Halo 5: Guardians [XO]

[Billy Idol]

Aaaah, must resist to watch....them spoilers everywhere!!!!

Edit: damn it! But the few seconds I saw look extremely good! Yeah!

 

[ultragpu]

Some of the larger areas and outdoor levels do look kinda ugly due to very visible upscaling and shimmering. The textures are not quite as high res as I'd hoped for, but at least the PBR solution looks nice. The graphics took a pretty big dive between the cutscene to gameplay transition too, overall it's not a huge leap over Halo 4, either in gameplay or graphics judging from the first three levels. Sigh to this day I still curse MS for investing the extra transistors in Kinect instead of a more powerful gpu, we would be getting a 1080p Halo 5 in the next 9 days otherwise.

 

[iroboto]

Some of the larger areas and outdoor levels do look kinda ugly due to very visible upscaling and shimmering. The textures are not quite as high res as I'd hoped for, but at least the PBR solution looks nice. The graphics took a pretty big dive between the cutscene to gameplay transition too, overall it's not a huge leap over Halo 4, either in gameplay or graphics judging from the first three levels. Sigh to this day I still curse MS for investing the extra transistors in Kinect instead of a more powerful gpu, we would be getting a 1080p Halo 5 in the next 9 days otherwise.

Lighting, shadows, PBR, and geometry are the biggest improvements over 4. That's just about nearly everything IMO. More units on the screen, more things happening in the background. It is a significant improvement.

 

[iroboto]

i guess the cutscenes are real time ? they look really good, are those 30 or 60fps ?

IIRC Cutscenes are 30.

 

[arhra]

Just saw small parts from the video @ gamersyde and i noticed something, both Locke and Chief have this hud
[snip]

And it's not like that in multiplayer, wondering why there's a difference. Maybe to save up rendering time, sort of like different aspect ratio but in a different kind of way? 343i are already playing with dynamic res so that seems plausible.

It's for competitive/balance reasons - the 8 characters in the campaign (4 on Blue Team, 4 on Osiris) all have unique HUD/visor designs based on their individual helmets, which cover varying amounts of the screen, and react to lightsources with glare effects based on the shape of the visor, etc. That's great for an immersive singleplayer/coop experience, but in a competitive multiplayer environment, clarity is essential, so they use a standardised, lightweight HUD with no visor effects (also there are like 175 different helmets you can equip in multiplayer - even discounting variants there are still 70+ unique designs they'd have to deal with, and they've said they'll be adding even more options to the REQ system later on in updates).

 

[DavidGraham]

Graphics looks outdated to be frank.

 

[BRiT]

Graphics looks outdated to be frank.

I'll bite. What exactly would they need to change to make it not look outdated? Lighting, shadows, PBR, geometry and framerate are improved over Halo:4

 

[AzBat]

I'll bite. What exactly would they need to change to make it not look outdated? Lighting, shadows, PBR, geometry and framerate are improved over Halo:4

Change its name to [INSERT BEST LOOKING COMPETITOR'S GAME HERE]?

Tommy McClain

 

[BadTB25]

So many drive-bys---almost NeoGaf like. I'm replaying the Halo MCC and so far, Halo 5 is much improved. I'm just finishing up 3 and will start on Halo 4 later this week/today, but this is a pretty big jump already.

That said, fix a few of the issues with Halo 4 while adding the new abilities and I'll be good with it. My biggest issue with Halo 4 was the disappearing weapons, so this should be an easy one. Also, bring Cortana back you bastards!

 

[iroboto]

So many drive-bys---almost NeoGaf like. I'm replaying the Halo MCC and so far, Halo 5 is much improved. I'm just finishing up 3 and will start on Halo 4 later this week/today, but this is a pretty big jump already.

That said, fix a few of the issues with Halo 4 while adding the new abilities and I'll be good with it. My biggest issue with Halo 4 was the disappearing weapons, so this should be an easy one. Also, bring Cortana back you bastards!

Yup. I just finished all the MCC campaigns just the other day and it's a big jump to h5.

Graphics looks outdated to be frank.

If you (guys) are going to claim outdated/last gen please bring your best competitor from last gen. We could easily pull footage from the 720p beta that would already best anything from last gen.

 

[DavidGraham]

I'll bite. What exactly would they need to change to make it not look outdated? Lighting, shadows, PBR, geometry and framerate are improved over Halo:4

Improved doesn't mean on bar with current titles, Geometry is still simple by today's standards, particles, eplosions and physics too. Lighting looks bland and generic, Textures are not that great, and level of details is also weak. Compared to the likes of Battlefront, Crysis 3 or Killzone this doesn't hold much ground.

 

[Recop]

Improved doesn't mean on bar with current titles, Geometry is still simple by today's standards, particles, eplosions and physics too. Lighting looks bland and generic, Textures are not that great, and level of details is also weak. Compared to the likes of Battlefront, Crysis 3 or Killzone this doesn't hold much ground.

Killzone doesn't run at 60fps, but i tend to agree.

Graphically, the game isn't especially impressive. Technically, Halo 5 is certainly one of the most accomplished XB1 game though.

Battlefront might look more next-gen, but it only runs at 720p on XB1.

 

[Gitaroo]

I still personally prefer locked 900p and locked 30fps and higher visual effects.

 

[ultragpu]

Lighting, shadows, PBR, and geometry are the biggest improvements over 4. That's just about nearly everything IMO. More units on the screen, more things happening in the background. It is a significant improvement.

Improved they may be but much improved? Not true at all. You can see so many things they have sacrificed to hit 60fps ranging from 810p res, low af, weak AA, low res textures, low res alpha, sparse geometry, no volumetric lighting or any fancy lighting techniques, just nothing particularly interesting. Even though I'm still getting the game day one I do wish they would offer a 30fps "1080p if they could" campaign for non competitive match enjoyment.

 

[Clukos]

Gamersyde is uploading high quality direct feed videos by the way
http://www.gamersyde.com/news_our_videos_of_halo_5-17216_en.html
http://www.gamersyde.com/news_halo_5_guardians_day_2-17217_en.html

Some framerate analysis videos again

I think lighting looks really good in this level

And overall the game looks fine for 60 fps and aiming 1080p, even AA is pretty good. Only distracting thing for me is the low AF, really stands out in some slow paced sequences.

Edit: What i mean by lack of AF is this

Image by Shin-Ra @ gaf

Was Halo 4 better filtering wise in Halo MCC?

Edit #2: It seems like it wasn't
http://images.eurogamer.net/2013/articles//a/1/7/1/9/4/1/0/6.bmp.jpg/EG11/resize/1920x-1
http://images.eurogamer.net/2013/articles//a/1/7/1/9/4/1/0/8.bmp.jpg/EG11/resize/1920x-1

 

[iroboto]

At first glance, there are many things going on in halo 5 that you are not appreciating.
Let's keep this civil, I haven't seen every single FPS played through and through and I doubt you have either. So I might get some things wrong so feel free to connect me.

halo 5 is a next gen game that has huge scale levels and vast playable angles. As evidenced in the gameplay video the game has long range from distance, from being vertical, from being on the ground, inside complexes to outside vistas without loading screens. This isn't as evident in Halo 4 as it is in Halo 1-3 (h4 levels are small and have loading screens).
This type of gameplay is also evident in games like BF3 and BF4, Destiny and Titanfall. This means you see more players fighting on huge play areas. This also explains why games like this are often extremely taxing on hardware. Most other games cited often do not have this level of scope or scale, and are extremely linear and level based.

Once you can get a game with comparable size and scope you see how many games buckle. Either 30fps is involved or resolution is downgraded. Something has to give to push so many objects onto the screen battling at once.

SW:BF levels are small in comparison. And use photogrammetry for their textures. I don't see how that's particularly fair to suggest Halo looks bad when it's clear they are aiming for stylized graphics.

 

[Recop]

At first glance, there are many things going on in halo 5 that you are not appreciating.
Let's keep this civil, I haven't seen every single FPS played through and through and I doubt you have either. So I might get some things wrong so feel free to connect me.

halo 5 is a next gen game that has huge scale levels and vast playable angles. As evidenced in the gameplay video the game has long range from distance, from being vertical, from being on the ground, inside complexes to outside vistas without loading screens. This isn't as evident in Halo 4 as it is in Halo 1-3 (h4 levels are small and have loading screens).
This type of gameplay is also evident in games like BF3 and BF4, Destiny and Titanfall. This means you see more players fighting on huge play areas. This also explains why games like this are often extremely taxing on hardware. Most other games cited often do not have this level of scope or scale, and are extremely linear and level based.

Once you can get a game with comparable size and scope you see how many games buckle. Either 30fps is involved or resolution is downgraded. Something has to give to push so many objects onto the screen battling at once.

SW:BF levels are small in comparison. And use photogrammetry for their textures. I don't see how that's particularly fair to suggest Halo looks bad when it's clear they are aiming for stylized graphics.

Larger levels + 60 fps + higher resolution aren't necessarily incompatible. See MG 5 on console.

 

[dobwal]

Larger levels + 60 fps + higher resolution aren't necessarily incompatible. See MG 5 on console.

Does "Ohh, now that next gen graphics!!!" come to mind when comparing MGS5's visuals between last and current gen hardware?

I don't think we come across a game that pushes the graphic ability of these consoles without obvious sacrifices in some other areas.

 

[BadTB25]

Playing Halo 4 back to back after Halo 3 in the MCC makes me realize what a large jump in graphics and lighting it was. Part of it is probably the fairly different graphic style from Halo 3 to 4. It's been a while, but playing them so close together helps put it into perspective.

It's not all good. The QTE sections, while relatively far apart aren't bad, but do feel out of place for Halo. This is from the beginning part of the game as I'm only on the 3rd chapter. Also, the new zoomed in weapons effects on the covenant weapons are annoying. This is based on the carbine rifle as the others aren't as bad---whoever approved that design needs a good beating.

Although this has been present in all the Halos, Halo 4 more so than the others seem to love giving you completely different weapon loadouts than the previous chapters. It's jarring to go from a battle rifle/carbine combo to a assualt rifle/magnum pistol just by walking through a portal.

Enjoying the ride....again.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Soundtrack available for free to listen to
https://soundcloud.com/343ndustries/sets/halo-5-guardians-original-game-soundtrack

I've checked out a few tracks on YT in the past week and those were quite good, checking this out now. Word is that it's really good.