Introduction

We will start by going over how Halo requires your folders to be structured for import.

Creation of an object directory

For the sake of organizing your asset files you should consider keeping all your source files in similar paths used to create the level (.blend, .tif, .psd, .jms, etc..).

Tool will search for subdirectories in the objects directory that contain the raw asset data for compilation and eventually package the resulting assets from the raw data into a map cache file that can run in Halo 3. Any assets that you compile will end up in the tags directory plus the local path to the raw assets in the data folder. For example the file below:

(H3EK Install Path)\data\objects\vehicle\example_vehi\render\example_vehi.JMS

has the compiled assets outputted to:

(H3EK Install Path)\tags\objects\vehicle\example_vehi

Let's first start by creating our very own custom object directory in the data folder. We'll call this object "new_scenery_piece" for simplicities sake but you can call it whatever you would like:

1. In the root of your H3EK install find a folder named data. If it does not exist then, you likely haven't extracted the zip file properly.
2. In the data directory find a folder named objects. If it does not exist then create it.
3. In the objects directory find a folder named scenery. If it does not exist then create it.
4. For our last step we will now create our first custom object in the scenery directory.

Your final path in Windows explorer should be something like this:

(H3EK Install Path)\data\objects\scenery\(Your Object Name Here)

Once this is done you may want to create new folders for any custom assets that are specifically for your object. An object will typically at least require a "render" folder for the render model, but they may also need:

1. bitmaps * (H3EK Install Path)\data\objects\scenery\(Your Object Name Here)\bitmaps

   • Like you probably already guessed this is where you will place your texture .tif/.tiff files to compile bitmaps tags from. Keep in mind that when we talk about bitmaps in Halo we are not talking about images with a .BMP extension. We are talking about a tag type called bitmaps that stores image data for use in Halo specifically.

2. render * (H3EK Install Path)\data\objects\scenery\(Your Object Name Here)\render

   • This render folder name is something Tool.exe specifically looks for when compiling object render meshes. Be sure that the folder is named exactly this. As you have probably already guessed this is where you will compile your object's render mesh from, into a .render_model tag.

3. collision * (H3EK Install Path)\data\objects\scenery\(Your Object Name Here)\collision

   • This collision folder name is something Tool.exe specifically looks for when compiling object collison meshes. Be sure that the folder is named exactly this. As you have probably already guessed this is where you will compile your object's collision mesh from, into a .collision_model tag.

4. physics * (H3EK Install Path)\data\objects\scenery\(Your Object Name Here)\physics

   • This physics folder name is something Tool.exe specifically looks for when compiling object physics meshes. Be sure that the folder is named exactly this. As you have probably already guessed this is where you will compile your object's physics mesh from, into a .physics_model tag.

5. animations * (H3EK Install Path)\data\objects\scenery\(Your Object Name Here)\animations

   • This animations folder name is something Tool.exe specifically looks for when compiling object animations. Be sure that the folder is named exactly this. As you have probably already guessed this is where you will compile your object's animations from, into a .model_animation_graph tag.

End of file directory info

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the following individuals for their research or contributions to this topic:

• General_101 (Writing the level file directories guide)
• PepperMan (Writing this guide by converting General_101's level file directories guide)