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Master Chef Wiki

Master Chef (internal name Halo Vision) is an unofficial, native Apple Vision Pro port of Halo: Combat Evolved for PC 1.10. It does not emulate a PC. The original x86 executable is statically translated to C and compiled for ARM64. Windows, Direct3D 9, DirectSound and DirectInput are re-implemented natively on Metal, AudioToolbox and GameController. A visionOS immersive presenter wraps the game around you as a panorama, with a stereo forward view, a separate HUD layer, controller aiming and haptics.

This wiki documents how the project is structured and how every part of it works. It is written for contributors and for anyone curious about the internals. If you only want to play, start with the README and the setup guide.

The wiki describes commit 9f915af (version 1.0.3, app build 103). Source links are pinned to that commit so that line numbers stay correct. You must supply your own retail Halo PC copy, valid registration and Apple signing. No game files are distributed in the source tree.

Start here

If you want to...	Read
Understand the whole system in 10 minutes	Architecture Overview
Find where something lives	Repository Layout
Look up a term like bearing, epoch or magic proc	Glossary
Change a runtime behavior with a switch	Environment Variables, Runtime Settings
Set up, build and install	Setup Wizard, Build System, Device Preparation and Signing
Contribute a change	Contributing Guide, Testing and Source Checks

How it fits together

flowchart LR
    EXE["Your halo.exe (PC 1.10)"] --> T["Static translation (tools/, third_party/xwa)"]
    T --> C["Generated C (32 chunks)"]
    C --> R["EngineReuse (guest CPU model)"]
    C --> H["EngineHost (Win32, D3D9 to Metal, DirectSound, DirectInput)"]
    H --> P["Panorama: 10 layers per frame"]
    P --> V["EngineVision (visionOS immersive presenter)"]
    V -->|head pose, settings| H

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All pages

Overview

• Architecture Overview: the three layers, one frame end to end, threads, data
• Repository Layout: every directory and file
• Glossary
• Environment Variables: every HALO_* switch
• Contributing Guide
• Open Questions and Discrepancies: issues found while documenting

Translating the executable

• Static Translation Pipeline: from halo.exe to compiled ARM64
• XWA Decoder and Lifter: decoding, lifting, EFLAGS and x87 lowering
• Function Address Lists: decompilation/c9acf0c46954
• EngineReuse Runtime: EngineCPU, memory, dispatch, hooks
• x87 Floating Point: stack layouts, rounding, ARM64 FPCR

Host runtime (being Windows)

• EngineHost Overview: file map, startup, link targets
• Win32 Compatibility Layer: files, registry, time, messages
• Threading and Synchronization
• Guest Memory and Heap
• Engine Overrides and Hooks
• Runtime Settings

Graphics

• Direct3D9 Bridge: COM emulation, state, resources, draw path
• Metal Renderer: pipelines, caches, encoders, fast paths
• Shader Translation: D3D bytecode to MojoShader to MSL
• Textures and Texture Packs: decoding, mips, hashing, .hvt
• Geometry Fast Paths: native BSP gathers, skinning, residency
• Radial Fog

Panorama and presentation

• Panorama System: 10 layers from one simulation step
• Panorama Budget and LOD
• Frame Pacing
• visionOS App: SwiftUI app, bridge, assets, settings
• Immersive Presenter: CompositorServices rendering
• Layer Alignment

Audio and input

• Audio System: DirectSound, mixer, Vorbis, AudioQueue, recovery
• Input and Controllers: DirectInput, GameController, menus, gaze pointer
• Haptics: impacts synthesized from the audio mix

Tooling and process

• Setup Wizard: setup.sh stage by stage
• Build System: generation, XcodeGen, direct builds
• Device Preparation and Signing
• Visual Mods Pipeline: texture and shader packs
• Diagnostics and Telemetry
• Testing and Source Checks
• Release Process and Hygiene

Project status

Playable and experimental. Combat frame-rate drops, panorama seams, texture glitches and audio interruptions are still under investigation. Full campaign qualification has not been done. See Known Issues and Validation.

Halo and its assets belong to their respective owners. This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft, Bungie, Gearbox or Apple. The MIT license covers the original project code only.