In no imaginable way was HDR reduced lol. The HDR in HALO 4 is superior to Reachs'. Reach barely had any noticable HDR going on. And going from Reachs' 1152x720 to HALO 4's 1280x720p with custom FXAA is a big update and improvement with 100,200 pixels more on screen.
Again, it's a trivial increase.
It honestly makes for a very tiny improvement in overall crispness. I'll say this again 720p is no magic number if you find 1152*720 to be blurry then there is no way that you'll find 720p to be pristine and crisp. If you do then you are only lying to yourself. HDR is suppose to be subtle not noticeable, if it's noticeable and in your face then it's being done wrong. The TAA in Reach was an issue but the resolution was never a problem to begin with.
As for polys it is noticeably increased. Just look at the warthog, spartans, marines, etc. Not only that but I dont need to post pics of the environments both inside and out of how they are way more complex in geometry than anything in Reach. Just look at that new map Wreckage and post one pic of Reach that looks anything close to that.
At first look it looks increased but it's about the same, a professional modeler could simply look at it and tell that. Different approach to polygon budgeting makes the difference here.
Again HALO 4 HDR is superior to Reach's. HALO 4 still uses deffered lighting as it is how it still employs dynamic lights for all plasma shots and more than Reach. Jackal sheilds cast light that was not in Reach. All Promethean weapons cast light on any surface they get near with while you hold them and the Promethean Knights cast light on themselves and anything around them from their glowing body parts. Also Reach had no dynamic shadows while HALO 4 uses them.
Not true, Yes it is deferred but the very first thing I noticed in Halo 4 was the overall reduced number of dynamic lights, it's still a lot but not as much as Reach.
It gives you the illusion of having tons of lights by using glows but they aren't actual lights. The plasma shots and weapons are some of the more noticeable equipment so ofcourse they will be dynamic lights. Also the radius and intensity of light cause from all light sources including explosions are vastly reduced compared to Reach. It's mentioned in the Digitalfoundry article as well.
Post processing is still better in HALO 4. Yea Reach had HBAO and motion blur, but those things degraded the image quailty thus they were disabled. FXAA is a post processing that is gained from dropping those features and the right choice as Reach was one jaggy, blurry, grainy mess.
AO and motion blur degraded the image quality ? This makes no sense.
EDIT: Seems like they use a different approach for Alpha where they layer one on top of other with the top most being full res.
