Halo: Reach

[nintenho]

I might want to switch the melee and switch-grenade buttons so it's more like Halo 1 but then BC2 has gotten me used to that configuration.

I wonder how dark the levels can get for you to need to use night-vision since all the screenshots so far are in very bright, high-contrast areas.

 

[warb]

Hmm, but it's definitely an evolution of the visuals rather than something revolutionary that an engine rewrite would suggest - looks nothing like the VGA trailer unfortunately. And none of the beta previews i've read so far have commented on the graphics.

That looks a pretty big difference to me. It was mentioned in one of the recent updates that AO didn't make the beta.

The VGA trailer was a cinematic from the game, so image quality aside, it'll probably look just like that.

 

[Alucardx23]

Hmm, but it's definitely an evolution of the visuals rather than something revolutionary that an engine rewrite would suggest - looks nothing like the VGA trailer unfortunately. And none of the beta previews i've read so far have commented on the graphics.

Also, the default controls have been tweaked, I want to know how Bumper Jumper is configured in Reach

It would make a lot of difference if they would include little details like sand blowing in the wind, paper, etc. it’s nothing new but it really helps with the atmosphere and to make the maps more believable.

 

[(((interference)))]

That looks a pretty big difference to me. It was mentioned in one of the recent updates that AO didn't make the beta.

The VGA trailer was a cinematic from the game, so image quality aside, it'll probably look just like that.

A pretty big difference is Halo 1 to Halo 2, this is nothing near that kind of improvement on the same hardware.

And the VGA was much darker and had more depth to the lighting/shadowing as well as other post processing effects that gave it a cinematic quality like Gears or KZ2.

These current screens look basically like a more detailed Halo 3, same overexposed lighting, vibrancy of colors etc.
What happened to the dark and gritty look the VGA trailer showed off and which looked like a brilliant step forward for the series.

 

[Inquisitive_Idiot]

That looks a pretty big difference to me. It was mentioned in one of the recent updates that AO didn't make the beta.

The VGA trailer was a cinematic from the game, so image quality aside, it'll probably look just like that.

Yeah, just look at the difference between the Battle Rifle in Halo 3 and the Assault Rifle in Halo: Reach. You can quite clearly see that the detail increase is pretty significant and well within the 3x the polys of the Halo 3 models. Look at the texture detail on the Spartan in Reach and the one in Halo 3, not to forget to mention plolygon detail as well.

 

[warb]

A pretty big difference is Halo 1 to Halo 2, this is nothing near that kind of improvement on the same hardware.

And the VGA was much darker and had more depth to the lighting/shadowing as well as other post processing effects that gave it a cinematic quality like Gears or KZ2.

These current screens look basically like a more detailed Halo 3, same overexposed lighting, vibrancy of colors etc.
What happened to the dark and gritty look the VGA trailer showed off and which looked like a brilliant step forward for the series.

The VGA trailer has a much darker setting to begin with, and some post-processing effects like the motion blur, noise and damage effect are missing from screenshots (photomode?).

I'd expect the SP campaign to be somewhat darker and grittier than the multiplayer. Isn't one of the multiplayer maps a daytime version of a nighttime campaign area?
Reach might not be trying as many new things as 2 on Xbox, but this looks a bigger improvement to me.

 

[TurnDragoZeroV2G]

A pretty big difference is Halo 1 to Halo 2, this is nothing near that kind of improvement on the same hardware.

... Halo 2 saw more than just upgrades to the engine. There was a drastic evolution in the art style. Not to mention that Halo 1 was slapped together in roughly a year. Halo 3 -> Reach simply isn't analogous. If you want to compare technical differences, then stick to those... if that's even possible.

And as for campaign, please, stop with the pineapple to tangerine comparisons. Cutscenes and gameplay are not the same, and campaign cutscenes certainly aren't like multiplayer.

 

[Rangers]

Halo 1 to Halo 2 was pretty much the same with minor improvements, Reach looks MUCH better than Halo 3. I remember somebody said Reach was the biggest step forward for Halo graphics since 2>3 which was a generational change, and I totally agree. Really you could almost group 1, 2, and 3, with 3 being the HD version of 1 and 2, imo Reach is arguably the first next gen looking title. Really Halo 1 to 2 was where I started to sour on Bungie's technical abilities, as there was almost no improvement, which I continued on to feel the same for 3, only with Reach has Bungie earned back my admiration graphically.

At the risk of giving inefficient more ammo to take out of context with a crappy low res FLV cap, the Elite is really much more detailed now shown here.

http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/9427/image1fe.jpg

Really on the MP the environments are still kind of spartan, no pun intended. It's just mainly the character models, vehicles and weapons that got a shiny new paint coat. Once we get a look at more SP I know I'll be impressed even more as that's where you'll really see the whole package graphically, as hinted in that vidoc footage.

 

[(((interference)))]

Halo 1 to Halo 2 was pretty much the same with minor improvements,

If you say that you probably weren't around when Halo 2 came out and are comparing the two games now - because it was definitely a major improvement over Halo 1 - the bump mapping alone saw to that.
Just post on Halo GAF and see if anyone thinks the jump from 3 to Reach is as big as the jump from 1 to 2.

And with regards to wheoever said "Halo 1 was slapped together in a year", you obviously haven't heard of the near disaster that was Halo 2's development.

While Reach may have a raft of technical improvements over Halo 3 (eg. 3x the polys etc.) it simply doesn't look like a generational leap, maybe thats due to poor artistry or something, I mean what's the point of having this far more capable engine and making everything look like a more polished version of H3?

I'm not the only one who noticed the glaring dip in visuals from the VGA trailer to the recent MP clips either
http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=41894391&postRepeater1-p=1#41894512

And I quote Bungie on what to take the VGA trailer as:

This trailer absolutely represents our visual bar for the final game and is near identical to what you’ll see next Fall. The single biggest difference between this trailer and the final game will be the extra generous amount of anti-aliasing (the smoothing of “jaggies” or edges of pixels) present in what you’re watching right now but rest assured that Reach will be significantly improved in this department compared to Halo 3. (The extreme “AA” in the trailer was due to the “frame dump” mentioned above.)

http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=topnews&link=BWU_121809

 

[warb]

Well the VGA trailer is a cinematic sequence from the game. It very likely will look "near identical" in the game.

 

[(((interference)))]

Well the VGA trailer is a cinematic sequence from the game. It very likely will look "near identical" in the game.

They said it "absolutely represents the visual bar for the final game"so I don't think they intend to have a huge visual gulf between the cinematics and ingame footage.

Plus the cinematics in Halo 3 largely looked similar to the in-game visuals except for the use of Depth of field in the cutscenes.

 

[TurnDragoZeroV2G]

They said it "absolutely represents the visual bar for the final game"so I don't think they intend to have a huge visual gulf between the cinematics and ingame footage.

Plus the cinematics in Halo 3 largely looked similar to the in-game visuals except for the use of Depth of field in the cutscenes.

I don't see how you can possibly say that when comparing Halo 3 cutscenes to the multiplayer visuals. Lighting, shadows, sparsity of the environment, etc... Yeah, I can't agree with your statement at all. The opening scene in the forest, and later on in the Ark's control center...

And yes, Halo 2 had some really bad moments, and they scrapped the engine after the e3 demo. But Halo 1 was arguably worse, considering they had to deal with moving to the xbox and everything that entailed.

I think you're being far too impatient, but if you want to keep pointing out visual flaws every single time new content is released right up until release, it's not my place to stop ya'. But we won't waste eachother's time from this point on.

 

[(((interference)))]

I don't see how you can possibly say that when comparing Halo 3 cutscenes to the multiplayer visuals. Lighting, shadows, sparsity of the environment, etc... Yeah, I can't agree with your statement at all. The opening scene in the forest, and later on in the Ark's control center...

And yes, Halo 2 had some really bad moments, and they scrapped the engine after the e3 demo. But Halo 1 was arguably worse, considering they had to deal with moving to the xbox and everything that entailed.

I think you're being far too impatient, but if you want to keep pointing out visual flaws every single time new content is released right up until release, it's not my place to stop ya'. But we won't waste eachother's time from this point on.

Well obviously the cinematics allow the devs to show of a much grander scale and bigger set pieces than gameplay does. But the quality of the visuals (ie. rather than the content) is very similar if not identical between cutscenes and gameplay of all 4 Halo games so far.

The lighting/shadowing, atmospherics and material shaders seen in the VGA are nothing like the MP footage or screens, the armor in the trailer actually looks like real metal.

I'm not saying Reach doesn't look good, i'm just saying that there's been a clear downgrade in visuals from what we were promised.

 

[zaftxx]

the problem is your comparing a campaign cut scene to multiplayer.
multiplayer is always toned down compared to single player. EVERY game does this except maybe gears and uncharted given their smaller play counts.

the campaign will look more like the cut scene.

 

[dragonelite]

Now that we are talking about the vga cutscene.
Didn't bungie confirmed realtime rendered cutscenes?

Kinda logical because of multiplayer/coop and singleplayer customization you can do to your in game character. So like in the words of bungie if you want to play like a pink spartan 3 with a unicorn on your helmet in campaign they wont stop you.

 

[(((interference)))]

Now that we are talking about the vga cutscene.
Didn't bungie confirmed realtime rendered cutscenes?

Kinda logical because of multiplayer/coop and singleplayer customization you can do to your in game character. So like in the words of bungie if you want to play like a pink spartan 3 with a unicorn on your helmet in campaign they wont stop you.

Exactly, the cutscenes are going to be realtime if the customisation is going to be reflected.

the problem is your comparing a campaign cut scene to multiplayer.
multiplayer is always toned down compared to single player. EVERY game does this except maybe gears and uncharted given their smaller play counts.

the campaign will look more like the cut scene.

In Halo 3 apart from less detail in the MP maps etc. MP and SP look pretty much identical
same character models etc. That's how its been in every single Halo game.

And most games look very similar if not identical SP to MP see KZ2, COD, BFBC, Gears etc.

 

[dragonelite]

Hey guys browsed through halogaf and bungie released a new vidoc.
http://www.bungie.net/projects/reach/vidaudio.aspx?c=58&i=25729

 

[scently]

Hey guys browsed through halogaf and bungie released a new vidoc.
http://www.bungie.net/projects/reach/vidaudio.aspx?c=58&i=25729

WATCH AND WEEP FOR JOY.

 

[BadTB25]

Hey guys browsed through halogaf and bungie released a new vidoc.
http://www.bungie.net/projects/reach/vidaudio.aspx?c=58&i=25729

Thanks!!! downloading now.

I love these vidocs....I especially like it when the inevitable breakdown of the vidocs are posted.

 

[Rangers]

Thanks!!! downloading now.

I love these vidocs....I especially like it when the inevitable breakdown of the vidocs are posted.

From the last tiedtheleader vid it looks like every last thing is already known about the Reach Beta and possibly the whole game's multiplayer Halo fans are freaks.