Halo 4

[(((interference)))]

If 343i has been working closely with Bungie, I would think they used the Reach engine as their base, no?

That's what I'd expect - unless 343 originally started building their tech on top of the H3 engine (if Bungie didn't give them the Reach engine until the game was nearly complete or similar).

AI for one.

True, up to 40 AI on screen - is that enough to account for the difference?

 

[dragonelite]

That's what I'd expect - unless 343 originally started building their tech on top of the H3 engine (if Bungie didn't give them the Reach engine until the game was nearly complete or similar).


True, up to 40 AI on screen - is that enough to account for the difference?

Wouldn't be surprised if microsoft planned the reach engine so that you can easily take out the graphics and physics engine and replace them. So far those 2 components make halo games feel different oke its mostly the physics engine of Halo CE that people want back.

 

[rekator]

No, you need power weapons - but they are earnt by getting to the spawn first or killing the user (or if you're lucky you'll stumble across one).

The thing with armor abilities is that it makes the game unpredictable which makes it harder to play well - for example if a guy has a rocket launcher or sniper you normally have visual/audio warning of it - however with things like armor lock you can stick a guy or be about to successfully splatter him with a vehicle only for him to lock and completely negate your advantage (got by skill) in this situation.

Armor lock is terrible mainly because it slows down the gameplay so much (especially when you have a whole team doing synchronised armor lock BS in that room on Sword Base).
)

Armor Lock is very simple to counter… But you don't find how so you're bashing it!
So you're only drive by your frustration to don't have the kill you think it easy.
You can find the same type of bashing for all the AA in Reach, course "It's cheating, I come to slay a guy , and it's start to run, it's so cheating!! It's slow down the gameplay, 'cause I'm don't have the kill!", Jet-pack "The guys used it are so damn cheaters, they always leave the fight, slow down the gameplay", etc…

Try to change you fight style, it's the good way more than complain for peanuts. And I'm not a high profil player in Reach, don't have time to train. And personally "Duck" Spartan are more "frustrating" than "Statue" Spartans, one can move everywhere, the other is a very easy kill. And in fight moving is the win.

@Dragonelite: Power weapons are the easy way to win, the guy who got them and use them correctly got the more kill on all the maps. But we're accept this 'cause they here from the start, and we hope we got them to be "God" one time.
Try Armor Lock is very instructive to look and heard the reaction of players, always the same in 90% case, gamers are so predictable sometime.

And to be fair, I'm use Run AA in 65%, AL 20%, Stealth 10%, And others 5%.

 

[Rangers]

IGN Interview

IGN: Can you talk about what game engine Halo 4 will use?

Spencer: 343 obviously has partnered closely with Bungie for a while. We had been working with them on Halo: Reach and map packs. We started with the code base from Halo, so it's not something we had to re-roll from the beginning. [Chief Technology Officer] David Wu and the team behind the core engine tech inside of 343 have done a lot of work. Halo has always been a unique game with huge outdoor environments but also playing indoor environments at the same time. The technology base isn't 100 percent new, but a ton of work has gone into it by 343.

I dont understand, he says we started with the code base from Halo...Halo 1? I dont get it.

I was kind of hoping for an all new engine for H4, but then again I think it could look pretty nice with an upgraded Reach engine. Where does Corrinne Yu fit in all this? I thought she was leading the engine team on H4, or is it next gen Halo she's on? Or she's just an underling to David Wu?

I guess I just had this image that Corrinne Yu and team was developing an all new engine for H4.

 

[scently]

I dont understand, he says we started with the code base from Halo...Halo 1? I dont get it.

I was kind of hoping for an all new engine for H4, but then again I think it could look pretty nice with an upgraded Reach engine. Where does Corrinne Yu fit in all this? I thought she was leading the engine team on H4, or is it next gen Halo she's on? Or she's just an underling to David Wu?

I guess I just had this image that Corrinne Yu and team was developing an all new engine for H4.

She is still leading the team and they are developing an all new engine for it. Follow her tweets and you would see that she really wants to talk about it and the different techs that they have developed for it. That said, I am sure that some part of the engine will bear heritage and have some codebase developed along side Bungie, whether it is Halo 3 or Reach I don't think it matters much as Reach is an evolution of Halo 3's engine and they look really different. My guess would be that at the start of development, they took the engine that was ready at hand (presumably Halo 3) as a base and then tour it apart, customising it, creating new techniques and crafting it to suit their need. Also Bungie recently handed over the Reach engine to 343i and my guess would be that they would have a look at it and try to learn and incorporate anything they deem to be useful to the creation of Halo 4.

So no it is probably not a brand new, from the ground up engine but it may well have been.....i guess we will see how different it will be when it is revealed.....my guess will be at the VGAs, and I think it will look stunning.

Anyway here is a list of all the known people working at 343i: http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/343_Industries#Known_Employees. There are are probably others but these are the ones that have been linked.

 

[(((interference)))]

There's also been some Halo 4 info at Halofest, apparently will be called the Reclaimer trilogy and will be released over the next 10 years (thank God, i'd hate to see annualized releases).
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-08-28-halo-4-5-6-the-reclaimer-trilogy

Apparently, they are rethinking the Forerunner art to make it more mysterious and alien and will be focusing on the Chief's personality and his relationship with Cortana.

Some concept art in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAKmu2yn3Fk&feature=player_embedded
Looks pretty amazing - I like the more realistic approach.

 

[NavNucST3]

I'm never going to get a Halo movie, am I? Sigh...

 

[AlNom]

Yeah... despite the flaws in Halo 2, I really appreciated the cinematic presentation of the story and the lengthy cutscenes. I hope the folks at 343 are heading towards better story-telling than Bungie, especially with all the waypoint shorts and Halo Legends stories.

I hope they quit using numerical progression in the title! >_> This isn't the Final Fantasy series.

 

[N_B]

Story telling and direction was very good in halo 3 I think, held back only by the animation and models :s Most scenes were delivered beatifully.

 

[kagemaru]

Yeah... despite the flaws in Halo 2, I really appreciated the cinematic presentation of the story and the lengthy cutscenes. I hope the folks at 343 are heading towards better story-telling than Bungie, especially with all the waypoint shorts and Halo Legends stories.

I hope they quit using numerical progression in the title! >_> This isn't the Final Fantasy series.

Well one advantage that 343 have is they already know they have 3 games for the story. Should work much better than developing one game and extending the story for both 2 and 3 like Bungie did.

Story telling and direction was very good in halo 3 I think, held back only by the animation and models :s Most scenes were delivered beatifully.

Both 3 and Reach had plot holes that should have been easily avoided. Halo 3's story was fine for the most part, but I always wanted an explanation as to how Cortana knew Gravemind would follow them to the Arc. Cortana's message said there was a way to stop the flood at the arc, but the plan to blow the newly created halo ring could only work if Gravemind followed them into the arc (which he did).

So did Cortana bait Gravemind into the Arc, knowing he was aware of this message she was recording, or was it by dumb luck that he followed them in there? It's stupid little voids like this that Bungie has left for the player to fill and I don't consider that good story telling.

The plot hole in Reach is centered around the copy of Cortana that you're escorting to the Pillar of Autumn.

So yeah, I really hope 343 don't leave out such stupid plot holes.

 

[Beef Stallmer]

I heard a rumor during the games com that they found a way to make halo render in HD, native 720p that is. While I highly doubt bungie is capable of doing that, it turns out that bungie is not even involved anymore. I hope this means no more sub-hd halo
Btw they could have also meant halo4 but i didn't ask because the guy was already breaching his NDA.

 

[AlNom]

I heard a rumor...

Got a link?

While I highly doubt bungie is capable of doing that,

It's always a game of trade-offs... Implementing tiling just for a res bump from 1152x720 to 1280 just isn't worth the performance deficit. A lot of devs do this, so there's no reason to single out Bungie. >_>

 

[AlNom]

So yeah, I really hope 343 don't leave out such stupid plot holes.

And leave out the bunghole instead. ;p (Cortana level)

 

[NRP]

And leave out the bunghole instead. ;p (Cortana level)

Goddamn I hated that level! Looked like one giant large intestine (and played like one too). I wonder if some designer actually thought "Hey! Wouldn't it be cool if we made the player fight inside of an asshole!"

 

[AlNom]

Yo dawg, I heard you like assholes...

Well come on, MC and Arbiter take down the Covenant and the Flood. Or maybe they're just a couple of pricks...

 

[Beef Stallmer]

Got a link?

It's always a game of trade-offs... Implementing tiling just for a res bump from 1152x720 to 1280 just isn't worth the performance deficit. A lot of devs do this, so there's no reason to single out Bungie. >_>

I don't have a link, I got it from the source itself (through my own ears), but because I have this guy on Facebook (so you can probably find him), and because he is under NDA, I cannot say much more, I can only say that I posted the rumor is the wrong halo tread (hint hint ;-))

It had to do with the tone mapping to create an HDR-like image; the "whites" will rendered in a lower precision, but the end result under most circumstances will be indistinguishable from the old HDR-method, all while resulting in a 720p image without tiling. for the fine details: they will cover this on the next GDC.
The preview trailer was rendered offline though, and didn't use in-game assets, but the visual look will be the same I'm told. So yeah, it will be really amazing.

 

[N_B]

Seems dubious considering Halo 4 probably isn't based on Bungie's Halo tech...

 

[Kameradschaft]

Seems dubious considering Halo 4 probably isn't based on Bungie's Halo tech...

They already confirmed that they are using Bungie's tech as a base:

IGN: Can you talk about what game engine Halo 4 will use?

Spencer: 343 obviously has partnered closely with Bungie for a while. We had been working with them on Halo: Reach and map packs. We started with the code base from Halo, so it's not something we had to re-roll from the beginning. [Chief Technology Officer] David Wu and the team behind the core engine tech inside of 343 have done a lot of work. Halo has always been a unique game with huge outdoor environments but also playing indoor environments at the same time. The technology base isn't 100 percent new, but a ton of work has gone into it by 343.

Which may be disappointing for some but pretty logical if you think that this is most likely be the last Halo game on the 360 - they should work on their next gen engine than spend time building a new engine based on the 360 for just one game.

Of course we still don't know anything about what improvements/changes 343 will bring to the Halo engine - an FXAA implementation alone will benefit the IQ a lot even if the resolution stays the same as Reach.

Sorry for the off-topic.

 

[Rangers]

Goddamn I hated that level! Looked like one giant large intestine (and played like one too). I wonder if some designer actually thought "Hey! Wouldn't it be cool if we made the player fight inside of an asshole!"

Just another reason Halo 3 was a huge disappointment to me And one of the biggest reasons.

Luckily pretty much every game in the Halo series and spinoffs BESIDES 3 has been pretty darn good to great. Well, I'm not through with Halo 2 but so far I'm pleasantly surprised.

BTW OT but after playing 3 hours of Halo 2 the other day and becoming fully accustomed to the graphics (and maybe not really playing much 360 at all the last month or two helped) and then throwing in Reach, wow, the generational graphics difference was almost stunning.

 

[AlNom]

Lies, Halo 3 is just Halo 2 HD.

They already confirmed that they are using Bungie's tech as a base:

Which may be disappointing for some but pretty logical if you think that this is most likely be the last Halo game on the 360 - they should work on their next gen engine than spend time building a new engine based on the 360 for just one game.

Of course we still don't know anything about what improvements/changes 343 will bring to the Halo engine - an FXAA implementation alone will benefit the IQ a lot even if the resolution stays the same as Reach.

Sorry for the off-topic.

Well, no need to reinvent Forge or 4 player co-op for instance. The engine is already packing great stuff...