I am new, I want to begin modding...please help

KuKulzA · Post by **KuKulzA** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 11:25 am

My personal experience of modding is simply going on the editors for Age of Empires, Age of Mythology, Battle for Middle Earth, or Warcraft3 and editing stuff and putting in skins, etc. That s all RTS games....

I am trying to make a mod for Halo2 allowing:

A.I. controlled bots (capaign enemies and allies, etc.)
new vehicles, weapons, etc.
new appearances (brute, grunt, flood, etc.)
new campaign (potentially)
camera man option
campaign only stuff to be in multiplayer too
new multiplayer maps

....and more

...this is partially for a movies (machinima) that I am trying to make with the help of some friends. But I need to learn to mod first.........

1) how do I mod an xbox?
-I need a mod chip or do I need to do something else...

2) what tools will I need?
-I've heard of Ch2r, DotHalo, H2X (?), ADI.rar (?)

3) what is pal or ntsc?

4)what are offsets or metas?
-metas are able to be switched to switch stuff in Halo2 right?

5) how do I get a mod into my modded xbox, with the mod chip I should be able to put a copy of Halo2 into my xbox hard-drive?

MAKING STUFF
1) I use 3ds max to create stuff right?
2) 3ds max (or gmax) can animate stuff right?
3) I use photoshop for skinning... correct?

CINEMATICS
1) what is the tool used for making cinematics in Halo2? is it IDE or something? I'd like to learn how to use it.....

2) what is Guerilla and Sapien? does it have to do with HEK? is it used for cinematics or AI or what?

3) I can use a camera man to help film multiplayer, right (of course, just need clarification as to how it works and if I really ned a mod for it)

4) I should use Final Cut Pro for the movies?

....I am pretty new to the world of modding and I hope the wonderful and skilled people here in HaloMods can help me...... what do you know, maybe I'll be able to create a pretty good mod and put it on some site for download....... but I've got a lot to learn

...thanks for reading, hope to see helpful replies.... I may not understand all the terms and all but I'm new, forgive my noobiness...hehe

evalonso89 · Post by **evalonso89** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 11:32 am

first of all, you need to mod your box(as of question 1). you need to either but a modchip or softmod...this can be done at www.xbox-scene.com . tools you can use are ch2r, hex editor, dot halo and other programs, i prefferably use ch2r.pal and NTSC are just different types of xbox's. i beleive NTSC is an american version and PAL is other countries but that may be wrong. skinning is for painshop , photoshop, etc. i dont think the only thing 3ds max is used for is rendering (correct?) and that is to the max of my knowledge. good luck with h2 modding

KuKulzA · Post by **KuKulzA** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 11:45 am

thanks, that clears up a few of my questions..... softmodding is with a game right? like nightfire or something? I dunno.... and hard modding is with the mod chip.....

anyways, I looked around and apparently Guerilla, Sapien, and Tool are used to open or w/e each other or something....?

...hmmm..... I dunno, I doubt anyone would take the time to help me... but I know there are always those on every forum that likes to type a lot of text so hopefully there are some of you out there who will help me answer some of my questions...

EDIT: is this any good? http://www.divineo.com/cgi-bin/div-us/xb-xenice.html ....should I put in a mod chip myself or have it pre-installed?which is better? I don't want to screw anything up...

mrtikki2 · Post by **mrtikki2** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 12:10 pm

thats a nice one. i have a xecuter 2.6 lite. it was like 35 bucks and does everything i need.

if you have experience in soddering, you will be fine. just search for how to install

KuKulzA · Post by **KuKulzA** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 12:13 pm

I have experience soddering... melting metal wire thing (soddering iron?) and 'glueing' stuff ......what is .NET and .Rar ...I'm seeing it quite often in these forums, .rar in downloads, .NET I dunno what it is....

mrtikki2 · Post by **mrtikki2** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 1:49 pm

you need it to use some of the software. its on the microsoft webpage.

evalonso89 · Post by **evalonso89** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 1:58 pm

You might also want to read up on chips, trust me, i didnt when i first got one and the screen poped up and said "flashing mode"...uhhhhh. www.google.com . but seriously read in the tutorials at www.xbox-scene.com before soldering down the chip. its always good to know what your doing before. and if you want, buy a bigger hardrive so u can rent games and save then to it. but dont do it its illegal.

cheesenoses · Post by **cheesenoses** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 3:20 pm

i dont know about divineo though....theyre in canada and it has to go through the US customs and it took more than a month for me to get mine...and the only way to avoid that is to pay $20 shipping

KuKulzA · Post by **KuKulzA** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 5:18 pm

ouch.... wow that high a cost... well looks like I'll do some more research...and hopefully more will respond to my questions

KuKulzA · Post by **KuKulzA** » Sun Mar 27, 2005 5:17 am

please somebody help me answer these questions.....
...I am doing some research on the side but I am usually very preoccupied, hopefully more people will respond......

s0ftm0d · Post by **s0ftm0d** » Sun Mar 27, 2005 11:20 am

If you dont know what .rar files are ya are gonna need a lota reading to get caught up. Just google google google.

Jefff · Post by **Jefff** » Sun Mar 27, 2005 11:37 am

1. You need a modchip
2. Ch2r, DotHalo and ADI are what you need as a beggining modder. H2X is for model injecting.
3. PAL and NTSC are diffrent scan lines. The US and Japan uses pal where everywhere else in the world uses NTSC. The games need to be in diffrent formats for the 2 systems. That's why the games differ slightly.
4. An offset is a position where something is located. Meta is stuff (better word anyone?) for everything in the game. That stuff tells those things what to do.
5. With a modchip you will gain ftp access to your HD.

1. You cannot easily import models into Halo 2, YET! But when you can you should use 3ds max.
2. Yes, but I'm unsure how this relates to Halo 2.
3. Yes, or you can use other programs. Photoshop is most commonly used though.

1. You cannot make Cinematics in Halo 2, YET!
2. Guerilla and Sapien are programs in the HEK used for Halo CE, so I'm not really sure how they work.
3. Yes.
4. Use whatever you want. I use Pinnacle because I got it as a gift.

KuKulzA · Post by **KuKulzA** » Sun Mar 27, 2005 12:35 pm

thanks, that clears up a lot..... ive dowloaded.... ADI, DotHalo.0b3.0, LOD fixer, CH2R-092, and H2X.... apparently I need to get WinRar or something..... and I guess I have to wait to be able to import models... although I hear some people have done so... I dunno... but I'll have summer vacation to do most of this... and start on the machinima...

zwull · Post by **zwull** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 2:07 pm

I softmodded my xbox, i suggest it, it was easy for me

Jefff · Post by **Jefff** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 2:52 pm

Another super bump...

HomelikeBoat · Post by **HomelikeBoat** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 7:05 pm

.rar files are just like zip files, but better, used by WinRar, .net is the .net framework from microsoft its what the halo modding programs are made using. I use Adobe Preimere and Vegas Video for my movies, but its up to u.
i have a Xecuter 3CE Mod, and ive had no problems at all it was easy to install...altho i got the sauderless adapter with it, but still had to sauder...only 3 points tho

Shalted · Post by **Shalted** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 7:26 pm

HomelikeBoat wrote:.net framework from microsoft its what the halo modding programs are made using.

First of all, not all people use/can afford the .net framework(Cant remember if it costs anything anymore) You shouldnt keep super bumped topics going.

zwull · Post by **zwull** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 6:49 pm

.NET framework is free

Shalted · Post by **Shalted** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 7:08 pm

yeah the framework is free but the .Net IDE+Compiler I think cost money. And why are you bringing up a dead topic originally from march?

zwull · Post by **zwull** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 7:31 pm

well, you read it didn't you, maybe someone else will. lol