tsg sandbox, gamemodes & mapSetup
My trinity of helpful setup platform prefabs that significantly ease the act of setting up a map.
These "setup platforms" are intended for Halo Infinite map creators "Forgers" to easily be able to pull or copy correctly set up objects from. Having objects that usually require manual setup from the user be already correctly set up eases the workload on the Forger.
I've created three categories of platform: Sandbox, Gamemodes & Map Setup. They can be placed separately if the Forger only wants objects from a certain platform.
These prefabs have proven to be very useful to Forgers in many communities who strive their maps to be the highest quality. I am always looking out for the latest standards when it comes to setting up the object properties on the objects within the prefabs. I will push out an updated prefab if something like a Ranked setup standard changes.
A common method used by Forgers is to place all three of these prefabs on their map before starting the map in an effort to reserve the budget that these items will inevitably take. You wouldn't want to build out your map too much only to realize that you can't fit the standard gamemodes on to it anymore.
Find the resources here to use them in Halo Infinite.
The tsg sandbox prefab shows example setups of all correctly set up sandbox items that are used in developer-made Halo Infinite maps. The platform includes items such as Weapon Racks, Equipment Dispensers, Vehicle Pads, Fusion Coils and Gravity Lifts.
Each sandbox object has variants in applicable gamemodes where a different setup is required as opposed ot another mode. For example Power Equipment Pads requiring no Nav Point in BTB, Some vehicles like the Mongoose having a different spawn time in Arena and the Rocket Launcher requiring a 50% ammo variant in Ranked.
All objects have their labels set up correctly so they show up in the intended gamemodes without any adjustments from the Forger. For example all objects other than Infection specific item spawners are exluded in Infection, all Fusion Coils are excluded in Ranked and all BTB variants of Weapon Pads are only included in BTB modes.
Bookmark the "tsg sandbox" resource here to use it in Halo Infinite.
The tsg gamemodes prefab is a collection of all objects required to support all gamemodes in Halo Infinite excluding Firefight. Setting up support for a gamemode on your map with this prefab is as easy as just dragging the necessary gamemode objects onto your map.
None of the objects require adjustments from the Forger to function correctly, but certain aspects such as the size of King of the Hill zones or the spacing between the Stockpile Sockets may need adjusting from the Forger to fit their map.
There are team colors as well as letter- and number decals on the platform that allow the user to understand what team and appearance order each object has. This allows the user to select the correct objects at a glance without having to look into the object properties.
Bookmark the "tsg gamemodes" resource here to use it in Halo Infinite.
The tsg mapSetup prefab is a collection of example setups of all remaining objects necessary for a fully standard map experience. Objects found on the platform include: Spawn Points, Nav Mesh objects, Intro and Outro Cameras, an Audio Emitter, Kill Volumes and Named Location Volumes.
This platform is the least impactful of the three as most of these objects require some additional setup from the user, leading to them often just spawning said objects from the Object Browser itself.
There are still some quality-of-life benefits of using objects taken from this platform such as: Respawn Points having a tall, cylindrical boundary on them to be able to see their position from afar when selected, all the Nav Helpers having a boundary size that is already the correct width for most use cases and the Map Intro Cameras being positioned in a generic way and ready-to use for quick map blockouts.
The Map Outro Camera features a "rig" that attemps to visualize how the view of the Outro Camera screen will look like. The sideways pyramid is used to show a rectangular frame as the edges of the outro screen because the outro camera is taken at 35 FOV, which cannot be simulated by the player easily.
Bookmark the "tsg mapSetup" resource here to use it in Halo Infinite.
Development summary:
Resource idea
I always try to ease my own workflow by making templates for things so making something similar to ease the act of setting up a map was a no-brainer for me. I started by just placing some correctly set up objects on floating platforms that I could then copy from.
First releases
I quickly realized that this could be a useful resource for others as well, so I published what I had made. I did both the sandbox and gamemodes prefabs at first, but they were very barebones regarding the supported objects as I was still looking into everything that would eventually have to be on them.
Constant iteration
I researched all of the developer-made maps in Halo Infinite to figure out the standards 343 was using to set up their maps as ther was no official documentation available for them. I made a lot of iterations to the platforms as I connected more dots on what the right standards were.
Changes to standards
As 343 made changes to the standards I had come to know, those had to be updated on the platforms. These would mostly be either a new map being released that used setups previously unseen or unexpected things like 343's Pro Team deciding that all Equipment should spawn differently in Ranked for example.
Completing the trifecta
Realizing that I had a need for some setup objects that were missing from the two platforms, I decided to make the final piece of the puzzle. I partly made the tsg mapSetup platform to have example setups of the misc. objects as well, but also because I just wanted to complete the RGB trifecta of my setup platform prefabs.