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Halo |OT2| Hyper-Athletic Speed And Mass And Weight and Power

I was meandering around the trailer in my editing program and noticed this.

Ohhaifrankie-2.jpg
 
Of you and me sexing it up? K I'll wait until the next page.

Any chance of an impressions write up? :p

I really cant wait until we get to see the stuff that you and Devo got to see, I still feel like im flying blind in terms of Halo 4. I guess you both feel the same way though lol! Sadly i get the feeling getting a guage on the true mechanics of multiplayer is a bit off yet.
 

op_ivy

Fallen Xbot (cannot continue gaining levels in this class)
i hope we get more info this week. some in-game screens, info on not perks, etc
 

op_ivy

Fallen Xbot (cannot continue gaining levels in this class)
I don't expect new info for a long time.

frankie said they'd have a write up explaining not perks "soon" and "at a latter date" in the gaming side thread. MAYBE with the weekl update???
 

Tashi

343i Lead Esports Producer
Congrats on making it to my avatar Frank, you should be very proud

edit: Oh god that looks so weird. lol might have to change it back soon.
 

Tashi

343i Lead Esports Producer
:lol I gotta change it, it's actually starting to freak me out.

edit: ok it's gone.
 
So, who wants to try to figure this out again now that things are more calm?

Jetpack?
Yf9pD.png


Grenadier Loadout?
8DK9y.png


AA pack on back?
i2BCH.png




Continued from the last thread:

This is what I believe picture proof of real-time lighting and shadows in Halo 4:

yourmom1.png


Pretty blatant shadow map quality artifacts if you ask me. This is basically a good thing; it means that the lighting and shadows are real time, and not baked. Which means pretty good possibilities for forge.
Cool, I hope you are right about this, I really am a sucker for lighting and shadows.

I really wish that they'd release the B-roll MP footage Devo and I got to see that was separate from the ViDoc. Someday?

Also, still can't get over Wraparound's art style. HNGGGGGG.
I really do want to see what you guys saw, its hard to judge what the maps look like from the BTS video.
 
Good shit on the writeup Devo.

Well, now that we know about sprint and with all the talk from before there's likely going to be some jump enhancer, thrusters, jetpacks, whatever.

All I'm askin', Frankies, please listen. I need this. Don't make it gimped for Bumper Jumper. Let me use it by pressing jump again while I'm in the air, don't make me fumble around trying to hit a face button for that again. PLEASE!
 

Havok

Member
I was meandering around the trailer in my editing program and noticed this.

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff142/Killer_joe1413/Ohhaifrankie-2.jpg[IMG][/QUOTE]
My last avatar lasted a full four years. I think this one might have a significantly shorter life in the rotation.
 

Wizman23

Banned
Who here votes for forge being axed in exchange for better and more original MP maps? Other then Grifball and a few maps that shine I really think the forge experiment failed overall in Halo 3 and Reach. Complete editor or nothing....go big or go home. Also leave it for Halo 5 and just concentrate on the basics for Halo 4.
 

Havok

Member
Wait, is the other team Green in this picture, or is that an effect from it being off screen? If so, things like loadouts may only be present in certain gametypes.
The callsign beside the scores (at least that's what I think that is) are the now-traditional four character single-person callsigns, so it might be an FFA game.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
So, who wants to try to figure this out again now that things are more calm?

Jetpack?
Yf9pD.png
It is my hope that it was adjusted to be jump/booster pack, but yea, sure looks like that.

Grenadier Loadout?
8DK9y.png
This might explain the three grenades he's carrying, as IIRC that loadout in Reach at one point allowed an extra grenade on spawn. I wonder if that a possible perk: carry one extra grenade.

AA pack on back?
i2BCH.png
Sure looks like it. Given they want the armor to be more functional in its design, I don't imagine it's purely superfluous.

Pure speculation across the board. But they certainly seem like deliberate nuggets intended to spark such.
 
K

kittens

Unconfirmed Member
Wait, is the other team Green in this picture, or is that an effect from it being off screen? If so, things like loadouts may only be present in certain gametypes.
Ooh, this sounds entirely plausible. Good eye.

Also: I had NO CLUE about AA packs until today's H4 trailer. I thought they were purely cosmetic, didn't know they were linked to AAs.
 
Who here votes for forge being axed in exchange for better and more original MP maps? Other then Grifball and a few maps that shine I really think the forge experiment failed overall in Halo 3 and Reach. Complete editor or nothing....go big or go home. Also leave it for Halo 5 and just concentrate on the basics for Halo 4.

I think we're underestimating 343 if the existence of forge would somehow negatively impact what they've got going on with maps thus far. I hope some map stuff comes out soon so people can be much less wary of that.
 
Free for all?

The callsign beside the scores (at least that's what I think that is) are the now-traditional four character single-person callsigns, so it might be an FFA game.

Oh, yeah. Oops, good points. :lol

Well, still the Grenadier thing is interesting, as well as the Jetpack looking icon on the top left.

It is my hope that it was adjusted to be jump/booster pack, but yea, sure looks like that.


This might explain the three grenades he's carrying, as IIRC that loadout in Reach at one point allowed an extra grenade on spawn. I wonder if that a possible perk: carry one extra grenade.


Sure looks like it. Given they want the armor to be more functional in its design, I don't imagine it's purely superfluous.

Pure speculation across the board. But they certainly seem like deliberate nuggets intended to spark such.
Yup, I think all of these guesses are fairly reasonable. I wouldn't mind things like an extra grenade, or maybe HUD and radar enhancements. Jetpack, IMO, doesn't have to break gameplay, it just needs some big overhauls.. So if it operates like a booster-pack I will be happy as I could see that working out.
 

CyReN

Member
I'm hopping on now if anybody wants to play.

ps: Gamestop is giving out vinyl Halo 4 stickers at Mass Effect 3 launches.
 
Awesome write-up Devo, I've always been a fan of Halo's movement and while I think Reach tried to make the movement feel a bit better, it looks like Halo 4's going to actually execute it well. Two things, first off:

What if the not perks are how they'll allow similar weapons within the sandbox? As in, having the BR and DMR occupy the same range, but making it so you spawn with a primary weapon (such as the 3-shot, burst-fire BR, or the single-shot DMR, or some third option such as a Needle Rifle (sans explosion) or Carbine), and a second, supplementary weapon (such as a close-range, Reach/Halo 2-style Pistol or Assault Rifle)? I'd personally be up for something like this. You get all options from the get-go, no unlocking auto-fire bloomless Needle Rifle after getting a 50 in Action Sack or anything.

And second, not that it's a bad thing at all (it just makes them seem more badass), but do the Spartan IVs almost look... sport-like in addition to war machines? While I think they should have been Spartan Vs (shut up I know it makes no sense, but there are Vs plastered all over their armor), they're also striking me a bit as suits for Space Rugby or something. Which kind of makes sense, given they seem to be undergoing training.
 

JaggedSac

Member
It appears this is the thread for Halo 4 discussion and not the Gaming ones. Looks like they are keeping the different loadout types based on the grenadier thing.
 

Falagard

Member
Continued from the last thread:

This is what I believe picture proof of real-time lighting and shadows in Halo 4:

yourmom1.png


Pretty blatant shadow map quality artifacts if you ask me. This is basically a good thing; it means that the lighting and shadows are real time, and not baked. Which means pretty good possibilities for forge.

I don't think so.

Lightmaps can exhibit the exact same artifacts. Essentially what happens with precalculated lighting in previous Halo games is that lightmap resolution changes as it is applied across the map geometry. What this means is that if a large flat area is mostly fully lit, it is given a much lower resolution in the lightmap lookup, whereas complex geometry or places where lights cast shadows across a surface - they're deemed as higher priority and that area is given more resolution.

Also artists will tag certain areas as being higher priority than others as well, so places where players will see frequently close-up will be given more lightmap resolution.

The fact that we see big blocky pixelated shadows could mean a few things:

1. The map lighting was being tweaked right up till the last minute, and so didn't have time to allow the lightmap to fully be calculated. Perhaps they're still working on the lighting system, or don't have the content pipeline in place yet. They might have had to build their own server farm for this instead of using Bungie's.

2. They've decided to lower the lightmap resolution in order to give other parts of the game access to those resources.

3. It's a bug.

(I hope I'm wrong and it is dynamically lit, or even has an in-game lightmapping engine that can bake out lighting once when the map loads).
 

Computron

Member
Continued from the last thread:

This is what I believe picture proof of real-time lighting and shadows in Halo 4:
yourmom1.png

Pretty blatant shadow map quality artifacts if you ask me. This is basically a good thing; it means that the lighting and shadows are real time, and not baked. Which means pretty good possibilities for forge.

That is an artifact, but it does not fit that of a dynamic shadow.

In many games with baked lighting, you can choose the texel density for the resulting shadow on a per surface basis or even make your own UV maps.
The picture you posted shows what seems to be a mistake that one of the artists made in choosing the shadow map size for that surface.
Texel Density is usually figured out toward the end of proiduction when you have more final lighting established and are ready for a final high quality bake.
If that were a dynamic shadow, they would most likely use a cascaded shadow map and that whole wall and anything at that depth would see similar artifacts as well as possibly some shearing, not just the small highlighted portion.

Here is a picture from that area from another angle:

GcbHf.jpg


At this close of a distance, a dynamic shadow would switch to a denser cascade and look much sharper.

Sorry bro, It's baked.




But if you are interested in seeing more, this video of Autodesk Beast Software illistrates the point quite clearly about 1 minute in.
 

Computron

Member
I don't think so.

Lightmaps can exhibit the exact same artifacts. Essentially what happens with precalculated lighting in previous Halo games is that lightmap resolution changes as it is applied across the map geometry. What this means is that if a large flat area is mostly fully lit, it is given a much lower resolution in the lightmap lookup, whereas complex geometry or places where lights cast shadows across a surface - they're deemed as higher priority and that area is given more resolution.

Also artists will tag certain areas as being higher priority than others as well, so places where players will see frequently close-up will be given more lightmap resolution.

The fact that we see big blocky pixelated shadows could mean a few things:

1. The map lighting was being tweaked right up till the last minute, and so didn't have time to allow the lightmap to fully be calculated. Perhaps they're still working on the lighting system, or don't have the content pipeline in place yet. They might have had to build their own server farm for this instead of using Bungie's.

2. They've decided to lower the lightmap resolution in order to give other parts of the game access to those resources.

3. It's a bug.


You guys switched threads on me and I got beat by a minute.


Can't believe we are nerding out and overanylizing some pxels in a video.

I think I saw multiple CIA gunmen trying to assassinate JFK under orders from the illuminati in there somewhere too. :)


I wish we had enhance in real life :-(
 
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