Halo community update addressing the graphics and much more

[Yearsoflurking]

@KageMaru

At a Q&A after the showcase they couldn’t confirm the game would be feature complete at launch, the news of adding features like Ray tracing after launch, the complete lack of any console footage indicates those versions are in an even poorer state than the PC version they showed, developers who left 343i expressing the engine is a mess and they are in crunch mode, etc.

I’m not against GaaS as a whole but I am against a publisher using that model as an excuse to release an unfinished game and that appears to be what we’re getting from all the info so far.

I agree the game should be pretty much in a finish state right now, going into bug fixing q&a shit. Sounds like its releasing unfinished

[Khalid117x]

To it’s defense. Halo Infinite is the only next gen launch game we have seen gameplay of. AC Valhalla and Watch Dogs Legion arriving also on next gen consoles but those didn’t look better in my opinion, especially considering we are talking about an open world 60fps game.

[BasicExp]

The visuals could use some attention, especially in the lighting department but with the already announced intended RTX patch, I am not all that worried about this. If anything, it will give me an excuse to do an additional playthrough.

To me, I care most to see the gameplay loop looking solid and fun and they game me that. Visuals can be addressed, fixing the gameplay loop is no so easily done.

[Zappy5]

@KageMaru

…Great video from a very level headed member of the Halo community. He echoes a lot of the thoughts I have.

I’m a huge halo fan and while the gameplay had me excited, the graphics did not. They don’t look bad per se but it certainly was a bit underwhelming for a next gen showcase, especially after the last two trailers. This demo is exactly why many don’t care for “game engine demonstrations”. Halo CE, Halo Reach, and Halo 4 were all gorgeous looking games that held up against other shooters. Considering how the game is designed around the 2013 Xbox VCR, the series X should be able to run it with all the bells and whistles and beyond at 60fps. It absolutely needs to look much better at launch.

The original plan was to release Infinite in 2019 on current gen. I suspect the issues are the game was designed around an open world halo experience on current gen rather than being a graphical showcase for series X. And clearly 343 have had some issues during development. I’m not convinced Halo has ever been a technical graphical showcase. You are right some games have looked good but haven’t ever really been seen as pinnacles because they are and have been more focussed on smooth gameplay loops. As a Halo game it looked really fun. As a showcase for series X’s power it was less impressive. But my point is was the game ever really trying to do that from the outset? I suspect the answer is no.

[MasterLeePhD]

I finally got around to watching the Halo Infinite Gameplay video on my 4K TV and man it looks brilliant! I think the outrage was totally overblown tbh. Did everyone just watch it on their mobile or something?

Maybe it’s because I just finished playing Halo Reach and Infinite just looks miles ahead.

[KvallyX]

@Kreten

I’m kinda concerned now to hear that the demo was build from a few weeks ago, I was under the impression that it’s months old. Hopefully game will look good and feel finished without too many bugs at release. I still think that they should have graphical setting that lowers resolution and ups the IQ

Well 343 said “several weeks” not a few.

[Hammer24]

@MasterLeePhD

I finally got around to watching the Halo Infinite Gameplay video on my 4K TV and man it looks brilliant! I think the outrage was totally overblown tbh. Did everyone just watch it on their mobile or something?

Maybe it’s because I just finished playing Halo Reach and Infinite just looks miles ahead.

I expected the outrage no matter what. Had they shown a graphical showpiece, it’d have been “bullshots”, “look now they abandoned the XB1 anyways” or “it’ll never look like that in MP”.

It’s MS most important IP, they get flak no matter what, and in a launch year especially so.

I just cross my fingers that the team doesn’t let it get to them.

[KvallyX]

@Hammer24

I expected the outrage no matter what. Had they shown a graphical showpiece, it’d have been “bullshots”, “look now they abandoned the XB1 anyways” or “it’ll never look like that in MP”.

It’s MS most important IP, they get flak no matter what, and in a launch year especially so.

I just cross my fingers that the team doesn’t let it get to them.

Or if it did look like a graphical showpiece, they would say Halo alienated the art direction they had always been.

[MasterLeePhD]

@Hammer24

I expected the outrage no matter what. Had they shown a graphical showpiece, it’d have been “bullshots”, “look now they abandoned the XB1 anyways” or “it’ll never look like that in MP”.

It’s MS most important IP, they get flak no matter what, and in a launch year especially so.

I just cross my fingers that the team doesn’t let it get to them.

This is very true and I really feel for the team. It wouldn’t be so bad if the criticism wasn’t just trolls trying to justify their favourite box.

Would be nice if we could get all the bells and whistles for XSX owners at launch, but I also understand this year has been terrible for everyone and made workflow a nightmare.

At the end of the day I bet it’ll be huge.

[Zappy5]

Yeah whatever was shown would be picked apart. I noted quite a few dodgy scenes from GT7 demo (particularly one showing spectators) was that Forza you just know it would be memed to death.

[CallMeCraig]

i liked the gameplay in the demo. there were a lot of details to discuss but are now overshadowed by the graphics talk.

I have not a lot of issues with the visuals. Only one thing annoyed me - the red, green and blue plasma explosions and shots look like placeholders and not like a real material from the halo universe.

Also remember Halo 3: 640p gate. Guess what. The game turned out very fine.

[DuvalSt8ofMind]

@LifeForms

The main issue infinite visuals have for me is more work and detail e.g more plants and vegitation, more just overall detail and strategicly placed lights.

I agree. I believe optimization will improve the pop in, and lod issues being seen, but they need to also just add more trees, and vegitation. I’d like to maybe see more interection with the grass by the Warthog, and enemy’s. Just more life overall in the enviroment (which maybe there in other portions of the map). Hopefully when they start utlizing the velocity architecture we can see everything the XSX is capable of, but I’m afraid as others have stated, this game is coming in “hot” so expect a lot of post launch patches that will add graphical improvments outside of the ray tracing patch.

[YoungGrumpyMan]

[quote=“JaggedSac, post:11, topic:111”]

The graphics will be fine and serviceable. After seeing the large space capabilities of the engine via the campaign demo, I am curious what MP modes they have in store. Certainly some arena game types where the 120fps stuff will live, but hopefully they have a big game mode to take advantage of these sprawling spaces and usually great vehicles.

This may be divisive, but I would honestly be excited for a BR mode within Halo's world and sandbox.

[LifeForms]

@DuvalSt8ofMind

I agree. I believe optimization will improve the pop in, and lod issues being seen, but they need to also just add more trees, and vegitation. I’d like to maybe see more interection with the grass by the Warthog, and enemy’s. Just more life overall in the enviroment (which maybe there in other portions of the map). Hopefully when they start utlizing the velocity architecture we can see everything the XSX is capable of, but I’m afraid as others have stated, this game is coming in “hot” so expect a lot of post launch patches that will add graphical improvments outside of the ray tracing patch.

Yes it could better but im not to disapointed, it still a decent looking current gen game rinning at 4k 60fps. I do like amazing graphics and the state of the art improving but nothing this gen looks bad, its not like the end of the 360 days when farcry 3 was jaggie as hell and a slideshow, it legitimately made me stop playing the game because it was so jank, ive not had that happen this gen apart from just cause 3.

[Heretic]

I was disappointed that they’d show the game with those small technical faults. This is freaking Halo. It should have had a flawless showing with the absolute best visuals of any game shown or at least close to it. I hold the series to the highest standard because it’s my favorite. Seeing it getting grilled online was disappointing. I loved the gameplay and I can’t wait to play it but it still bothered me.

[clashfan]

I think multplayer will be at launch but I think they will delay single player. I think covid has hurt XGS more then we think. Things don’t seem as far along for alot of XGS games as we all had hoped.

[KageMaru]

@Zappy5

The original plan was to release Infinite in 2019 on current gen. I suspect the issues are the game was designed around an open world halo experience on current gen rather than being a graphical showcase for series X. And clearly 343 have had some issues during development. I’m not convinced Halo has ever been a technical graphical showcase. You are right some games have looked good but haven’t ever really been seen as pinnacles because they are and have been more focussed on smooth gameplay loops. As a Halo game it looked really fun. As a showcase for series X’s power it was less impressive. But my point is was the game ever really trying to do that from the outset? I suspect the answer is no.

I don’t know, many, many people considered the original reveal and last trailer graphically impressive. We had DF breaking down both trailers, highlighting how great they looked. They made a deliberate statement by showing off the engine in that first trailer and that’s part of the problem. They aren’t living up to the expectations they set. Sure you can argue that games rarely live up to tech demos graphically but we’re talking about a next gen system that’s many, many times more powerful than the XBO. If the gameplay even came close to the initial reveal trailer, there would be fewer complaints.

Also Halo 4 was one of the best looking games last gen and Halo CE was better than 98% of the console shooters that generation. Opinions on art direction is one thing but the Halo franchise has historically been a very impressive series by technical standards.

[Khalid117x]

So if you look at the statement after the gameplay reveal, Chris Lee says something like “Halo Infinite has been built from the ground up to take full advantage of Xbox Series X. Bigger battles, epic vistas, more complex visual effects displayed with 10 times the processing power per pixel…”

For me this sounds like a marketing term, but since I am no native English speaker nor a tech expert, has anyone an idea what he tries to say with this?

Just curious if there’s more to it than just sounding cool.

[Bsigg]

@Khalid117x

So if you look at the statement after the gameplay reveal, Chris Lee says something like “Halo Infinite has been built from the ground up to take full advantage of Xbox Series X. Bigger battles, epic vistas, more complex visual effects displayed with 10 times the processing power per pixel…”

For me this sounds like a marketing term, but since I am no native English speaker nor a tech expert, has anyone an idea what he tries to say with this?

Just curious if there’s more to it than just sounding cool.

The Series X is just about 10x more powerful than an Xbox One strictly speaking in TFs the GPU outputs.

It’s 100% marketing.

[LifeForms]

@Khalid117x

So if you look at the statement after the gameplay reveal, Chris Lee says something like “Halo Infinite has been built from the ground up to take full advantage of Xbox Series X. Bigger battles, epic vistas, more complex visual effects displayed with 10 times the processing power per pixel…”

For me this sounds like a marketing term, but since I am no native English speaker nor a tech expert, has anyone an idea what he tries to say with this?

Just curious if there’s more to it than just sounding cool.

The footage we saw looks like it could be done on a 1x like halo 5.