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In defense of Halo Infinite's visuals

Dacon

Banned
I've seen a lot of people a little disappointed that Halo Infinite isn't pushing the envelope, and I understand that. Usually the first round of new games for a game console don't really push it to the limit, I mean did we really imagine the PS4 would reach the heights it did when its first round of 1st games were released? Compare Killzone Shadowfall to Ghost and TLOU2.

I think you also have to consider the scale of the game itself. Halo is well known for huge battles involving many npcs in sandbox environments, and Halo Infinite is billed as having even larger confrontations on a scale unprecedented in the franchise. You have to make some concessions in order to achieve that and rock solid performance.

Open world games in general don't really push the envelope as much as your more linear "cinematic" games, like as good as RDR2 looks, it still lacks punch in comparison to the visuals in games such as Uncharted and The Last of Us.

I personally do not think the visuals are completely without charm. I kind of dig the less realistic look of it all, and I think Chief himself looks pretty great. The character of the pilot himself though looks and sounds pretty terrible which isn't ideal considering how prevalent he's been in the preview materials.

I think the game will look better and better the closer we get to launch, I think they were just in far too much of a hurry to show something, and didn't entirely consider the consequences that would have.

I do think this was not the best display they could have put out after the mess of Halo 5's campaign, but I am willing to have a more open mind about the future of this game.

I guess I just want to believe.
 

Sony

Nintendo
If Halo Infinites visuals are the result of the scale they are going for, then they should have showed a glimpse of that tradeoff to make people go wow. You can't show simple gameplay of a simple area with simple enemies with sub-par graphics are then expect people to view the presentation through a lense of an undefined scale.
 

Greeno

Member
I think they should have shown the game last. It truly ruined my mood to see the game looking nothing like the reveal trailer of 2018. It basically made me not believe in any of the trailers that came after. Hellblade 2 now looks suspect. Forza too.

Do I believe 343 is talentless? No. Do I believe the management team at 343 is incompetent? Yes. The management team (Bonnie Ross, Chris Lee, etc) should be fired or demoted. It is clear Halo Infinite was mismanaged and development was rebooted multiple times.
 
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Dacon

Banned
If Halo Infinites visuals are the result of the scale they are going for, then they should have showed a glimpse of that tradeoff to make people go wow. You can't show simple gameplay of a simple area with simple enemies with sub-par graphics are then expect people to view the presentation through a lense of an undefined scale.

It was definitely not the best presentation. The gameplay itself looks pretty good imo, but they definitely should have went bigger and more bombastic with such an anticipated presentation.
Gameplay looked very nostalgic and fun, honestly. I don't know why the guns look like they're missing textures though.

Honestly this whole thing felt like a very early build.
 

Dacon

Banned
It's not open world though, it's more like Metro Exodus with large open sections, so I'm not sure this excuse is gonna fly. Can't compare it to RDR2 that is truly more open world, has way more going on and still manages to look better lol.

Infinite is confirmed to have an open world featuring the entirety of a ring for Chief to explore, this was confirmed in the presentation and details released afterward, it even has a day night cycle.

Obviously it won't be anywhere near as huge and detailed a world as RDR2, that wasn't my point.
 
4k60 fps game made for current gen Xbox and low end PCs as well. So it's bound to look like that. If it was targeted for high end PCs with SSDs only and seriesX then they will miss out on millions of potential customers .
If you through Steam hardware charts then majority of PC gamers still play on GTX 9 series cards followed by 1050s and 1060s. Very few own seriesX equivalent PCs with GTX 2070 and 2080s
 

Freeman

Banned
You can tell yourself whatever you want to hear, it won't change what we all saw.

They spent months talking about 12TF, eating monsters for breakfast, mic drops and all sorts of bullshit and that is what they show to back it up? That's their flagship game? Nah brah, that ain't it.
 
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Bragr

Banned
They didn't do themselves any favors by having the speech by the brute at the end, because his character model looked like it was made by a student.

I don't think it's the end of the world, but who wants an Xbox One game for Xbox X? we are not gonna get another Halo in years, and Infinite is gonna look completely outdated in 1-2 years.
 
This isn't the 360/ps3 generation. Open world games that look amazing is nothing new these days, it's not much of an excuse anymore. I haven't been impressed by a game's scale in years, it's almost a given these days and they didn't even show anything.

Ya but none of them are 4k at locked 60fps. 60 fps very demanding.

Google specs you need to run RDR2,Odyssey nd all at 4k60 on PC.


RDR 2 graphics fidelity on One X will go down by 50% moment they add 60 fps mode.

Forza Horizon 4 performance mode prime example of it. Literally 50% graphics effects gone or turned down to low to make it run at 1080p60fps.
 

Dacon

Banned
They didn't do themselves any favors by having the speech by the brute at the end, because his character model looked like it was made by a student.

I don't think it's the end of the world, but who wants an Xbox One game for Xbox X? we are not gonna get another Halo in years, and Infinite is gonna look completely outdated in 1-2 years.


I think that a lot of people won't be purchasing a XSX for Halo, they're just going to buy it on PC if they have the option and the game is guaranteed to look 100% better on PC than consoles when it launches and once the RT update is available.
 

LordOfChaos

Member
It's not the end of the world. It looks fine enough to play it, and the overly clean look could definitely be a choice to remove visual clutter.

BUT, one has to admit that the copy paste trees and foliage, the pop-in, the lack of just movement in the world compared to wind effects like GoT, there are definitely areas where this next gen engine on this 12Tflops of eating monsters for breakfast console are simply not living up to their big pitch as the most powerful box, and as their flagship title I think people just feel like it aught to.
 
They didn't do themselves any favors by having the speech by the brute at the end, because his character model looked like it was made by a student.

I don't think it's the end of the world, but who wants an Xbox One game for Xbox X? we are not gonna get another Halo in years, and Infinite is gonna look completely outdated in 1-2 years.
No.


Halo infinite is last Halo game for next 10 years. It will get upgrade and modernize with new content and expansion every year. Its Halo game with story campaign then infinite content updates
 
I think that a lot of people won't be purchasing a XSX for Halo, they're just going to buy it on PC if they have the option and the game is guaranteed to look 100% better on PC than consoles when it launches and once the RT update is available.


Yeah, If you have high end PC with SSD or can afford equivalent PC to match Series X specs then seriesX is useless.
 

INC

Member
the bottom line is, it doesn't matter if its an early build, they chose to show it. And what they showed was just embarrassing, for years they've been going on about xbx, and what we got........well the meme thread says it all. And it wasnt just the visual, the gameplay looked the same age as the visuals, dated and lack luster

But for those excited for halo, I hope you enjoy it
 
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Bragr

Banned
I think that a lot of people won't be purchasing a XSX for Halo, they're just going to buy it on PC if they have the option and the game is guaranteed to look 100% better on PC than consoles when it launches and once the RT update is available.
Well, there are many who won't have the PC to play it like that. However, what's interesting is how xCloud is gonna play into this, as far as I know, it's gonna be out by then and we should be able to stream Halo on max through gamepass. Even so, it could have looked considerable better if they made it a next-gen title with more vegetation, better reflection, better looking models etc. etc... A year or 2 from now, I think we all will look back on Infinite and wish they brushed up the game instead of being so focused on it working with the Xbox One ecosystem.
 
The textures are terrible in the official 4K screens that they released, it looks like a 60fps current gen game overall and that's not a good thing. I have no confidence in 343 to deliver when it come to the story portion of the game, the last two have stunk.
 
It's not the end of the world. It looks fine enough to play it, and the overly clean look could definitely be a choice to remove visual clutter.

BUT, one has to admit that the copy paste trees and foliage, the pop-in, the lack of just movement in the world compared to wind effects like GoT, there are definitely areas where this next gen engine on this 12Tflops of eating monsters for breakfast console are simply not living up to their big pitch as the most powerful box, and as their flagship title I think people just feel like it aught to.


Pop ins and texture details can easily be fixed before release. So no need tp worry about that.
 

Vawn

Banned
I've seen a lot of people a little disappointed that Halo Infinite isn't pushing the envelope, and I understand that. Usually the first round of new games for a game console don't really push it to the limit, I mean did we really imagine the PS4 would reach the heights it did when its first round of 1st games were released? Compare Killzone Shadowfall to Ghost and TLOU2.

I think you also have to consider the scale of the game itself. Halo is well known for huge battles involving many npcs in sandbox environments, and Halo Infinite is billed as having even larger confrontations on a scale unprecedented in the franchise. You have to make some concessions in order to achieve that and rock solid performance.

Open world games in general don't really push the envelope as much as your more linear "cinematic" games, like as good as RDR2 looks, it still lacks punch in comparison to the visuals in games such as Uncharted and The Last of Us.

I personally do not think the visuals are completely without charm. I kind of dig the less realistic look of it all, and I think Chief himself looks pretty great. The character of the pilot himself though looks and sounds pretty terrible which isn't ideal considering how prevalent he's been in the preview materials.

I think the game will look better and better the closer we get to launch, I think they were just in far too much of a hurry to show something, and didn't entirely consider the consequences that would have.

I do think this was not the best display they could have put out after the mess of Halo 5's campaign, but I am willing to have a more open mind about the future of this game.

I guess I just want to believe.

Counter-point:

aVwbOLO_460s.jpg


Pop ins and texture details can easily be fixed before release. So no need tp worry about that

This was Xbox's most important showcase they've ever had. It was hyped to hell, even to the point of arrogance where Spencer said the PS5's showcase made him even more confident in what they had.

There's plenty of reason to worry about that.
 
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the bottom line is, it doesn't matter if its an early build, they chose to show it. And what they showed was just embarrassing, for years they've been going on about xbx, and what we got........well the meme thread says it all. And it wasnt just th evisuak the gameplay like the same age as the visuals, dated and lack luster

But for those excited for halo, I hope you enjoy it

It can't be that early of a build, they didn't have an E3 deadline to meet they were able to set this date for anytime the games would be ready and the game is coming out in less than 5 months. While anything before the retail copy is technically early I have a very hard time believing this wasn't as good as they could present right now, even the screens they sent out which are going to be touched up because all gaming companies do that looked terrible.
 

Bragr

Banned
No.


Halo infinite is last Halo game for next 10 years. It will get upgrade and modernize with new content and expansion every year. Its Halo game with story campaign then infinite content updates
Wait, what? 10 years? that sounds absurdly stupid, they are potentially gonna gate out tons of players. I hope they are willing to rebuild the entire game to fix the graphics through these updates. I doubt it, I expect more incremental additions.
 

Reindeer

Member
Infinite is confirmed to have an open world featuring the entirety of a ring for Chief to explore, this was confirmed in the presentation and details released afterward, it even has a day night cycle.

Obviously it won't be anywhere near as huge and detailed a world as RDR2, that wasn't my point.
343 never said it was 'open world', they clearly chose their words carefully in an interview with IGN by referring to it as "huge open section of the ring". The game is clearly semi open world and not open world in traditional sense. You can have day might cycle for games that are not traditional open world as well.
 
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Counter-point:

aVwbOLO_460s.jpg




This was Xbox's most important showcase they've ever had. It was hyped to hell, even to the point of arrogance where Spencer said the PS5's showcase made him even more confident in what they had.

There's plenty of reason to worry about that.

Master Chief's friend looked better in the 2019 video than he does now too and we've only seen him in cut scenes.
 

Sacred

Member
Alpha build from January is what I am hearing, half the textures weren't loaded in and pop-in wasn't fixed. I'll wait till I see another look at a newer build before judging anything.
 

INC

Member
It can't be that early of a build, they didn't have an E3 deadline to meet they were able to set this date for anytime the games would be ready and the game is coming out in less than 5 months. While anything before the retail copy is technically early I have a very hard time believing this wasn't as good as they could present right now, even the screens they sent out which are going to be touched up because all gaming companies do that looked terrible.

I know I've made a lot of memes about this, and general chat shit on here, but I really was hoping to see what next gen was going to look like, and believed xbx was going to show this.

As we know that didnt happen
 

INC

Member
Alpha build from January is what I am hearing, half the textures weren't loaded in and pop-in wasn't fixed. I'll wait till I see another look at a newer build before judging anything.

So a scripted gameplay can't even load textures.......and that got ok'd by the powers that be, to be shown? .....thats even more worrying tbh
 
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Bragr

Banned
Counter-point:

aVwbOLO_460s.jpg




This was Xbox's most important showcase they've ever had. It was hyped to hell, even to the point of arrogance where Spencer said the PS5's showcase made him even more confident in what they had.

There's plenty of reason to worry about that.
These are extremely bad comparisons though, that gun from 2020 is in the shadows while the other one is perfectly lit. And the picture of the Halo guy looks ripped from a 720 shoddy stream.
 

diffusionx

Gold Member
Alpha build from January is what I am hearing, half the textures weren't loaded in and pop-in wasn't fixed. I'll wait till I see another look at a newer build before judging anything.

Right, so MS put together this reveal, that the entire gaming community was waiting for with bated breath, to show off the latest game in their number one franchise, after 5 years of development with a massive team.... the game meant to sell their brand new hardware... and they throw out a 7 month old build with a bunch of bugs that they didn't even bother to fix. And this is supposed to be a cause for optimism?

Halo Infinite is the game we saw yesterday. I personally thought it looked pretty cool, but I'm in the minority.
 

Keihart

Member
I still can't believe this thread tittles, good stuff.
I mean, a laugh it's a laugh, it's a win either way.
 

Mister Wolf

Gold Member
It's an xbox one game that's using its 2080 equivalent gpu to achieve 4K/60fps in an open world. That's where all the resources are going. I accept that. It's not a good looking game. I didnt think Halo 5 was good looking but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I'm sure I will enjoy this as well.
 
It looks about what I would expect an Xbox One open world 60 fps game to look like. Which makes sense since that's what it is. But personally I was under the impression that there would be significant graphical upgrades for the XSX version. Maybe the RT patch will be significant, but the fact that it's not even there at launch makes me wonder what else they had to drop to get the game ready on time.
 
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Sacred

Member
Right, so MS put together this reveal, that the entire gaming community was waiting for with bated breath, to show off the latest game in their number one franchise, after 5 years of development with a massive team.... the game meant to sell their brand new hardware... and they throw out a 7 month old build with a bunch of bugs that they didn't even bother to fix. And this is supposed to be a cause for optimism?

Halo Infinite is the game we saw yesterday. I personally thought it looked pretty cool, but I'm in the minority.

You keep believing that, COVID set their schedule back and they were working on finishing the game not rebuilding the entire demo. Since most demos that are built for E3 are done a few months prior.
 

GametimeUK

Member
The response to this game has really proven to me that consoles have been making the correct decision recently for prioritising graphics over performance. People really don't seem to care much for 60fps or at least wouldn't be willing to compromise the visuals to hit 60fps.

Of course this is all anecdotal, but it's what I'm seeing.
 

Armorian

Banned
It's limited by 1.3TF of Xbox One and Jaguar, it's as simple as that. It would have to be like a different game (like Shadow of Mordor on PS3 and PS4) to show bigger differences but looks like MS don't allow that.
 

Gandih42

Member
I get why people aren't impressed with the visuals, if any game was to impress visually I imagine it should be the new John Halo mans game.

Personally, I like that it seemed to be running at 60 FPS (I think), I'd much prefer good performance over better graphics. Though I suppose people are expecting both.

Thought that gameplay looked real fun, although I've never played more than an hour of the first Halo game way back in the day.
 

Keihart

Member
The response to this game has really proven to me that consoles have been making the correct decision recently for prioritising graphics over performance. People really don't seem to care much for 60fps or at least wouldn't be willing to compromise the visuals to hit 60fps.

Of course this is all anecdotal, but it's what I'm seeing.
I think that should be a dev decision and time has proven that most games work with 30 fps, even the ones that would benefit of higher counts. For example bayonetta, great game at 60, not unplayable at all at 30ish. Vanquish too, and this are fast action games.

In VR tho? fuck that shit, upper sixties or preferably 90.
 

Riven326

Banned
I've seen a lot of people a little disappointed that Halo Infinite isn't pushing the envelope, and I understand that. Usually the first round of new games for a game console don't really push it to the limit, I mean did we really imagine the PS4 would reach the heights it did when its first round of 1st games were released? Compare Killzone Shadowfall to Ghost and TLOU2.

I think you also have to consider the scale of the game itself. Halo is well known for huge battles involving many npcs in sandbox environments, and Halo Infinite is billed as having even larger confrontations on a scale unprecedented in the franchise. You have to make some concessions in order to achieve that and rock solid performance.

Open world games in general don't really push the envelope as much as your more linear "cinematic" games, like as good as RDR2 looks, it still lacks punch in comparison to the visuals in games such as Uncharted and The Last of Us.

I personally do not think the visuals are completely without charm. I kind of dig the less realistic look of it all, and I think Chief himself looks pretty great. The character of the pilot himself though looks and sounds pretty terrible which isn't ideal considering how prevalent he's been in the preview materials.

I think the game will look better and better the closer we get to launch, I think they were just in far too much of a hurry to show something, and didn't entirely consider the consequences that would have.

I do think this was not the best display they could have put out after the mess of Halo 5's campaign, but I am willing to have a more open mind about the future of this game.

I guess I just want to believe.
This reminds me of an article Eurogamer put up some years back.


The oldest comment in the comments section of the article:

20200724-174924.png
 

Fbh

Member
To me the good news is that with those visuals it will probably run decently even on my 1050ti laptop.

But seriously though I think it was a poor showing. Maybe if they had shown some really large scale fight or given a more extensive look at the open world and how it improves the franchise people would have been more forgiving. But when all you show is a basic clip which involves taking down a basic enemy outpost then you simply end up showing off the poor visuals with nothing to make them feel justified.

The showing in general just seemed weirdly restrained. I was hoping to get a bigger look at the game and also the multiplayer, but this felt more like quick first glimpse at game that's still a year or more away instead of something that has been in the making for like 5 years and is supposed to launch in a few months.
 

Yoboman

Member
Open world isn't a limitation for visuals. It is a limitation for budget and scale. Having those visuals moment to moment is a challenge because your environments are much bigger, but one we've seen overcome this gen with RDR2, Horizon, Ghosts of Tsushima, Death Stranding, Ubisoft games. Or going back to Witcher 3 as an early gen example

Saying TLOU2 is only visually impactful because its linear is just false. Especially as both linear and open world games tend to deal with larger environments still and they put the majority of detail close to the character. Vistas are just visual trickery where alot of that detail far off is actual very low quality assets
 
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