Halo WIP

[diabloblanco17]

First off, for those of you who live in a cave, Halo is an XBox/PC game that is named for the ringworld that nearly all of the action takes place on.
That said, I'm working on a model of the ring and a set of textures for it. As of now, I've finished about a sixth of it. I'll post updates upon the completion of each of the six pieces I've divided the texture maps into, and, if I can figure out how to do so, create an add-on for it when I'm finished. Here are some renders from 3ds Max and a scaled-down version of the terrain map.







http://s92198053.onlinehome.us/Halo%2004%20-%20Section%20A%20Preview.jpg

[Evil Dr Ganymede]

That's rather fine looking indeed

[Scotchy]

Oh my. I love the new surface maps you're making. I've been doing a little Halo modding recently. Then shortly after I sound Celestia, I've been thinking about putting the Halo in celesta as well. I'm anxious to see how this project progresses.

Might I also inquire about some of your planet texture making methods? I've visited your site and frankly they are exceptional.

-Scotchy

[John Van Vliet]

i have never played halo but there is a add-on for
Larry Nivens Ring World

[NINtender]

i have never played halo but there is a add-on for
Larry Nivens Ring World

I'm an avid fan of both Halo and Niven's Ringworld.
You're the first I know ever to mention the two in the same sentence!

Can you post the ringworld link?

[Dollan]

Nice images! However, will you be replacing the cloud map with one that shows more linear formations? I'm not certain, but I don't think there would be much in the way of classical weather fronts or other Earth-similar formations.

Any thoughts, anyone?

As for the model: are you also working on the "bottom" side of the ringworld? What size is the Halo version of the ringworld supposed to be? If I recall, Niven's was tremendously huge in width, although fairly narrow in depth. At that size, probably there wouldn't be much relief to see unless one came very close to the surface indeed.

Just random thoughts.

...John...

[Jeam Tag]

Can you post the ringworld link?

When your're looking for addons you have many repertories:
http://www.bruckner.50megs.com/favorite_links.html
http://arnaud.macron.free.fr/recherche.php
or my catalogu
http://jeam.tag.free.fr/CELESTIAhtml/Ce ... Addons.htm
in wich you can see in the SF page 3
http://jeam.tag.free.fr/CELESTIAhtml/Ce ... ns-SF3.htm
the Ringworld created by Marc Griffith.
And of Course, The MOTHERLODE !!!
http://www.celestiamotherlode.net/

Dwl the addon both Marc's Site or The Motherlode
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mostlyharmless/
Jeam

[Guest]

I a huge fan of "Halo" and very good player.


I notice in the Pictures of "The Halo" that the background is a galaxy. In the game the Halo is orbiting a Planet, don't to forget it when you finish.

Are you going add vehicles like the "Pelican" or a "Convent Drop Ship"?
And are you going have "Halo 2" add-ons follow up?




Sorry for the bad spelling.
Rocket Man, Celestia Motherlode Forum Member

[Darkshot]

Oo, I was hoping my post several months ago would start something, and look what it has sparked. A few months ago I was talking about doing this, but I never really got started. I got sort of side tracked and such, but thats fine with me. You are doing a much better job than I could have done. This looks fantastic, I really want to download it.

In reply to Dollan, I'm almost positive that Halo is about... 24,000 km diameter, so definitely not the size of Ringworld. I also believe that it is 1000 km wide as well. (Gah another edit, dont take my word on these measurements, I cannot find them anywhere else on the web, so I dont know if they are true or I imagined them sometime ago. I promise this will be the last edit: This site http://halo.bungie.org/faq/story.html says its 10000km, about the 4th question down)

About the weather, not much is known about how the Halo works in the Halo universe, but there are a few things said about the weather. They do mention in the first game that the ring has an inclement weather system, lol sorta forgot what that means, but I hope it helps. And yeah, the clouds do behave mostly like Earth clouds, mostly cause... thats the way its designed in the game.

Oh and btw I know this is your work, I was just excited that something came of my post , not trying to claim inspirational rights or anything. I hope I can help out in any way, but it seems like you have it under control. I'm a huge fan of Halo and have read the 3 books, and I try to gobble up any technical info that gets through about anything in that universe. So if you need any help in that area, I'll be here. Whew, exciting stuff.

Edit: Yeah this is several months old, but I havent been around here for a while and I just noticed it.

Oh yeah and another thing, inclement weather was about how the ring had automatically caused blizzards and snow over the Control Room area so that The Flood would be unable to get inside. (The Flood being the parasitical organism that Halo's purpose is to contain)

Sigh, yet another edit lol, I love this button. I also forgot to mention, that I've been sort of making some mini addons for myself of some of the systems in Halo. Namely Epsilon Eridani (has at least one planet, Reach, the UNSC's main military base, is decimated by the Covenant just before Halo 1), 82 Eridanus (which I'm pretty sure is the system where John grew up on), and Sigma Octanus (another human colony where a major battle took place, where Lieutenant Keyes was promoted to Captain for his tactics on the Iroquois). I absolutely have no experience in skinning, so I sort of used the skins from another mod I downloaded a long time ago, but I forgot what it was called so I cant give them credit. Anyway, I think the skins suit them well, but are kind of low res. If anyone knows of any generic earthlike (and other planet types) skins I can use with their permission I'd be glad to let you guys use my systems. I'll stop typing now, this post is getting WAY too long. I'm so messy.

[diabloblanco17]

And I thought the whole site was still dead. Well, shatters.net doesn't work, anyway, and I've been using that to test its status since December. Oh well.

At the moment, I'm working on other projects, namely rewriting the planet map tutorial (http://s92198053.onlinehome.us/html/planet_map_tutorial__dantooine.html) on my site. Once I'm done with that, though, I should be able to start again on the Halo. As it stands, I've got a little more than half of the next piece done.

When (or if) I actually manage to finish the model, I'll probably be too burned out on the entire thing to even make an attempt at creating Threshold and Reach, so if anyone wants to take a stab at those in the meantime, go for it.

[Darkshot]

Sounds good, I'd like to see how it comes out. Speaking of Reach, I have all of the cinematics of Halo 2 on my harddrive, including the one that very briefly shows Reach, I could probably take a screenshot or two for you to check out if you do decide to do Reach. Threshold and Basis shouldn't be as hard, as you can see them everywhere in Halo 1, and a little in 2.

Again, I'd help out, but I have no knowledge of making textures. Let alone much artistic ability

EDIT: Oh no, my capture program isn't working right, I'll try to get this sorted out.

[Darkshot]

Hey I found a really cool picture that should help if you are still working on this project:

It was made by a Bungie artist for a cinematic that didn't make the final cut. Amazing.

Oh and this is most likely Installation 05, used in Halo 2, not the one in Halo 1 (04).

http://www.goodbrush.com/ This is the guy's website in case anyone's curious, but it seems to be having problems right now.

[diabloblanco17]

Ah, but it did make the final cut. I got a touched-up (and considerably smaller, grr...) version of that image from the game files, and used it as my starting point. It was used in the escape pod scenes near the beginning of the game, at least on the PC version, that is. If you look at the area about a third of the way through my first map, you'll notice that it includes the same bit of shoreline (from Florida) that's in the image you posted. I copied that to begin with, and then just used my imagination for the rest of the map.

Cool site, though.

[Darkshot]

Ah I see, I didn't look familiar though. I might have to go back to that level and see for myself. I also noticed its in my Art of Halo book, on one of the front pages, but its got a huge logo over it so you can't really tell what it is. Its a good book though, very interesting.

[diabloblanco17]

Update. Next section is (finally) done, so a full third of the texture is complete.











Texture

[Don. Edwards]

Wow,
This really is coming along nicely. Keep up the good work and I personaly look forward to its release.

Don. Edwards