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[Twilight Gap]

Man I put in 20min and found it complicated lol but I am sure it will get better once I explore more.

But forging is just not my thing, looking forward to all the maps from talented GAF people

It isn't as complicated as I thought it would be.

Units take some getting used to, but after a while you learn what sizes everything is.

Setting colors and tweaking with the map settings is a breeze.

Lighting and FX all speak for themselves and have enough tooltips to guide you along the way

Intro cameras is not as complicated as I thought. It's a bit addictive even.

Scripting takes some creative mental gymnastics depending on what problem you want to solve. I always found it intimidating but I was able to do a bit with it in a few minutes. And it's absolutely optional.

The most difficult aspects of Forging in the past few games - rotating objects, cleaning up a map, optimizing for performance and filling in gaps - have all been streamlined and optimized. At least for me personally, the only thing making it less accessible are the controls.

 

[Computron]

anyone try welding together a train and setting it up with a script to periodically speed through the map a la Terminal?

 

[op_ivy]

there is rotation. they both seem a bit janky to me now though.

speaking of Scripting, the doors on Deadlock could use some sound effects.

Can you take a shot or explain where? I seriously looked. ???

 

[Computron]

It isn't as complicated as I thought it would be.

Units take some getting used to, but after a while you learn what sizes everything is.

Setting colors and tweaking with the map settings is a breeze.

Lighting and FX all speak for themselves and have enough tooltips to guide you along the way

Intro cameras is not as complicated as I thought. It's a bit addictive even.

Scripting takes some creative mental gymnastics depending on what problem you want to solve. I always found it intimidating but I was able to do a bit with it in a few minutes. And it's absolutely optional.

The most difficult aspects of Forging in the past few games - rotating objects, cleaning up a map, optimizing for performance and filling in gaps - have all been streamlined and optimized. At least for me personally, the only thing making it less accessible are the controls.

1. metric is intuitive, powers of 2 of a seemingly random unit is just unnecessary and counterproductive

2. needs a color wheel. quantize it to the approved pallete, i dont really care, but its a pain in the ass to pick colors from a semi-unordered list

3. lighting has a lot of quirks and was the entirety of what i spent my first 6 hours with.
there is some promise, but again, they could do it way better and simpler. i will write up way more eventually whe I find the time, but im at least happy that you can somewhat manually bodge together semi-convincing indirect illumination for the first time.

whether that can be done under a reasonable budget remains to be seen, but the game's framerate does hold up surprising well with a decent resolution.
I was also able to completely trash the framerate pretty easily with some unreasonable nonsense. at least it let me get that far, which is nice.

4. scripting:

2 words.

3 words:​

Mouse/Keyboard Support.

no more needs to be said.

5. wtf is the reason for not providing rotation/translation context (world/object/camera space) switching on a hotkey?
WHY????

its the first thing you pick up when you get somewhat good in a 3d modeling package, and here its burried.

 

[Twilight Gap]

How would you assign the multi-select function instead?

wouldn't have separated the function of moving and selecting a piece for starters. there are now three buttons dedicated to doing what one used to. could be streamlined to two and free up a button to serve as a "shift" key of sorts.

if custom controls don't make it in soon i'll have to pony up for an elite controller.

 

[Computron]

oh, also i still have no clue how groups are supposed to work or be accessed.

and I highly doubt they would have some layers panel accessable with an object layout or any kind of easy regrouping or filtering after the fact.

 

[Twilight Gap]

Can you take a shot or explain where? I seriously looked. ???

you have moveffset and rotateffset in an object or group's options. if rotate isn't showing up, you're in the wrong menu or something.

1. metric is intuitive, powers of 2 of a seemingly random unit is just unnecessary and counterproductive

2. needs a color wheel. quantize it to the approved pallete, i dont really care, but its a pain in the ass to pick colors from a semi-unordered list

3. lighting has a lot of quirks and was the entirety of what i spent my first 6 hours with.
there is some promise, but again, they could do it way better and simpler. i will write up way more eventually whe I find the time, but im at least happy that you can somewhat manually bodge together semi-convincing indirect illumination for the first time.

4. scripting:

2 words.

3 words:​

Mouse/Keyboard Support.

no more needs to be said.

5. wtf is the reason for not providing rotation/translation context (world/object/camera space) switching on a hotkey?
WHY????

its the first thing you pick up when you get somewhat good in a 3d modeling package, and here its burried.

oh yea the metric system was way easier to work with. we're dealing with weird 3 digit numbers now and it's just a hassle.

am not sure how they'd contextualize a color wheel without an additional pop up window. i suppose i wouldn't mind that. the current iteration is time consuming but i'll probably mostly be using grays so I don't have to do a lot of scrolling.

am pretty sure world/object rotation is on a hotkey. you press the left trigger i think and then one of the directions on the dpad. it's also in the menus.

oh, also i still have no clue how groups are supposed to work or be accessed.

and I highly doubt they would have some layers panel accessable with an object layout or any kind of easy regrouping or filtering after the fact.

I'd be surprised if they're able to add any kind of component menu. I don't see myself using groups much simply because there is no undo feature. That's a surefire way to accidentally delete half of your map.

 

[Computron]

they need a mirror modifier like in literally any other 3d package ever.

I highly doubt they ever mirror/duplicate a map by hand when they can probably walk over to a scripter/programmer and hand them the file and run it through a 3 line script and call it a day.

am i missing something with groups or will multi select only help you do this in so far as you have a max of 64 items to duplicate and mirror?

 

[Computron]

I don't see myself using groups much simply because there is no undo feature. That's a surefire way to accidentally delete half of your map.

FUUUUUUUUuuuuuuuuuuuu......



i am sweating over here just thinking about that.



i know there is quick save, but i have forgotten to hit that and have lost several hours of (mostly pointless so far) work because the dedicated servers shit the bed and booted me to the lobby with no warning.

wtf is that about???

 

[BraXzy]

I think I know what the first little project will be that I make while figuring out all of the new stuff in Forge. Gonna dive in tomorrow. Exciting stuff.

 

[Twilight Gap]

they need a mirror modifier like in literally any other 3d package ever.

I highly doubt they ever mirror/duplicate a map by hand when they can probably walk over to a scripter/programmer and hand them the file and run it through a 3 line script and call it a day.

am i missing something with groups or will multi select only help you do this in so far as you have a max of 64 items to duplicate and mirror?

well it's not a 3D package for starters because we're on console and consoles have dumb limits.

mirror probably wont happen because we're using prefab pieces. asymmetrical ones would likely need to have mirrored versions to support to feature.

and yea groups and multi select can only highlight 64 objects. it's a very niche feature so i don't think it deserves priority over movement.

 

[...Scatter...]

Looking forward to judging your masterworks HaloGAF

 

[Computron]

my 2 ideas for maps right now are

anyone try welding together a train and setting it up with a script to periodically speed through the map a la Terminal?

and

if you turn on heavy wispy near fog and blot out the background with heavy distance fog and turn the wind up, you got a perfect canvas for a Halo 2 style Ascension remake.

 

[Twilight Gap]

FUUUUUUUUuuuuuuuuuuuu......



i am sweating over here just thinking about that.



i know there is quick save, but i have forgotten to hit that and have lost several hours of (mostly pointless so far) work because the dedicated servers shit the bed and booted me to the lobby with no warning.

wtf is that about???

the joys of no offline forging. i hope i never encounter these save glitches.

and yea i deleted a bunch of objects because i was hasty when i tried to disband a group. fortunately i had already made a copy of the group.

anyone try welding together a train and setting it up with a script to periodically speed through the map a la Terminal?

You can weld pieces together and make them move in unison. I'm not sure how realistic it'll be though because there are no anchors for scripting to my knowledge (you can't fix the train to the train track) and we don't really have control over the "framerate" or speed of a scripted event if it's set to repeat. You should be able to make a one time event go fast however by setting its ending point and the time you want it to reach that. For example, if you want the train to move 100 units in a second, it should theoretically go really fast.

I'm not the best when it comes to scripting but i'll continue to mess around with it tomorrow.

 

[Computron]

well it's not a 3D package for starters because we're on console and consoles have dumb limits.

mirror probably wont happen because we're using prefab pieces. asymmetrical ones would likely need to have mirrored versions to support to feature.

and yea groups and multi select can only highlight 64 objects. it's a very niche feature so i don't think it deserves priority over movement.

These consoles are literally PCs, probably on par or better than the ones they used to author Halo Reach and maybe even 4. let that sink in for a moment.

They mirror pieces in campaign all the time. I doubt it is that difficult to set something up like this, and the time savings for building symmetric levels would literally be half.
You cant get much better than that in terms of a time investment on development.

 

[Twilight Gap]

These consoles are literally PCs, probably on par or better than the ones they used to author Halo Reach and maybe even 4. let that sink in for a moment.

They mirror pieces in campaign all the time. I doubt it is that difficult to set something up like this, and the time savings for building symmetric levels would literally be half.
You cant get much better than that in terms of a time investment on development.

Don't remember exactly what I was told, but features like that which don't make this game will be on deck for Halo 6 forge. They probably just ran out of time to add mirror. I'm surprised it isn't there however given that the whole point of copy and paste is usually to flip it horizontally.

 

[Computron]

Don't remember exactly what I was told, but features like that which don't make this game will be on deck for Halo 6 forge. They probably just ran out of time to add mirror. I'm surprised it isn't there however given that the whole point of copy and paste is usually to flip it horizontally.

i wonder if sales will have slowed down enough by then for Halo 5 PC to be on the table.

Wasn't Halo 5 somewhat low compared to projections?

 

[Twilight Gap]

i wonder if sales will have slowed down enough by then for Halo 5 PC to be on the table.

Wasn't Halo 5 somewhat low compared to projections?

doubt microsoft would put their system seller on a system they don't need to sell even by then. it would be nice though to get some keyboard and mouse support.

 

[Computron]

had a show stopper just now.

was welding a van/train, set the script up to start moving, thing took off while i was still manipulating the objects spawn settings and it flew off the map and despawned while i was in the menu.

the menu broke and a couple seconds later im sitting on the dashboard looking at the halo 5 banner.

nice.



upon reloading, this same van can neither have its last script removed, nor another added. the vans have duplicated all over the place. they also have a top speed of like 20 miles per hour, not enough to kill me.

 

[Sikamikanico]

This new Forge is very... Daunting. Slowly getting the controls down, now all I need is an idea...

 

[ZServ]

Forgers, please do a Sanctuary forge.

Att:

Me

PS: Turf and Warlock too.

Thank you.

Warlock is done. Not a 100% remake, but very very similar. Mainly tweaked weapon spawns/spacing. First version I'm comfortable sharing is up, under the name Warrior. Still needs CTF support and some other shit (FFA cameras and shit) but I'd like to get early feedback before messing things up any further (potentially).

 

[jem0208]

wouldn't have separated the function of moving and selecting a piece for starters. there are now three buttons dedicated to doing what one used to. could be streamlined to two and free up a button to serve as a "shift" key of sorts.

if custom controls don't make it in soon i'll have to pony up for an elite controller.

Separating movement and selecting was one of the best changes they've made. It's also pretty much essential for all the group stuff etc.

 

[Nollemaster]

I've been spending a couple of hours last night trying to create a Lava Pit map (The first thing I forge in every new Halo game since Reach) and man that is one hell of a steep learning curve! I'm near completion but the entire process was really frustrating (e.g. mixing up the duplicate button with the delete button, ouch!)

The map plays as old and it's really fun to play. If you are interested, I'm trying to finish this map today. I'm still trying to decide whether I should add some fun scripted stuff or leave it as vanilla as possible. Credits to the guy who came up the original Lava Pit on Halo 3, this is the funnest thing to play with a couple of friends

Two problems I already encountered:

• Warthogs keep respawning even though I delete them, this might be an error on my end (for reference see the warthogs on the bottom right lol)
• FX (like the fire in the picture) only spawn in the first round if there are any more rounds to the gametype

 

[jem0208]

I'm near completion but the entire process was really frustrating (e.g. mixing up the duplicate button with the delete button, ouch!)

I accidentally did this with a group selection, that was annoying.

 

[Glass]

Would love to see some gifs of the cool scripted things people are making. Reddit has the moving penises nailed.

 

[Karl2177]

I've been able to figure out that crouch jumping height is 10', non-moving clamber is 12', moving clamber is 14', and crouch jumping clamber is 16'.

My problem when trying to recreate maps is converting everything from the old system to the new one. I have a map from Halo 4 that I'm trying to recreate, but everything is in the "Block Large, Square" format. It also doesn't help that what used to be one level high and non-jump-able is now crouch jump clamber-able. SO I'm going to need to make adjustments. Part of me just wants to double the scale of everything, but at the same time that's another layer of conversion that I don't want to do. On the plus side, the grid system is not as stupid as it used to be. In Halo 4, ramps were on a grid that was 2 units higher up than the building blocks. Now they are on the same plane.

 

[Twilight Gap]

Separating movement and selecting was one of the best changes they've made. It's also pretty much essential for all the group stuff etc.

Yes it's essential for moving large objects, which was annoying when you would lock onto them and zoom way out in the past. If that was the default with all of these large pieces, it would be difficult to edit them, so it's good that lock on is tied to the right stick now.

It would have been more ergonomic however to put multi-select behind a toggle on the A button. So holding it down initiates multi-select where everything you highlight is selected, and pressing it again toggles out of multi-select - all while you are moving along the Z axis with the bumpers. This way, you can claw if you want to multi select manually, or just initiate the toggle for it. I'd rather do that then claw to move around because the latter is what I do for 99% of the time.

 

[ZServ]

Warlock is done. Not a 100% remake, but very very similar. Mainly tweaked weapon spawns/spacing. First version I'm comfortable sharing is up, under the name Warrior. Still needs CTF support and some other shit (FFA cameras and shit) but I'd like to get early feedback before messing things up any further (potentially).

Took a minute to record a quick walk around the map. Still pretty bare-bones in terms of decoration.

Clicky for Warrior walk around.

Should support Breakout, Team CTF, Neutral CTF, and Slayer.

Think I might have the bottom path wrong by 45 degrees but fuck it I'm tired

 

[Twilight Gap]

recalculating...

 

[jem0208]

Yes it's essential for moving large objects, which was annoying when you would lock onto them and zoom way out in the past. If that was the default with all of these large pieces, it would be difficult to edit them, so it's good that lock on is tied to the right stick now.

It would have been more ergonomic however to put multi-select behind a toggle on the A button. So holding it down initiates multi-select where everything you highlight is selected, and pressing it again toggles out of multi-select - all while you are moving along the Z axis with the bumpers. This way, you can claw if you want to multi select manually, or just initiate the toggle for it. I'd rather do that then claw to move around because the latter is what I do for 99% of the time.

Ehh, making double select a toggle means you'd have to double press A every time you want to select an object. It's not a big deal, it'd just be weird and a bit unintuitive.

I can see where you're coming from though. It may be that I'm fine with it because I claw normally anyway. I have found myself not using the raise/lower buttons as much because of the change though. I mostly just look up and down.

 

[gAg CruSh3r]

My biggest problem I am having is that your controller goes inverted when you grab an item. I had countless times that I killed myself in the water because of it. I hope they give that option to fix that soon.

 

[Twilight Gap]

maff is wrong give me a second to update it.

 

[Gabotron ES]

Im having a hard time getting used to the controls

 

[Barrel Cannon]

It's a huge bummer textures aren't there for forge world launch. It would have made a world of a difference for map creation. The stuff people would have come up with would have been a lot more insane.

 

[Akai__]

It's a huge bummer textures aren't there for forge world launch. It would have made a world of a difference for map creation. The stuff people would have come up with would have been a lot more insane.

I wonder when those will actually come. One thing I know for sure, though. All the Forgers will update their maps the second textures will be added.

Im having a hard time getting used to the controls

They definitely don't feel intuitive, like they said they would. All I want to do is a simple warm-up map, but I have to re-learn the controlls and find where all the stuff is. Feels bad man.

---

Also, Forge actually cause my sound on the Xbox One to be stuck in a popping loop. I had to restart the Xbox One to get it away. I thought my headset was broken.

 

[Fuchsdh]

The metric thing is funny because iirc during Reach, Bungie stated that the Halo world is canonically metric because "it's the future, and the future is progress" or something like that.

we non-canon now

"The future is progress"

*Humanity still stone's throw away from nuking themselves to death*

I wonder when those will actually come. One thing I know for sure, though. All the Forgers will update their maps the second textures will be added.



They definitely don't feel intuitive, like they said they would. All I want to do is a simple warm-up map, but I have to re-learn the controlls and find where all the stuff is. Feels bad man.

I think the problem is that we've been using basically modified vehicle controls for Forge in the past, and now the controls are designed for editing first and have been disconnected from the usual Halo movements. It's a completely different mindset.

I do feel like a drunken sailor trying to move things around right now. Everything seems sluggish and imprecise. I guess the Halo 4 rapid blocking method of "throw down an object, dupe it, rotate, magnet" just doesn't work in this game, or I haven't discovered how to do it yet without fighting the controls.

 

[Twilight Gap]

I wonder when those will actually come. One thing I know for sure, though. All the Forgers will update their maps the second textures will be added.



They definitely don't feel intuitive, like they said they would. All I want to do is a simple warm-up map, but I have to re-learn the controlls and find where all the stuff is. Feels bad man.

the biggest struggle for me has been not to press X when i want to go back into the object menu. Y is the object menu now and x is the map menu. If you press X while editing an object, you're backed out to the main menu the next time you press Y, as opposed to it leaving off where you started. It's really annoying, especially with all of the units that make it difficult to find where you were again.

 

[jem0208]

I really, really like the current forge textures. Super clean, if you're clever with the colours you can make some really good looking maps.



Just ran into a pretty fucking massive bug by the way. Started making a map, quit out and loaded a custom game to test something. Load back in and I spawn stuck in the ground, none of the controls are working except for start and back. What the fuck? Completely lost all my work because of it.

 

[Akai__]

the biggest struggle for me has been not to press X when i want to go back into the object menu. Y is the object menu now and x is the map menu. If you press X while editing an object, you're backed out to the main menu the next time you press Y. It's really annoying, especially with all of the units that make it difficult to find where you were again.

Are you me? That happened all the time yesterday.

---

Is there a way to turn off shadows? It makes it really hard for me to see the colors of certain pieces.

 

[Jrs3000]

It's a huge bummer textures aren't there for forge world launch. It would have made a world of a difference for map creation. The stuff people would have come up with would have been a lot more insane.

Make your creation and add them in later when we do finally get them. Don't let it stop your imagination.


Anyone making a race map?

 

[link1201]

Are there timers in this? I'd like to see a few parkour courses with timers to keep a leader board. Is something like that possible? Would be cool to see with all the thrust, clamber and slide movements in Halo 5.

 

[jem0208]

Is there a way to turn off shadows? It makes it really hard for me to see the colors of certain pieces.

I just spawn in a temporary point based light near where I'm working.

 

[Twilight Gap]

Are you me? That happened all the time yesterday.

---

Is there a way to turn off shadows? It makes it really hard for me to see the colors of certain pieces.

you can turn off the lighting for each individual piece i believe. it's BAKE LIGHT under object setings

you can also mess with the overhead Map Shadows. I'm not sure if there's a way to turn it off entirely however once you render the lighting.

 

[Akai__]

I just spawn in a temporary point based light near where I'm working.

you can turn off the lighting for each individual piece i believe. it's BAKE LIGHT under object setings

you can also mess with the overhead Map Shadows. I'm not sure if there's a way to turn it off entirely however once you render the lighting.

Thanks. Will try that.

 

[Twilight Gap]

I really, really like the current forge textures. Super clean, if you're clever with the colours you can make some really good looking maps.



Just ran into a pretty fucking massive bug by the way. Started making a map, quit out and loaded a custom game to test something. Load back in and I spawn stuck in the ground, none of the controls are working except for start and back. What the fuck? Completely lost all my work because of it.

the metallic options are really good for adding texture, and some of the breakout pieces have textures as well.

but yea it would be nice to have things like a weathered texture and a covenant hexagon mesh

 

[NOKYARD]

am i missing something with groups or will multi select only help you do this in so far as you have a max of 64 items to duplicate and mirror?

Once the 64 limit is reached Group into 1 object and proceed to select more, adding to the original group. You can group an entire map into 1 object. There is no limit other than the 64 piece grab limit.

To gather up spawns etc. into the group select one and hit Select All Of, under Object Properties, then group them. This allows you to grab all the spawns at once so you don't have to go looking for them.

Be sure everything is set to Phased before grouping or moving. This can be done by selecting everything, then look at the Object Properties before pressing the D-pad-up to group. If Physics is set to Mixed change it to Phased.

Something new to consider when placing respawns. Set the Respawn to Fixed, place it so it aligns perfectly with the ground, set it to Phased. This keeps them in place if you decide to later move the entire base.

 

[Akai__]

Baked Lights and placing Lights doesn't work for me. It's still casting shadows and the lights are lighting up very very small areas.

What am I missing here?

 

[jem0208]

Baked Lights and placing Lights doesn't work for me. It's still casting shadows and the lights are lighting up very very small areas.

What am I missing here?

Make sure you set the light to be a point based one instead of spot based under the object properties.



On another note, despawn on timer straight up does not work.

 

[Twilight Gap]

Baked Lights and placing Lights doesn't work for me. It's still casting shadows and the lights are lighting up very very small areas.

What am I missing here?

maybe mess around with the metallic settings on the piece. had to crank one of my pieces up to 9 for the black color to stop showing as gray.

 

[jem0208]

Yup, despawn on timer is broken. Tested it with 3 different objects now. Doesn't work.