Gearbox is working on a solution to expand the range of apps that will support exporting Halo models.
As for the overall quality of Sapien, I’m surprised that it is still working almost three years after we shipped Halo 1. Ah well; I’m looking forward to seeing what the Halo mod community creates with the HEK. I might even post one or two tips and tricks to using Sapien in the future.
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A little bit of history repeating
So I think it’s now quite obvious why I haven’t updated in a month or so.
Linky
Since I’d probably get severely disciplined by the Bungie Webmaster if I scooped bungie.net, I thought I might reminisce a little bit today. Gearbox finally released the HEK (Halo Editing Kit for my parents), so now you all get to see what I got hired by Bungie to do three years ago. I’ve read some of the comments people have had over the quality and breadth of the tools in the HEK, and I thought I’d answer a few of them.
Firstly, if you have issues with the learnability of Sapien, you should understand that it was developed with the intent of always having a programmer (namely, me) on call to handle support issues. So, most of what is in Sapien is not documented anywhere. It also does not have any loading progress visualization, so if you see Sapien load up and then just sit there, it’s (probably) not hung, it’s just loading.
Secondly, if you’re wondering why Sapien doesn’t support more mapmaking features that you’d find in other game modding packages, namely, map creation, it’s because the primary goal of Sapien was to be what 3dsmax and Maya are to artists for designers. That, and it’s much more cost effective to buy an off the shelf 3d art package and write an exporter than to create a 3d modelling tool from scratch. It’s unfortunate that currently you need to own MAX 4.x-5.x, but as I understand that, Gearbox is working on a solution to expand the range of apps that will support exporting Halo models.
As for the overall quality of Sapien, I’m surprised that it is still working almost three years after we shipped Halo 1. Ah well; I’m looking forward to seeing what the Halo mod community creates with the HEK. I might even post one or two tips and tricks to using Sapien in the future.
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November 9th
IGN is first out of the gate with a hefty preview of Halo 2. They start off the article with, surprisingly enough, a “firm” release date of November 9th. The rest of the article is so much info, I think my head exploded… and I only made it to page 2.
I don’t even know where to begin to tell you about the massive wealth of information provided in this article… so I won’t. All I can say is go read this article!
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Lots of goodies, coming soon!
The Microsoft Press Briefing from E3 kicks off in about 5 minutes; all the really good stuff will be shown here, first. No, we weren’t invited. However, SketchFactor posted a note at B.net a few hours ago, promising lots of goodies as soon as it’s over:As soon as the briefing concludes we’ll have our finger on the ‘submit’ button ready to unleash a barrage of screenshots and new information. Stay tuned!
There’s also some juicy info about what’s coming over the course of the week – go read the whole thing!
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The HBO Effect
Dr@Home’s Death Island Evacuation vid, posted recently, has overwhelmed his server – but Uriel’s mirror is still up, and KP has added one of his own. The film is only 7 mb, in WMP9 format; grab it if you haven’t.
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It’s doing WHAT?
Dr@Home was messing around with the -console and -devmode commands in Halo Custom Edition, and managed to create a rather… disturbing effect. It’s a 7 mb WMP9 movie; you’ll want to right-click and save as (or option-click on a mac), because it’s not so good for streaming. Update: Mirrored at WWWP, thanks to Uriel.
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Yeah, it’s May. We know.
Realizing that it was finally closer to NEXT Halloween than LAST Halloween, Sledgefare has posted his pumpkin from last year on the web; you can see it on this page. Not a bad job!
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Library Checkout
Saint has put forth a plea for proof-reading and general checking on the soon-to-open Library, an encyclopedia of Halo knowledge housed at psyjnir.org. Give it a read, send him feedback!
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Server log analysis
Saw this last night, accidentally closed the window, forgot to go back. rapture points out a thread on the Gearbox forums about a new fan-written application that parses Halo CE dedicated server logs. It’s not all that useful as is – but the potential is enormous. Check it out! (Unfortunately, Gearbox’s forums are down at the moment, for upgrades… so you’ll need to check back a bit later.)
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Weekly Update Archive Now up-to-date
We’ve added last Friday’s Weekly Update to our archive – don’t forget that search option! Say you noticed that one of the tidbits this week mentioned ‘Greg’s cool animation system‘, and you wondered, ‘who’s Greg, anyway?’ Well, a quick search for ‘Greg‘ makes it clear that we’re talking about Greg Snook, and your Bungie Stalking just got one step easier. Anything to help the fans!
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BBC looks at E3
The BBC News site has put up a story about E3, and what to expect this year; Halo 2 features prominently in the section titled ‘Game delays’. (Yeah, we know – it hasn’t been delayed.) Margaret Robertson, Games Editor at Edge magazine, is quoted as saying that Halo 2 can still match the splash it made last year, though she doesn’t expect to see a playable demo. This is intriguing, given the GamesRadar prediction late last week – since GamesRadar is owned by Future Publishing, Edge’s parent, and is often used for the release of web versions of Edge articles. Well, the truth will be known soon enough! Thanks to David Hinchliffe for the heads-up.
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Don’t All Rush At Once
One One Se7en checks out Halo Babies‘ downloadable backgrounds – and finds that it can’t compete. (On a slightly different note, I realized that I totally missed May 7th, and the latest Archive posting – and nobody told me. I’m pretty sure there are a couple of queued strips; I’ll see if I can find time today or tomorrow.)
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On The Down Side…
… Master Chief’s Suit Isn’t Flammable. Halo: Resolution shows that big guns beat Flaming Ninjas every time.
The latest news about the Halo series of games from Microsoft