Hello everyone! Thank you all for being so patient with us while we fixed up some of the issues we had with the initial release of 0.5.
With the exception of voice chat, we are happy to release most of our new features
Note: Please use the ONLINE option in the main menu to find games and servers
LIVE List
Achievements
New Game Mode: Grave Robber
New Custom Cartographer Settings
Patches and Bug fixes
Project Team Message
With the exception of voice chat, we are happy to release most of our new features
Note: Please use the ONLINE option in the main menu to find games and servers
LIVE List
- Our back end networking has been completely rewritten and revamped.
- Previous versions of Cartographer used the LAN Network server browser as the hub for servers and game play.
- This was considered to be a quick hacky workaround to get people playing with each other after Microsoft abandoned the official LIVE servers back in 2015.
- Update 0.5.x features updates to the core networking that is similar to the original Halo 2 for Windows Vista LIVE servers.
- As a result, we are now moving from the Network tab to the Live menu (which has been renamed to "Online") for multiplayer services.
- All online game play, server lists, custom games, and matching options are now located in the Online menu. This means you will no longer see servers in the Network menu.
- The Online menu includes a number of native features; Ping calculations, Server list searching/sorting/management, and a "Quickmatch" matchmaking option which automatically joins the most ideal server, based on connection and match quality.
Achievements
- You can now unlock achievements! Currently only the original Halo 2 for Windows Vista achievements are available to be unlocked.
- We also plan to have an online achievement browser; currently you cannot view the achievements you have unlocked.
- You can view a list of the original Halo 2 PC achievements here: https://halo.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Achievements_for_Halo_2_Vista
New Game Mode: Grave Robber
- We are excited to introduce a new game mode: "Grave Robber”! Think of the Headhunter game type from the Halo 2 Beta or Halo: Reach combined with Kill Confirmed from Call of Duty. Kill enemies and collect the skull they drop to earn points. Once you collect enough skulls to win the game, get one final kill to seal the deal and win it all!
- You will currently find Grave Robber games limited to FFA at this time and will be activated under the game variant name "GraveRobber" (no spaces).
H2X Mod Update- The H2X mod, a game variant name triggered mod that is designed to rebalance the weapons within Halo 2 PC to match the fire rates of original Halo 2 Xbox, has had new audio tweaks added to it in order to match the original audio pitches from Halo 2 Xbox as well. For example, the "fizz" you hear when throwing the plasma grenade is much quieter on Halo 2 PC when compared to original Halo 2. This could possibly cause you to die from the plasma grenade because you didn't hear it near you. Keep in mind these are only enabled when the game you are playing has “H2X” in it’s name. Example: “Team Slayer H2X”.
New Custom Cartographer Settings
- Added a reticle resize option.
- Added new Static LoD (Level of detail) options.
- Added force refresh rate options.
- These settings can be accessed from the CARTOGRAPHER option in the main menu or by pressing the HOME key on your keyboard
Patches and Bug fixes
- UPnP now supported: Basically allows you to host games without port forwarding. Also required for voice chat to function correctly.
- If your router does not support UPnP, you have to port forward to host games.
- Default ports to forward are (2000-2008 UDP, and 2009-2010 TCP) Change accordingly if you change your ports in the configuration file.
- Radar fix: Fixed an issue where the radar blip would fade out the dot completely out instead of staying lit enough for you to see enemies on your radar. The red dot would also sometimes not appear at all if a player had just spawned and was moving.
- Please note this is a work in progress and there will be more optimizations in the near future.
- Special thanks to Alen for finding this bug.
- Vehicle Field of View fixes: In our last update we had an improper value set for the FOV in vehicles and turrets causing it to look "zoomed in". This is now fixed to match the proper values.
- Server list flickering: This is an issue that is resolved with Live list. The Network list would sometimes constantly flash or flicker for some making it hard to select a game.
- Zombies / Infection: As above we had introduced a few bugs with our infection game mode in which was causing some audio bugs and crashes. These should now be resolved.
- Optimizations: We have many fixed memory leaks as well as overall optimizations to the game. The game should feel much smoother and not use as much system resources. The Cartographer FPS limiter has been rewritten to fix frame drops and stutters!
- We recommend you still limit your framerate to 60FPS, as going above this value causes issues.
- Profile Encryption Removal: Removed the encryption that was applied to every Halo 2 profile and game variant upon creation. This will allow sharing of profiles/game variants between PCs.
- Reminder: do not share Cartographer accounts. This will get you banned.
- Hitfix changes
- BR Velocity decreased from 1200 to 800
- Carbine increased from 400 to 800
- Sniper reduced to 1200 (default)
- When running the game in windowed mode at 2K and 4K resolutions, there are issues with text breaking or disappearing completely. If these issues apply to you, enable this fix:
- Right click on your game's shortcut, select "Properties" and then click the "Shortcut" tab. Locate the Target line and at the very end of it (which should end with halo2.exe") add a space outside the quotation marks and type -hiresfix and click apply to enable.
- Example: "C:\Games\Halo 2 Project Cartographer\halo2.exe" -hiresfix
- If you installed the update through the Cartographer installer, the shortcut is already present in your Start Menu.
- Credits to eMoose for this fix!
Project Team Message
We would like thank everyone who has been with us and helped us test up to this release.
Special thanks to Alen for help with testing on the H2X mod updates and also to Scooter for testing the refresh rate fixes!
We know there will be issues and would love to hear feedback. For the best response please post all issues to our GitHub
Thank you all for your support and see you in game!
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