Halo Combat Evolved and Anniversary Technical Help

[Twinreaper]

As with the Reach forum, this is the official Technical Help thread for all things regarding the CEA edition of Halo as well as the original Combat Evolved. Same rules apply as the Reach forum one. Ask your tech questions, and myself or others will do our best to answer them. Ready set go!!!!!

[Absolute Dog]

Why do you think that the Halo 3 engine was not used for the MM for HCEA? It seemed natural to me to have the Master Chief fight as a himself, not a Noble Team member.

[Twinreaper]

Seriously need to re-read what you post...I'm not following..jk jk. Anyway, the Halo 3 engine was a great piece of code. Not only is it the first completely scrapped, cut, regurgitated, and then re-written engine since H1...(yes H2 borrowed much of it's code from H1).

 

Now, besides the official statement about how 343i did not want to split the fan base by making the MM run on the CEA, and keep the game completely seperate from Reach, the engine compatibility was the big issue.

 

Halo 3 used a whole new netcode system, and it used a completely different different technique for shaders and bitmaps. In fact, Halo 3 is closer to Halo 1 in all engine and tag layout ways, including the use of the Chicago Scenario Shaders , and such.

 

In the end though, the side scripting engine used in in H3, or as we will call it MegoScript Sr, lacked the necessary tools to allow a classic game engine to run along side a newer one. I'm sure they could have rigged it somehow, but Live would have been the biggest issue. Halo 3 was the first title we had true "anywhere in the world" co-op. Halo 1 didn't even have anything besides LAN multiplayer. The only engine capable of pulling any of this off was the Reach version of Blam! And that is the more than likely the sole reason 343i chose to do what they did. Kinda makes you wonder what they are gonna do for H4?

[RAMBROWN13]

I don't know if this is the right forum to post in but what will come with the game? will there be MM map codes or another disc like in ODST?

[Twinreaper]

Well, as of now it looks like the new maps will be included with the CEA disc, and not a seperate disc. The package will include the CEa remastered game, and the new maps for Reach. Beyond that, any extras you get are specific to the store you pre-order from.

[iBotPeaches]

Will there be any advancements in the .map structure? Or regression?

[Twinreaper]

Good question Peachez. That one is probably better suited to Kornman over at Halomods though. From I can gather, the layout of the tag structure is going to be identical to Reach. But it does the raise the question as to how they are incorporating the original CE tag set into it. Scenario files in general don't like it when you have a bsp with predicted resources pointing to a scenario file, and another bsp pointing to a secondary scenario file. I wont be able to look into it any further until I get my hands on the game.

 

Just in the off chance you are reffering to titles coming after CE, it is still unknown. I still have not heard any word in regards to what the engines project name is, or what type of engine they plan on going with. All I do know is that is being loosley based off of blam!, but will be a completely seperate in-house made engine. Makes me wonder if they are still gonna use Havok for the physics?

[kpm5065]

Will there be bloom? Will the halo 1 pistol, AKA 3 shots to the head still kill someone...? Also you should add a specific playlist that has a rank 1-50 up and down, with no radar.

[Unease Peanut]

Will there be bloom? Will the halo 1 pistol, AKA 3 shots to the head still kill someone...? Also you should add a specific playlist that has a rank 1-50 up and down, with no radar.

 

there will be separeted playlists with no bloom and 3 headshots with a pistol will kill.

[Twinreaper]

Thanks for the quick reply to that Peanut. as he said, yes there will be certain TU playlists that give reach players a more old school feel in matchmaking to emulate the halo 1 experience. And yes bloom was and always will be in a Halo title...unless they decide to make a game appropriatly called "Call of Halo: UNSC Warfare 1 Billion." Bloom has it's place in halo and always will.

[GiB TasTiC]

Not sure if this is the right thread, only just joined,

bought the game, loved the original, love this one, only problem is i found a few bugs?!

when playing Co-op, top screen (me) was driving the warthog, and there was no sound at all, (driving sounds)

the sounds came back as i got closer to and or bottom screen (2nd player) was actually in the warthog,

it was like it was only playing what 2nd player was hearing?

 

Gibbo

[imakequilts]

Was playing online multiplayer on new maps today and I reached my Offline Credit limit. This did not make any sense to me? What are your thoughts? Is it just a glitch or something in the way they are doing the credits for CEA maps?

[ACast]

Recieved the game from Amazon and the games case had some physical damage but the disc looks perfectly fine. Not a scratch or anything. Tried to play the game in two different xboxes (the older white xbox) and neither will read the disc at all. Haven't found this happening to anyone else yet. Don't know if it's the disc itself or if my Xbox is just crapping out. Anyone else experience this?

[Absolute Dog]

Recieved the game from Amazon and the games case had some physical damage but the disc looks perfectly fine. Not a scratch or anything. Tried to play the game in two different xboxes (the older white xbox) and neither will read the disc at all. Haven't found this happening to anyone else yet. Don't know if it's the disc itself or if my Xbox is just crapping out. Anyone else experience this?

I have yet to read of that incident. Will you be able to return it to Amazon for a replacement of refund?

[ByteInThePort]

Recieved the game from Amazon and the games case had some physical damage but the disc looks perfectly fine. Not a scratch or anything. Tried to play the game in two different xboxes (the older white xbox) and neither will read the disc at all. Haven't found this happening to anyone else yet. Don't know if it's the disc itself or if my Xbox is just crapping out. Anyone else experience this?

 

 

I join this site to ask the same question... My xbox cant read the update data from the disc which is required before you can play, so i decided i`ll buy the game from Tescos and return Amazon their " Faulty disc".. turns out the game from Tescos is just same as Amazons.. so im left with 2 games neither of which works..... Does anyone have a clue as to why this game/update wont work???

 

All my other titles run/play fine.. im at a loss

[lukecool321]

i have the same problem. at first my xbox couldnt read it so i cleaned it and it worked. i played the beginning of the campaign until you meat captain keyes on the bridge for the first time on the first level and it froze when it said "checkpoint...done" at a white screen. so i turned on and off the xbox and now the game does not boot up at all and stays on a black screen. help please?

[Twinreaper]

Ok guys, before I can go about getting to the bottom of this, I need to know what models xbox you guys are running, and if possible, what version of the dashbaord. I knwo it seems like a strange question, but it is info I need to know before I can go about helping.

[lukecool321]

i figured out it is definitely a problem with the disc since every other disc works and i tried installing it onto my hard drive and it said it can't read it at about 50%. i have the 360S and the latest version of the dashboard. This is literally a brand new game, i do not understand how it could be faulty. is it possible to send it back to 343 or microsoft so it can be replaced?

[lukecool321]

the disc can now be read after cleaning. however, it freezes at checkpoints where it should transition into a cutscene, will this be fixed by a patch?

[lukecool321]

just kidding, it can't be read. my question about replacements still stands

[ByteInThePort]

Ok guys, before I can go about getting to the bottom of this, I need to know what models xbox you guys are running, and if possible, what version of the dashbaord. I knwo it seems like a strange question, but it is info I need to know before I can go about helping.

 

 

Mine is the Arcade Console (Never Been Chipped) Dashboard is 2.0.13146.0 6GB HD

 

I know it isnt the discs because i now have 2 brand new just out the box. Neither will load the update to run the game.

All other games still working. Hope this is what you need to try and help... TKS

[Tommy]

Do you think the co-op lag issue will be fixed soon? Or is it just me who receives it? And why is it happening?

[weaponsmaster50]

My game will not take the update. It freezes when it says update available. Any suggestions?

[Twinreaper]

Ok, from what I have read here and else where, it is most likely a dvd-drive issue. I have a newer kinect bundle 360, and recently I have had issus with brand new discs reading when I place them in the drive. It usually happens when the disc is scratched heavily though. This has happened twice with my CEA disc, and thus cannot be a disc issue since it is literally perfect in condition.

 

Now, I do know that there was some talk of format changes to the way the discs are compressed. Something sikilar to blue-ray but not blue-ray. It is possible we are seeing some kind of new compression with the discs, but we wouldn't notice, since the dashboard updates would take care of reading the new formats. But this is a likely thing.

 

Now I will put my eyes and ears out to the MGS scene and see if I can get an official response from some of my peeps, so we should know soon if at all....hopefully.

 

As for some of the other posted issues....

 

Updating not taking: SOmetimes the 360 loops with updating. try clearing your cache and deleting any dl's in que if you have any. Also try using a wired connection if you have a wireless one by default. Things like this happened a lot during the days of Halo 2PC. It would find updates and loop everytime you started Halo 2. Although that was a PC issue and quite different, the same emthods I have stated should resolve it.

 

Co-OP Lag Issues: Can't say I understand them completely. I only play Co-OP on local xbox so I have yet to see first hand for myself. From what I can gather, there has been a huge spike recently in "Upstream Bandwidth" not meeting Live's requirements. Check your overall connection in the networking section of the game when playing. I can almost guarantee that 100%, your upstream bandwidth is flagged red. Now from I know about Live, it has seen quite a significant update, and with servers changing hands to 343i, I have no doubt that there are still quite a few bugs being worked out. All I can recommend is to help this is to ensure port forwarding and using a manual defined IP address for the xbox. This will allow you to open NAT and a DMZ server field for a certain IP connected device...aka your Xbox. This will allow complete un-inhibited access to data in/out packets and reduce and latency experienced by having to work around built in firewalls and security.

 

Also, I don't want to come off as a **** or anything, but a lot of people simply don't understand basic networking issues. Having a good connection and playing multiplayer games is not as simple as just plugging in your xbox and connecting to Live. There is a myriad of things any serious gamer should do first and foremost to ensure he/she is having/getting the best connection possible. All too oftern people just power up a console, plug in an ethernet cable or connect to a wireless network....and have problems and don't understand why. Before doing any kind of serious gaming, please search google or whatever you like for these topics and how to do them...

 

1. Port Forwarding

2. Manual IP Defintions

3. DMZ server host

4. QOS settings

5. Difference between LAN and WLAN

[Chron0Knight]

Has anyone else had trouble in the co-op campaign with in middle of a game the host says restart mission and he restarts but the other player does not. It’s so far happened every time I have done this. I haven’t tried to see if it does it with local games though I doubt it would but it has done it on all my live co-op so far.

I also lately have had it even do it when both my co-op player and I die and Ill restart at last save but they will be left looking at the dead bodys and if I kill the one I see of them they just get a blank screen.