Adding scenery and vehicles without worrying about reflexive offsets.


Ok.  Adding more scenery and/or vehicles to a map is cool!  But until now, if
you wanted to do that without giving up anything else, you had to track down
and change a whole bunch of reflexive offsets.  At first it's just time
consuming, but after the first few times, it's a real pain in the ass!

Well, now we don't have to worry about that anymore.

Just take an unaltered copy of the map you want to edit, either sidewinder or
bloodgulch, and apply the appropriate patch.

What you will get is a map which will act exactly the same as the original, only
some of the data has been altered to give you space to add scenery or vehicles
without having to adjust the reflexive offsets.  You also won't have to worry
about deleting garbage data anymore, because you will no longer be changing the
file size when you add more objects to the map.

Now adding things in is very easy.  Here are the step-by-step instructions:

1. Just go to the offset for the item you want to duplicate (offsets provided
below), and copy the data.

Note: The data for scenery items is 72 bytes long (48 in hex), and the data for
vehicles is 120 bytes long (78 in hex).

2. Go to the offset where all the scenery data or vehicle data ends (provided
below), depending on what you're duplicating.

3. Paste in the data you copied.  If you want multiple copies, just go to the
end of the copied data and paste again.  Keep track of how many scenery objects
and how many vehicles you are adding.

Note: Only PASTE the copied data, so as to overwrite the blank data which is
there now.  There is no need to insert empty bytes of data first; the patch has
done this for you.

4. Once you have copied and pasted in as many objects as you like, go to the
offsets for the scenery counts or the vehicle counts, depending on what you are
duplicating (these are provided below).  There will be a number there in hex
format.  It indicates how many scenery or vehicle objects there are on the map.
Increase it to reflect how many you added (remember to convert to hex).

Note: If you should want to remove objects, simply decrease this number
appropriately.  Make sure when removing objects that you overwrite the object
data with zeros and don't just delete the data.  If you simply cut the data out,
you will change the size of the file, and it will not work.

5. Save the file and open it back up in SparkEdit.

6. Find the item you copied (I've provided some help below to make it easier to
select the right one).

7. Select it, and begin moving it to where ever you want your new object.

You'll see that the original just stays where it is, because all the copies you
made of any given object are stacked right on top of one another in the same
space as the original.

8. Once you have everything where you want it, save and enjoy your new map.


********************************************************************************

The section below, titled "How to find the object you duplicated," is also very
useful for finding out what an object you want to copy is called, so you can be
sure to copy the right one.

I have given you enough space to add up to 1000 pieces of scenery AND 1000
vehicles in each map.  Since you couldn't really add that much without severely
compromising the performance of the game anyway, this is more than you will ever
need.


*** Offsets ***

Scenery and Vehicle counts:

			Sidewinder	Bloodgulch
Scenery count #1	29c4cfc		2621b28
Scenery count #2	29c5173		2621f9f
Vehicle count #1	29c4d2c		2621b58
Vehicle count #2	29c513f		2621f6b


Scenery:

Sidewinder:

teleporter shield		29c5460
snow rock			29c5220
landing beacon			*
teleporter base			29c56a0
small snow pine tree		29c5730
snow pine tree			29c53d0
small snow rock			29c5a48
blue landing beacon		*
small red beacon		29c5580
small blue beacon		29c55c8
flag base			29c5b20
collision blast door		29c5bb0

* I've included "landing beacon" and "blue landing beacon" on the list, because
they have been listed elsewhere as scenery, including within the "Halo Map Tools"
program.  However, I'm not really sure what they are.  I couldn't find their
meta data with my hex editor, and they don't seem to be selectable in SparkEdit
anyway, so as far as I know, there's nothing we can really do with them.

Bloodgulch:

boulder				2622090
crouch boulder			2622288
double wide boulder		26221b0
large grey boulder		2622168
large shrub			26223a8
short broadleaf plant		2622360
fern plant			2622c60
fallen trunk leafy tree		*
crouch leafy tree stump		*
dead desert tree		2622708
whitebark desert tree		26226c0
large rock			2622dc8
teleporter			*
teleporter base			2622828
small red beacon		2622900
small blue beacon		2622990
doorblinker			*
floor arrow			2622a20
flag base			2622e10

* These are more objects I could not find, and I don't know if they're usable.


Vehicles:
		Sidewinder	Bloodgulch
warthog		29d77a8		2634ba0
scorpion	29d7a78		2634c90
ghost		29d7988		2634e70


Where to paste your copied data:

			Sidewinder	Bloodgulch
End of scenery data:	29c5bf8		2622ea0
End of vehicle data:	29d7b68		2634f60



*** How to find the object you duplicated ***

This section indicates which object on the map is the one that was used for
any copies.  Any copies you made will be in the same place, so you won't be
able to see them in SparkEdit until you select them and begin to move them.


Sidewinder:

Vehicles:

warthog 	the one at the blue base
scorpion 	the one at the red base
ghost 		the one at the red base, farthest from the blue base

scenery:

teleporter shield	the one in the blue base
snow rock		the one on the plateau near the center of the map, on
			the blue base side
teleporter base		the one on the red base side
small snow pine tree	the one on the plateau near the center of the map, on
			the red base side
snow pine tree		the one on the blue base side, farthest from the base
small snow rock		the one nearest the tree described above
small red beacon	the lower one at the red base
small blue beacon	on top of the blue base, the one nearest the red base
flag base		the one at the red base
collision blast door	This is something in the tunnels, in the very center,
			where the active camoflauge and the overshield are.
			It doesn't really seem to BE anything, and although you
			can select it in SparkEdit, I don't think you can really
			do anything with it.


Bloodgulch:

Vehicles:

warthog		the one at the blue base
scorpion	the one at the red base
ghost		the one at the blue base, closest to the copied warthog

Scenery:

boulder				the rock right in front of the blue base
crouch boulder			the smaller rock by the red base, near the left
				ghost, as you face the blue base
double wide boulder		the larger rock by the red base, near the left
				ghost as you face the blue base
large grey boulder		the large rock along the canyon wall,
				approximately in the center of the map, near
				the entrance to a tunnel
large shrub			the smaller plant at the center, near the rocket
				launcher
short broadleaf plant		the larger plant at the center, near the rocket
				launcher
fern plant			the only small plant in front of the blue base
dead desert tree		the tree at the red base
whitebark desert tree		the tree at the blue base
large rock			the pointy rock near the center of the map
teleporter base			the one near the pointy rock in the middle
small red beacon		in the front entrance of the red base
small blue beacon		in the front entrance of the blue base
floor arrow			going in the front of the blue base, to the left
flag base			in the red base

Note: There is some hidden scenery already in the game, underneath the ground
in bloodgulch.  It consists of some rocks and teleporter bases.

********************************************************************************

To the best of my knowledge, all of the information in this readme file is
correct.  However, if you find something that is not correct, you may contact me
at xbox-saves.  My user name is John117.  Other comments are also welcome, of
course.

I spent a lot of time puting these patches together, making sure they worked, and
trying to put together a simple, yet comprehensive set of instructions in the
readme.  I hope it makes everyone's life a lot easier from now on.

Have fun.