Tags: Feature Focus | FAQs
Prometheus has many features, but we'll list a few of the most notable ones here. To experience the numerous other features you'll just have to use the program, but only when it's ready.
General Features
All-in-One Application - No more jumping between multiple applications, everything is in one place! Playing Duck Hunt with Alt-Tab isn't any fun, so we made sure that you are able to handle all game-related operations in one application.
Project Management - Run everything in a nice and orderly fashion. Project management allows you to keep track of all tags related to a specific project you're working on without jumping around 20 directories in Windows Explorer. Tag hunting is a sport of the past.
Project management differs from asset and content management in multiple ways. It helps you keep track of project specific tags and scripts, enables you to import and manage controlled content, and keeps track of compilation settings.
Scripting IDE - Tired of writing your Halo scripts in NotePad? Prometheus includes a robust IDE, almost on par with Visual Studio's, to make your scripting life much simpler. Syntax highlighting, IntelliSense features, code snippets, and bookmarking are among some of the more notable features, but there are many more.
User Assistance
Abundant Documentation - We do our best to cover everything you need to know regarding map creation. This includes detailed information about content creation, level design, tag creation, population, details on the tag formats, scripting, and much more.
If we don't have what you need to know documented somewhere, you can expect it will be documented soon.
Automated Guides - Prometheus contains some very useful guide dialogs that will help you find your way through the initial darkness.
The initial configuration guide helps you get all the basics hammered out so you don't have to fumble through dozens of option dialogs. Project guides help you setup a project by letting you select what types of vehicles, bipeds, weapons, scenery, etc. that you want in your map; your tags will be automagically configured based on your choices.
Community - The website not only acts as a place for you to get the latest updates. This website is a resource where you can get tutorials, user made plug-ins for currently unsupported tags, search the knowledge base, and interact with other users in the
forums.
Tag Handling
Decompiler - Do you think having access to all the original tags would be handy? We do, too! You can decompile original maps and have their resources at your disposal for inclusion in your own maps.
You may only decompile maps that were originally included with the game - you are not able to decompile user made maps. Decompiled content is only usable in the Halo engine.
Model & Animation Viewing - Waiting for modeling suites to load up is certainly nobody's hobby and you can't open Bungie models or animations with them. To alleviate the pain of using an external program just to take a peek at models and animations, we've made it very simple to do so directly in Prometheus.
Whether you've got a map open or not, it's easy to access a model, inspect its texturing and shader effects, view the animations associated with it, and overlay the collision model. If you do happen to have a map open, you can trigger the animations within the world directly.
Content Management
Asset Importing - No more running every model, texture, and sound through a command line. Asset importing is integrated with Prometheus to simplify getting your raw materials into a format Prometheus and the desired game can digest. Once the conversion process has been completed, it will be easy to quickly open up your newly created tags to add some extra polish.
File Versioning - Source control for software projects can save many hours when you discover some recent changes were not for the better. With Prometheus, we've brought some basic content control to map projects so you can stress a bit less with every change.
Our versioning system makes sure you or a team member don't paint your project into a corner with regrettable changes to your project files, tags, and scripts. Versioning is a manual process so you can leave notes on what you've changed and why, but it occurs automatically in some instances for extra protection.
Prefabs - Rounding up all of the tags a certain piece of content relies on is no easy task. Many weapons and vehicles have dozens of dependencies that you have to gather up if you want to share your creation with anyone else. Often times, others will have a different version of some tags you send, making the matter even more confusing.
Prefabs make sharing simple; with the click of a button all of the necessary tags are packaged up into a single file and ready to be shared. A prefab can contain every tag needed for a piece of content or only custom and modified tags to reduce unnecessary bloat.
Security
Map Obfuscation - Prometheus does not allow the decompilation of user created content, but some applications just are not that nice. By default, we obfuscate your map so that decompilers will choke on your map and tag thieves will have a much harder time stealing from you. This feature can be disabled if you're in a sharing mood.
Secure Content Sharing - Giving back to the community is what helps it improve in quality and quantity, but wouldn't you like a
little more control over the hours of hard work that sharing? Prefabs can be configured to disable modification of your tags, require a password to use your content, or be open for all to use and modify freely.
Compatibility
Guerilla Importing - You can't wait to try Prometheus, but you have tons and tons of tags that you created with Guerilla; what ever shall you do? Simply import them, of course.
We store our tags differently than Guerilla. We know that you've worked hard on Halo content prior to Prometheus' release. Just so you don't have to pull your hair out, we've made sure to include an importer that will allow you to use your countless hours of work in projects you're creating with Prometheus.
Support for Multiple Games - Prometheus started out as a Halo 1 content creation tool, but we've built it from the ground up to support multiple titles. Our approach allows us to add support for any Halo engine game that uses a similar content management system with relative ease. At this time, Prometheus fully supports Halo 1 and Halo 2, with very basic support for Stubbs the Zombie.
Support for Multiple Platforms - Though Prometheus runs only on the Windows platform, the games we support are not restricted to the PC realm. We strive to enable Prometheus to create content for the Xbox, PC, and Mac versions of all the games we support. Currently, all commercially available platforms for Halo 1 and Halo 2 are supported.
