Halo Sound Tools

by MonoxideC

v0.1b - Original Release

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UPDATE: Due to a recent comment by an important Bungie employee concerning sound

extraction, I have decided to leave that part out of this release until

I can make a final decision. True, extraction is already publicly available

in KornKobs app, but with Halo Sound Tools it would be super easy to

extract every single sound in the entire game and post it on the net - which

neither I nor anyone else involved with these hacking projects wants to see

happen. So out of respect for Bungie, everything related to extraction has

been disabled in this release. I dunno about future releases - we'll see

how it turns out.



Q: What is it?

A: A tool that allow you to extract as well as inject over any existing sound data

in a Halo Xbox map file.



Q: Cool! I can extract all the sounds out of the game and-

A: STOP FUCKER! The whole point of this app is to INJECT sounds - extracting sounds

only exists in this app because it can be helpful when creating new sounds to

inject. All of the sounds in Halo are BUNGIE'S property - NOT yours. You are

strictly forbidden from posting or sharing them PERIOD! If you do, then you do

so against Bungie and Microsoft's approval and are leaving yourself wide open

for legal action, aside from the fact that you'll be acting like an inconsiderate

asshole. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!



Q: I get an error when I launch the program! WHY?

A: You probably don't have the .NET framework installed. Yes it's required.



Q: When I try to play an extracted sound it gives me an error!

A: You need the Xbox ADPCM Codec to play extracted sounds, and you'll have to find

it yourself. Try one of "the usual places"



Q: When I goto the XBADPCM Encode GUI, it says that the encoder was not found.

A: xbadpcmencode.exe is an app thats compiled from code that's included with the XDK,

thus it can't be legally distributed. This means that if you want to encode your

own sounds and you don't have the XDK, then you're out of luck unless

xpadpcmencode.exe happens to show up on your PC for some reason. If it does though,

be sure to put it in the 'encoder' folder in the directory that HaloSoundTools

resides in.

* Note to other developers: If anyone has experience with adpcm and could write

an encoder that produces files that conform to the xbadpcm specifications,

that would be awesome! Or if anyone knows of an alternative legal method of

encoding, please let me know.



Q: I don't understand how to use this shit!

A: Figure it out, dumbass :P



Q: What's all this track and chunk bullshit?

A: A given sound structure in a map is split into tracks, and each track is

composed of one or more chunks.



Q: Why?

A: Because.



Q: Are there any Easter Eggs in this app?

A: Yeah there's one and it's pretty easy to find.



Q: What do I get if I find the Easter Egg??!

Q: A laugh (maybe).



Q: Where can I report bugs?

A: Find me in #halohacker on freenode - bug reports will be appreciated!



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Credit goes out to everyone involved in the Halo hacking scene!

Especially Slayer for giving everyone something to work off of.



Special thanks to Boll for some extremely fine Beta testing.

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:: 09-06-2003 ::