What is Halo CE - Halo Custom Edition
The Halo Custom Edition game (Halo CE) is a free unsupported upgrade and standalone program that will install alongside of your Halo PC game. Unlike Halo PC The Halo CE game allows you to play and or create custom maps for multiplayer on-line playT

HaloCE Features and changes from HaloPC
Halo Custom Edition 1.0 (Halo CE) Halo CE 1.0 contains all features and fixes through the 1.04 release of the retail version of Halo PC. In addition to these, Gearbox has worked to add a collection of additional features which are offered in this special, optional, and unsupported "Halo CE" release.

Halo CE installs in parallel with the Retail edition of Halo PC so that they can be updated independently of each other. You may have both versions installed on your computer at one time. Per the license agreement, you may not have them installed on two separate computers at the same time.

Differences between Halo PC (retail) and Halo CE:
The primary feature addition of Halo CE is the ability to play user-created multiplayer maps, which will be created by the Halo Editing Kit, available for download separately. Due to the necessary changes in map-file format to support this feature, this update is too large to be a "required" download for users of the retail game, and so Halo CE is offered as a separate, optional edition. For the same reason, the single-player content (and thus Campaign mode) is not available for download as part of Halo CE. (Update: 2/6/05 campaign single player maps are now available for download see the Single Player CE Maps section of the website for details)

Please continue to play the retail version of the game for access to Campaign mode. Also due to these changes in map file formats, all players in a game must be using the same version (retail or CE) - users in one version of the game will not be able to see or join games hosted by users of the other.

Additional Features & Fixes in Halo CE 1.0

• “Fast Shaders” – Bypasses the D3DXEffects portion of the DirectX api resulting in increased rendering performance. The enhancement is native to Halo CE and does not require any settings adjustments. The fixed function pipeline does not use the D3DXEffects system so it won’t receive a performance increase.
• F2 Rules – A new in-game rules screen that displays all server-set rules for the current game. This function is mapped to the “F2” screen by default, but can be changed in the controls settings.
• “Show Player Names” – A switch that toggles the displaying of names over teammates heads. Toggling this feature on will permanently display all friendly player’s names regardless of where they are in the map. Toggling this feature off will restore back to normal Halo name displaying behavior. This key defaults to “F3” but can be reassigned in the controls settings.
• MP hit sound adjust – Added a console variable to adjust the volume of the multiplayer hit sound. You must be running the game with the –console switch. Bring down the console and enter Multiplayer_hit_sound_volume X where X is a number between 0 and 1.
• User created content – Halo CE has the ability to play user created content. In order to get a map to display in the game’s UI, simply drop the map in the “Maps” directory. If you try joining a game playing a map you do not have, you will be prompted about the missing map and sent back to the menu. To create custom Halo content, please download the Halo Editing Kit - which is separate from the Halo CE download.
• Devmode support – Using the -devmode switch on the command line in conjunction with -console will give you access to many of the cheats\debug tools used in the creation of Halo. These commands are largely untested a have the potential to cause an unstable game environment. This mode has been enabled so that content creators can test their maps. This mode is not intended for use online and thus the ability to join games has been removed.
• Client networking fix – A fix in networking providing a slight reduction in player “warping” on client machines.
• MP exploit fix – The “print screen” MP exploit has been addressed.
• Map cycle hang bug fixed – Fixed bug that would people to randomly hang during a map cycle.
• Flag icon fix – flag icons now display properly when a person is carrying a flag in a vehicle.
• Fixed Rocket Warthog bug – Rockets fired from the Rocket Warthog are now more accurate.
• Removed “stickiness” from Ghost – The sticky effect caused by Ghost projectiles has been removed.
• Dedicated Server Features (complete list can be found at the Dedicated Server Forum of www.Gearboxsoftware.com)
• Server Chatting – Servers can now chat to clients
• Dedicated server logging
• Dedicated server message of the day – they dedicated server can now display a message of the day in the new F2 Rules screen.

HaloCE FAQ based off Gearbox Developers input!

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Why is HaloCE a separate download? HaloCE was created as a way for Gearbox to introduce a bunch of new features to HaloPC. The most important of which is the ability to play user created content.
 
When will HaloCE be updated if ever? A statement by Duvalmagic said that if we are able to get 1000 users at a peak hour on haloce that he will petition the team to make one more patch. Basically their saying with the current lack of players in HaloCE it would be difficult for the company to put more time and money into patching a game with so few players in its current state.

Will Halo PC be updated? Gearbox doubts it. Updates for Halo PC are now up to Microsoft and Bungie.

Why isn't single player included in Halo CE with all the CE features? Unfortunately no. As many of you have speculated, the file size of the SP maps is massive. In order to make user created content possible, we had to recreate how Halo's cache file system works. Doing this requires us to remake and redistribute the map files.  (Update: 2/6/05 campaign single player maps are now available for download see the Single Player CE Maps section of the website for details)


So officially, no SP. Also, Halo uses a cache file system to load level content. This system is the same for both SP and MP and is a core Halo subsystem. In order to make user created content work, we had to rewrite how halo loads these cache files. (.map files in your halo director) Changing this cache file system required us to recompile the maps in a new way so the new system understood them. This is why we need to redistribute the mp maps with HaloCE. Because Halo doesn't discriminate between SP and MP maps, we would have to recreate the SP maps as well. As you know, those files are massive. The package is big enough at 170mb. Anything bigger than that and we wouldn't be able to get anyone to host HaloCE for us.  (Update: 2/6/05 campaign single player maps are now available for download see the Single Player CE Maps section of the website for details)


Why is leading so random now? The leading thing is a trade-off. Fans said make popping better, so we did. It came at a cost of leading that is affected by ping. Smooth connections don't find leading fluctations. Connections that have fluctating latency will find leading issues in one game session. You'll find different leading even on smooth connections from one game session to the next if your latency changes. At the end of the day these are the ideosyncracies one must deal with on an internet game. Only the experts notice them, then they learn the ideosyncracies and adapt. What's cool is that most of the forum guys are experts

Will the long load times be taken care of if we get a patch? We have a fix for the load times and we're saving that for a patch, but we're really nervous about just farting out a low level patch for one thing. We're going to have to push and pull for Bungie's attention to release the thing and if that's it, that may be it forever.

If you have a fix already then why not release it in patch form? To have a patch we have to get Bungie involved. They're in severe Halo 2 mode. "Don't wake up the Dragon unless you've got something nice for it and you can only wake up the dragon so many times before you get squished..." - FAQ questions compiled by STB

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NOTE: Halo Maps is currently hosting the Halo CE program download link and the Halo Editing Kit Download Link 


Parts of his document copied from the GearBox Software Forum

[Posted: Aug-24-2004 16:51 EST -  (Link)]