This page is incomplete! You can contribute information using GitHub issues or pull requests.

Welcome to the guides hub! Here you'll find links to various guides ranging from basic map-making to more advanced topics. This hub is a work in progress and will grow over time. Until it is more complete, we recommend the official HEK tutorial as a starting point.

External tutorials list

The content of these external tutorials has not been vetted and they may contain outdated information. Always use the latest available versions of any tools used to get the benefits of bug fixes since the tutorial was made. Please report any dead links encountered.

Beginner

Name

Description

Author(s)

Last updated

Links

Halo CE MCC: Mod Tools Tutorials #1 - Starting With The Basics

A guide to setting up and getting started with the H1A-EK.

RXK1NG

2021

YouTube

How to easily share tags/assets

How to easily share tags and assets using Refinery.

gbMichelle

2019

YouTube

Mo's Halo tutorials

A set of tutorials on how to mod with the legacy Halo Editing Kit for H1CE and the MEK.

MosesOfEgypt

2019

  • Setting up your environment: YouTube
  • Refinery introduction | Extracting tags from protected maps: YouTube
  • Mozzarilla introduction | Making a basic custom weapon: YouTube

Level creation

See also the Blender level guide here on c20.

Name

Description

Author(s)

Last updated

Links

BSP errors explanation

An image illustrating common geometry errors encountered during structure compilation.

?

?

Imgur

Weather poly tutorial

This tutorial will help you make weather polyhedra for your map.

Dsalimander

2018

Mediafire

Setting up OpenSauce 4.0 directional lightmaps (DLMs)

An extensive explanation on how to set up directional lightmaps/radiosity normals in Halo CE to give your levels more visual depth. This is an advanced topic.

The OpenSauce team

2015

OpenSauce Bitbucket Wiki (archive.org)

Saving space by making portals fully coplanar

How to stay under the BSP portal limit by optimizing the amount of data Halo needs to store them.

MosesofEgypt

2014

Imgur

Custom lighting in 3ds Max using Aether (video version)

A slightly less detailed than the written tutorial, but is defenitly helpful for the people who are better at listening and watching than reading. This is an advanced topic.

MattDratt

2014

YouTube

Intro to water

Explains how to make a water plane. Note that "water" is a shader from b30, but you can make your own water material.

Wildrender

2013

Youtube

Phantom BSP tutorial

A simple tutorial to help you fix invisible walls that only block bullets and vehicles in your maps.

Siliconmaster

2010

YouTube, YouTube

Terrain modeling tutorial

An in-depth look at how Higuy (a Lumoria dev) models his outdoor terrain, using 3ds Max.

Higuy

2010

YouTube, Vimeo

Detail objects tutorial

A tutorial on how to make and place detail objects like little grasses and tiny rocks.

ZexGX

2007

halonet.net

Complete mapping tutorial

An old, but still relevant beginners tutorial on making a map from start to finish for CE.

LlamaJuice

2007

  • Part 1 Setting up the enviroment: YouTube
  • Part 2 Modeling (1/3): YouTube
  • Part 2 Modeling (2/3): YouTube
  • Part 2 Modeling (3/3): YouTube
  • Part 3 Texturing (1/3): YouTube
  • Part 3 Texturing (2/3): YouTube
  • Part 3 Texturing (3/3): YouTube
  • Part 4 Sapien, Tool, Guerilla (1/3): YouTube
  • Part 4 Sapien, Tool, Guerilla (2/3): YouTube
  • Part 4 Sapien, Tool, Guerilla (3/3): YouTube

Halo Editing Kit official tutorial

The official tutorial that comes with your HEK install.

Gearbox

2004

halomaps.org, halonet.net, haloce.org, nikon.bungie.org

AI and scripting

See also the scripting information here on c20.

Name

Description

Author(s)

Last updated

Links

The Halo CE campaign scripts

With these you can see how Bungie scripted things, if you want to compile them in a scenario though you'll have to rename their extension to .hsc.

Z-team

N/A

GitHub, halonet.net

Scripting tutorial

A deep dive into the value types, control flow, and script types of HaloScript.

Nickster5000

2017

Google Drive, Mega.nz

Dropship tutorial - custom animations

A tutorial that teaches you very basic animation, combined with how you can make a dropship fly into the level without having it use a recording of you flying it in. Also teaches you how to load a dropship with enemies and how to make it open and close it's doors.

MattDratt

2016

YouTube

Using TSC:E and SPV3 scripting features in your own map

A tutorial that goes over a lot of things to help you set up the TSC:E abilities and vehicle scripts.

FtDSpartn

2015

halonet.net

OpenSauce scripting interfaces

Describes the scripting capabilities special to OpenSauce.

The OpenSauce Team

2015

OpenSauce Bitbucket Wiki

Making Marine AI more agressive and useful

Allowing Marines to fire more aggressively at close range.

Rododo

2014

Imgur, Google Drive

AI that follow the player

A tutorial that teaches you how to set up AI that follow you. You'll also learn how to make firing positions and some basic scripting to make it work.

MattDratt

2014

YouTube

Setting up a singleplayer map and scripts

This is a starting tutorial for those who are getting into SP mapping for Halo: Custom Edition.

MattDratt

2013

YouTube

A few scripting tutorials

A few tutorials by the person considered the master of CE scripting.

Kirby_422

2012

halonet.net

UI and HUD

Name

Description

Author(s)

Last updated

Links

Create basic lineart from photos

A tutorial covering how to make lineart for HUD weapons.

Melissa Evans

?

www.melissaevans.com

Scope masks

This video will demonstrate the rules and settings applicable to scope masks used with zoomable weapons.

Jesse

2019

YouTube

UI Overview

A simple overview to get you started with making menus and such.

Giraffe

2015

OpenCarnage

Custom Reticle tutorial

A simple tutorial explaining how to make a custom reticle for your weapon.

Yoda73811

2013

YouTube

HUD tutorial

A tutorial that covers a lot of the basics about creating a HUD for Halo CE. While this covers a lot, it does not cover everything.

Jesse

2010

HaloCE3.com (PDF)

Objects (bipeds, vehicles, scenery, weapons, etc)

Name

Description

Author(s)

Last updated

Links

LODs

A short and simple tutorial on how to import LODs (level of detail models) into CE.

aLTis94

2016

YouTube

Physics/vehicle tutorial

Explains how to make physics tags for vehicles in Halo CE.

aLTis94

2015

YouTube

Scenery tutorial

A basic tutorial covering how to create a static scenery piece.

Yoda73811

2013

YouTube

Custom FP arm rig tutorial

Similar to the Custom Character tutorial, but specifically for custom FP arm rigs. This is not a tutorial for an animation/IK rig, check the animation section for that.

Yoda73811

2013

YouTube

Custom character tutorial

A playlist of 3 videos where Yoda skins, imports and makes a model work as a character in CE.

Yoda73811

2013

YouTube

Custom projectile tutorial

A simple tutorial on how to make a projectile for your weapon in CE.

Yoda73811

2013

YouTube

Custom weapons tutorial

A playlist of 29 videos where Yoda models and makes a weapon fully functional in Halo CE.

Yoda73811

2012

YouTube

Animation

Name

Description

Author(s)

Last updated

Links

Dropship tutorial - custom animations

A tutorial that teaches you very basic animation, combined with how you can make a dropship fly into the level without having it use a recording of you flying it in. Also teaches you how to load a dropship with enemies and how to make it open and close it's doors.

MattDratt

2016

YouTube

About animation types

A little explanation on how certain animation types were used in TSC:E

t3h lag

2013

Google Drive

Recorded animations tutorial

Tutorial for recording you playing the game for stuff like cutscenes.

{NP} Final

2012

halonet.net

Automatic forearm Twist

A technique to automatically rotate forearms when animating wrists.

ImBrokeRU

2012

YouTube

Link constraints in a reload animation

Helps you get to know more about link constraints, a technique to animate multiple bones together for the duration of their movement together.

ImBrokeRU

2012

YouTube

t3h lag's FP animation tutorials

A playlist of multiple tutorials which should get you to know all the basics of first person animation.

t3h lag

2010

YouTube

IK controllers for FP arms

A tutorial on how to set up simple IKs for the halo FP arms.

t3h lag

2010

YouTube

Animation export types

Helps you export animations with the right file type.

CtrlAltDestroy

2009

halonet.net (scroll down)

Third person overlay name and frame schemes

Useful for setting up vehicles that have turrets or completely custom bipeds that need new aiming overlays.

Advancebo

2009

halonet.net

Effects

Name

Description

Author(s)

Last updated

Links

Custom muzzle flash tutorial

This tutorial covers how to get a custom muzzle flash into halo custom edition. It does not cover the creation of the bitmap itself.

Yoda73811

2013

YouTube

Creating a custom muzzle flash bitmap

This tutorial is how to create a custom muzzle flash, or anything else that can be applied to this.

Advancebo

2009

halonet.net

Other

Name

Description

Author(s)

Last updated

Links

Colorchange mask explanation GIF

An animated representation of how color change with shader_model multipurpose maps works.

Giraffe

?

Imgur

Aim assist explanation

An explanation about how aim assist in Halo CE works.

t3h m00kz

?

Imgur

World units explanation

An explanation of the size of world units and their equivalents.

Ki11erFTW

?

Imgur

Shader transparent rundown

An extensive explanation of how shader_transparent based shaders work.

MosesOfEgypt

2019

Google Drive

Halo CE bitmap compression

Statistics and tips for people who want to get the most out of their bitmaps.

gbMichelle

2017

Google Docs

Tag manipulation in SAPP

How to edit tags in SAPP, the dedicated server mod.

002

2016

OpenCarnage

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the following individuals for their research or contributions to this topic:

  • gbMichelle (Gathering the list of external tutorials, originally on halocetutorials.tk)