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New Halo blog post addresses graphics

levyjl1988

Banned
Yeah, the classical art style is not what drew me to Halo.
Halo CE is the first Halo game I've played, it was the story that grabbed me, not the art direction so falling back to this style just doesn't quite fit.
I get the whole sense of wonder and scale, but returning to the Classic Halo style just doesn't drive it home.

I can see what 343i is trying to do, return to the classic art style similar to Mario by emphasizing the iconic silhouette, vibrant armor, and make it overall more iconic.
Like how the art style went from Super Smash Bros Brawl to Super Smash Bros Ultimate style less realistic and more simple.
This art style would work if it was used in Smash Bros Ultimate, but I don't see it working well for Infinite.

49f9869a36eda24495be7108a2e0fc0a19c2a044r1-1280-720v2_hq.jpg


I guess 343i is trying to integrate an art style in which it crosses Minecraft to some degree. Hell, I would not be surprised to see Banjo and Kazooie's blocky exterior from Nuts and Bolts in this game as it would fit well into this art style.

ded764ac19248435cc2bb3c64cb0b0f3.jpg
minecraft-starter-collection-squareboxart-01-ps4-11dec19-en-us


k2y3gjw4gpc51.png


05-1.jpg

I got invested in Halo in Halo 3. Halo Reach supplemented that direction and the weight and characters and animation of Halo Reach made me really care about the Spartans. I'm not sure if Halo Infinite will deliver.

You can clearly see the proxemic interactions between the Spartans and their slight gestures.



I feel like this game is going to disappoint and not exceed my evaluations, it won't revaluate or change gaming, it feels pretty pedestrian, to be honest.

If Microsoft wanted to be more iconic and more Nintendo then just release Banjo Kazooie threeie already...
 
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VAVA Mk2

Member
All these guys need to do is create shadow casting light sources, turn up the bump mapping resolution and increase the terrain texture resolution. If they got some time to throw in a PBR shader for all of their assets it will make a HUGE difference in fidelity.
They gotta fix the low poly Escharum render and the awful Brute renders. They look terrible. They need details and hair like the H2A Brutes.
 

Reallink

Member
...With Halo Infinite, we’re returning to a more ‘classic’ art style which was a key message going back to the very first reveal that garnered enthusiastic and positive responses. This translates to a more vibrant palette, “cleaner” models and objects with less “noise”, though it doesn’t mean less detail. While we appreciate this may not be everyone’s personal preference, we stand by this decision and are happy to see it resonating with so many fans around the world...

What are these clowns smoking, 500 million dollar bills? The game looks absolutely nothing like the 2018 reveal, which showcased assets generally beyond Sony's best first parties, and approaching next-gen. What they actually demoed was a Switch port of that, and why the response was universally and overwhelmingly negative.
 
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Nikana

Go Go Neo Rangers!
What are these clowns smoking, 500 million dollar bills? The game looks absolutely nothing like the 2018 reveal, which showcased assets generally beyond Sony's best first parties, and approaching next-gen. What they actually demoed was a Switch port of that, which is why the response is universally and overwhelmingly negative.
The 500 million has never been proven.
 

Evangelion Unit-01

Master Chief
You didn't read the article?

I am reacting to this part. The classic art style was not as clean and plastic looking as they are suggesting. They did not return to the classic art style in full. So this comment did not sit well with me.


With Halo Infinite, we’re returning to a more ‘classic’ art style which was a key message going back to the very first reveal that garnered enthusiastic and positive responses. This translates to a more vibrant palette, “cleaner” models and objects with less “noise”, though it doesn’t mean less detail.
 

Stuart360

Member
The Halo Infinite demo certainly didn't scream 'next-gen' but the claim that it's some kind of irredeemable mess is hyperbole. I'm not a huge Halo fan, so the finer details may have been lost on me at the reveal, but I thought it looked fine until I came to GAF.
Honestly the hyperbole of this game is beyond ridiculous. I also watched the show off site, and came on here expecting a bit of praise for it :messenger_tears_of_joy:. Maybe its because i had been playing Halo 2 Anniversary earlier in the day on PC, and Infinite looked a step up, while also targeting 4k/60 in an open world.
I mean sure there will be better looking next gen games, but you would think we got Half Life 1 graphics with the way people talk.
 

nemiroff

Gold Member
Disregarding the usual screeching from some Playstation fans (you see, the graphics isn't 343's biggest problem..) this whole pushback might still be the best thing to have happened to 343. They fucked up the Halo franchise from the get go, But now, with this jolt, maybe there's a slight chance someone wakes up over there sometime to save the next project. ..Unless of course they are so busy opposing meritocracy that they can't find the will to change.
 
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All these guys need to do is create shadow casting light sources, turn up the bump mapping resolution and increase the terrain texture resolution. If they got some time to throw in a PBR shader for all of their assets it will make a HUGE difference in fidelity.
For all my amateur work in UE4 I think that is a irony... Isn't it?
 

Mister Wolf

Member
I am reacting to this part. The classic art style was not as clean and plastic looking as they are suggesting. They did not return to the classic art style in full. So this comment did not sit well with me.


With Halo Infinite, we’re returning to a more ‘classic’ art style which was a key message going back to the very first reveal that garnered enthusiastic and positive responses. This translates to a more vibrant palette, “cleaner” models and objects with less “noise”, though it doesn’t mean less detail.

The "plastic looking" is specifically mentioned in the paragraph addressing the technical aspects. And the cleaner models is talking about this:

blue-team-halo-5.JPG
 
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VAVA Mk2

Member
Yeah that still looks amazing. Disappointing to watch that now. Whatever they improve, there's no way it looks that good, so wtf was that ever running on and was it really a target render or just way out of bounds.
That makes me sad. Looked so beautiful and I felt we finally would get a Halo game that looked and ran like that. Feels like it was another Blur CGI like the ones made for Halo 4 and 5 cut scenes.
 

Reallink

Member
The 500 million has never been proven.

With 450 team members as of several years ago, and over 5 years of active development, base (in house?) salaries alone would well exceed 200 million, nevermind the truck loads of outsourcing. This game has cost several hundred Scrooge McDuck fortunes, whether it's technically 500 million or not is irrelevant.
 
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Yoboman

Member
Based on our learnings from Halo 4, Halo 5, and Halo Wars 2 – along with strong community feedback – we decided to shift back towards the legacy aesthetics that defined the original trilogy. With Halo Infinite, we’re returning to a more ‘classic’ art style which was a key message going back to the very first reveal that garnered enthusiastic and positive responses. This translates to a more vibrant palette, “cleaner” models and objects with less “noise”, though it doesn’t mean less detail. While we appreciate this may not be everyone’s personal preference, we stand by this decision and are happy to see it resonating with so many fans around the world.

Ah, so its the fans fault
 

ZehDon

Member
Well a demo that would have not needed this to begin with in the first place and that game itself being just months away from release looking like that while gameplay is just okay, not the great/amazing thing they have promised.
Cool. They agree and are working on it. Is that not enough?
 

tommycronin

Member
So they deflected the criticisms of the game not looking good by technically saying look everyone we made it look just as shit as you remember it from the first few games. This is the new well we got a console that can do that its the 360.
 

Tiamat2san

Member
I am a big halo fan and didn’t mind the changes in the artistic department for 4 and 5.
The hardcore halo community despised the changes.
They wanted halo to come back to the origins.
I hope they are happy because the rest of the world isn’t.
I’ll play it because I love Halo but that’s it.
 

iHaunter

Member
As fun as it is shitting on this game, they have to delay. There's no way it can ship this badly. They won't be able to have an enormous amount of issues fixed in a few months.
 
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Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
I dont care about tech behind the graphics but my big take away from watching the gameplay is how dull the overall art direction is, its most basic looking Halo I have ever seen.
 

MrFunSocks

Banned
As fun as it is shitting on this game, they have to delay. There's no way it can ship this badly. They won't be able to have an enormous amount of issues fixed in a few months.
What are these “enormous amount of issues” exactly? There aren’t really any *issues*, it just doesn’t look as good as some people wanted it to.
 
NXGen gamer assessment is more indicative of what is wrong. DF's piece is a bad joke. But they're obviously more than well aware of everything that's wrong - they built it themselves. They don't need anyone to tell them that. Obviously they can't watch KingThrash's take otherwise they'll come out depressed... so I understand the no mention.
No one wants to say it.... but..... who decided to show this crap in the state it was in? Who was dumb enough to cross-fingers hoping nobody would notice? Who? How many? That's what the mob wants to really know. Pitchforks at the ready.
That's the weirdest thing i've seen here. If you like a company, a game, would you not want it to be the best that it can be? So when it's time to rack them over the coals and tell them "Hey, you guys need to get your shit together" you should do that. Not defend them. That's just dumb blind loyalty. That gets you nowhere. Nothing happens, it just stays the way it stays. If those people they're hearing from are Xbox guys and HALO fans I commend them. You should demand the quality you expect from your game. You should be mad when that quality is not met. You do deserve the HALO game that you were promised you were getting.
 

Lone Wolf

Member
Stop lying about this shitshow of a game and delay it a year. 2021 is Halos 20th anniversary. Delay and release on the day Halo Combat Evolved come out. Make the Series X version actually look next gen. For fucks sake do something right for once Microsoft.
 
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magaman

Banned
What are these “enormous amount of issues” exactly? There aren’t really any *issues*, it just doesn’t look as good as some people wanted it to.

Uh... pop in? LOD models? Lighting? Animations? AI? Stagnant gameplay? Or how about the fucking aircraft clipping through the tree in the very first 30 seconds of gameplay?
 

MrFunSocks

Banned
There were many videos that came out analyzing the game. The Shortcuts taken, LODs, design, etc. He caught a lot of things I missed while watching, though I wasn't really analyzing it.


What “issues” though? The only real noticeable one that makes a difference was the culling of the grass and bushes the second the base of them was outside the FOV. I wouldn’t call most of the others “issues”.



Uh... pop in? LOD models? Lighting? Animations? AI? Stagnant gameplay? Or how about the fucking aircraft clipping through the tree in the very first 30 seconds of gameplay?
A few instances of clipping is not an issue. Every single game in existence with 3D models has clipping. Design? What design issues?

Stagnant gameplay, wtf? What does that even mean? What issues were there with animation? You not liking something doesn’t make it an issue.
 
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Lone Wolf

Member
Uh... pop in? LOD models? Lighting? Animations? AI? Stagnant gameplay? Or how about the fucking aircraft clipping through the tree in the very first 30 seconds of gameplay?
Don’t forget the plastic grass and trees that did not move at all. The Minecraft pillars. the way the Warthog drove on the terrain. It was a static Environment. The world is incomplete. Its worse than a Roblox level.
 

magaman

Banned
What “issues” though? The only real noticeable one that makes a difference was the culling of the grass and bushes the second the base of them was outside the FOV. I wouldn’t call most of the others “issues”.


A few instances of clipping is not an issue. Every single game in existence with 3D models has clipping. Design? What design issues?

Stagnant gameplay, wtf? What does that even mean? What issues were there with animation? You not liking something doesn’t make it an issue.

How about a friendly account wager? Willing to bet that account that H:I averages higher than 85 on metacritic?
 

MrFunSocks

Banned
Don’t forget the plastic grass and trees that did not move at all. The Minecraft pillars. the way the Warthog drove on the terrain. It was a static Environment. The world is incomplete. Its worse than a Roblox level.
You’re showing your ignorance with the “minecraft pillars” bit.


How about a friendly account wager? Willing to bet that account that H:I averages higher than 85 on metacritic?
But why? Why would I do that? You’re literally taking a stab in the dark based on a video and you’re basing it on graphics exclusively. What would either of us have to gain by betting?
 
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Romulus

Member
The Halo Infinite demo certainly didn't scream 'next-gen' but the claim that it's some kind of irredeemable mess is hyperbole. I'm not a huge Halo fan, so the finer details may have been lost on me at the reveal, but I thought it looked fine until I came to GAF.

I'm tipping that if the gameplay and MP are solid then it'll do massive numbers. Even if it's released looking exactly like it did in the demo.

I think it could end up looking like a good looking X1X game maybe. They just don't have time to do much more.
 

MrFunSocks

Banned
No I’m not. I know why they are there, but they could look much better. It’s cutting corners and they look terrible.
lol so you just think they could look better based on ..... nothing other than you thinking you know what they should look like? They’re literally building blocks for the halo. They’re some unknown metal material that goes inside the ring. They’re not supposed to be super intricate highly detailed things. Go take a look at a steel beam that is used in the frame of a house and you’ll see they’re not intricately detailed. This is one of the absolute worst complaints you could make about its graphics.
 
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magaman

Banned
But why? Why would I do that? You’re literally taking a stab in the dark based on a video and you’re basing it on graphics exclusively. What would either of us have to gain by betting?

You seem quite confident in your assessment that the concerns that we have are simply subjective opinions on what we like and don't like. I'm suggesting they're actually large, quality-affecting issues that will cut deep into the game's score.

If you're so confident in your stance, how about we make it interesting and see who's in the right? 85 and up, and I walk. 84 and below, you hit the bricks.
 

longdi

Banned
Good that 343i is responsive!

As i noted, a lot was down to the 'Halo' art, flatter painted colors instead of high constrast details.
Also this game needs to last years, hence a flatter artstyle ala WoW was choosen.

That said, some techniical issues are present like the need for more dynamic lighting and better streaming.

It is not the most shocking visuals but it is all good considering 60fps and 2p split screen on Xbox One.
Jaded core gamers just piled on the 'concerned' train, wishing to create the next meme. 🤷‍♀️
 
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