Halo:Reach Tech

[siddhu]

Made this thread to discuss the technology behind the game..
Feel free to post.

Some links:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-vs-halo-reach-beta-article

 

[Shifty Geezer]

What exactly do you want to discuss about it?

 

[siddhu]

Well:

1. What's the tech that Bungie is using in the game.
2. Is it an appropriate standard for 2010?

 

[nightshade]

One thing which I'd like to know of is the imposter LOD system, I keep hearing the devs mention this but not one of them actually ever explained about it.
Are there any actual documentations related to it ?

 

[i nerini del buio]

about imposters I found this article on gamasutra

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2501/dynamic_2d_imposters_a_simple_.php

 

[nightshade]

about imposters I found this article on gamasutra

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2501/dynamic_2d_imposters_a_simple_.php

well that seems awfully...usual.
I'm sure there are a lot of games that do this.

 

[Rocco Siffredi Stallone]

Made this thread to discuss the technology behind the game..
Feel free to post.

Some links:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-vs-halo-reach-beta-article

Beta multiplayer build...i don't care about it, i wanna see how single player looks.

Made this thread to discuss the technology behind the game..
Feel free to post.

Some links:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-vs-halo-reach-beta-article

Why discuss on old beta screens when we can talk about the new compain trailer ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92Bbw-KHajs

 

[AlNom]

well that seems awfully...usual.
I'm sure there are a lot of games that do this.

Yeah, you don't hear about it much. I suppose you could look back on games that do show large crowds. However, it may be interesting in this case because we aren't talking about crowds in a stadium. Then again, we have seen the dumb AI approach with Gears 2. (for the record, I haven't looked much into their flocking system)

Beta multiplayer build...i don't care about it, i wanna see how single player looks.

It will kick.... er... ass.

Well:

1. What's the tech that Bungie is using in the game.

We don't really know that much. We can infer based off of their SIGGRAPH 09 presentation on shadows and atmospheric rendering, but that's no guarantee. There's the temporal 2xAA discussed in the DF article. We've heard talk of having lots of lights, which would imply a deferred lighting pipeline of some sort.

Is it an appropriate standard for 2010?

Game tech isn't one-size fits all. (oh boy...)

 

[Trejser]

We've heard talk of having lots of lights, which would imply a deferred lighting pipeline of some sort.

Maybe it's Light Pre-Pass?

 

[Kasersky]

http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=topnews&link=BWU_081310

scroll down to Mass FX (forge FX) some nice presets to simulate certain environments. i remember bungie actually talked about this in their gdc presentation. the last pic does a great job of giving the night time look

 

[dragonelite]

Hope that bungie does a tech interview with DF sometime after reach is released of maybe now that they are in europe for gamescom.

 

[Acert93]

Is it an appropriate standard for 2010?

Siddhu, think about the logic and presuppositions that question has.

 

[Turok]

While we're on the subject of Halo: Reach's tech, anyone have any idea why they took out that awesome way the lighting glinted off the armor? It was only seen in the world premiere trailer, but it's gone in everything else.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Perhaps it's an aesthetic choice in going for just a little added realism. Sunlight glinting off shiny metal = high visibility target and dead marine on the battlefield. Same reason military forces usually don't use glossy or metallic paint.

Regards,
SB

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Perhaps it's an aesthetic choice in going for just a little added realism. Sunlight glinting off shiny metal = high visibility target and dead marine on the battlefield. Same reason military forces usually don't use glossy or metallic paint.

What's the red and blue armour all about then?

 

[(((interference)))]

While we're on the subject of Halo: Reach's tech, anyone have any idea why they took out that awesome way the lighting glinted off the armor? It was only seen in the world premiere trailer, but it's gone in everything else.

Yea, the VGA trailer looked better than their latest batch of campaign screens. The armour was definitely one reason, it looked like real metal in the trailer rather than just look plastic like in H3 and the Reach beta

Like this Digital Foundry analysis of the trailer talks about:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/halo-reach-trailer-analysis-blog-entry

Also, they mention the much improved shadowing system, which seemed to be cut back significantly for the beta.

 

[scently]

Look at the latest campaign trailer. Nothing has been removed.

 

[(((interference)))]

well that seems awfully...usual.
I'm sure there are a lot of games that do this.

Actually, don't most games just swap out models for lower detailed ones as distance increases? ie. they are still 3D geometry just lower complexity, I don't recall many shooters replacing 3D objects with 2D ones except for Crysis and Far Cry which use it for trees.

The strange thing is that I spent a lot of time in the beta in the replay theater just zooming in and out of scenery in Powerhouse (things like building exteriors with some background objects) very slowly and I could only discern LOD shifts of certain objects, from more detailed to simpler models (which they've been doing since Halo 2) and could not notice any 3D to 2D shifts. Is it just for objects in the skyboxes or further away? Like spacecraft/aircraft, large scenery (ie. mountains) etc?

As far as I can recall, no one in the beta ever mentioned anything about it, neither did DF in their beta analysis

 

[Neb]

Actually, don't most games just swap out models for lower detailed ones as distance increases? ie. they are still 3D geometry just lower complexity, I don't recall many shooters replacing 3D objects with 2D ones except for Crysis and Far Cry which use it for trees.

Pretty much all games with longer draw distances or denser vegetation layout does it. It saves VRAM/RAM and perfomance aswell as avoid to many tiny polygons. The last LOD is just that a single polygon with a texture on it or just a swap.

The strange thing is that I spent a lot of time in the beta in the replay theater just zooming in and out of scenery in Powerhouse (things like building exteriors with some background objects) very slowly and I could only discern LOD shifts of certain objects, from more detailed to simpler models (which they've been doing since Halo 2) and could not notice any 3D to 2D shifts. Is it just for objects in the skyboxes or further away? Like spacecraft/aircraft, large scenery (ie. mountains) etc?

As far as I can recall, no one in the beta ever mentioned anything about it, neither did DF in their beta analysis

Maybe Reach doesn't have much of it as it doesn't seem to have much vegetation for starters. Though it mostly isn't named in analysis done on games. Take Uncharted 2 for example, it gots tons and tons of 2D replacements everywhere both static and as part of LOD system. But you rarely find it mentioned.

 

[ShadowWolf64]

Look at the latest campaign trailer. Nothing has been removed.

I recently saw a new Halo Reach Gamescon video where it showed the opening cinematic along with parts of the first mission and the graphics honestly look amazing.The very detailed armor seen in the VGA trailer is still present in the video I was talking about.You guys should check it out..