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7/3/2008 9:25:20 PM
169
Halo PC hotfix build 1.0.7.0615 released
Hi all,
Roger here, Bungie's old Halo PC guy from way back when. I've been in touch with Gearbox regarding the exploit currently being abused to make Halo servers unresponsive, and we've identified a fix. Now, I have no idea what the official support status of this game is, and I don't relish the thought of asking our friends at MGS to spin up a new Halo 1 PC support team and get their copy of the source out of whatever underground vault they keep it in. So, since I still have the official build machine under my desk (well, I put it in storage for a while, but yesterday asked our IT team to "unseal the hushed casket"), I made a fixed build and I'm posting it here. Don't take this as any official change in the game's support policy from MS, Bungie, or Gearbox, but when a problem like this comes along, we do want to help out the fans who have kept the game alive for this long.
So here's the plan: The zip I'm posting today has binaries that fix the particular bug in question. It's gotten only minimal testing to verify that it runs and isn't vulnerable. Over the next couple weeks, we'll watch the community feedback and look through the source a little more to see of we see any similar vulnerabilities we should patch at the same time. Then in about a month, I'll assemble a regular auto-patch so that players will get this fixed build automatically. Until then, the old build 1.0.7.0614 will remain live on the autopatcher, and you'll have to get this fix manually from here. The exe will be version stamped at build 0615, but in-game the version string will continue to say 0613 for compatibility reasons.
This patch contains four EXEs: client & dedicated servers for Halo PC and Halo CE. Drop the binaries into the respective game directories. If you provide feedback here, please focus on items related to this exploit fix; we will not be making other changes related to new hardware support, performance, etc.
Since these files are not codesigned, the MD5 hashes are as follows:
Halo PC
5be538321fd40f52ebdea496f3427bec halo.exe
72502a9f922b9dd5413f76cf9f215b16 haloded.exe
0a84675e9e2af4603dbd2263c7990306 Strings.dll
Halo CE
e3dc00b18f33558fd801b739315bcc21 haloce.exe
0315a461440e7fdf26698bdad4dea2a7 haloceded.exe
d01f8b7e039079d9084470774f5c3377 Strings.dll
The patch is at the following URL:
[url]http://www.bungie.net/images/games/halopc/patch/halopc615.zip[/url]
Gearbox also plans to mirror the patch, I expect that it will be linked from here:
[url]http://www.gearboxsoftware.com/index.php?p=games&game=halo[/url]
Enjoy!
-Roger
[Edited on 07.03.2008 1:35 PM PDT]
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Plug your controller into the computer.
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Whoa, Sawnose... and news about Halo PC... Is this heaven?
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Thanks!
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[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] tHuNdastRucK704 Will this, in any way, affect how I run Halo on my [b]Mac[/b] now or in the future?[/quote]
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[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] sawnose the community can feel free to pool their banfiles to build comprehensive lists of known cheaters.[/quote] U'd think that they would do that, but when most server opperators are given large lists of proven botters they won't use it b/c it requires the labor intensive job of signing into an ftp.
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Or rather because there's a risk of it being abused to get innocents banned.
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sawnose, I am very very very impressed. Thanks for releasing something I would call a unofficial official patch. I've been a part of the halo cummunity since 2005, pretty much all of that on halo ce. I would have never expected back then after a while that someone from bungie would ever come back.. You sure showed me up, thanks for continuing to keep our game alive. Also, a small question the 96k number you gave us was that for halo ce and pc both or just pc? I'd like to see the number of people on CE if that was somehow possible. =]
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Heya Roger, its nice to see that atleast one person decides to show up for the fans still out there. You can hear im gruntled, but its not your fault. Some things that could use an update. Not sure if another update could remove the problem with swapping weapons - aka that u can swap your way to 0 - 4 weapons (most commonly being 1 or 3). Or the fake reload - not sure what causes this though - a weapon that doesnt want to reload - it just keeps on doing the reload motion. Invisible nades - this happens when the nade leaves your hand after you're dead - whereupon the nade becomes invisible. Weapon respwn even though the weapon is in the air - alot of players do nade weapons to themselves - when a weapon respwns whilst it flying through the air its quite annoying. Regarding the bot problem. I'm not in any way a programmer, neither to i know much about programming, but coulnt a statistic tool help spot people who use unlegit means? For an example - measure the reaction time from that another player is viewable on the screen or the reaction in itself - a normal human being cant possible react in the exact same way every time - which a bot should do (?). % where hitts reg etc is also things that could be regged? Regarding the game living on; i think that missing the pure physics in movement and speed -and what they bring to the game balance overall with the weapon balance well done - is the first and foremost reason for people not moving over to H2PC (i dont accept the term H2V) and people actually disliking it aswell as Halo 3. Loosing the gameplay thats not been surpassed by any game of date (as far as i know) together with the urge to mess around with close to perfectly balanced maps just made me cry in frustration (i cant belive companies havent learned from Blizzard by now, IF people want a different game then the one they found/find fun theyll get another game, just look at the hype over D3).
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Sawnose--first of all, thank you so much for this patch. You had no obligation to make it and nothing to gain, but you did it anyway out of sheer awesomeness. I'd say you have the respect of every person who loves this game. I know we're supposed to limit this thread to feedback for the the patch, but I hope you'll reconsider what Shazim was talking about. The aimbot is a big problem, and unfortunately pooling banlists or passwording servers won't fix it. I understand how difficult it would be to fix the root of the problem (I can always dream though), but I have an idea that might be a little more feasible. If the relatively small(?) change you made to the code stopped aimbots from working, why not come up with 10 new updates and release them as needed? Even if the changes were superficial and bot programmers worked around them, it would still cost them time and effort. When it was all over, there'd be at least 10 non-functioning aimbots circulating around the internet. It might be enough to discourage people: most of the botters I catch in our servers are still using the original bitterbananas shiftbot. I'm sure it would still be a lot of work. But HPC players really want to get rid of the bot, and instead of banlists, we could pool our disposable income. Recently, we've displayed a willingness to pay up front. :D So could we make some sort of deal? How much would it cost for a new temporary fix, once a working aimbot comes out again?
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The thing about aimbotting is that even another tool ontop of what Sightjacker can do still isn't going to get people banned from unhosted servers. Considering players have become extremely good at Halo PC, and with radar and knowledge of the maps, it can appear as though you bot. I can "snap" onto a guy's head pretty quickly, maybe not as quickly or accurately as a bot, but I don't think some tool would be able to accurately differentiate 100% of the time. The basic problem is that everyone bots differently, there aren't necessarily patterns to "detect." This is especially true with seasoned cheaters who bot very sneaky and can be hard to detect even with Sightjacker...basically the ones who floated from clan to clan trying to master this in Klanwars. Yes, the game is obviously flawed in a number of ways. I would argue that the lag issues and BS caused by high pingers are much more annoying than the cheating, and that stuff will never get fixed considering the game was designed to support crap modem speeds.
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I think the staff at bungie.net, shouldn't do this job half-assed. If you're gonna fix the exploit, fix the lead to, and make it so we dont have to lead anymore like modern fps games.
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Cool ! Thanks for everything. I put the files just in the halo directory right? No specific folder in the directory?
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But why would we want lead to be gone? Halo PC is fun and challenging because that lead adds skill to our shooting.
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For the server, First stop the server and then place the haloded.exe in the halo server folder (you will have to overwrite the current haloded.exe file).Then restart the server. For the client, place the halo.exe and the strings.dll into your halo folder (Should be something like \Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\ ). Overwrite the existing files and you will be good to go
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[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] iConcern I think the staff at bungie.net, shouldn't do this job half-assed. If you're gonna fix the exploit, fix the lead to, and make it so we dont have to lead anymore like modern fps games.[/quote] Sorry, unsupported games don't work that way. Sawnose made the patch because the new exploit was a real problem, something that lead is not.
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Wow u guys are demanding lol...at least a patch was released!!! That's more than we could of thought would happen. I do agree but I don't think it would be feasible for Bungie to fix all these problems. Perhaps if they would release a redefined version of Halo 1 PC....fix the problems...call it Halo Combat Evolved Multiplayer Redefined......WITHOUT CHANGING A THING besides the obvious problems (lead, invisible death nades, weapon glitches). Keeping all the old maps (maybe a few new ones)....slap $30.00 fee on it or something :D You know you'd buy it (I know I would) and it could be beneficial to Bungie. Even those who don't play Halo 1 PC aka Halo Fanatics would probably buy it :D
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I think the staff at bungie.net need to get the -blam!- off their ass and start doin some real work. not some half ass bull-blam!-. halo PC have ALOT more problems than just that exploit, although I understand that the exploit was the biggest of them. they are just being to -blam!- lazy to fix the rest. ex: aimbots, bluewalls, lead, reload glitch, one weapon glitch, warp.
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[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] sawnose Regarding aimbots - I've never personally researched anit-aimbot programming, but I imagine it would be very involved and intrusive into the codebase, to make a real, permanent fix that doesn't just become an arms race. Real fixes must involve kernel-level anti-debugger and anti-memory-snooping code, and remember, this game runs on Win98 too! Trying to tack in this sort of feature now would certainly open us up to many new compat problems and a number of iterations; the development time would be prohibitive. Or let me put it this way: the game executable (including the patch released today) is wrapped with SafeDisc technology that is brand-name protection developed by a large company to prevent both copying and memory-intrusion attacks on the binary. And yet I'll bet that a large percentage of the game's regular users run utilities to un-safedisc the binary to save having to put in the CD; of course I'm familiar with them. If the 3rd-party commercial package we use to protect the code doesn't do the trick, you can bet that fixing the aimbot problem isn't just a matter of me sitting down and deciding to do so :-) It's one of the big differences between the PC and the Xbox - the Xbox is designed from the start to be a secure platform, particularly when you're signed in to Live, and it brings a new level of fairness to games. The PC, on the other hand, is *your* platform, as the user. There are very limited ways of preventing you from doing what you want on your own PC, such as automating your aiming. The ways that have been fairly successful in other games have needed to keep evolving, and that's a level of support that Bungie can't sign up for, for an old game that wasn't even developed in-house. Instead, I have to recommend judicious use of the banning and server-password features. Notice that your ban file is plain-text, and the community can feel free to pool their banfiles to build comprehensive lists of known cheaters. P.S. - I didn't add anti-aimbot code in this patch. If current aimbots don't work, it'll be because the new executable has a slightly different memory layout; as soon as the bot programmers investigate, updated aimbots will unfortunately be back.[/quote] You don't have to explain to us... Despite most of us being completely ignorant in programming knowledge, we know that there's no way that a casual patch like this would fix the problem. I for one appreciate anything at all - the gesture more than anything else.
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Thats some sweet stuff thanks for showing support Roger. On another note FIX THE AIMBOTS!! lol we all know its not as easy as just sitting down and fixing it alot of us have tried. Im not sure how long it will take you but from what you posted It seems complicated. Im not going to sugar coat this Roger the halo gods need you to be a halo saint and save us from the aimbotters. Sure the game is old and you may find it a waste of time but if you accomplish this competitive play with certainly be on the rise again. Or let me put it this way Roger, if i had a briefcase full of money...how much would you take to make this happen? -Ty again for showing ur concern.
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iConcern stu there not going to fix the lead and I would rather they didn't. Try talking less and practicing more.
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We all know Roger will not update Halo pc like we all want to... We are very lucky he did this patch.. Roger did it by himself..yes it took only one person to fix the game(haloboom,aimbot,clickbot). So i was thinking..wouldnt that be amazing if Roger would give the official build machine to someone trustable that really cares about Halo. That person could update Halo pc once in a while on his own to prevent new hacks/cheats. Im sure that person would be happy to do this for free...That person could even fix other issues like warp/ reload glitch/ weapon glitch/ text lag/etc. Then make sure everything works good and put it in the auto-patch. One person could make this game relive. Please consider this, and thank you again for the patch. -th!wy
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The source will never be released, sadly. ;)
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Man sounds like i need to fire up some old Halo PC today.... But how do you fit Halo into a day of blowing things up?! [Edited on 07.04.2008 1:07 PM PDT]
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Thanks for the HotFix, not had any problems myself as i brushed the dust off and installed the game the other day. Even with my new Laptop i have to run in 800 x 600 mode to reduce frame lag but im still a fan. If i dont find a match in the 4th of July hopper in the next 10 minutes im a go play stupidly powerfull pistols on Coag. Scotty Less than three and all that.
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[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] RageGummy im a go play stupidly powerfull pistols on Coag. [/quote] Down with Coagulation! BG is where it's at!
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wow, i still have my halo PC game! [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] sawnose Here's an interesting stat: There have been 96152 unique Halo PC users in online multiplayer in the past 30 days! (That's the number of unique, legit "yellow sticker" CD keys seen online). This game certainly lives on.[/quote]
