Halo 5: Asset Releases

[Chernobyl]

Right. Small update: I spent some time working in the Archive today, and I've fully updated all categories to allow people to upload their unfolded works for DLC items (Shinobi/Tracer/Marauder/Decimator/Mk IV/Mk V Alpha). I've also sorted out a few issues with alphabetical order with the files, and I'll shortly be uploading any outstanding files to the OBJ Archive.

It's worth noting a few things, however:

Firstly: I'm unable to obtain a clean rip for the Marauder set. I'm hoping this is a resolvable issue, but until such a point as I can get a good rip, we're not going to have the files for that set. I can only apologise for any inconvenience this might cause - but, then again, it might mean people will go back to modelling things rather than relying solely on my rips

Secondly: I will not be featuring returning Halo 4 sets in the Halo 5 Archives. This is to prevent files from the same set from being uploaded and distributed across two categories - if you want to upload any files to sets returning from Halo 4, please upload them to their relevant category in the Halo 4 Archives. I will, at some point, be looking at merging the Halo 4 and Halo 5 Archives into one full 'MJOLNIR GEN-2' category, but this will be heavily reliant upon how the new forum platform functions.

Third: I've petitioned for a larger file limit, to allow me to provide texture downloads along with their associated armour set. However, for the moment, I'm forced to host these texture files off-site, and updating the textures archives is a pain in the foot - therefore, I'll be providing a full and comprehensive textures pack after June, when the final DLC pack has landed. I will endeavour to provide basic textures for each new DLC armour set that hits, to enable 3D modellers to provide better models to the community - however, as I have mentioned before, colour control maps and skin textures will not be provided.

Finally: again, to clarify for those who have PMed me recently: no. I cannot obtain Halo 5 Campaign undersuits, weapons files, or vehicle files. Please stop asking me, this is the last time I'll be stating this.

As of next week (7th March 2016) I will be inactive due to my upcoming move to the USA. If there are any Archive issues you become aware of, please leave me a message explaining in detail what the issue is, and I will get onto the problem as soon as I'm able. Please bear in mind my ARCHIVE FAQ for any questions you have before messaging me - it's a good chance that I've already covered your issue earlier.

 

[projectshadow]

Thanks for the update Chernobyl, and for all of your hard work.

 

[Chernobyl]

Thanks for the update Chernobyl, and for all of your hard work.

You're very welcome.

Sitrep: Archives are all backed up. All of your hopes and dreams now rest in a little black plastic box.

Picture very, very relevant.

 

[Sordiax]

could you bump up the textures to 1024x1024 on the mk iv armor pls

 

[peterthethinker]

You're very welcome.

Sitrep: Archives are all backed up. All of your hopes and dreams now rest in a little black plastic box.

Picture very, very relevant.

Oh gosh Had I known * that * was the only backup I would gladly buy you a 2ed 1TB HDD. what is $60 bucks when the goods are as important as Cortana's pod in REACH..

 

[Chernobyl]

Oh gosh Had I known * that * was the only backup I would gladly buy you a 2ed 1TB HDD. what is $60 bucks when the goods are as important as Cortana's pod in REACH..

Might take you up on that offer. While I can't speak for the site itself having a backup, that hard drive was my own personal backup of files in the process of being uploaded and extracted - and, of course, the damned thing failed.

I've managed to secure the data, and I'm in the process of rebuilding my own personal archives, but until I can get that hard drive fixed, I'm reliant on a pretty shaky old WD hard drive.

So, in other news: I'm finally in the US, and settling in. As soon as there are updates I'll let you all know.

 

[Sordiax]

could you bump up the textures to 1024x1024 on the mk iv armor pls

Please Chernobyl :'( the textures are 512x512 :c

 

[Chernobyl]

could you bump up the textures to 1024x1024 on the mk iv armor pls

Please Chernobyl :'( the textures are 512x512 :c

One: please don't bump your own requests.
Two: no requests, please.
Three: no. The files I'm providing are raw rips, I can't get them in any better quality. Wish I could, but you'll have to make do with what's there.

 

[Sordiax]

One: please don't bump your own requests.
Two: no requests, please.
Three: no. The files I'm providing are raw rips, I can't get them in any better quality. Wish I could, but you'll have to make do with what's there.

1. Sorry about the bumping, i thought you didnt see the first one
2. again sorry
3. Awwww thanks for the reply

 

[Chernobyl]

That's fine, I just wish people would read before posting.

 

[Senpai Muffin]

Is there a specific way to apply colors to the maps correctly? I've manged to get them imported into 3DSMax properly, but cannot figure out if there's a way to apply the actual armor colors.

 

[Chernobyl]

Is there a specific way to apply colors to the maps correctly? I've manged to get them imported into 3DSMax properly, but cannot figure out if there's a way to apply the actual armor colors.

I honestly have no idea. You'd be better off consulting a forum dedicated to image manipulation rather than the 405th, we're more focused upon prop-making than computer modelling.

 

[Senpai Muffin]

I honestly have no idea. You'd be better off consulting a forum dedicated to image manipulation rather than the 405th, we're more focused upon prop-making than computer modelling.

I will do that, and thank you for the quick reply.

Thought I'd point this out while I have the chance:



All Achilles models (female armor isn't here, but it does the same thing as male armor) end up having issues when imported into 3DS Max (works fine in Blender). Haven't touched any of the import settings.

 

[Chernobyl]

All Achilles models (female armor isn't here, but it does the same thing as male armor) end up having issues when imported into 3DS Max (works fine in Blender). Haven't touched any of the import settings.

The Achilles models work absolutely fine in Blender, this must be an import issue with 3DS Max.

 

[Senpai Muffin]

Hai again.

Been playing with the models, and I figured I owe to you guys to show you this: http://i.imgur.com/Fh8sk2D.png


Halo 5 armor ported into Skyrim, as I've wanted to do since Halo 4. And thanks to you guys, I have been able to do it.


Should this become public, who do I credit here? All of 405th, or anyone in particular?

 

[Chernobyl]

Should this become public, who do I credit here? All of 405th, or anyone in particular?

I'd honestly rather credit not be linked back to the 405th explicitly - we have a huge problem at the moment with 'leech' accounts joining up simply to download the assets without providing any sort of return to the costuming community when they use those files. Just saying 'thank you for the files' is absolutely fine, though, and I'm glad that your project has worked out.

 

[Senpai Muffin]

I'll keep this in mind.

Uhm. That almost seems like my situation. Which is bad. How could I return the favor to you guys? I don't want to just hit and run.

 

[Dirk Devlin]

Is there a specific way to apply colors to the maps correctly? I've manged to get them imported into 3DSMax properly, but cannot figure out if there's a way to apply the actual armor colors.

Since I've been using the 405th resources primarily for modelling, rigging, and rendering, I'd be happy to share how I've been making colour masks from the raw texture files. For this tutorial, I'll be using the Texture Pack uploaded by Chernobyl which can be found earlier in this thread.

Making a Colour Mask

First I'll talk about how to make a colour mask that will coat the armour in a single colour, since this is the easiest place to start. Open up a _diff (diffuse) map in the image editor of your choice - I'll be using the Air Assault diffuse map and working in Photoshop.



Next, adjust the image levels (Ctrl+L) such that you are left with a distinguishable difference between the lighter portions of what will become our coloured armour, and the black portion of the uncoloured armour elements. Depending on which sections of the armour you wish to be coloured, you can adjust the levels to select for what shows through. Just remember that lighter equals coloured, and black equals uncoloured.



Select the black portions of the image. This will usually pick up some artifacts from the level adjustment, so I like to contract the selection by 2 pixels to remove some of the artifacts, as well as give the colour some room to bleed.



Now with our selection highlighted, we're going to create a new layer and paint the selection black. Once that's done, create another layer underneath and fill the whole layer in white. You should be left with something resembling the next image.



And there we have it! A simple, unrefined, yet working colour mask. For the more adventurous, you can also attempt to isolate the secondary colour channel by toying with the _cc (colour channel) files included within the texture pack. The secondary colour is usually found in the green channel of the _cc file, and can be isolated through the same process as above. The _cc files are a different resolution than the diffuse files, unfortunately, so keep that in mind when modifying your selection, for example, by contracting the selection 1 pixel instead of 2.



Now let's start applying these masks to our models!

Applying Colour Masks

For this process, I'll be working within 3dsMax. The first thing we have to do, of course, is import our model to the stage, which can be downloaded from the 405th file archive.



Open up your material editor (M) and select a new material. Click the diffuse map checkbox and select "composite".



In the composite map's initial layer, click the texture checkbox and select "bitmap". Search the texture pack for the _diff file corresponding to the model. We will maintain this diffuse map as the lowest level layer in our composite, as our colour mask is going to leave some areas exposed.



Create a new layer in the composite map, and this time apply a "mix" texture.



In the mix map, select the "Mix Amount" checkbox and apply a bitmap texture. Select the _diff map for your model, the same that we used as the lowest layer of our composite. Next, set a colour of your choice in the "Colour 2" field. This is the colour applied to lighter portions of the texture in the mix amount field, and will be the primary colour of our armour. Don't make any changes to the "Colour 1" field.



Return to the composite mask and select the "Mask" checkbox on our mix layer. Assign a bitmap texture and select the colour mask we made in the first part of the tutorial. The texture's portions in white will show through, while the black will not render.



Let's go ahead and apply the texture to our model.



Not bad, though there are clearly some tweaks that can be made to improve the quality. The more practice you get with the process, the better results you'll achieve. If you decided to isolate the secondary channel back in the first part of the tutorial, we can also apply that now, by duplicating our mix layer and adjusting the colour and mask.



And that's about it! Like I said, you can get better results the more time you put into it, as well as some other fun stuff like making your own custom armour sets by combining parts, or fooling around with the colours of individual pieces. Then there's rigging, animating, and trying to set up high quality renders, which can be a blast as well.







Find what you like doing and go for it. I started messing with this stuff after the Halo 4 resources were released and had to figure it out on my own, so I hope this little tutorial will spur some people interested in playing around with the 405th resources to try new things and help others. If anyone has any other questions about this sort of thing, feel free to send me a message.

 

[Senpai Muffin]

You are a godsend. Thank you so much!

I'll be hitting up your PMs later on.

 

[Chernobyl]

-snip-

Amazing work. I'll certainly be using this at some point down the line.

In other news: new REQs have been pulled, I'll be adding the Dynast set to the Archive either tonight or tomorrow.

EDIT: Dynast set is now ONLINE. Please find it in the Halo 5 OBJ Archives.