Halo Reach

Since 6898 Days

Well yea, in a sense Bungie has been getting a pass, especially in regards to the seriously dated animation that is present in their games. It may have been cool at one point, but that time has passed.

It's got the Modern Warfare franchise really breathing down it's neck in my opinion, slowly but surely about to erase whatever supposed stranglehold that the Halo franchise had on the genre, but potentially even more important, the Xbox platform. Now, as fun as Halo may be, there's no way I'd ever enjoy it more than I enjoy some team based Counter-Strike 1.6 on the PC, and the primary reason I've been getting the Modern Warfare games is because I want to experience the awesome presentation and production value of the campaign game, and obviously the gameplay ain't too bad either :)

Graphics surely aren't everything and I wouldn't mind one bit if Bungie came to the conclusion that it made more sense to cut down on the impressiveness of the models or on the overall visual impressiveness of the game in order to best benefit the game itself, but I wouldn't like if it were to such a great extent that it felt like an attempt to mislead or a total bait and switch with regards to what we thought we were getting. For one, I find it mindblowing that at this point in the gen that the kinds of excuses that Bungie fans, even myself to a degree, has to had to throw around for why their game wasn't doing something that so many other games were already doing and doing well, like quality animation. Now if you consider that most of those dev teams or most of those franchises will never achieve the financial success of Halo, then it's even further saddening that Bungie seems behind.

Then again, I guess you can give them the benefit of the doubt to a degree and say they were no doubt being pressed to put out Halo 3 and it seems like Halo 3 was mostly a super charged exhancement of Halo 2 tech, and then ODST was simply just them getting out another game on the same technology, and Reach is seemingly the type of new engine that some were originally hoping for out of Halo 3.

You know what I think would be really cool? If Bungie added some form of cinematic takedowns or executions to the Campaign gameplay where you can go up to various Covenants and do some cool cinematic finish. But Bungie should place a limit on it like you have to get a certain number of kills before it's possible. We don't want a situation where you can just go around abusing the damn thing, like the chainsawing in Gears of War.

In reply to

Well yea, in a sense Bungie has been getting a pass, especially in regards to the seriously dated animation that is present in their games. It may have been cool at one point, but that time has passed.

It's got the Modern Warfare franchise really breathing down it's neck in my opinion, slowly but surely about to erase whatever supposed stranglehold that the Halo franchise had on the genre, but potentially even more important, the Xbox platform. Now, as fun as Halo may be, there's no way I'd ever enjoy it more than I enjoy some team based Counter-Strike 1.6 on the PC, and the primary reason I've been getting the Modern Warfare games is because I want to experience the awesome presentation and production value of the campaign game, and obviously the gameplay ain't too bad either :)

Graphics surely aren't everything and I wouldn't mind one bit if Bungie came to the conclusion that it made more sense to cut down on the impressiveness of the models or on the overall visual impressiveness of the game in order to best benefit the game itself, but I wouldn't like if it were to such a great extent that it felt like an attempt to mislead or a total bait and switch with regards to what we thought we were getting. For one, I find it mindblowing that at this point in the gen that the kinds of excuses that Bungie fans, even myself to a degree, has to had to throw around for why their game wasn't doing something that so many other games were already doing and doing well, like quality animation. Now if you consider that most of those dev teams or most of those franchises will never achieve the financial success of Halo, then it's even further saddening that Bungie seems behind.

Then again, I guess you can give them the benefit of the doubt to a degree and say they were no doubt being pressed to put out Halo 3 and it seems like Halo 3 was mostly a super charged exhancement of Halo 2 tech, and then ODST was simply just them getting out another game on the same technology, and Reach is seemingly the type of new engine that some were originally hoping for out of Halo 3.

You know what I think would be really cool? If Bungie added some form of cinematic takedowns or executions to the Campaign gameplay where you can go up to various Covenants and do some cool cinematic finish. But Bungie should place a limit on it like you have to get a certain number of kills before it's possible. We don't want a situation where you can just go around abusing the damn thing, like the chainsawing in Gears of War.

Hironobu Sakaguchi is coming back to reclaim the throne :)

Seeing it in motion on your HDTV, will blow your mind!!

Don't ask any questions just shut up and buy Halo : Ghosts of the Onyx one of the greatest books ever.

pssh! more like electronic g

GrimThorne

Since 6878 Days

Posted by Acert93

It isn't real-time. I know the Bungie tweet says it is, but they are trying to say is, "It isn't CGI, it is [from our engine]."

Sorry to break it to people but I will eat my hat if that was real-time and we get that IQ in the real-time engine. The texture fidelity and anti-aliasing are far, far away from anything any console can do. Sorry.

Ace you don't think any of that could have been accomplished with depth of field techniques? It's certainly not unheard of on the 360.

In reply to

Optimusv2

Since 6898 Days

Hmm, a number of the Spartans in the cutscene appear to have spots on their right shoulder for knives. The one that was loading the clip of that gun has a knife right there on his right shoulder area.

The one that was sharpening his knife on his armor, has the holster for that very uniquely shaped knife right there on his right shoulder. It's entirely possible that Bungie may have put in place some type of new melee assassination style kills in this game!

It would be cool if this was not only a team oriented Halo FPS of sorts, but that they also tossed in a bit of Arkham Asylum influence. Like maybe you'll come across a door you can't get open, and so the lead Spartan will come over and use that LCD device on his arm to hack into it. It would also be sorta cool if one of the Spartans had a grappling hook of sorts that worked in a way similar to Batman's in Arkham Asylum. They clearly can't overdue it, and it would have to be used in specific situations only, but it could end up being pretty damn cool and raise the bar a bit for First Person shooters if handled right.

In reply to

Hmm, a number of the Spartans in the cutscene appear to have spots on their right shoulder for knives. The one that was loading the clip of that gun has a knife right there on his right shoulder area.

The one that was sharpening his knife on his armor, has the holster for that very uniquely shaped knife right there on his right shoulder. It's entirely possible that Bungie may have put in place some type of new melee assassination style kills in this game!

It would be cool if this was not only a team oriented Halo FPS of sorts, but that they also tossed in a bit of Arkham Asylum influence. Like maybe you'll come across a door you can't get open, and so the lead Spartan will come over and use that LCD device on his arm to hack into it. It would also be sorta cool if one of the Spartans had a grappling hook of sorts that worked in a way similar to Batman's in Arkham Asylum. They clearly can't overdue it, and it would have to be used in specific situations only, but it could end up being pretty damn cool and raise the bar a bit for First Person shooters if handled right.

Hironobu Sakaguchi is coming back to reclaim the throne :)

Seeing it in motion on your HDTV, will blow your mind!!

Don't ask any questions just shut up and buy Halo : Ghosts of the Onyx one of the greatest books ever.

pssh! more like electronic g

GriftGFX

Since 7006 Days

Halo is already a team oriented FPS in multiplayer. The game thrives on objective game types.

It's still the best console-centric FPS experience online.

In reply to

Optimusv2

Since 6898 Days

I'd gladly take less impressive textures, slight aliasing, and whatever else they can't achieve in real-time if it meant we'd actually get to keep those amazing Spartan armor models. I also have a strange feeling that we'll be able to customize our armor however we please. Look at what Forza has done with customization, I suspect players will be able to do similar things with Spartan armor and that would be an amazing innovation I think.

Even if other games have tried it to some degree, Halo doing it would really be a big deal.

The only multiplayer games I can really seem to get into are Counter-Strike 1.6, Quake 3 once upon a time and NBA 2K10, some of the ideas I'm thinking about are speculations for things that could add something special to the SP besides just fantastic presentation and killer combat gameplay. But if it was just your typical awesome Halo experience, I wouldn't mind that either :)

In reply to

Hironobu Sakaguchi is coming back to reclaim the throne :)

Seeing it in motion on your HDTV, will blow your mind!!

Don't ask any questions just shut up and buy Halo : Ghosts of the Onyx one of the greatest books ever.

pssh! more like electronic g

BLackHawkodst

Since 5892 Days

Will the final product looks this good, who knows?, but even if it just comes close it will look amazing, Reach will be up with the best of them, and if Bungie keep the stella gameplay and fun factor in check, then wow.

In reply to

Prepare To Drop!!

BLackHawkodst

Since 5892 Days

Some cool pic comparisons from the Bungie Forum.

Excellent article with plenty of images that Gamespot put together to show the evolution of the graphics from Halo 1 to 3

http://www.gamespot.com/features/6179901/index.htm...

In reply to

Prepare To Drop!!

Optimusv2

Since 6898 Days

Not sure why it took me so long to actually realize this, but Jorge-052, the biggest looking Spartan in the Reach Cinematic is a Spartan II in the same exact class as Kurt aka Spartan-051 and John aka Spartan-117 (Master Chief)

Carter-259, who appears to be the leader, is a class II Spartan II, but the most puzzling of all is that girl with the cybernetic arm.

She's Kat-320 I suspect she may have been a not so perfect Class III attempt of more Spartan IIs, but she may have been crippled during the augmentation process, but I suppose the only reason they are using her is because they need all the help they can get. Her class probably didn't have nearly as many subjects as the first 2 classes of Spartan IIs did. But maybe she got that injury during battle, as opposed to during the augmentation process. I suspect she got it during the augmentation process though.

At 1:24 in the trailer, the spartan with the scratched in skull on his helmet, places that knife he was sharpening on his right shoulder! I'm really starting to think Bungie put cinematic melee kills in the game :D

In reply to

Not sure why it took me so long to actually realize this, but Jorge-052, the biggest looking Spartan in the Reach Cinematic is a Spartan II in the same exact class as Kurt aka Spartan-051 and John aka Spartan-117 ([b]Master Chief[/b])

Carter-259, who appears to be the leader, is a class II Spartan II, but the most puzzling of all is that girl with the cybernetic arm.

She's Kat-320 I suspect she may have been a not so perfect Class III attempt of more Spartan IIs, but she may have been crippled during the augmentation process, but I suppose the only reason they are using her is because they need all the help they can get. Her class probably didn't have nearly as many subjects as the first 2 classes of Spartan IIs did. But maybe she got that injury during battle, as opposed to during the augmentation process. I suspect she got it during the augmentation process though.

At [b]1:24 in the trailer, the spartan with the scratched in skull on his helmet, places that knife he was sharpening on his right shoulder![/b] I'm really starting to think Bungie put cinematic melee kills in the game :D

Hironobu Sakaguchi is coming back to reclaim the throne :)

Seeing it in motion on your HDTV, will blow your mind!!

Don't ask any questions just shut up and buy Halo : Ghosts of the Onyx one of the greatest books ever.

pssh! more like electronic g

Optimusv2

Since 6898 Days

Posted by BLackHawkodst

Some cool pic comparisons from the Bungie Forum.

Excellent article with plenty of images that Gamespot put together to show the evolution of the graphics from Halo 1 to 3

http://www.gamespot.com/features/6179901/index.htm...

Bout damn time Bungie upped their game. I'm more coming around to the possibility that at least a good number of the assets were legit, since I highly doubt Bungie would show us these things then end up having face and character models like what we saw in Halo 3.

These are my guesses:

Carter, the leader is some type of tech wiz who can hack into stuff.

Our guy Lone Wolf is probably exceptionally skilled with regards to stealth and camo, and is capable of using things like jackal arm shields, and who knows what else.

The girl is likely there for her speed.

The one sharpening the knife likely uses heavy weapons like a grenade launcher.

Jorge-052, I have absolutely no idea, perhaps someone can help me out there, but maybe he's also a heavy weapons guy.

And it's fairly obvious who our sniper is. Our sniper is the other guy that asked if he was our new number six.

In reply to

[quote=BLackHawkodst]Some cool pic comparisons from the Bungie Forum.

[img]http://i968.photobucket.com/albums/ae168/HawxF22/Halo3-reachface.png?t=1260783656[/img]

[img]http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk8/simon413lol/Compare.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii59/DTAMoonDawg/Graphics.jpg[/img]

Excellent article with plenty of images that Gamespot put together to show the evolution of the graphics from Halo 1 to 3

http://www.gamespot.com/features/6179901/index.html[/quote]

Bout damn time Bungie upped their game. I'm more coming around to the possibility that at least a good number of the assets were legit, since I highly doubt Bungie would show us these things then end up having face and character models like what we saw in Halo 3.

These are my guesses:

Carter, the leader is some type of tech wiz who can hack into stuff.

Our guy Lone Wolf is probably exceptionally skilled with regards to stealth and camo, and is capable of using things like jackal arm shields, and who knows what else.

The girl is likely there for her speed.

The one sharpening the knife likely uses heavy weapons like a grenade launcher.

Jorge-052, I have absolutely no idea, perhaps someone can help me out there, but maybe he's also a heavy weapons guy.

And it's fairly obvious who our sniper is. Our sniper is the other guy that asked if he was our new number six.

Hironobu Sakaguchi is coming back to reclaim the throne :)

Seeing it in motion on your HDTV, will blow your mind!!

Don't ask any questions just shut up and buy Halo : Ghosts of the Onyx one of the greatest books ever.

pssh! more like electronic g

GriftGFX

Since 7006 Days

You know there's knives and samurai swords in Halo 3 right? I wouldn't read too much into it just yet.

In reply to

Optimusv2

Since 6898 Days

Yea, i knew about those, but I have a feeling Bungie was deliberately dropping some hints. Nonetheless you're right, we'll just have to wait and see, but boy is that damn wait torture.

In reply to

Hironobu Sakaguchi is coming back to reclaim the throne :)

Seeing it in motion on your HDTV, will blow your mind!!

Don't ask any questions just shut up and buy Halo : Ghosts of the Onyx one of the greatest books ever.

pssh! more like electronic g

GrimThorne

Since 6878 Days

After Alimo provided the Eurogamer technical analysis of the Reach trailer, I began studying the trailer a little harder looking for depth of field techniques that Bungie might have used. I'll say it again, it's very boring trailer! :P But let me stay focused on the technical analysis. There does appear to be more than a few visual tricks being employed by Bungie here. The good news is that these are all well within the realm of what the 360 is capable of. I'm not a believer yet, but what I know about the 360's graphical profile is that it is capable of a number of custom filtering and visual effects that give the illusion of greater graphical performance being pulled off.

I also found a posting at Penny-arcade that points out these effects perfectly. I thought it was good enough to share. Here is the posting exactly as it appears at the penny-arcade forums.

http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=10...

Okay, first off, it's definitely in-game and real time, because there is still some aliasing.

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o165/fyrewulff/...

Onto view distances. It seems the Reach engine is a lot better, because Bungie is making much better use of 'real' geometry mixed with skyboxed mixed with matte to keep performance up.

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o165/fyrewulff/...

The white line is where the 'real' geometry ends and where you start seeing lower-detail skybox. the cyan line is where you stop seeing skybox and start seeing a matte painting.

This a big improvement over Halo 3. Halo 3's super wide shots like this were 99% matte-only. Most cutscenes were real-geometry closeups or just a skybox to keep performance up. Not anything wrong with that, mind, but it's obvious how much better the Reach engine is. The cutscenes in this game should be spectacular.

If you still don't know what i'm talking about, this is what the scene would look like from the side if i'm correct:

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o165/fyrewulff/...

It looks like they've got a new lighting and shadowing strategy compared to halo 2 and 3. Looks like everything casts a shadow, no matter how far above the ground it's sitting:

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o165/fyrewulff/...

Also the shadows on everything combine correctly, something not even the source engine is doing on PC (I believe, I haven't looked at episode 1 or 2 yet). They're also very edge-blurred so they look very nice. Also this shot makes the slight film grain effect they're putting on everything more obvious. The film grain is 'smoothing' out the image thanks to how our eyes work and does not allow any harsh edges to grab our eye's attention.

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o165/fyrewulff/...

very nice use of depth focus to keep aliasing from showing up on the near arm. But this shot is the most obvious answer to "how is Bungie pulling off that much AA on 360?". Well, the answer is, they're not. They are however exploiting the human eye and using a new technique. Look at the edges of the arm:

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o165/fyrewulff/...

Yep, they're use a new technique where the edges are blurred into the surrounding area. This assists the 360's hardware AA and creates smoother edges. This technique has a name but I'm forgetting it now. It's similiar to what Nintendo used in Mario Galaxy to make poly edges seem super smooth. Now it's being used on the 360.

Another shot showing the technique. When you watch in HD, it's really obvious:

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o165/fyrewulff/...

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o165/fyrewulff/...

In reply to

After Alimo provided the Eurogamer technical analysis of the Reach trailer, I began studying the trailer a little harder looking for depth of field techniques that Bungie might have used.  I'll say it again, it's very boring trailer!  :P  But let me stay focused on the technical analysis.   There does appear to be more than a few visual tricks being employed by Bungie here.  The good news is that these are all well within the realm of what the 360 is capable of.  I'm not a believer yet, but what I know about the 360's graphical profile is that it is capable of a number of custom filtering and visual effects that give the illusion of greater graphical performance being pulled off.

I also found a posting at Penny-arcade that points out these effects perfectly.  I thought it was good enough to share.  Here is the posting exactly as it appears at the penny-arcade forums.

[quote]

http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=103896&page=67

Okay, first off, it's definitely in-game and real time, because there is still some aliasing.

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o165/fyrewulff/reach_study1.jpg

Onto view distances. It seems the Reach engine is a lot better, because Bungie is making much better use of 'real' geometry mixed with skyboxed mixed with matte to keep performance up.

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o165/fyrewulff/reach_study2.jpg

The white line is where the 'real' geometry ends and where you start seeing lower-detail skybox. the cyan line is where you stop seeing skybox and start seeing a matte painting.

This a big improvement over Halo 3. Halo 3's super wide shots like this were 99% matte-only. Most cutscenes were real-geometry closeups or just a skybox to keep performance up. Not anything wrong with that, mind, but it's obvious how much better the Reach engine is. The cutscenes in this game should be spectacular.

If you still don't know what i'm talking about, this is what the scene would look like from the side if i'm correct:

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o165/fyrewulff/reach_study_6.png

It looks like they've got a new lighting and shadowing strategy compared to halo 2 and 3. Looks like everything casts a shadow, no matter how far above the ground it's sitting:

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o165/fyrewulff/reach_study3.jpg

Also the shadows on everything combine correctly, something not even the source engine is doing on PC (I believe, I haven't looked at episode 1 or 2 yet). They're also very edge-blurred so they look very nice. Also this shot makes the slight film grain effect they're putting on everything more obvious. The film grain is 'smoothing' out the image thanks to how our eyes work and does not allow any harsh edges to grab our eye's attention.

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o165/fyrewulff/reach_study4.jpg

very nice use of depth focus to keep aliasing from showing up on the near arm. But this shot is the most obvious answer to "how is Bungie pulling off that much AA on 360?". Well, the answer is, they're not. They are however exploiting the human eye and using a new technique. Look at the edges of the arm:

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o165/fyrewulff/reach_study4_closeup.jpg

Yep, they're use a new technique where the edges are blurred into the surrounding area. This assists the 360's hardware AA and creates smoother edges. This technique has a name but I'm forgetting it now. It's similiar to what Nintendo used in Mario Galaxy to make poly edges seem super smooth. Now it's being used on the 360.

Another shot showing the technique. When you watch in HD, it's really obvious:

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o165/fyrewulff/reach_study5.jpg

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o165/fyrewulff/reach_study7.jpg   [/quote]

GrimThorne

Since 6878 Days

If Simon's post is accurate then this means that Reach is still in pretty RAW shape right now. The fact that the Reach devs needed to put 60 days of of work into a 2 minute trailer is very telling. This also means that we may not get any game footage for quite some time.

This ALSO means that the game's final IQ could fall anywhere.........long, short, or right on target of this trailer. Nobody knows, maybe Bungie doesn't even know either, so everyone really needs to take a chill pill and relax.

In reply to

dcdelgado

Since 6866 Days

That photo analysis has been posted already earlier in this thread i believe, the polishing phase on games always kicks off in the last few months before a games release, so the fact they had to work so hard on getting the build they have now upto standard for them to show this clip is understandable, will they get it looking as good as this on release i think not, but i think they will come close and that will be a huge leap for Halo.

In reply to

** Yes We CAN!! **

Viginti_Tres

Since 6508 Days

Posted by Optimusv2

Not sure why it took me so long to actually realize this, but Jorge-052, the biggest looking Spartan in the Reach Cinematic is a Spartan II in the same exact class as Kurt aka Spartan-051 and John aka Spartan-117 (Master Chief)

Carter-259, who appears to be the leader, is a class II Spartan II, but the most puzzling of all is that girl with the cybernetic arm.

How can you be so sure? The Class II Spartan-II program was discontinued by Halsey, cause there weren't enough recruits due to the age restriction and the narrow gene-pool to choose from and she run out of funds. That's at least according to the canon.

Hopefully Bungie can pull of a good explanation for who they are and where they come from.

In reply to

SimonM7

Since 7029 Days

343 Industries' sole purpose at this point, according to interviews all over the place, is to make sure all stories told in the Halo universe match up and play by canon. They admit to there already being discrepancies, but that's in part due to there never being anyone to keep track of all of it, be it comic books, novels, the shorts and the games.

I think we can rest assured that however this plays out, it'll make sense in the end. Frankly, if 343 can't keep a leesh on the MAIN SERIES OF GAMES, then what the hell are they good for.

It should prolly be noted that when Eric Nylund wrote Fall of Reach, nobody gave a rodent's bum what he put in there. It could be that the actual canon Bungie/343 has established doesn't factor in everything he put in that book. That's nobody's fault really, because apparently he had like 7 weeks or something to throw it together before launch, with very little guidance. At that point it was like all tie in books, mostly a marketing ploy.

In reply to

http://modeseven.blogspot.com | Dominic and Simon - dyanamic games blog duo!
Twitter: @simonlundmark

Optimusv2

Since 6898 Days

Posted by Viginti_Tres

How can you be so sure? The Class II Spartan-II program was discontinued by Halsey, cause there weren't enough recruits due to the age restriction and the narrow gene-pool to choose from and she run out of funds. That's at least according to the canon.

Hopefully Bungie can pull of a good explanation for who they are and where they come from.

She had to postpone it, but 6 years later after when she had originally determined that there weren't enough candidates that perfectly fit into the age restriction, there were now enough candidates. The Class II Spartan II program did in fact go ahead, just 6 years later than expected. They are surely Class II Spartan IIs, whereas Jorge-052 is a Class I like Master Chief.

I'm honestly expecting Reach to be THE FPS shooter of this generation, so needless to say, my expectations are pretty damn high :)

In reply to

Hironobu Sakaguchi is coming back to reclaim the throne :)

Seeing it in motion on your HDTV, will blow your mind!!

Don't ask any questions just shut up and buy Halo : Ghosts of the Onyx one of the greatest books ever.

pssh! more like electronic g

icemanufc

Since 5672 Days

I have not been as excited for a game in a long while, i know the below screen is fake but boy could you imagin playing that.

In reply to

Optimusv2

Since 6898 Days

Unfortunately, I don't think Bungie is capable of modeling the 'Tom Morello' with that level of detail. I'm hopeful about the visual potential of this game, but I'm not crazy enough to think that they can pull off that name in real-time :)

In reply to

Hironobu Sakaguchi is coming back to reclaim the throne :)

Seeing it in motion on your HDTV, will blow your mind!!

Don't ask any questions just shut up and buy Halo : Ghosts of the Onyx one of the greatest books ever.

pssh! more like electronic g

icemanufc

Since 5672 Days

lol..

I dont think the game graphics will end up as good as the trailer, but close is good enough, hell im so stoked that they are now using mo-cap animations and going for a more gritty look and feel, with some for sure new gameplay mechanics.

In reply to

blmbox

Since 6337 Days

If that screenshot was actually real, I'd probably jizz in my pants.

In reply to

Optimusv2

Since 6898 Days

Well, the gun model is surely real and as long as those are in-game assets, then I can see this being achieved with perhaps a touch less smoothness aka more obvious signs of aliasing, but my god man, whatever the Batman Arkham Asylum team did, and whatever the Star Wars Force Unleashed team did, both of their games look remarkably smooth, even during straight up gameplay.

Also, again, if those assets are real in any way and if disc space isn't an issue, then I say they can pull whatever trick they used to make that cutscene look so good for every last one of the cutscenes in the game that don't take place during actual gameplay. Some are suggesting they gave the engine as much time as it needed to render whatever it was doing at an insanely high resolution, and then it was downsampled to 720p to remove any signs of aliasing. If that's the trick, then I say so be it, do it for the other cutscenes in the game. Go 2 discs if they have to, Forza 3 did it! Why compromise if you don't have to?

Then again, isn't it usually customary that Bungie likes to go pure real-time with their cutscenes? But the way I see it is if other games are pulling tricks, then why don't they go ahead and do the same? Actually, I can't really say that, if they want to go true real-time to show off their talent, then I say go ahead, as long as it doesn't hurt their presentation I guess.

Perhaps the textures also won't look quite as good once they compensate for all the other things their game needs to be doing, but as I've said before, other games have clearly managed to achieve a high quality of modeling, texture, and perceived smoothness across the entirety of their game with solid performance, so why shouldn't Bungie be able to do the same? Ultimately I guess all we can do is wait and see. ;)

In reply to

Well, the gun model is surely real and as long as those are in-game assets, then I can see this being achieved with perhaps a touch less smoothness aka more obvious signs of aliasing, but my god man, whatever the Batman Arkham Asylum team did, and whatever the Star Wars Force Unleashed team did, both of their games look remarkably smooth, even during straight up gameplay.

Also, again, if those assets are real in any way and if disc space isn't an issue, then I say they can pull whatever trick they used to make that cutscene look so good for every last one of the cutscenes in the game that don't take place during actual gameplay. Some are suggesting they gave the engine as much time as it needed to render whatever it was doing at an insanely high resolution, and then it was downsampled to 720p to remove any signs of aliasing. If that's the trick, then I say so be it, do it for the other cutscenes in the game. Go 2 discs if they have to, Forza 3 did it! Why compromise if you don't have to?

Then again, isn't it usually customary that Bungie likes to go pure real-time with their cutscenes? But the way I see it is if other games are pulling tricks, then why don't they go ahead and do the same? Actually, I can't really say that, if they want to go true real-time to show off their talent, then I say go ahead, as long as it doesn't hurt their presentation I guess.

Perhaps the textures also won't look quite as good once they compensate for all the other things their game needs to be doing, but as I've said before, other games have clearly managed to achieve a high quality of modeling, texture, and perceived smoothness across the entirety of their game with solid performance, so why shouldn't Bungie be able to do the same? Ultimately I guess all we can do is wait and see. ;)

Hironobu Sakaguchi is coming back to reclaim the throne :)

Seeing it in motion on your HDTV, will blow your mind!!

Don't ask any questions just shut up and buy Halo : Ghosts of the Onyx one of the greatest books ever.

pssh! more like electronic g

Optimusv2

Since 6898 Days

http://www.bungie.net/Projects/Reach/default.aspx

Marty from bungie says in a Halo Reach VGA interview.

The more interesting stuff that he says is that what was shown of Reach.

#1 It's actually from the game

#2 He says they'll probably adjust it, there's some text and graphics that won't be in the game obviously, but this is the way the game plays right at the beginning.

So, that right there is a very obvious sign that the actual gameplay may not look quite as good as this or the eventual cutscenes in the final game may not actually look as good as what we saw, but he seems to confirm, yet again, that the scene we saw is actual one that's straight from the beginning of the game, so if any downgrades take place, we'll notice them almost immediately :)

I just hope the obvious adjustments aren't too far a cry from the unbelievable cinematic we saw.

Another guy, the project lead I think, says that the game is almost fully playable, so that would probably indicate that they probably don't have an actual running game right now that runs and looks as impressive as that cutscene we just saw during actual gameplay, and it probably doesn't even look that good just yet during the actual cutscenes in the game, that is of course unless the cutscene we saw was legit and in anyway a good indication of what we'll be getting in the final retail release.

In reply to

http://www.bungie.net/Projects/Reach/default.aspx

Marty from bungie says in a Halo Reach VGA interview.

The more interesting stuff that he says is that what was shown of Reach.

#1 It's actually from the game

#2 He says they'll probably adjust it, there's some [b]text and graphics[/b] that won't be in the game obviously, but this is the way the game plays right at the beginning.

So, that right there is a very obvious sign that the actual gameplay may not look quite as good as this or the eventual cutscenes in the final game may not actually look as good as what we saw, but he seems to confirm, yet again, that the scene we saw is actual one that's straight from the beginning of the game, so if any downgrades take place, we'll notice them almost immediately :)

I just hope the obvious adjustments aren't too far a cry from the unbelievable cinematic we saw.

Another guy, the project lead I think, says that the game is almost fully playable, so that would probably indicate that they probably don't have an actual running game right now that runs and looks as impressive as that cutscene we just saw during actual gameplay, and it probably doesn't even look that good just yet during the actual cutscenes in the game, that is of course unless the cutscene we saw was legit and in anyway a good indication of what we'll be getting in the final retail release.

Hironobu Sakaguchi is coming back to reclaim the throne :)

Seeing it in motion on your HDTV, will blow your mind!!

Don't ask any questions just shut up and buy Halo : Ghosts of the Onyx one of the greatest books ever.

pssh! more like electronic g

blmbox

Since 6337 Days

Are you sure that by "text and graphics" he isn't referring to the 'Halo: Reach' text and graphics that pops up at a certain point in the cutscene? It probably isn't, but you never know.

In reply to

Optimusv2

Since 6898 Days

Well, I'd like to think that's what he meant, but if I did that I'd be doing a terrible job of trying to remain skeptical until they show us what Reach is really made of.

Honestly, I'm setting myself up for possible disappointment, but if Reach still ends up being a very noticeable jump over Halo 3 or ODST, then I'll be satisfied. I just hope we don't lose the amazing animations. That I couldn't accept.

In reply to

Hironobu Sakaguchi is coming back to reclaim the throne :)

Seeing it in motion on your HDTV, will blow your mind!!

Don't ask any questions just shut up and buy Halo : Ghosts of the Onyx one of the greatest books ever.

pssh! more like electronic g

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