I managed to start the UK client a few hours early..
1 vs 100 UK launch
Might try it an hour or so before the live show when they might be accepting connections 
1 vs 100 UK launch
Jul 10
Skyjacktastic!
Jun 23
Using the wonderful Render-to-Video feature at Bungie.net take a glimpse into my Halo life where I make a daring raid on an incoming banshee
I’ve noticed that some questions are reoccuring, spefically how people can view their search results. Results are not automatically loaded, searching and viewing and two entirely different actions and can be done at the same time.
To assist users old and new I’ve knocked up a quick Halo 3 Asset-O-Matic FAQ, this will be updated as and when information becomes pertinent. If you’re struggling to figure something out and it’s not on the FAQ feel free to leave a comment so I can answer your question and add it to the FAQ if appropriate
Halo 3 Asset-O-matic Beta 4
May 19
Download Halo 3 Asset-O-Matic Beta 4
What happened to Beta 3 you may ask. Well Bungie made a few changes in between me completing Beta 3 and actually finding time to upload it. By that time it no longer worked.
So, what you have in your metaphysical hands is Beta 4, it’s just like Beta 3 but it works!
The changes are:
*You can now search Matchmaking or Custom games
*You can now go directly to the files instead of the match details
*It is significantly faster (think 5 minutes to search over 2500+ matches..)
*Templates are working (sorta, no word wrapping enabled and no way to clear the output box). This allows you to enter some text in the top section, hit a button and have your text repeated with the following tokens replaced by data from the currently loaded database: %SCREENS%, %CLIPS%, %GAMEID% (used for linking directly to the game), %GAMETYPE%, %GAMEDATETIME% and %MAP%
Alas, Campaign searching did not make it in. I wrote half the code and then realised it needs a whole new DB format to support the relevent information found for a Campaign record. I will add support once my busy work life allows.
Databases from previous versions are not compatible with this new release. A fresh search is always preferred in this house 
Give it a try yourself, tell your friends! Download the Halo 3 Asset-O-Matic Beta 4 today!
(Feedback is always appreciated folks! )
Asset-O-Matic update details
Feb 16
I’ve tweaked a few things here and there, cleaned up some code and should have a release fairly soon. The current status is:
* It’s faster! I’ve updated the number of threads to match Bungie’s website listings and things are coming in faster. But, the speed is still limited by Bungie.net’s responce time and other factors such as your own network settings (during a search the program has 26 threads all pulling in data from Bungie.net)
* Either Matchmaking or Custom games can be searched and you can go directly to the files for any of these results (Thanks Bungie Web Guys!)
* Campaign searching will be enabled in the release, I just need to code the section dealing with the different layout of these pages.
* Campaign results will not have direct links to the related files (nothing I can do at this time, it’s down to the Bungie Web Guys)
* Templates are working (sorta, no word wrapping enabled and no way to clear the output box). This allows you to enter some text in the top section, hit a button and have your text repeated with the following tokens replaced by data from the currently loaded database: %SCREENS%, %CLIPS%, %GAMEID% (used for linking directly to the game), %GAMETYPE%, %GAMEDATETIME% and %MAP%
* Things are slightly more stable (basic error checking put in etc). Turns out I had already coded around network threads failing and give them 3 chances to recover. When one fails I lose resources, I’ve changed the code around this so it should be fixed but further testing is required…
* I know the interface is basic, I’ve seperated a lot of code from the GUI so I can work on something better at a later date. I need to refactor a bit more of the code to do this. If you want to get funky with your results you can always open them up in any SQLite viewer.
* I’m still not sure why sometimes you can start a new search and sometimes you can’t (app hangs after pressing the search button). All the relevent threads are dead and the app is in almost the same state as it started. I’ll keep watch on this (it may be related to the network code I’ve updated), easy fix if this happens to you is to restart the app..
* Databases from previous versions are not compatible with this new release. Here’s where I wish I’d added a version number to the DB itself. I might knock up a quick tool to update old DB’s to the new format but truth be told you’d be better off doing a fresh search anyway as this is when the direct linking to files data is populated.
Release will be shortly after I’ve coded the campaign section which I hope to have done in the next week or two.
The latest changes to Bungie.net broke Halo 3 Asset-O-Matic again. I’m working on a new build featuring:
- Search Matchmaking or Custom Games
- Direct linking to the files page
- Faster searching (5 times more grabbing threads)
A problem with increasing the amount of network activity is that the thread checking for the next page of results sometimes times out. It’s fine if a grabber thread times out because there’s 24 more left to continue to continue the work but there’s only one thread looking for the next page. I’ll have to see if I can add some fallback code to reinitilise the thread if it falls over.
Well almost..
Beta 3?
Feb 8
Halo 3 Asset-O-Matic Beta 3
Halo 3 Asset-O-Matic Beta 2
Oct 18
Halo 3 Asset-O-Matic Beta 2 is finished, tested and confirmed working with the redesign of Bungie.net
This is a hot fix build, all previously created databases are fully compatible with this version. I’m considering implementing support for Custom Games and Campaign game history but this will require the existing code being refactored, something I haven’t yet had time to do…
I’d been holding off on doing more work on the Halo 3 Asset-O-Matic due to Bungie’s announcement that the File Share system was going to get a major overhaul. Bunige have done a great job of improving the basic system they had in place before but it despite all the improvements they have made it’s still not possible to bring up a list of Assets taken from games you were in, making the Halo 3 Asset-O-Matic still the only way to achieve this.
However
During the refit of the website Bungie made some major changes to the way Assets are displayed which break Asset-O-Matic 
I’ll be making a quick fix version to replace the current beta ASAP, a new beta with more features and bug fixes will be available in a month or two…