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HaloBrowser

HaloBrowser is an application that, given a list of Halo game servers, queries all of them for their current status, runs those that respond through a set of filters you specify in an ASCII text (.TXT) file, finds servers on which players you know are playing, and displays the resulting list of servers. Once the list is on-screen, a server can be selected to view all of the detailed information about its current game and, when desired, launch Halo to join that game.

In other words, it's a Halo game server browser. I wrote HaloBrowser because I couldn't find any other single piece of software that did everything I wanted:

• Reasonably easy to use (can page through servers quickly, etc.).
• Tell me when a friend is on-line, and where.
• Give me full game details, fast.
• Powerful filtering capabilities!

QTracker has a player finder but doesn't show much info about a game. HaloSpy is great for seeing everything there is to know about a game (almost), but checking one server at a time is tedious and slow. SeeMePlayMe and GameSpy both gave me enough hassle that I never got to really see what they can do. And Halo's in-game browser, well, that just sucks. Finally, nothing I know of comes close to doing what I want in terms of filtering.

As a bonus, I used HaloBrowser as an opportunity to start learning Java, something I've been long overdue in doing (I'm a software engineer by profession).

System Requirements
What HaloBrowser Can Do
What HaloBrowser Lacks
Issues in the Current Release
Screenshots
How to Get HaloBrowser
Installation
Using HaloBrowser
Contact Info & Further Help
License
Acknowledgements

System Requirements

Hardware

If your system can run Halo, it can run HaloBrowser.

Software

As a Java program, HaloBrowser can generally run on any OS that supports Java. Except for launching Halo, of course, so it really only makes sense to run it on Windows. I use Windows2000; HaloBrowser should work fine on other current OSs from Microsoft so let me know if any issues arise.

While I hope to eventually package HaloBrowser as a standalone application (an .EXE), for now it requires a JVM (Java virtual machine -- basically an installation of the Java runtime software) on your PC. This is free software available at java.sun.com. If you do not already have Java on your PC, download and install "J2SE 1.4.2", specifically JRE 1.4.2_04 or later. Only the runtime environment (JRE) is needed; the SDK is for folks who write Java software.

Internet Connection

HaloBrowser generates a fair amount of network traffic as it queries its list of game servers. I have no idea how its traffic pattern compares to other server browsers, & I do not know how well it will run on a non-broadband connection. But if issues arise they should be solvable.

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What HaloBrowser Can Do

HaloBrowser features include:

• Extremely powerful filtering. Currently available filters include the following, and others are very easily added assuming the servers provide the information needed. So if you want to filter on whether "Odd Man Out" is on or off, just ask.
  • Classic Rules on / off
  • Dedicated Server or not
  • Friendly Fire (on, off, explosives only, shields only)
  • Game Type
  • Infinite Grenades on / off
  • Invisibility on / off
  • Map
  • Max Health
  • Number Of Lives
  • Number Of Players -- at least X already in the game, at most X already in the game, at most X allowed in, at least X open spots
  • Password Protection on / off
  • Radar -- what is shown or not
  • Shields on / off
  • Software Version
  • Team Game or not
  • Vehicles (setting applies to both teams' vehicles)
  • Weapon Set
  A filter can exclude all servers that match it, or all servers that do not match it (this is not true for the Number Of Players filter, where it makes no sense). In addition, filters can be combined, so for example Boarding Action games of CTF can be filtered out while Slayer games are not.
• Characteristics which are "filterable" can also be used to indicate "preferred" servers. For instance, if you prefer maps other than Blood Gulch but don't want to filter it out completely, and you really like Damnation, you can add those preferences to the filters file and servers with those characteristics will be moved to the head or tail of the query results you are shown.
• Queries all servers specified in a text file.
• The servers can be requeried by user command or periodically. The refresh is user-controllable.
• Allows the user to view all of the information provided by any Halo server passing the filters. This includes rules that are specific to a certain type of game (ex. for King of the Hill whether the "hill" moves or is fixed).
• Identifies servers with players specified in the filter file. Player name matching includes exact, "starts with", "ends in", and "contains" type matches.
• Launch Halo and automatically join the selected game.
• Reasonably good performance; with my DSL connection the current list of 875 servers takes about 10 seconds, and a good part of that is just waiting to time out the servers that don't respond.
• Clean, simple, user-friendly GUI with the standard Windows look and feel.
• Good support for keyboard-based navigation of the user interface -- everything can be done without touching the mouse.
• Different sounds play when a set of queries completes, when a player match is found and when no servers pass the filters.
• Users can customize what files contain the server list and filters (or maintain multiple lists to switch between) and what sound files to play in various situations.

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What HaloBrowser Lacks

I expect the two biggest complaints about HaloBrowser to be that (a) it does not currently provide server "ping" information and (b) it can not automatically obtain a current list of on-line Halo servers.

Regarding ping info, it's been left out so far only because it's one of the larger remaining tasks yet has not been terribly important for my own needs. I play enough that I am often familiar with which servers have high or low pings, plus I have no problem running 'ping' manually if I want to check a server. In addition, my observations that over 20% of Halo servers don't respond to pings at all leads me to believe that this feature, while desirable, is not an absolute requirement for at least some Halo players. I expect it will eventually be implemented.

The need for a a preexisting list of servers, on the other hand, I am very unhappy about. Nothing would please me more than to be able to query GameSpy or another "server server" for a list of on-line Halo servers. However, everything I've looked at so far requires a client like HaloBrowser to authenticate itself with the server server, and I haven't found how to do that. If anybody can provide this information, or pointers to open source code that already does it, this capability will definitely be added to HaloBrowser.

Other items that are missing or would be nice to add are

• I plan to add a player "avoid" capability for the filters file. For instance, I've been in games where one player had a ping of 2000 or even more. Whether they're on my team or not, I do not want to be in a game with them. This feature would allow HaloBrowser to flag servers which pass all the filters but have one of these "undesirable" players.
• Right now player name matching is case sensitive. I plan to make that user-controllable on a per-player name basis.
• HaloBrowser indicates which servers have player matches, but the detailed display for that server does not mark or highlight the matches. The user has to examine the player list and figure out who matched.
• Making the application a standalone .EXE would eliminate a lot of potential install and "getting it running" issues. (note 1)
• There is no real install process, meaning it does not make an effort to learn anything about the system and its configuration. In particular, a user has to manually edit the .INI file to specify the location of halo.exe.
• It might be handy for a user to have a way to make HaloBrowser highlight certain fields of the detailed server info so they can be more easily found with a glance.
• What info appears in the server listing is fixed; the user has no control over it.
• The only control the user has over the order of servers in the list is by the "preferred server characteristics" discussed above; things like clicking on a column header to sort by that column are not supported.
• There is no utility function to facilitate adding new servers to the server list, or removing redundant entries. (note 2)
• It would be nice to be able to refresh a single server without having to do the entire list.
• I have no idea yet whether HaloBrowser will work with Halo CE.
• While the server list, filters and configuration / .INI files can be opened via the menus, there is really no GUI support for editing them 'by mouse' -- they're text files and they are editted as text files. I personally consider this a bonus but expect some complaints; the situation will change only if somebody volunteers to do the work or if HaloBrowser gains enough users who express a need for it.

Note 1: For the technically inclined -- I spent many, many, many hours trying to get a build with the GNU 'gcj' compiler. While I did eventually manage to generate an .exe, it immediately crashes with a generic Windows error.

Note 2: Since I'm a command line geek and have Cygwin on my machine, I just open QTracker, select its entire list of servers, do a copy & paste into my server list file and run it through 'sort -u'. That ain't gonna work for the average gamer though.

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Issues in the Current Release

• In my opinion the most significant issue is that HaloBrowser hangs (becomes unresponsive and must be killed via the Task Manager) if it tries to do something (such as start a periodic server refresh) while minimized. My workaround for now is to not minimize the app.
• HaloBrowser has been pretty stable for me, but there are ways to cause an error. With the exception of the 'hang while minimized' problem, I don't think any of the remaining issues affect the application's usability. Otherwise they would already be fixed.
• In some cases when an error does occur it is not handled as gracefully as it should be.
• Audio file formats: Only formats supported natively by Java are supported. These include .WAV, .AU and .AIFF if they are A-law or u-law PCM, single channel or stereo with 8 or 16 bits per sample at sample rates up to 48 KHz (ref: Support Readiness Document Java 2 Standard Edition, Version 1.4 -- Java Sound). Or rather, they're all supposed to work, but a PCM 8 bit 12 KHz single channel .WAV failed for me. Put it this way: I know that 16 bit stereo works at 8 KHz and 12 KHz.
  Also, note that you can convert an audio file's format with the Windows Sound Recorder application.
• The text box containing the amount of time between server list refreshes can get shrunk when HaloBrowser is minimized and then restored. This is temporary; it gets fixed when you select anything in the window and cause a refresh.
• The CMD.EXE window that pops up to run the batch file remains after HaloBrowser is closed. I believe this is because some sleeping threads are left behind; it will get fixed but is not a high priority.

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Screenshots

Querying / refreshing the server list:

Query results: The server marked in green passed my filters, and it has a player match. The Blood Gulch games are moved down the list because I've told HaloBrowser I prefer non-Blood Gulch games. And the server marked in yellow would normally be filtered out but remains because it has a player match.

Server details:

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How to Get HaloBrowser

Click here.

I plan to move the HaloBrowser project on to SourceForge at which point it will be downloadable from there as well.

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Installation

To install HaloBrowser, place the downloaded ZIP file into an empty directory (folder) and unzip it.

Open the file HaloBrowser.ini in a text editor such as NotePad and change the PathToHalo string to the directory where you have installed Halo. Important: Use either forward slashes ('/') or double backslashes ('\\') between directories. In addition, if the directory string contains any spaces then the entire string must be placed within quotation marks ('"'). Do not include any trailing slashes or backslashes.
Examples:
PathToHalo = "C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Games\\Halo"
or
PathToHalo = D:/bin/Halo .

Double-click "HaloBrowser" (or, if your Windows Explorer is set to show file extensions, HaloBrowser.bat). Usage instructions are here.

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Contact Info & Further Help

Questions, suggestions and bug reports may be sent to the microsoft.public.xbox.halo newsgroup, which is also available via Google. I do this because Usenet (newsgroups) is an infinitely better discussion mechanism than web forums.

If the above means fails to get a response from me, you can send email to the address shown in the image below. I realize this is less convenient for you than providing something to click on or copy & paste; it is an attempt to avoid spammers' email address harvesters.

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License

HaloBrowser is distributed under the BSD license:

Copyright (c) 2004, Thomas J. Ziomek
All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification,
are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

- Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this
  list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
- Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this
  list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or
  other materials provided with the distribution.
- Neither the name of its author nor the names of other contributors may be used
  to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific
  prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND
ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR
ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
(INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES;
LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON
ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
(INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

The source code for HaloBrowser is currently available here. This link will become unusable if or when the HaloBrowser project is moved onto SourceForge.

HaloBrowser was developed with the Eclipse IDE and uses the Eclipse SWT graphics library, which is covered by the Common Public License a.k.a. CPL.

HaloBrowser makes use of the Jodd library [license and copyright, essentially the BSD license].

HaloBrowser makes use of the JTopas library which is under the Free Software Foundation's Lesser General Public License or LGPL.

Copyright and licensing information for Java is located in your Java installation.

As best I can tell the HaloBrowser license and copyright meet the requirements of all the libraries it uses. If this is incorrect, please notify me and the problem will be fixed.

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Acknowledgements

In addition to the creators of the Eclipse tool and SWT, Jodd and JTopas libraries mentioned above, the Halo Client module in POE was valuable for showing how info is encoded into the 'player' and 'game' flag fields of the server query response.

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Copyright (c) 2004 Thomas J. Ziomek. All rights reserved.