In an attempt to figure out how to make a gametype that spawns players with no weapons like my old modded gametypes on Xbox, I figured out how to convert Xbox gametypes to H2V gametypes with hex editing! I'd make a script or program to automate this but I couldn't find a suitable command line utility that is scriptable, and I don't have the skills to make a full blown program to do this, so you'll have to do the hex editing yourself, but if you've got a lot a gametypes on your old Xbox you want to bring with you to H2V, this is way faster than trying to recreate it in game.
Requirements:
1) Your Xbox needs to be softmodded so you can FTP your gametypes off your Xbox and onto your PC.
2) You need a hex editing application. I'd recommend using HxD.
Step 1: FTP the gametypes off your Xbox
If you've already got a softmodded Xbox, you should know what to do for this (If you don't, you'll probably learn how in the process, check with r/originalxbox for your softmodding needs). The gametypes will be saved at
Step 2: Hex Edit the gametypes
Halo 2 Xbox gametypes are made up of 3 files in a folder:
...where
Halo 2 Vista gametypes are also made up of 3 files in a folder:
Notice something? Yes, they are all the same things!... mostly. SaveImage.xbx is exactly the same on both, and is just an image depicting the gametype.
Lets start with
Delete everything on lines
Now, we can move onto
Again, if you're interested in how H2V makes this file, go ahead and open
Go ahead and save it. Once it is saved, rename it from
Now to put it in the correct place. Open File Explorer, and navigate to
Congrats! You are now done. Load up Cartographer and make sure that the gametypes show up under Settings -> Gametype Variants, and that the settings are the same as they were on the Xbox, then take it the extra mile and load one up in a network game to make sure they work. If everything is in order, go ahead and repeat for every gametype you have, and enjoy saving a lot of time. If you want to go the extra distance, you can find out what every hex value does and edit it and see what happens, but what happens after is all on you. (Tip:
Just a quick side note: I don't really know where this thread belongs so I put it here, and I blame the mods if it's in the wrong place JK, but you know what I'm saying. Enjoy all!
EDIT: As a quick afterthought, you should make a text file list every folder name (Ex. S000001) and what gametype is in it (SWAT [Slayer]) and put it with all of your save games so you can quickly find one if you ever want to upload it somewhere or delete it or hex edit for lolz or whatever.
Requirements:
1) Your Xbox needs to be softmodded so you can FTP your gametypes off your Xbox and onto your PC.
2) You need a hex editing application. I'd recommend using HxD.
Step 1: FTP the gametypes off your Xbox
If you've already got a softmodded Xbox, you should know what to do for this (If you don't, you'll probably learn how in the process, check with r/originalxbox for your softmodding needs). The gametypes will be saved at
/E/UDATA/4d530064/
. You don't need to copy any of the .xbx files, just the folders and the any files in those folders. If a folder has a profile
file in it, its not a gametype, so you don't need to copy it either.Step 2: Hex Edit the gametypes
Halo 2 Xbox gametypes are made up of 3 files in a folder:
Code:
SaveImage.xbx
SaveMeta.xbx
slayer
slayer
is the type of gametypes. If it was a Juggernaut or King of the Hill gametype, it would be juggernaut
and koth
respectively.Halo 2 Vista gametypes are also made up of 3 files in a folder:
Code:
SaveImage.xbx
savemeta.bin
slayer
savemeta.bin
is the same as SaveMeta.xbx
, just with a couple differences you'll have to hex edit. Likewise, slayer
(or whatever gametype) is the same, but with some extra fluff at the end of the file.Lets start with
slayer
. Open it in HxD (or your choice of hex editor), and you should see something like this:Delete everything on lines
00000130
and 00000140
. If you're curious, you can open a H2V gametype, and notice it looks exactly the same, but missing those last two lines. They are laid out exactly the same, the Xbox one just has extra data at the end of it. I don't know what it is for, but H2V doesn't need it to load the gametype, so fire at will. Once you have these two lines removed, go ahead and save it.Now, we can move onto
SaveMeta.xbx
. Open it, and you should see this:Again, if you're interested in how H2V makes this file, go ahead and open
savemeta.bin
from a H2V gametype. The first thing to remove here is the ÿþN.a.m.e.=.
so that the first character is the "S" in Slayer (or "K" in King of the Hill, etc.). The next thing you need to do is remove the null characters (the "Periods") after the last character in the gametype name. Even though the H2V savemeta.bin
has null characters after the name too, all of them are 00s, where the Xbox's SaveMeta.xbx
are not all 00s, as you can see in the above screenshot. After you remove the null characters ("Periods") after the last character in the gametype name, go into the hex side and start inserting 00s until the end of line 000000F0, so that you pad the file out to 256 bytes. When you are done, it should look like this:Go ahead and save it. Once it is saved, rename it from
SaveMeta.xbx
to savemeta.bin
. Don't worry about hex editing SaveImage.xbx
, it remains exactly the same on both Xbox and H2V, since it's just an image. Congrats, the real leg work to convert it is done!Now to put it in the correct place. Open File Explorer, and navigate to
C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Halo 2\Saved Games
or just [B]%LocalAppData%[/B] \Microsoft\Halo 2\Saved Games
. Once there, create a new folder for every new gametypes you are importing. The folder must be named SXXXXXXX
, where X can be any combination of numbers, just make sure there isn't already a folder with that exact name. Open that folder, and copy over SaveImage.xbx
, savemeta.bin
, and slayer
(or whatever gametype it is).Congrats! You are now done. Load up Cartographer and make sure that the gametypes show up under Settings -> Gametype Variants, and that the settings are the same as they were on the Xbox, then take it the extra mile and load one up in a network game to make sure they work. If everything is in order, go ahead and repeat for every gametype you have, and enjoy saving a lot of time. If you want to go the extra distance, you can find out what every hex value does and edit it and see what happens, but what happens after is all on you. (Tip:
000000D0 06
is the byte for primary weapon! 01 represents no weapon, and 13 is for Sentinel Beam. You can find out more from there.)Just a quick side note: I don't really know where this thread belongs so I put it here, and I blame the mods if it's in the wrong place JK, but you know what I'm saying. Enjoy all!
EDIT: As a quick afterthought, you should make a text file list every folder name (Ex. S000001) and what gametype is in it (SWAT [Slayer]) and put it with all of your save games so you can quickly find one if you ever want to upload it somewhere or delete it or hex edit for lolz or whatever.
Last edited: