If you like the Halo games & you are a bit creative, then maybe Arsenic is a nice piece of software for you. With Arsenic it's possible to modify/create Halo maps. Now the HaloMaps team has created their latest version, Arsenic SlimDX v1.0.1.

(quote from the HaloMaps team) "First off I would like to thank everyone who has been using Arsenic. We have put a lot of hard work and effort into the development of this project. Without the help from our community we wouldn't have made it this far. We have gotten a lot of feedback and constructive criticism from our community members since the release back in February. Our test team has been tearing through the SlimDX beta versions like it's their job, Now it's your turn..."

We're proud to announce the new SlimDX version of Arsenic. The reason for the switch over from Managed DirectX to SlimDX is pretty simple. "Managed DirectX is still usable, even with .NET 2.0 applications. However, there are a number of problems affecting MDX that make developing applications on it undesirable". There are numerous reason why MDX was becoming a dead end road for Arsenic, if you would like to know more click here.

We felt SlimDX was a much more stable environment for Arsenic especially in the long run. "SlimDX is an open source library originally prototyped by Promit Roy which allows .NET 2.0+ applications (including C#, VB.NET, IronPython, F#, and more) to use Microsoft's DirectX APIs, as well as several related Microsoft multimedia APIs. This role was previously filled for .NET 1.1 applications by Microsoft's own Managed DirectX (MDX) library. However, the age of .NET 1.1, and Microsoft's lack of interest in continuing MDX, have made it necessary to build a new library. Thanks to enthusiastic community support and the invaluable contributions of several other developers who have worked on and with SlimDX, the library has become a fully viable platform on which to build DirectX based applications. Our latest release is March 2009, and can be found for users and developers on the Download page". If your interested in learning more about SlimDX click here.

For those of you who already have Arsenic all you have to do is launch the program and it will prompt you to upgrade. Remember you must have March 2009 SP1 installed in order for Arsenic to run properly. Once that is done you can begin using Arsenic as you did before.

I would like to thank our test team for all their hard work and everyone else for the interest they have shown in our project. You can expect more within the next few weeks from us. We have a list of add-ons that we are currently working on such as Scripting, adding AI Spawns, finished Tag Editor, etc. So keep your eyes pealed.

You can also visit the main Arsenic thread here for more information!

Bug Fixes...
1. Handles compressed maps better
2. Weapons and Equipment can now be duplicated

New Updates...
1. Now using SlimDX instead of MDX for better compatibility with 64bit windows