Any Halo Fans Here?

[Darkshot]

Hey all,

I'm a big time Halo (Xbox) fan, and I stumbled across Celestia the other day. I absolutely love it, and have been working on adding star systems from Halo into Celestia. Now, all the ones I have so far (just Reach and Eridanus) dont have skins, because they were only in the books. I made a mesh of the actual Halo a few minutes ago, but I'm not real good at skinning If anyone would like to help out, I'm hoping to eventually get Covenant and UNSC fleets from Fall of Reach and First Strike into Celestia.

So if anyone knows where I could find meshs or textures of the Halo, Pillar of Autumn, etc, I'd be very grateful.

Also, I had the specific dimensions of Halo, but I lost them, so I'm guessing on the width and height of the ring. All I know is that its 10,000km diameter. EDIT: also, I'm using gmax, and need a way to convert into .3ds files. Google isn't helping very much.

[t00fri]

Hey all,

I'm a big time Halo (Xbox) fan, and I stumbled across Celestia the other day. I absolutely love it, and have been working on adding star systems from Halo into Celestia. Now, all the ones I have so far (just Reach and Eridanus) dont have skins, because they were only in the books. I made a mesh of the actual Halo a few minutes ago, but I'm not real good at skinning If anyone would like to help out, I'm hoping to eventually get Covenant and UNSC fleets from Fall of Reach and First Strike into Celestia.

So if anyone knows where I could find meshs or textures of the Halo, Pillar of Autumn, etc, I'd be very grateful.

Also, I had the specific dimensions of Halo, but I lost them, so I'm guessing on the width and height of the ring. All I know is that its 10,000km diameter. EDIT: also, I'm using gmax, and need a way to convert into .3ds files. Google isn't helping very much.

Hi Darkshot,

from your user-id I take it that you like to shoot in the dark.

Reading your post I am amazed: I fail to understand about every second word, which is not my usual record

So:

What is Halo(Xbox)? What is Reach and Eridanus? I know Eridanus as a constellation, but that does not have skins?? What are Covenant and UNSC fleets?? What is Fall of Reach and First Strike?? What is Pillar of Autumn?? What is gmax??

So do you think I should work a little on my education?

From the way you wrote your post, it sounds as if everyone --but me-- knows everything about all this stuff. Otherwise why should you write it without any explanations whatsoever?

Oh, by the way, do you own Quaternion already?;-)

You might not be aware, but this is NOT a gamer's forum...

Bye Fridger

[Darkshot]

Yes, I'm quite aware this isnt a gamers forum, but I was hoping at least a few people would know about Halo (as it is perhaps the best game ever made in a very long time IMO, but I wont get into that). If there were people who liked Halo here, then they would know what I am talking about. I at least thought you'd know what gmax is, because it is a close cousin of 3d Studio Max, which Celestia's s use its format (.3ds). I won't bother explaining Halo, other than its a great Xbox game, and it has a great story.

I guess I'll just do this alone, which is no problem. And its no big deal, I still love Celestia. I'm just so used to being around people who play lots of games, that I forgot there were others out there lol. Well I guess I assumed there'd be someone who knew what I'm talking about, cause after all, I was very intrigued by Celestia, and I like Halo.

Oh and I googled Quaternion (as I had no clue as to what it was lol) and no, I'm not that smart lol. I wont dare say I can comprehend whatever its about.

[t00fri]

I at least thought you'd know what gmax is, because it is a close cousin of 3d Studio Max, which Celestia's s use its format (.3ds).

But you sure know, I suppose, that Celestia is an Open Source multi-platform project. 3d Studio Max is a commercial Windows programme, which has no counterpart in Linux, for example.

.3ds format, though, is supported also by a number of other Open Source programs, also for Linux. Can I compile the sources of gmax myself, i.e. are they available for free? If not, what should we do with it here?

I won't bother explaining Halo, other than its a great Xbox game, and it has a great story.

You seem to assume that I know what Xbox is. Does it run on Linux? I never heard of it, no wonder since I am playing no games ...You seem to assume that everyone on this globe is using Windows?

Well I guess I assumed there'd be someone who knew what I'm talking about, cause after all, I was very intrigued by Celestia, and I like Halo.

You mean that only gamers can code excellent software like Celestia?

Oh and I googled Quaternion (as I had no clue as to what it was lol) and no, I'm not that smart lol. I wont dare say I can comprehend whatever its about.

Well lots of 3d code in Celestia uses Quaternions, thats why it's so good

Bye Fridger

[Darkshot]

Sigh, you are taking everything I say wrong. As I said before, Halo is an Xbox game. Xbox is a game system console, Halo also runs on Windows and Macintosh. I had at least hoped you'd HEARD of Xbox, which I am very suprised you havent.

Gmax is a free version of 3d Studio Max, completely legal, etc. It is only missing certain key features such as rendering and various other things.

I do not assume everyone uses Windows, but I do know many people do use it. I don't claim to be an expert on Linux, so I don't know what runs on it.

And about Quaternions, I am only starting to learn 3D design and stuff, so I had no idea.

If you have no idea what an Xbox is, then I think I should shut up, because we will be talking completely different languages lol.

Edit: Should this topic be locked? Since we are just going around in circles.

[t00fri]

Darkshot,

no it's just fine. I am sure, a number of people here know much more about games and 3d-modeling than I do. I just "resisted" to make clear that the Celestia forum is a multilayered community, where it's always a good idea to provide some basic explanations about what is at stake. Many people know different things here. But gaming is certainly of no concern in the context of celestia.

Bye Fridger

[selden]

Darkshot,

Fridger is a physicist. He simply doesn't have the free time available to do any gaming. What little free time he has he spends climbing mountains, observing the stars with his own telescope, and advancing the state of Celestia. Oh, and he seems to have somewhat of a life in addition to these minor projects

You aren't going around in circles, you're educating him.

A significant number of people do come to Celestia from a gaming background. I think they tend to be somewhat disappointed. Celestia is oriented more toward accurate display of information and education than toward simulating spaceflight, for example -- for that we direct people toward Orbiter by Martin Schweiger.

[bh]

Darkshot...welcome to Celestia...don't worry too much about the fridge(sic)...he is God around here for good reason...There are quite a few gamers around on this forum... take a look at 'mostly harmless' from Marc in the Australian region...search the forums. I don't have too much time myself for gaming though I do like to try the odd demo...at the moment I'm on 'Call of Duty'...yes...I've had a couple of ESBs...and why not?

Regards...bh.

[selden]

bh,

I'm guessing you mean that it's your turn to keep an eye on the young'n.

Be sure to keep your beverage out of reach of inquisitive hands!

[diabloblanco17]

As I've got the PC version of Halo, I can do some extraction and get images of Threshold, its moon, and both the inner and outer surfaces of Halo for you. I can probably also extract the Pillar of Autumn model for you, and it's vaguely possible that the design team also included a model of the entire Covenant battlecruiser for the Truth and Reconciliation mission.

[granthutchison]

I'm guessing you mean that it's your turn to keep an eye on the young'n.

Come on Selden, keep up with the plot - Call of Duty is a computer game, not a childcare commitment!

Grant

[selden]

Oh.

Well, if he considers it fun...

[Darkshot]

Aha! This was what I was expecting, lol. Thanks to you all for replying.

Diablo, that'd be wonderful if you could get me the things you mentioned. The longsword fighter and/or Pelican dropship would also be greatly appreciated. I'm doing some digging to see if I can figure out the distance Threshold is from Reach, then I can figure out what star system it would be in Celestia.

Oh, and don't let Fridger greet the new people around here anymore, he kinda gave me a weird vibe for my first post

And yes I realize Celestia isn't a game. I am also very interested in Astronomy and all sorts of other stuff Celestia is simulating. I am just hoping to be able to portray the Halo universe as accurately as possible, given the little information we have.

Thanks again

[chris]

I played Halo to the end when it was released a couple years ago. Great game--it takes a pretty interesting one to divert me from programming. It's one of the few games with something close to a hard sci-fi backstory. I'm afraid can't help with getting models of the spaceships however.

--Chris

[Evil Dr Ganymede]

You'll have to excuse Fridger, Darkshot - he can be rather snarky at people at times .

Darkshot,

Fridger is a physicist. He simply doesn't have the free time available to do any gaming. What little free time he has he spends climbing mountains, observing the stars with his own telescope, and advancing the state of Celestia. Oh, and he seems to have somewhat of a life in addition to these minor projects

You aren't going around in circles, you're educating him.

Frankly, I'm boggled that there are still people in the western world who don't know what an XBox is. Even if you don't game, you have to be living under a rock to avoid all the advertising for it . I don't blame Darkshot for assuming that everyone knew what an Xbox was at all.

But for Fridger's benefit - XBox is a gaming console. Like Playstation2 or Nintendo Gamecube (or the Atari 2600 for that matter). You plug it into the TV. The only connection XBox has with windows is that Microsoft make the console.

Halo is a game on the XBox. It's a first person shooter (ie you play a character who runs around shooting things, and the view is from his perspective) with very pretty graphics. The plot is that a ringworld (Halo) is discovered by human forces in the midst of an interstellar war with a race called the Covenant. As the humans investigate the structure, they're attacked by Covenant forces and some survivors crash onto the ring. The character you play is the last human supersoldier, who is charged with finding out the secrets of Halo. Who built it? Why? It turns out that contains something that the humans never bargained for...

Reach and Eridanus are human colony worlds. IIRC Earth's location is kept secret for fear of the Covenant coming along and bombing everything into dust (which appears to happen in Halo 2, given the trailer).

[Evil Dr Ganymede]

Darkshot - this site might be useful:
http://nikon.bungie.org/misc/halostella ... raphy.html

Though it seems like many of the systems are fictional...

[Darkshot]

Excellent summary Dr Ganymede, I couldn't have said it better.

And actually, I've been using that exact site for some time now, and it's helped a lot. Except their prediction of the Unyeilding Heirophant (from the "First Strike" book) was WAY off. I checked it out in Celestia, and it is nowhere near where they said it is. As long as there are no more stars within 10ly of Earth that we havent discovered (doubtful, but theres probably still more) then the closest possible candidate for it is Alpha Centauri. I have a feeling he just made a fictional system to put it in, since it was never mentioned which system in the first place. Oh well.

Oh and if diabloblanco can get me the stuff previously mentioned, I will probably be set as far as anything actually existing on the net. (Anything else would have to be from scratch, and I dont really have the time, or skill, too do the things I need from scratch. Er, actually, I dont see how anyone can, considering most of the things were in the books, so we don't even know what they look like. I'll wait for Halo 2 for that info

[Matt McIrvin]

So if anyone knows where I could find meshs or textures of the Halo, Pillar of Autumn, etc, I'd be very grateful. :)

Also, I had the specific dimensions of Halo, but I lost them, so I'm guessing on the width and height of the ring. All I know is that its 10,000km diameter. EDIT: also, I'm using gmax, and need a way to convert into .3ds files. Google isn't helping very much.

The Halo is basically a Larry Niven-esque ringworld, right? ...Hmm, from those dimensions, it sounds more like one of Iain M. Banks' smaller rings.

There have been several attempts to do Niven's Ringworld already; you can probably find them at the various add-on sites...

[Darkshot]

Well if diablo can extract them from the PC version of Halo, then I'd have what I need exactly. But thanks for the suggestion.

[Darkshot]

Any word on the meshes? Since, I pretty much can't proceed until I have them... No hurry though, and if you can't or wont get them, I understand.