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DF: Halo Infinite Season 2: Are The Tech Issues Finally Fixed? PC, Xbox Series S/X Re-Tested!

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?


Halo Infinite was rough around the edges on release with animation issues, frame-pacing woes and extra problems in cutscenes. Some issues were tackled post-launch, but it's with the release of the Season 2 patch that some long-standing issues have finally been resolved. Alex Battaglia and John Linneman investigate.



Text article:


 

ManaByte

Member
You might expect that using a variable refresh rate (VRR) would solve the issue, but unfortunately this does not currently behave as it should. For some reason, even simple camera movement can produce significant judder - again, this is very odd. By it very nature, VRR should smooth out stutter, but for whatever reason, it's not working.

Never noticed any of that at 120 with VRR.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
TL;DR

- They've went back and fixed a bunch of the visual issues but some still remain
- Fixed: contrast white crush on the entire opening CGI is fixed, all cutscene animations (except facial) now run at the proper speed, cutscene transitions have no judder, 120hz restored to Series S
- Still not fixed: VRR does not engage as you would expect, and facial animations in cut-scenes are still 30FPS.
- Series S's 120hz mode is recommended for MP but not for SP as the drop in IQ is very big and performance not close to 120hz that often. But in MP it's very good and recommended.
- Series X now has a 30 FPS mode too, but it's not worth it as there's not much of a DRS advantage over 60 FPS for the drop in frame rate.
- The game also has frame pacing issues in 30 FPS mode, and if you play 60 FPS mode on a 120hz TV. Recommended to run 120hz if you have a 120hz TV.
 
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adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Save system fixed yet?
No?
Then I'll continue not playing it.

I don't even know what the save system issue is ? Never had anything related to it in my time.

The video doesn't cover anything like that either.

Also, this is the before and after of cutscene animation fixing. This was a notable issue that's finally been fixed. Facial animations are the only notable issue in the visual presentation left now.

indexhmkey.gif
 
Never noticed any of that at 120 with VRR.

Same.

That said, I was waiting for that cutscene stuff to be fixed. I basically excused it because there was nothing to be done, but it looks so much better with it fixed. Hope they finally get around to sorting the lip syncing issues also. They also improved some lighting and other stuff. And it seems they didn't even look at the explosions improvements 343 made. They've improved the explosion effects on vehicles.
 
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ACESHIGH

Banned
Bonnie Ross should be canned. MS tent pole game is a shit show on consoles and specially on PC. """"""BIg""""""" team battle 12 vs 12 in 2022... GTFO.

And there is not much detail about the PC version, which had a lot more issues than consoles. Hopefully there's a separate video to cover that
 
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Reizo Ryuu

Gold Member
That said, one issue still remains: facial animations of all types still play out at 30fps, something that didn't occur in pre-release footage circa 2020. Hopefully this too can be fixed in an upcoming release, so that cutscenes can look as good as they should.
Guess I'm still not playing this game I bought in fucking November.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
lol who thought it was a good idea to have a 560p mode just to hit 120 fps.

lets have standards people. i remember when xbox one games hitting 720p at launch was considered unacceptable. we are a gen later, and 560p is being hit just so we can double the framerate? why?

lets do 1080p minimum. if you cant hit 1080p 120 fps, do 60 fps. if you cant do 1080p 60 fps, stick with 1080p 30 fps.
 
Microsoft’s shining star still isn’t 100% working properly yet. MS designed Windows, DX12 and Xbox, and still yet can’t get its most important IP to run properly. Mind blowing.

Halo isn't Microsofts most important ip anymore. 10 years ago, it was. Not anymore though. With Activision and Bethesda, they now have bigger ip than halo ever was even at its peak. Even Microsoft themselves treat halo like an afterthought now.
 
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Bogroll

Likes moldy games
lol who thought it was a good idea to have a 560p mode just to hit 120 fps.

lets have standards people. i remember when xbox one games hitting 720p at launch was considered unacceptable. we are a gen later, and 560p is being hit just so we can double the framerate? why?

lets do 1080p minimum. if you cant hit 1080p 120 fps, do 60 fps. if you cant do 1080p 60 fps, stick with 1080p 30 fps.
Always best to have options no matter what. No one has to select them. There's people who would rather have 720p @120 than 1080p 60fps in multiplayer shooters.
I'd probably never use those but options is good.
 

yamaci17

Member
lol who thought it was a good idea to have a 560p mode just to hit 120 fps.

lets have standards people. i remember when xbox one games hitting 720p at launch was considered unacceptable. we are a gen later, and 560p is being hit just so we can double the framerate? why?

lets do 1080p minimum. if you cant hit 1080p 120 fps, do 60 fps. if you cant do 1080p 60 fps, stick with 1080p 30 fps.
he practically confirmed it runs at 540p all the time in that mode. and it does not even hit the 120 fps target in open world sections. practically, it hits 540p 75-90 fps most of the time in open world sections. this also proves that 60 FPS mode is most likely a far cry from native 1080p in open world sections.

this is literally how the game looks. with its the supposed "wow its like native 1080p!" reconstruction



i can confirm, it literally looks like this at 540p in actual game. its not youtube compression on anything. it just.. looks like that.
 
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ZehDon

Member
While it's good to see 343i actually did go back to address these frankly laughable issues, we're six months post launch. For the campaign, this is too little, too late. Anyone who cares has already played the campaign, and for many, the technical issues just showed it for the low effort game it clearly was. Given that we're now looking at another six months before the next major update, when we might not even see VRR, frame pacing, and the facial animation issues addressed, it would seem 343i have a long road ahead before Halo Infinite reaches a point where it would have been considered acceptable at launch. And that doesn't even touch on the disastrous multiplayer's technical issues. I feel sorry for the developers stuck polishing this turd.
 
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he practically confirmed it runs at 540p all the time in that mode. and it does not even hit the 120 fps target in open world sections. practically, it hits 540p 75-90 fps most of the time in open world sections. this also proves that 60 FPS mode is most likely a far cry from native 1080p in open world sections.

this is literally how the game looks. with its the supposed "wow its like native 1080p!" reconstruction



i can confirm, it literally looks like this at 540p in actual game. its not youtube compression on anything. it just.. looks like that.


If ever there was a more misleading, and dishonest, picture, that one would certainly be it.

Star Trek Applause GIF


You really tried making the game look as horrible as possible, but it actually looks pretty great on Series S.

 
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yamaci17

Member
If ever there was a more misleading, and dishonest, picture, that one would certainly be it.

Star Trek Applause GIF


You really tried making the game look as horrible as possible, but it actually looks pretty great on Series S.


qIFJTkA.png


literally the start of the video

foliage that looks like minecraft wheat

hahahah

thats actually some great stuff. halo: the minecraft edition

tXQOG7c.png
 
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Zuzu

Member
They need to implement FSR 2.0 or something for Series S if they’re gonna drop the resolution that low. I recognise they’re using temporal upsampling but perhaps FSR would produce a better image.
 
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Corndog

Banned
While it's good to see 343i actually did go back to address these frankly laughable issues, we're six months post launch. For the campaign, this is too little, too late. Anyone who cares has already played the campaign, and for many, the technical issues just showed it for the low effort game it clearly was. Given that we're now looking at another six months before the next major update, when we might not even see VRR, frame pacing, and the facial animation issues addressed, it would seem 343i have a long road ahead before Halo Infinite reaches a point where it would have been considered acceptable at launch. And that doesn't even touch on the disastrous multiplayer's technical issues. I feel sorry for the developers stuck polishing this turd.
It wasn’t low effort. Seems like it was mismanaged. Ross needs to go but I doubt it will happen.
 
60fps mode with frame-pacing issues on 120hz TVs seems like a huge problem. Especially when the recommended 120fps mode isn’t stable.
Yep, I switch the console to 60 Hz mode before I start Halo. It's not a big deal to me personally but it's still embarrassing for Microsoft.
 

cormack12

Gold Member
I don't even know what the save system issue is ? Never had anything related to it in my time.

The video doesn't cover anything like that either.

Also, this is the before and after of cutscene animation fixing. This was a notable issue that's finally been fixed. Facial animations are the only notable issue in the visual presentation left now.

indexhmkey.gif
This drove me fkn crazy. Played a bit of campaign yesterday and yeah definitely fixed.

How do you even get stutters in a cinematic?
 

Roberts

Member
Been mostly playing MP lately but it really feels like they have improved iq in general. Just looks more slick than before and I don’t think it’s my mind playing tricks.
 

ZehDon

Member
It wasn’t low effort. Seems like it was mismanaged. Ross needs to go but I doubt it will happen.
One biome, an empty copy/paste open world, little to no story, virtually no set pieces, literally nothing memorable. The campaign screams "What can we make in the time we have without working too hard?". It's better than Halo 5's monumental misfire, sure, but it's the most forgettable game in the franchise.
 

MikeM

Member
Halo isn't Microsofts most important ip anymore. 10 years ago, it was. Not anymore though. With Activision and Bethesda, they now have bigger ip than halo ever was even at its peak. Even Microsoft themselves treat halo like an afterthought now.
Could you imagine if Sony released any of their first party IP in the state MS released Halo in? The dude is literally on the Series X box as a mascot yet the game is released in the state it was in. And still is not fixed as of yet. That is problematic for Xbox’s image as a viable first party IP publisher.
 

Pedro Motta

Member
lol who thought it was a good idea to have a 560p mode just to hit 120 fps.

lets have standards people. i remember when xbox one games hitting 720p at launch was considered unacceptable. we are a gen later, and 560p is being hit just so we can double the framerate? why?

lets do 1080p minimum. if you cant hit 1080p 120 fps, do 60 fps. if you cant do 1080p 60 fps, stick with 1080p 30 fps.
Framerate is king, haven't you heard?
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Could you imagine if Sony released any of their first party IP in the state MS released Halo in? The dude is literally on the Series X box as a mascot yet the game is released in the state it was in. And still is not fixed as of yet. That is problematic for Xbox’s image as a viable first party IP publisher.
Umm. Horizon forbidden West has its own share of issues. You can look at the patch notes on Reddit to see just how many issues they resolve with every patch. It’s over 50 per patch and there have released 9 patches so far. Their game still doesnt support vrr, one of the two big games on the ps5 that don’t support it in any fashion. Their 60 fps mode still hasn’t been fixed and their fix to reduce the brightness flickering was to reduce the sharpness which downgraded the incredible fidelity mode visual quality.

I think we will see these issues creep up in both Sony and MS studios now that they are all doing multiplatform development.
 
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