Halo 3 MCC Albatross

The albatross is a flying mobile base vehicle, and this project is intended to make it easily accessible to modders so it may be treated as another tool in Halo 3's sandbox

Table of contents

• Features
• Implementation instructions
  • Adding to a scenario
  • Optional: Adding to forge palette
• Build Instructions
• Compiling the sample maps
• Contribution guidelines

Features

Fully localized physics (localized physics, "mega physics", early mover):

• Players and vehicles can move inside the cargo area using the albatross as a frame of reference
• Goal markers such as flag and assault goal/spawns and king of the hill markers can be placed within the cargo area in forge
• Turrets can be mounted to the cargo area in forge
• Objects such as crates and fusion coils can be placed in forge and set to respawn within the cargo area
• Doors collide with players, vehicles, etc, but not with the environment, allowing for smooth vehicle entry

Multiple variants

• Default: Static physics for multiplayer. Doors open and close with landing and takeoff respectively
• Commando: No doors
• Scripted: Works best for singleplayer but can be done with two players. Doors close and open when a player enters or exits the vehicle. A script uses this same trigger to toggle the albatross's physics model between an open and closed permutation. This update will only take effect for the host, so if playing with another player, the host must be the passenger.

Graphical tweaks

• Doors restored from Halo 2
• Cut decal restoration
• Custom engine and door animations
• Model tweaks to maximize animation support
• Engine thrust and hover fx

Sample Maps

• Sandtrap: All variants pre-placed, and attacker team goal markers default position moved into cargo area of doorless albatross
• Sandbox: All variants pre-placed
• Rat's Nest: Scripted variant pre-placed where scenery pelican ordinarily would be. All variants in forge palette

Implementation instructions

Adding to a scenario

Start by installing the tags folder from this mod to your H3EK directory

Open your scenario in Sapien, and navigate the hierarchy view to scenario → objects → units → vehicles

Click edit types → add, then navigate to tags\objects\vehicles\albatross

Double click on the variant(s) you want included, then click done

Right click anywhere to create a new vehicle, then adjust the properties palette to match your desired variant config:

Default

Simply set the type to albatross

Doorless

Set the type to albatross_commando

Scripted

For this to function as intended, a modification to the scenario script is required

Start by copying the original script info for the map you intend to replace from data/data/levels/<map_type>/<map_name> to data/levels/<map_type>/<map_name>

Note: <map_name> refers to the original map name (e.g. shrine)

Now within that directory, open the ./scripts/<map_name>_main.hsc file in the editor of your choice

Note: If the base map does not have scripts, create the scripts directory, and populate it with files <map_name>_main.hsc and <map_name>_fragments.hsc

Now follow this format, and save

(script startup <map_name>_main
	; no need to change anything here
)

(script continuous update_albatross_physics
	(if (player_in_vehicle albatross)
		(object_set_permutation albatross doorway_rear blocked)
		(object_set_permutation albatross doorway_rear clear)
	)
	(if (player_in_vehicle albatross)
		(object_set_permutation albatross doorway_left blocked)
		(object_set_permutation albatross doorway_left clear)
	)
	(if (player_in_vehicle albatross)
		(object_set_permutation albatross doorway_right blocked)
		(object_set_permutation albatross doorway_right clear)
	)
)

Back in sapien, set your vehicle type to albatross_scripted and the name to albatross

Press Ctrl+Shift+C to compile scripts

Optional: Press Alt+G to enable/disable scripts in Sapien

Save your scenario and give it a name

If you would like to add more than one scripted albatross to a scenario, give it a new name such as albatross_001, then add a new set of if statements to the function with all references to albatross replaced with the new unit name

Optional: Adding to forge palette

In Guerilla, open tags/levels/<map_type>/<map_name>/<your_scenario_name>.scenario

Navigate down to MV VEHICLE palette and click add

Click the ... for name and navigate to tags/objects/vehicles/albatross and select the vehicle tag for the variant you want to add. Leave the display name blank, and fill in the price and limit info for forge. Repeat this process for any other variants you want to be usable in forge

Note: It is useful to add the scripted variant here just to be able to move it around in forge, but note that deleting and and respawning it in forge will cause it to lose the name we gave it in Sapien, and thus will no longer be able to update its physics state in response to the script

Save.

Your scenario can now be compiled into a map using Tool:

tool build-cache-file "levels\<map_type>\<map_name>\<scenario_name>"

Build Instructions

Start by installing both the data and tags folders from this mod to your H3EK directory

The render_model, collision_model, and physics_model can each be opened either through the included blender project file, or by importing them one at a time as JMS from the data folder in a new blender instance

To export modified versions of each from blender, use the Halo Asset Blender Development Toolset. Export as a JMS, select Halo 3, select uncheck the model types that aren't currently being modified, set the name to albatross and save in the correct folder within the data/objects/vehicles/albatross directory to match the model type

Animations

Start with the render model open in blender

Animations can be imported as JMA from the data/objects/vehicle/albatross/animations directory

Modifications can then be exported as JMA, but be sure to configure the exporter to have the actual extension match (JMA or JMO)

Run tool model-animations "objects\vehicles\albatross"

Navigate to tags\objects\vehicles\albatross make two copies of albatross.model_animation_graph:

1. albatross_scripted.model_animation_graph
2. albatross_commando.model_animation_graph

In Guerilla, open albatross.model_animation_graph, albatross_scripted.model_animation_graph, and albatross_commando.model_animation_graph

Enable expert mode in the edit menu

albatross.model_animation_graph

Navigate to the MODE-n_STATE GRAPH section

Under MODES any, open the dropdown for OVERLAYS and select throttle. Click the Delete button

Open the MODES dropdown and select combat. Delete all the OVERLAYS

Save now.

Scroll down to SPECIAL CASE ANIMS and click the add button for VEHICLE SUSPENSION. Configure like so:

label	combat:fully_opened
graph index	-1
animation	combat:fully_opened
marker name	landing_tires
mass point offset	0
full extension ground_depth	2
full compression ground_depth	0

Click the add button for OBJECT OVERLAYS. Configure like so:

label	vehicle:throttle
graph index	-1
animation	vehicle:throttle
function controls	frame
function	thrust

Save.

albatross_scripted.model_animation_graph

Navigate to the MODE-n_STATE GRAPH section

Under MODES any, open the dropdown for OVERLAYS and select throttle. Click the Delete button

Save now.

Scroll down to SPECIAL CASE ANIMS and click the add button for OBJECT OVERLAYS. Configure like so:

label	vehicle:throttle
graph index	-1
animation	vehicle:throttle
function controls	frame
function	thrust

Save.

albatross_commando.model_animation_graph

Navigate to the MODE-n_STATE GRAPH section

Under MODES any, open the dropdown for OVERLAYS and select throttle. Click the Delete button

Open the MODES dropdown and select combat. Delete all the OVERLAYS

Save now.

Scroll down to SPECIAL CASE ANIMS and click the add button for OBJECT OVERLAYS. Configure like so:

label	vehicle:throttle
graph index	-1
animation	vehicle:throttle
function controls	frame
function	thrust

Save.

Render Model

Run tool render "objects\vehicles\albatross" draft

Collision Model

Run tool collision "objects\vehicles\albatross"

Physics Model

Run tool physics "objects\vehicles\albatross"

Bulk

To update the render, collision, and physics models all at once, run

tool bulk-import-model-folder "objects\vehicles\albatross"

And then run tool render "objects\vehicles\albatross" draft because "final" mode currently breaks the render model

Compiling the sample maps

Copy the contents of the sample folder from this repo into your H3EK directory

Make any desired edits to the scripts for the sample scenarios in data/levels/<map_type>/<map_name>/scripts/<map_name>_main.hsc. If you choose to do so, remember to open the scenario in Sapien and compile the scripts with Ctrl+Shift+C

Now to compile each of the maps, run the following Tool commands for each respective map:

• Sandtrap: tool build-cache-file "levels\multi\shrine\shrine"
• Sandbox: tool build-cache-file "levels\dlc\sandbox\sandbox"
• Rat's Nest: tool build-cache-file "levels\dlc\armory\armory"
• The Storm: tool build-cache-file "levels\solo\040_voi"

Now just move the maps from your H3EK/maps directory into your <mcc_path>/halo3/maps directory

Contribution guidelines

1. Fork this repo
2. Follow the steps in Build Instructions to make changes
3. Make sure they worked
4. Make a pull request back to this repo with a description of what your change does

thats it, nothing special ¯\(ツ)/¯