PMI: The Process

[Jay]

This was written by me. For se7ensins and HaloBlast.





First off PMI stands for Perfect Model Injection and it is how we get objects from one map into another map in Halo PC. For an example let's say we wanted to have a grunt or jackal in the map bloodgulch, we would PMI it from any single player map that has those characters into the multiplayer map that's being modded.

I'm going to guide you through the steps involved in PMI but I’m not actually going to tell you how to inject something.

Note: To PMI you need HMT v3.5 which can be found here.

Step 1: Create a new folder on your desktop called PMI. Within this folder create 4 more folder called Batch Extract, Build, New Items, VIB. Within the New Items folder create 6 more folders called: actr, actv, bipd, misc, vehi, weap.

So it should look like:

PMI
-- Batch Extract
-- New Items
---- actr
---- actv
---- bipd
---- misc
---- vehi
---- weap

-- Build
-- VIB








A quick explanation: The PMI folder you made is the root folder which just helps keep everything organized, The batch extract folder is where we extract everything from the map we will be modding to. The new items is the folder that holds the items we are going to be adding to the map we'll be modding, it has 6 sub folders to put items in depending on what your wanting to add. The build folder is where the finished modded map will end up. The VIB folder is for the vertices, indices, and bsp of the maps.


Step 2: Copy a un-modded version of the map you're going to be modding ie. Bloodgulch and add it to your Build folder.








Step 3: Open HMT v3.5 and then open the map you just copied into your build folder. Once that's open go to Tools > Extract > Batch Extract. Click the Browse button in the new box that pops up and navigate to the Batch Extract folder inside your PMI folder and then click ok (make sure the batch extract folder looks opened). Then check off the box called Extract Metadata. Once that's checked off click start batch extraction and when the box asking about the BSP comes up say yes. This will take about a minute depending on how good your computer is so just be patient, Once it's done click Ok in the box that comes up.














Step 4: Close the batch extract window and then go to Tools > Extract > BSP/Model Sections. Navigate to your PMI folder and then click on the VIB folder so it's open and then click Ok, Click Ok on the box that comes up saying it's being extracted and then close the BSP/Model Sections window.








Step 5: Open the map that you are taking something from. Go to the tag you are taking something from, as an example I’ll be taking a tree from the second campaign level so i'd open up the map a30 and go to the scen tag and then click on the object I want. Once you've selected the object you want go up to the tag information box and check off the box called recursive then right beside that box click the Save Meta button. Navigate to your PMI folder and then to your New Items folder. Depending on what your extracting you must save it to one of the 6 folders there. Scenery is saved to the misc folder while weapons go to the weap folder and vehicles go to the vehi folder. Characters are a bit different since they have 3 separate parts to them, which includes AI so they can run around, and shoot at you in your map. If your extracting a biped it goes to the bipd folder but then you must also save it's corresponding actr and actv tags to those 2 folders. Once you're done extracting the item you want click Ok on the box that comes. At this point if there are other things you want to put into a map you must repeat step 5 for the other items.












Step 6: Click Tools > Generate Raw Model Offset List (CSV File) and save it to your PMI folder. Then click Ok on the box that comes up.








Step 7: Click Tools > Extract > Raw Model. Click the Load CSV File button and navigate to where you saved the CSV File and then open it (it's called offsets). Now scroll through the list and find the items you saved to your new items folder in the previous step. Once you find the item click on it and then click the Extract button. Navigate to your PMI folder and then into your New Items folder. Once there you must go into the folder corresponding to the item you are extracting amd then keep on going into the sub folders until you are at the items sub folder that you are extracting. For me since i'm extracting a tall pine tree I would go to PMI/New Items/misc/scenery/trees/tree_pine_tall and then save it there. Repeat this process for any other items you are extracting and then close out of the Raw Model box.










Step 8: Now we must click on Tools > Model DeCrapper/BSP Builder. In the new window that comes right click anywhere in the big box at the top and then select add. Navigate to your PMI folder and then into your new items folder. Go into the sub folders corresponding to what you’re extracting. Go all the way through the sub-folders until you get to your item. It should end with .mod2.meta. Select that file and then click Open. Repeat this process for any other items you want to add. Once that's done click on the Browse button beside the Existing Vertex Area box and then navigate to your PMI folder and then into the VIB folder. Select the only file that is showing it will be ending in .vertices and then click Open. Do the same for the Indices and BSP, you want have to navigate to the VIB folder for these ones though since you're already in it. Once you've got those 3 things added click the big button at the bottom. This only takes a couple of seconds to do so click Ok when a box comes up saying it's done and close out of the Model DeCrapper/BSP Builder window.














Step 9: Close up HMT v3.5 and then go to your desktop or wherever you made the PMI folder. Open the PMI folder and then go into the VIB folder. Once there copy the file that ends in sbsp.meta. With that file copied back out of the VIB folder and navigate to the Batch Extract folder. Then go into the levels folder and then into the test folder. Go into the folder of the map that you are modding and paste that copied file. Say yes when it asks you to overwrite the other one that's in there. Once that's done back out to your PMI folder and then go back into the Batch Extract folder. Press CTRL+A and then CTRL+C to copy all of the folders in your Batch Extract folder. With those copied go back to your PMI folder and then into your Build folder. Press CTRL+V to paste all of them there, this will take a couple of minutes. Back out to your PMI folder again and this time go into your New Items folder. Then go into the folder corresponding to what you're adding to the map. For me it's a tree so I’d go into the misc folder. Once you're in the folder corresponding to the item copy any and all folders in there, for me the folder is called scenery. Then go back to you PMI folder and into the Build folder and paste your copied folder there, say yes to all when it asks if you want to overwrite the one already there. You must do this for all the items you are adding.




















Step 10: We're almost done!!! On to the rebuild! Ok so the last step is to rebuild them map. Open HMT v3.5 back up but don't open any maps. Go to Tools > Rebuild Map. For the original map click the browse button and navigate to your PMI folder and then go into the Build folder and select the .map file that's there and click yes when it asks to automatically find the needed files. Now at the bottom of the box in the addition files section click the add button. It should take you to the build folder if not navigate there now. Once there you have to know what folder contains the files needed for the object or objects that you are adding. For me it's a tree so I would go to the scenery folder and then into it's sub folders into I’m at the item I want to inject. Once you are at your items folder press CTRL+A to select all the files there but wait! While holding CTRL click any folders that are there so they aren't selected (the folders are called bitmaps and shaders). Then you can click ok. Click the add button again only this time go into those folders and add all the items in them. Repeat this step for all your items you are adding. Once all the additional files have been added click the Build button, ignore the SP -> MP that's for something else. While the map is rebuilding some boxes will come up, the first one asks if any vertices have been added. Click yes and then navigate to your PMI folder and then into the VIB folder. Select the one ending in vertices.new once that's done another box will come up asking if any indices have been added. Click yes and you will already be in the VIB folder so just select the one ending in indices.new and click open. Finally click yes for the last box that comes up and let the map finish rebuilding. Once it's done go into your PMI folder and then into the Build folder. Copy the map file ending in rebuild.map and paste it into halo's maps folder. Make shure there isn't another map named the same ie. In my halo maps folder I would delete bloodgulch.map so that bloodgulch.map.rebuild.map can take it's place. After deleting the old one paste your modded one into the folder and get rid of the .rebuild.map part of your rebuilt map.








































No we aren't done yet. Depending on what your modding you still have to do some more work. I'll use my tree as a simple example for this one. Open up your modded map (which should now be in you halo maps directory) with HMT v3.5 and go to the tag of your item, for me it's the scen tag. Find your new item and copy the meta number of it. Find another item in the same tag and paste it into that items meta box and click save (so I’d take the new trees meta and swap it with some other scenery's meta). Once you've clicked save you can close HMT v3.5 and go check out your mod in halo. If you get an exception then you did something wrong. Other than that have fun and mess around with whatever you did in HMT v3.5, SparkEdit, and HHT v5.