Halo Infinite has already changed since the July demo, what are the technical innovations?
"The facial animations of the NPCs were not yet fully present in the old build we showed at July, hence Craig's funny appearance, which obviously didn't have to show himself in those conditions, of course. " These are the words of the Art Manager Neill Harrison, who continues the technical examination also talking about improvements regarding the structures and settings, the vegetation and the yield of the materials, in addition, the atmospheric agents and the lighting system have also been modified will undergo "a great revolution", even the character models will eventually undergo changes, as will the look of some weapons.
The lighting will undergo "a notable evolution" and global illumination will be improved both in terms of the outdoor settings and the interiors. For greater clarity, some images have been published (found at the bottom of the news) that show some glimpses of a multiplayer map, allowing you to take a look at the quality of the textures and the management of the lights, as well as the quality of the models and in general the graphical leap compared to the old build. More than a frame taken from the game, it is a reworking to show the final look that the artists of 343 Industries intend to achieve, as some elements are clearly added with photo editing programs (for example the water dripping from the roof, the volumetric beams, some texture details on the models).
The demo of Halo Infinite was a work in progress, say the artists of 343, rather unripe and not representative of the state of the project, unfortunately during the communication this detail did not emerge with the necessary clarity. Finally, the team claims to have focused on "a return to the past" in terms of the look and aesthetic feel of the production.
The technical problems and bugs seen in the summer demo would be definitively solved thanks to new GPU-driven rendering procedures, optimizations of texture and model streaming, with particular attention to vegetation. A new layer of texture applied to rock models and natural elements in general to make them more realistic. The addition of a new sharpening filter to combat the too "soft" look due to the temporal antialising technique which should give more detail to the assets in the game.
About the latter : great attention was paid to reworking the materials of the three-dimensional models, to diversify them more and give them the right light, especially thanks to more intense specular reflections, and more accurate reflection maps.
One of the most common criticisms of the summer demo was the lack of contrast and the overall "flat" look that the production had shown. All due in part to the choices of art design back to the origins, on the other hand, to a lighting system that is technically backwards, but also poorly calibrated.
Among the solutions adopted by the team to improve this aspect, there is a new balance of light and contrast, also acting trivially on the strength of the virtual sun that illuminates the game scenes.
Obviously this modification alone would not have been enough: a professional color grading system was added, because it was completely missing in the July demo. A technique widely used in the cinema (but also videogame, it is one of the key features of Unreal Engine 4) to give a certain look to the shots. By changing the color palette, managing saturation, color shift, brightness and contrast, it is possible to literally change the emotions transmitted to the viewer.
Scenes can therefore become warmer, colder, dark or sunny, go from dramatic to fun , even if only based on the displacement of the colors that give life to the scene.
Halo Infinite is expected in the fall of 2021 on PC, Xbox Series X / S, Xbox One and Xbox One X.
