Hack 51. Use an Open Source Map Editor

Use the Ch2r open source application to hack your Halo 2 maps.

Ch2r (http://sourceforge.net/projects/ch2r/) is another popular Halo 2 map editor. C2morg and other modders use Ch2r as their primary tool. The interesting thing about Ch2r is that it is an entirely open source application. The project leader for the Ch2r app is a modder who calls himself XIU.

According to XIU, Chr2 was meant to be a tool for people who wanted to learn C# and Halo 2 Modding. Although the program has been successful, not many people have contributed to the code. Since the Ch2r team has always tried to help the community, most of the features were requests from users. Just like ADI [Hack #50], Ch2r supports plug-ins. XIU worked with Iron Forge to add a plug-in system that maps out every bit of information about the metadata of each tag.

The main Ch2r window (see Figure 6-6) offers an overall view of the maps that you are modding.

Figure 6-6. The main Ch2r window

The latest version of Ch2r offers a different layout than ADI. The tags are presented in a tree view (see Figure 6-7). Although this is an interesting way to view the data, a number of modders have opted to stick with the familiar ADI system. I suggest that you try all three of the main editors before you make a choice. Which editor (ADI, Ch2r, or DotHalo [Hack #52]) you decide to use is often a matter of choice you may decide to use a combination of all three.

To demonstrate how easy it is to use Ch2r, I will show how to alter the detonation delay for fragmentation grenades. First, you will need to open the tag for the Fragmentation Grenade in the Ch2r tree hierarchy. The path is objects\weapons\grenade\frag_grenade.

Figure 6-7. The Ch2r tree view

Once you have the frag_grenade tag open, double-click on frag_grenade.proj (see Figure 6-8). This tag stores the metadata for the frag grenade projectile. Next, locate the entry for Explode delay and double-click it to open the ValueEdit dialog box.

Figure 6-8. The values for the frag grenade projectile

When the window opens, change the value from 1.5 to 5 (see Figure 6-9).

Figure 6-9. Altering the delay for the frag grenade explosion

Once you have made this change, you will need to sign the map [Hack #53]. After you've signed the map, you'll need to FTP it over to your modded Xbox ([Hack #54] shows this being done with CuteFTP, but you should be able to use your favorite FTP client). After finishing the process, you will find that the frag grenades behave quite differently.