Hacks 40-49: Introduction


Hacks 40 49: Introduction

The Halo 2 engine is a remarkably complex system. The physics engine is intricate, the environments are enormous, and the artificial intelligence (AI) is advanced. A system such as this is bound to run into problems; it's simply not possible to test every scenario before releasing the game.

There is an excellent online article about the scale of the Halo 1 level The Pillar of Autumn (http://nikon.bungie.org/misc/sloftus_poaconundrum/). A Halo fan painstakingly explores whether the level actually fits into the physical confines of the fictional vessel (his conclusion is that it doesn't). This sort of thing makes it obvious that Bungie is under considerable pressure to produce games that can withstand the investigation of the community microscope. This, it seems, is part of the price of the success of Halo.

I think it's great that the community is expecting quality work from game developers. Halo clearly set a new bar when it comes to the quality of the engine. Speaking as a fan, I am not offended by the fact that the level designers deviated from the technical specs of the Pillar of Autumn; just like fiction writers, I believe that they should have the artistic liberty to mold their virtual world to suit their needs. I certainly didn't know that anything was awry when I played Halo, so I'm fine with the developers' choices. After all, they are the experts.

Having said that, it's also an awful lot of fun to mess around with glitches in the game. This chapter is all about finding and experimenting with problems that the Halo community has discovered.



Halo2 Hacks
Halo 2 Hacks: Tips & Tools for Finishing the Fight
ISBN: 0596100590
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 166

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