Editing Halo 2 E3 demo
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The [[Digsite]] modding group has, in conjunction with [[343 Industries]], done a restoration of the E3 2003 demo level for play in ''[[Halo: The Master Chief Collection]]'', utilising the original scripts and assets found in the 343 internal archives. Speaking at the Halo World Championships 2024, Senior Franchise Writer [[Kenneth Peters]] noted that the level has been built and rebuilt several times throughout the restoration process, owing the original demo's incompatibility with the final release of ''Halo 2'' - with the assets and scripts having changed or lost functionality between the early development and final release (such as the [[pstencil]] lighting engine).{{Ref/Reuse|HWC}} The demo was also noted to be much harder to remaster than [[alphamoon]] - the other ''Halo 2'' [[Cut Halo 2 levels|cut campaign level]] restored by Digsite - due to the poor state of the source code (over 3,400 lines of [[HaloScript]]) owing to it having been written in a period of crunch twenty years prior, with almost no documentation. In many cases, the haloscript is no longer accepted by the compiler, meaning much of it had to be reinterpreted and updated to suit the modern era.{{Ref/Reuse|CRF}} | The [[Digsite]] modding group has, in conjunction with [[343 Industries]], done a restoration of the E3 2003 demo level for play in ''[[Halo: The Master Chief Collection]]'', utilising the original scripts and assets found in the 343 internal archives. Speaking at the Halo World Championships 2024, Senior Franchise Writer [[Kenneth Peters]] noted that the level has been built and rebuilt several times throughout the restoration process, owing the original demo's incompatibility with the final release of ''Halo 2'' - with the assets and scripts having changed or lost functionality between the early development and final release (such as the [[pstencil]] lighting engine).{{Ref/Reuse|HWC}} The demo was also noted to be much harder to remaster than [[alphamoon]] - the other ''Halo 2'' [[Cut Halo 2 levels|cut campaign level]] restored by Digsite - due to the poor state of the source code (over 3,400 lines of [[HaloScript]]) owing to it having been written in a period of crunch twenty years prior, with almost no documentation. In many cases, the haloscript is no longer accepted by the compiler, meaning much of it had to be reinterpreted and updated to suit the modern era.{{Ref/Reuse|CRF}} | ||
The work on actually restoring the demo level was overseen by General_101, with Ken Peters and [[Sean Cooper]] providing assistance from 343's end by looking into the internal archives and source depots for assets and files. At the outset, the team only had a few source BSPs and scenery objects to work with, but eventually were able to reverse-engineer the actual compiled builds to examine the original assets in conjunction with the new finds from internal archives. This included finding original animation source files, though many weren't compatible with the modern engine.{{Ref/Reuse|CRF}} In addition, due to the Digsite modding team not having a license to use Impersonator, a software used for generating lip-sync animations for dialogue, they had to recreate all of the lip sync animations by hand. Overall, the remastered demo has used as many of the original [[tag]]s, audio, and assets as were possible - with assets continuously updated throughout the production process as even better iterations of the original dev files were uncovered.{{Ref/Reuse|HWC}} However, some of these were modernised. For example, in the original demo, every single NPC had their own tag - these were updated to use the setup found in modern ''Halo 2''.{{Ref/Reuse|CRF}} | The work on actually restoring the demo level was overseen by General_101, with Ken Peters and [[Sean Cooper]] providing assistance from 343's end by looking into the internal archives and source depots for assets and files. At the outset, the team only had a few source BSPs and scenery objects to work with, but eventually were able to reverse-engineer the actual compiled builds to examine the original assets in conjunction with the new finds from internal archives. This included finding original animation source files, though many weren't compatible with the modern engine.{{Ref/Reuse|CRF}} In addition, due to the Digsite modding team not having a license to use Impersonator, a software used for generating lip-sync animations for dialogue, they had to recreate all of the lip sync animations by hand. Overall, the remastered demo has used as many of the original [[tag]]s, audio, and assets as were possible - with assets continuously updated throughout the production process as even better iterations of the original dev files were uncovered.{{Ref/Reuse|HWC}} However, some of these were modernised. For example, in the original demo, every single NPC had their own tag - these were updated to use the setup found in modern ''Halo 2''.{{Ref/Reuse|CRF}} | ||
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In addition to the E3 demo level itself, several maps made using the same assets at around the same time of ''Halo 2''{{'}}s development have been made available for download in MCC as a level scenario for ''Halo 2'' and as raw geometry to use in the ''[[Halo 2 Editing Kit]]''. | In addition to the E3 demo level itself, several maps made using the same assets at around the same time of ''Halo 2''{{'}}s development have been made available for download in MCC as a level scenario for ''Halo 2'' and as raw geometry to use in the ''[[Halo 2 Editing Kit]]''. | ||
<gallery> | <gallery> | ||
File: | File:H2 Digsite Arcology.jpg|[[Arcology]]. | ||
</gallery> | </gallery> | ||
