gothi

A badly chosen byte

Posts Tagged Halo 3

Halo 3 Asset-O-Matic Beta – Soon

Apr 19

Posted by gothi in Programming | No Comments

Halo 3 logoThe Asset-O-Matic is coming along nicely now. The database code has been completed and I’m now planning the best way to display the stored information, this is where a public beta will help no end with people feeding back as to what they want to see and how. Speed wise things are looking a lot better, I have just scanned my current game history (1150 games) and it took 19 minutes 50 seconds. A vast improvement from the original 50 minutes for 1000(ish) games.
I’ve got an occasional memory leak to track down, it’s currently escaping me as everything I create is destroyed correctly and the leak can occur on searches that previously had no problems. It’s a little random and hard to repeat on a regular basis so the first beta might come with a warning to restart the application for every new game history you scan as it’d be a shame to hold off on release for such a minor and occasional problem.

Update
I’ve fixed the memory leak, when scanning a gamertag with only a couple of games played the downloader threads would occasionally finish before the scanning thread had processed the games. Another bug left over from when I upped the amount of downloader threads from 1 to 5.

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Halo 3 Asset-O-Matic now 50% faster

Apr 13

Posted by gothi in Programming | No Comments

Halo 3 logoWorking down in Worcester last weekend left me little time to work on the Halo 3 Asset-O-Matic but I was able to steal an hour or so away from the current Double XP weekend playlist to do some further work. I’ve beefed up the amount of downloader threads from 1 to 5 which has halved the time needed to analyse my game history, 1167 games at the time of writing, down to 23 minutes from 50. It’s still more than I had hoped but the bottleneck is the speed at which Bungie.net is responding. The thread that strips the information from the pages never falls behind and is working on each page as it arrives. I could throw more downloader threads in there but I’m not sure what affect this will have on Bungie.net I guess the first release will have to be a slow but sure affair.

The database code hasn’t been started yet, the program is currently erroring on completion. Nothing show stopping but something that needs addressing before I move onto the DB code. With the recent announcement that Bungie are going to give the helm of Bungie Favourites to the community I can see an increased need to locate which games have assets in your history.
I’ll be working on stopping the completion error today, I’m not sure why it’s only just started happening so that’s an interesting challenge. I’ll also need to find a profile that hasn’t played many Halo 3 matches for testing, another challenge in itself :D

Update
I’ve fixed the error, I hadn’t accounted for going from 1 thread downloading to 5 which meant another thread was exiting early. I also picked up on a subtle bug where 1 of your games was never processed. Hardly a killer bug but I’m glad I spotted it before the public beta (as soon as the DB code is written) :)

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Two Xbox 360′s, one router

Mar 30

Posted by gothi in Uncategorized | No Comments

Picture of Xboxc 360 ElitePiggle loves playing Halo 3 and I do to, you’d think this was a marriage made in heaven yes? Actually, as great as always having partner for team games is, sharing a screen on Halo 3 is very frustrating, especially on Team Swat. Halo not only halves the screen horizontally but also crops the left and right sides of the screen to keep the aspect ratio. Think of it as playing from the house across the road, peering at your TV through the window. So yesterday I surprised Piggle with her very own Xbox 360 Pro, welcoming the world of Strict NAT Hell into my home at the same time.

I have a 20mb connection, connected to a Linksys WRT54GL (V1.1) router. 1 Xbox, set with a static IP and placed into the DMZ gave a perfect Open NAT, adding the second 360 caused us both to have Strict NAT’s. Looking around no-one seemed to have any answers to this issue so I decided it must be possible, I just wasn’t trying hard enough. The first step was to play with Port Forwarding, don’t waste your time here, it doesn’t work. Next I changed the routers firmware to DD-WRT, after several issues (always read the instructions for installing on your router folks) I had it running but the best I could do was get us both to Moderate NAT status. Doing some more research I read a comment on someones blog suggesting that both 360′s be put into the DMZ of the Tomato Firmware. I’ve never seen a router firmware that allows two devices to be in the DMZ so I immediately installed it. Disaster! One 360 could get an Open NAT but the other couldn’t connect at all :(

After hours of router upgrades and configuration I was in a worse situation than before. I resigned myself to going back to the stock firmware. Checking out the US side of the Linksys website I noticed that they had a more recent firmware available than the UK side so decided to risk an install on my router. Everything installed fine but the NAT status for both 360s was Moderate/Moderate at best and Strict/Moderate at worst. I wasn’t happy with this and the fact that nothing was showing up in the UPnP log for either Xbox was bugging me. Not only that but I began to wonder what affect putting the 2nd 360 in a different VLAN would have. I immediately reinstalled the DD-WRT firmware and set to work.

The first option I changed was to put the 2nd 360 into a different VLAN to the other.

DD-WRT VLAN Settings

The final steps were to disable the DMZ option, enable the UPnP option and to set each 360 to DHCP. This allowed each 360 to use UPnP to configure it’s own ports. Tentatively I did a connection test on my own 360, the result came in, an Open NAT! Taking Piggle’s controller out of her sleeping hands I started the connection test on her 360, again, an Open NAT! Fearing it was too good to be true I started the sign in process on both consoles. Both 360s started displaying messages about signing out of Messenger and showed as being logged out. After a moment of worry my fears dissipated as both machines logged into Xbox Live and even better, both had Messenger running. I can only assume that the initial messages were due to the port forarding being set up for each machine. A quick look on the router confirmed, both had used UPnP to set a different port. Now for some tests.

I started Halo 3 on both machines and hosted a custom game, inviting Piggle in. No messages appeared about being unable to host due to my NAT, a great start. I started the game and watched both screens as I ran around and destroyed things, it was identical in every way. Next I fired up messenger from my chatpad and had a small conversation with myself from Piggle’s account, everything was working fine. Dropping back into lobby I changed the room to the Theater to see if that would complain or flake out. Well it certainly complained, apparently Piggle’s connection was better than mine and she would have to be party leader to start the film clip! We’re on the same connection and same router! Giving Piggle Party Leader status allowed me to start the video, it worked like a charm. The final test was to play a game, I kicked Piggle from the party and headed into DLC Objective. Everything worked exactly as it should, I could hear everyone I was supposed to and finding a game didn’t take too long. The game was over so quickly, we won of course, that I started another, just to test of course… We lost and I decided that 4:30am really was a good time to go to bed after a long struggle with the 360′s NAT settings.

If you’re struggling to get two 360′s on the same network with Open NAT’s, it can be done so don’t give up, I hope that my experience with it can be of some help to you.

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Halo 3 Asset-O-Matic AKA the Halo 3 Assets Finder

Mar 24

Posted by gothi in games, Programming | No Comments

Halo 3 logoI’m a big fan of the film clip/screenshot feature of Halo 3 and check the Bungie Favourites every time I load up Halo 3. Recently they haven’t been updating this as much and this left me wandering the Halo 3 Files Forum in search of some decent clips to watch. Then it hit me, what if someone had made a video from a game I was in, how would I find it? Well Bungie’s site makes a lot of stats available but finding all the games with assets, even for just yourself, is a tiresome and manual process. I didn’t fancy looking back over the 1000 or so games I had played, checking each one for assets (screenshots and film clips created by players) so I created the Halo 3 Asset-O-Matic.

The Asset-O-Matic (development name: Halo 3 Assets Finder) actually stemmed from an earlier idea, I was going to log every game recorded by Bungie and make a database of all the games with assets, build a website around it and let people search on almost anything; date, player name, game type, map, length of match, number of clips/screenshots, well you get the idea. I did some quick maths, and it wasn’t good. I could do it slowly and not cause a Denial Of Service on Bungies site or I could do it faster and risk taking Bungies website offline. Doing it slow meant it would take days, even months to log every game and then the data would be immediately out of date. The faster option wasn’t much faster and risked getting me banned from Bungie.net and even Halo 3. Then I realised, most people will only be interested in clips/screenshots from games they were in. I spent the better half of a day re-coding my application and threading it so I could keep tabs on the results in real time. The results are what you see below, the Halo 3 Asset-O-Matic

The Halo 3 Asset-O-Matic

As you can see, I record a lot of information, all of this will be stored in a local database in the final version so you can update overnight and browse the results at your leisure. The current layout is for testing purposes, the final version will allow you to search the database, rate the results, look better with organised information and be easier to use.

A brief overview:

What does it do?
The Halo 3 Asset-O-Matic scans the game history of any Gamertag you specify looking for matches with Assets (screenshots/film clips).
How fast is it?
The development build took just over 50 minutes to scan my entire game history, that’s 1052 games at the time of writing.
50 minutes!? Can’t we speed that bad boy up a bit?
The program is currently single threaded, adding extra threads to prefetch the game data will speed things up a lot. My concern with this method is that if the program becomes popular it could cause a DDOS (Distributed Denial Of Service) on Bungie’s site. I will look at adding an extra thread or two to the program to check the speed difference. Ideally I will be able to discuss with Bungie how the program affects their website and adjust it accordingly before public release.
When will you release this?
There is no current release date but I’m expecting it to be soon. The database code needs adding and then some tests on adding a few extra worker threads to speed things up. Keep checking back for a release date.

Over the course of testing this I found a horde of film clips that I enjoyed watching, knowing I was in there somewhere. You never know, you might find that you’re the unwitting star of someones video, just like I did….

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Tactics117, stupidest Halo 3 player ever?

Feb 8

Posted by gothi in games, Rants | No Comments

Halo 3 logoI’ve just finished playing a ranked Big Team Battle on Halo 3 where I was team killed repeatedly by a player called Tactics117. After the match he sent me an abusive message indicating he’s racist, very confused about his sexuallity and he was very disapointed with my playing in that match. But why did this happen?

Up to the point where Tactics117 started team killing me I had amassed 0 kills. That’s right, nothing. Now this wasn’t because I’m rubbish at Halo as Tactics117 assumed but because I had spent almost the entire match driving other people around in a warthog. Whilst they were racking up the kills I was only getting medals for assisting. A quick look at the score boards medal section after the match would have redeemed me for my lack of kills but no, instead Tactics117 decided to throw a ranked match and start killing his own team because he thought I wasn’t playing well.

Here’s a lesson for all Halo 3 players, especially Tactics117, you don’t get many kills when driving the warthog around but you do help your team win. If you are unlucky enough to end up with this guy on your team, watch out, he’ll kill you whether you’re playing well or not based on something as misleading as your current kill count.

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Halo 3 Big Team Battle – Capture the Flag tip

Nov 23

Posted by gothi in games | No Comments

Halo 3 logoHere’s a quick tip for Capture the Flag on Sandtrap: Don’t move your teams Elephant to the the other teams Elephant.

Yes, I know it sounds like a good idea, the two bases next to each other so you can kill the other team grab their flag and score within minutes. However, if you move your Elephant to the other side of the map and the other team kill you, then you start spawning on the far side of the map, a long way away from the action and your flag! All you do is allow the other team to get you flag very quickly and end the match in record time.

By all means move the Elephants next to each other, but bring the other team’s Elephant to your base :)

On an unrelated note, my Memor32 was delivered today. I’ll be putting it through it’s paces over the next few days and a comprehensive review will be posted over at PS2 Save Tools

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Halo 3′s skill ranking vs my sanity

Oct 28

Posted by gothi in games | 7 Comments

Halo 3 logoOver the last week I’ve been playing a fair bit of ranked Team Slayer with my buddy, MacronX. Now Macron has played a lot more Lone Wolves than me, I like the team aspect and when I’m playing with Piggle I also play mainly in Social. This meant that both Macron and myself were at the beginning stages of the skill rankings on Team Slayer.

MacronX and myself are fairly well matched players of about the same skill level so I thought we’d rank up equally. Last week it wasn’t to be. Macron, for whatever reason was not playing to form and I was gaining MVP, 3 times as many medals as him, had a much higher k/d spread and was basically the best player in every 4 out of 5 matches we played. Over the course of 3 days I went up 3 skill levels, struggling to get past 8. Macron on the other hand went up 14 or so levels, many times on the matches where his performance was the worst and mine was the best. You can imagine my frustration upon looking at the stats to see I had out-classed everyone in the fight, let alone my team, only to have everyone I’m with go up skill levels whilst mine stayed stationary. Now this wouldn’t be so bad apart from the fact that often their skill level would increase past mine.

I’ve finally found an answer as to why I played better than everyone else and my skill level never increased: Macron, and the others had played well over 100 more ranked games than myself.

The method of determining skill level is done over many games, the simple fact is that MacronX has double the amount of data being anaylized for his skill level which is resulting in him going up leaps and bounds when our team wins whilst I languish at the lower levels despite being the best player in the match. I know that evetually my skill level ranking will increase to show it’s true figure, until then I’ll just tear my hair out watching others around me benefit from my skills.

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Things Halo 3 has stopped me from doing

Oct 3

Posted by gothi in games | No Comments

Halo 3 logo

Completing the .max save format document.
I almost finished them and then got distracted! I’ll have them finished and up this month.
Uploading ffgriever’s new version of PS2 Save Convertor with AR Max save support to PS2 Save Tools.
This will be uploaded in the next week.
Doing anything with my Xbox 360 saves transferring program.
Well I looked at the free space issue but never got any further! I need to check over my old code, particularly the section dealing with deleting files and the FAT code needs reworking before I work on the code for adding saves to a card. Finding out why my free space calculations are different from Microsoft’s is very important before writing anything back to the card. USB driver support is on hold until I get a decent amount of free time to debug why the card is stalling. I’ll probably need to write some C code to test the different API versions between the two languages, hopefully I can work this problem out
Answering emails.
I have a stack of unanswered emails in my inbox. If you’re emailed me in the last few weeks an answer will be forthcoming soon.
Uploading Dex2Raw.
Dex2Raw is a program I was asked to make that quickly converts multiple .gme saves into raw PS1 saves, ideal for transferring to a memorycard with uLaunchElf. Currently being used in the conversion of PS1 saves to .psv files for use on the Playstation 3.

Halo 3 is a great blast, particularly online and the theater mode is amazing, every game should have this! You can keep track of my stats as well as my uploaded movies, game types and pictures by checking out my bungie.net profile. I go by the gamertag goffi (see my previous posts on my attempt to get gothi as my tag) so if you see me online, try to aim slightly to the left of me ;)

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Halo 3 ARG

Jun 22

Posted by gothi in Uncategorized | No Comments

I must admit I’m a bit of a sucker for these things and the Halo 3 Alternative Reality Game has begun in earnest.

Like many others I’ve pulled the following info out of the data pod:

Halo array –System Data Recorder

[<array-sdr.> 3 minutes 5 seconds]
{c-match-reconfirmed}. Sphere secure to .1889 of passing fleet. Offensive tactics confirmed.
Feint tactics in limited push.
<Array sync commence>
Sys//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////{online}
Index: {check}
{D-com} There is no peace left. No place where the parasite cannot reach. You were right about it
all. Let us hope the final measure is not too late.

[<array-sdr.> 1 minutes 12 seconds]
Confrm: Array burn radium {check} 3.0
Confrm: Array sync …1…2…3…4…5…6…7…{check}
Commence…_{ }

[<array-sdr.> 60 seconds]
Commence…_{check}
Confrm: -00-00-00-59-0999-
{c-match-line-hold} acceptable losses confirmed
{D-com} It’s done. By my hands. The pyrrhic solution is ignited. All I have left is the quiet of
space to lull me to sleep. I will dream of you.

[<array-sdr.> 49 seconds]
Authorize -00-00-00-48-0999-
Array Authorized…_ Array Authorized…_ Array Authorized…_ Array Authorized…_ Array
Authorized…_ Array Authorized…_ Array Authorized…_ Array Authorized…_ Array Authorized…_
Array Authorized…_ Array Authorized…_ Array Authorized…_ Array Authorized…_ Array
Authorized…_ Array Authorized…_{check}

[<array-sdr.> 23 seconds]
fire: -00-00-00-22-0999-
Confrm: wpnt {auth}
Core sequence <%> <%>

[<array-sdr.> 11 seconds]
fire: -00-00-00-10-0999-
{c-match-burn} effectiveness of enemy core fleet negligible
{D-com} I feel no peril.

[<array-sdr.> 5 seconds]
fire: -00-00-00-04-0999-
<enter reversion sequence to deactivate>
{D-com} No pain. No remorse. Is that normal?

[<array-sdr.> 0 seconds]
fire: -00-00-00-00-0001-
Reversion Sequence…{negative}
Array Authorized…_{Activate}
Rings online…_{Activate}
<Fire>

[<array-sdr.> 7 seconds]
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THIS IS MY FINAL ENTRY, AND I AM LEFT WITH ONE HOPE
THAT ONE DAY, SOMEONE, ANYONE IS AROUND TO WITNESS THIS WARNING
{//}
KNOW THAT A THOUSAND OTHER PLANS WERE TRIED AND FAILED
{//}
KNOW THAT ENERGETIC AND TENACIOUS AS LIFE IS
IT HAS AN ANTITHESIS JUST AS POWERFUL
IT IS THAT THING THAT WE MUST OBLITERATE

and the following images:

What’s interesting about the last image, Slide_Ref070107.jpg, is the text within the image’s data fields:

SEM of Streptococcus pyrogens bacteria,causes sore throat x2,000

Hidden clue or just the creation data? After all the image is listed as being copyright of S. Lowry/univ Ulster

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Halo 3 Legendary Edition now available to pre-order!

Mar 26

Posted by gothi in Uncategorized | No Comments

If you’re an avid gamer like me you’ll be happy to hear that the long awaited and limited edition Halo 3 Legendary Edition with Sparten helmet is now available to pre-order in the UK already!

I fully expect that the US edition will be ready to pre-order soon

I’ve got mine pre-ordered, and I don’t even own an Xbox360 yet, have you? :)

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