Hack 80. Customize the Halo 2 Splash Screen

Give your Xbox a personal look by changing the Halo 2 main splash screen.

Is the Halo 2 logo getting too boring for you? By editing mainmenu.map, you can create your own customized splash screen for Halo 2.

Open up a copy of mainmenu.map in Ch2r [Hack #51] and navigate to the [bmp] tags. Once you have found them, scroll through the lists until you find start_screen bitm (see Figure 10-9). Next, use Ch2r to extract this tag (see Figure 10-10). As with textures, the logo is a DDS file. After extracting the file, you can edit it using your favorite DDS graphics editor [Hack #72].

Figure 10-9. The start_screen.bitm tag

Figure 10-10. The original Halo 2 logo

Once edited, you need to inject the image back into the map (see Figure 10-11).

Figure 10-11. After injecting the altered .DDS file

Remember to sign the mainmenu.map file [Hack #53] before you FTP it to your Xbox [Hack #54]. Once you start Halo 2, you can enjoy your custom start screen (see Figure 10-12).

Figure 10-12. The tarsier is getting popular

You will need to maintain the transparency if you want your image to blend with the background.