What really happened to the Halo Infinite graphics? - article
First of all we must say that the first impressions are important and that the quality of the streaming has penalized the gameplay trailer quite a lot, since many have seen it for the first time during the Microsoft event. "It is very difficult to show the power and graphics fidelity possible on Xbox Series X in a video stream. Watch it at 4K60," advised Xbox marketing general manager Aaron Greenberg speaking to Inside Gaming. Unfortunately, the only 4K60 movie is available on YouTube, and therefore it is compressed, but the point remains: regarding the video in ultra HD format you notice many details that were simply invisible during streaming, so the advice is to take a look.
The low level of detail is only one of the points on which the video has been criticized, however, given that the most common criticism is directed to a look judged flat and too "current-gen". To find a reason we have to look towards the lighting system: 343 Industries uses the Slipspace motor to bring the series towards a non-linear approach and introduce a fully dynamic lighting system. It's a very different approach from Halo 5 where lighting and shadows were almost exclusively pre-calculated, with the help of a handful of actually dynamic lights.
To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings The Digital Foundry analyzes the gameplay video of Halo Infinite.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel by switching to a lighting system dynamic, you get an increase the realism and flexibility, for example with regard to the differences in light at different times of the day (so much so that it seems that in the gameplay video there is a slight change in the lighting during the action). At the opposite extreme we find systems more standard seen for example in The Last of Us 2, which conserves resources precalcolando most of the effects needed (and, for example, to simulate the indirect lighting that it didn't need many), and with final results that can be spectacular, even with some compromise (it happens that the dynamic objects are lit differently from those static, generating discontinuities). Precalculate, however, takes time and even the slightest change in the scene obliges and do it all over again. Lighting and dynamic shadows such as those of Halo Infinite cost more in real-time, but have the advantage of light everything the same way and offer lighting options more various and flexible to the players. That said, we can imagine that the benefits data from the dynamic lighting to be used in the game design of Halo Infinite, that we have only seen fleetingly.
The dynamic lighting puts a strain on the GPU, and this could be the main reason for the look of a much-criticised. Watching the video, the sun is positioned close to the line of the horizon, with several obstacles to cover such as hills or trees. It is likely, therefore, that the majority of the locations do not receive direct light because the gameplay that we have seen takes place in a valley where the light of the sun is obscured. In short, a good part of the gameplay is in the shadow areas, areas that are historically difficult to represent accurately. But not only that: knowing that the textures in games take advantage of only the lighting for a correct representation of the materials, that's when you are in a shadow cone of the assets not give the best.
In the video analysis that you find in the video above you can see that this is not a problem limited to Halo Infinite, given that Metro Exodus shows signs, although 4A has tried to find a solution, i.e. the global illumination in real-time via ray-tracing. It is not the only solution to the problem, however, saw that others try different approaches: the Epic has the beautiful system Lumen in the Unreal engine 5, while the system SVOGI in the CryEngine aims to achieve similar results. With some form of tracking to help the indirect lighting in areas of shadow, Halo Infinite would be quite different from what we have seen until now. It would take compromises, of course, since all of these technologies weigh in, particularly on a GPU.
To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings, The preparation of Digital Foundry speaks to showcase the Xbox.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel for starters we can say that neither the Xbox One nor the Xbox One X would have the power to exploit them, but on the other hand it also makes sense that there is a qualitative leap from one generation to the other for a game of this kind. Xbox Series X-ray tracing in hardware and, in the case the game should receive an update with support for ray tracing, we hope that the bulk of the power is spent for global illumination, rather than other aspects, such as reflections. The trade-off is that turn 4K60 with ray tracing enabled, may exceed the limits of the next Microsoft console, but in an era in which reconstruction of images, and the temporal super-sampling the results they achieve are exceptional, it is a compromise that we would accept gladly. Lets say so: do you prefer lighting was dated, but in 4K, or lighting for next-gen with a resolution of 1440p and upsampling?
We have seen that the lighting seems to be the main responsible for the flatness of the images in the video of the gameplay, and we wonder how it would be to see a bit of action in the areas directly lit. In games such as OnRush, we have seen lighting fully dynamic, such as that of Halo Infinite, and found that the richness of the presentation is affected by the different time of the day, even if the problem of direct illumination is not disappeared. We know that Halo Infinite is not yet complete and that 343 continues to work, but we also know that the dynamic lighting is one of the foundations of the plans of the developer and is unlikely to be set aside at this stage. Then, we can only keep in mind that what you see does not reflect what we'll see in all parts of the game.
that Said, there are other aspects that we hope to be re-examined. In addition to the issue of lighting, is the level of detail at not having satisfied observers. Rocks, grass and even the fog showed one off-kilter pop-in. 4K native at 60fps they mean to render the 8.3 million pixels, each at 16.7 milliseconds, then parts of the vegetation or triangles with a very small, can break down the frame-rate. Even a GPU like that of the Xbox Series X would be in trouble. Perhaps, then, the resolution is too high, and in the finished game will be used a dynamic approach? The demo that we saw was continuously checking by the 3840 × 2160, but we also know that it was a build PC, not the console.
To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings, The lighting in Metro Exodus has faced the same problems encountered by Halo Infinite, but it shows just how global illumination in real-time via ray-tracing everything can change.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel And then there are the little things, like for example the lack of shadows on the arms and on the hands of the Master Chief, what's that in Crysis 3 is from 2013 and that you can also do it without spending a lot of resources as demonstrated by the Call of Duty. It is a small addition that will, however, greatly improves the overall quality, so we hope to find you on Xbox Series X.
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Still, some effects, opaque on the shields, for example, seemed far too "solid", unlike what is seen in Halo Reach by Bungie. Finally, some materials are not convinced: certain, as we have seen, the main problem in this case is in indirect lighting, but there are too many plastics and metals here, while in previous Halo were many more alien materials.
it Will be interesting to see the direction that will take Microsoft and 343 for the marketing of Halo Infinite, and what changes they can think of to do in a game now a few months after the release. We know that the plan is to evolve the game even after launch and that the support to the ray tracing is in development, so the hope is that the disruptive effect of the RT is used for global illumination, but clearly it will be 343 to decide.
above all, however, we hope that the reactions to the demo gameplay of Halo Infinite does not discourage developers from showing their games at events like the Xbox Games Showcase, because we prefer to see gameplay real trailer or simple movies that have little to do with the graphics of a game. The event Microsoft is able to convey the variety of the offer and the value of the Game Pass, but it did not show the most important thing: the gameplay.
we Hope that the message is understood and that reactions to the gameplay of Halo Infinite not to be misunderstood: not, there are criticisms of the format, but the content.
