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Halo Infinite (Feb update) graphical update?

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kevanted
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kevanted

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I’ve been making the rounds on YouTube and I’ve noticed a lot of the community praising the improvements on the graphics for the game based on indirect comparisons of screenshots from the February update and the gameplay reveal from last year.

Before I start pressing down on matters I want to make clear what my opinions on infinites gameplay reveal graphically were.
I thought it was artistically sound and frankly not as horrible as people made it out to be. Technical issues like pop-ins and awfully smooth textures on weapons along with poor shadows and lighting were all things I noticed but when I factor in an Xbox One release and a larger sandbox playground I would tend to forgive such things. But yes, It could be better.

The new screenshots (which look great by the way) are noticeably at different locations and at a different time of day.
343i has the benefit of showcasing locations that show the best of the ring and also lighting that brings out the best in it.
Personally, the weapon textures (Sniper rifle) seem more robust and detailed and I would expect that translates to all weapons. Forerunner structures look great and they seem to have done some changes to better improve the hexagonal structures but we’ll have to see them more closely to be sure. Warthog looking good too :’)

Aside from all that the presentation is largely the same and I worry that the community is slightly over hyping visuals like it has some how fully changed and has attained “next-gen” status. I am not a fan of that phrase and I can’t seem to agree although, It possibly has gotten a little polish here and there

I’ve seen videos that state “the ambient occlusion is better” , “Better foliage” , “Better texture” etc. When it can all be attributed to different lighting at a different time of day and a different space.
To get a better perspective we would need more than screenshots. We’d need actual gameplay of the latest version side by side with the version of the mission we saw for the gameplay reveal to know for sure. There’s a lot more to see before we can conclude that big changes have been made.

I’ve noticed this inconsistency in perception even during the reveal of the gameplay where quite a few were happy with the visuals at first and then once the overall perception had shifted to poor visuals from people who expected next generation graphics everyone followed suit even those that felt it was quite alright at first.

I would just like to ask everyone including myself to base expectations a little bit. The game looks quite decent as it stands and I think we shouldn’t mislead ourselves with expecting wild changes.

If anyone thinks I’m being too critical, analytical or just plain overthinking this, feel free to call me out on it. Would like to hear your thoughts on it too. Also, if this thread gains traction, please keep it friendly :)
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RABIH117
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RABIH117

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I think textures etc will look a bit different with the dynamic lighting +/- raytracing. I love the way halo infinite art is going so far. It looks like halo now with a mix of halo reach-halo trilogy.

We will see what the next gameplay reveal will show in terms of graphics. I hope they show what it will look like on Xbox one vs series s vs series x and PC. These pictures are from a PC which I'm guessing are similiar specs to series x
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FelipeCampox
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FelipeCampox

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Good morning spartan, I read your topic and agree with practically everything you wrote.

When I saw last year's gameplay, I liked it a lot, I loved the scenery, the weapons, the enemies and of course Zeta Halo, I wasn't expecting a game with ultra realistic graphics, not least because the game will also come out for Xbox One, but I noticed that there was a lack of polishing.

I believe that this postponement came to improve a lot, of course, but there was a lot of exaggeration by the public, a lot of hate over the xbox brand and Halo.

I believe that many people got carried away by the noise.
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kevanted
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kevanted

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RABIH117 wrote:
I think textures etc will look a bit different with the dynamic lighting +/- raytracing. I love the way halo infinite art is going so far. It looks like halo now with a mix of halo reach-halo trilogy.

We will see what the next gameplay reveal will show in terms of graphics. I hope they show what it will look like on Xbox one vs series s vs series x and PC. These pictures are from a PC which I'm guessing are similiar specs to series x
I hear that !
Lets hope whatever gameplay we receive next will cement the improvements we assume they've made :)
Also, looking forward to seeing how they scaled the xbox One and One X versions.
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FelipeCampox
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Exactly, I am very anxious to see the versions of Old Gen, luckily I already got my Series X but I have many friends on One and they would be very unhappy.
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kevanted
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FelipeCampox wrote:
Good morning spartan, I read your topic and agree with practically everything you wrote.

When I saw last year's gameplay, I liked it a lot, I loved the scenery, the weapons, the enemies and of course Zeta Halo, I wasn't expecting a game with ultra realistic graphics, not least because the game will also come out for Xbox One, but I noticed that there was a lack of polishing.

I believe that this postponement came to improve a lot, of course, but there was a lot of exaggeration by the public, a lot of hate over the xbox brand and Halo.

I believe that many people got carried away by the noise.
You're right about the noise man. I think with all external opinions now reserved until closer to flighting, the community will have more time to appreciate what they see without any negative light falling on it. I only hope that we don't raise expectations beyond what is needed.

That being said, I'm very excited to see more :D
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the co1e train
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the co1e train

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I think you are spot on OP. I concur.

I think as others have stated that the improved lighting is probably what gives these new screenshots the sense of a “big improvement”. At first glance it looks like there is texture improvement in and of itself but I really don’t know that.

I look forward to seeing what the differences between PC, XSX and X1 look like side by side. I’m also quite curious why and for what they have a PC specific inside infinite planned. Really curious about that.
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Lyk2
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I never hated the original look of Infinite when they showed the first gameplay, i liked it, i would have played it back then. Primarily because graphics is the last thing i care about - yes i bought a XSX - but only because i still had the original One, so why not upgrade finally? That said, i love how the game now looks in these new Screenshots, the Forerunner Structures have now a weathered effect, which certainly helps to sell the "it's 100,000+ years old" point. The lighting also seems to have been improved or rather being included - as far as i remember that wasn't the thing in the reveal.

Now i however would like to see how the Characters look. If there is one thing i didn't liked its how "plastic" the Armors of the Elites looked. I also wonder how the XO/XSS and XSX Versions will exactly differ, apart from the resolution.
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kevanted
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kevanted

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the co1e train wrote:
I think you are spot on OP. I concur.

I think as others have stated that the improved lighting is probably what gives these new screenshots the sense of a “big improvement”. At first glance it looks like there is texture improvement in and of itself but I really don’t know that.

I look forward to seeing what the differences between PC, XSX and X1 look like side by side. I’m also quite curious why and for what they have a PC specific inside infinite planned. Really curious about that.
I think its the improved lighting too but I'm concerned that it may just be the different time of day that gets a sort of lighting that looks visually pleasing and produces better shadows. We'll really have to wait a bit and see some new gameplay to be sure.
And yeah, that PC specific update seems interesting for sure. Lets hope for the best :)
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kevanted
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Lyk2 wrote:
I never hated the original look of Infinite when they showed the first gameplay, i liked it, i would have played it back then. Primarily because graphics is the last thing i care about - yes i bought a XSX - but only because i still had the original One, so why not upgrade finally? That said, i love how the game now looks in these new Screenshots, the Forerunner Structures have now a weathered effect, which certainly helps to sell the "it's 100,000+ years old" point. The lighting also seems to have been improved or rather being included - as far as i remember that wasn't the thing in the reveal.

Now i however would like to see how the Characters look. If there is one thing i didn't liked its how "plastic" the Armors of the Elites looked. I also wonder how the XO/XSS and XSX Versions will exactly differ, apart from the resolution.
Love that there's a weathered effect on those structures.
With the lighting, I do hope its an improvement and not just a different setting and time of day but we'll have to see more to be sure.

Those plastic Elites really looked drab. If the lighting truly has improved then that plastic feel might also have possibly changed.
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deathenator
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deathenator

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Seems a little improved but to be honest, it still does not look good to me. It has a blurry quality to it.

The pillars still look ridiculous. The LOD is still pretty bad even a little further ahead than the immediate area of the player.

idk.
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Fully Skully
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Fully Skully

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I completely agree. I don't know much about graphics speak like global illumination and all that so I just look at something and like it or dislike it lol When I saw the demo I thought the graphics were meh. When I see the screenshots the graphics look good. One thing that I can tell for a fact is a big improvement is the gun textures. The sniper looks like that render they showed in one of the previous updates, so I would assume the AR got that same upgrade. As far as lighting goes, the time of day definitely changes a lot. The demo was set in the evening it looked like, lots of orange lighting. If you look at the day/night cycle screenshots, the one that looks to be in the same time of day looks better than the demo in my opinion. The textures of the rocks also seem higher quality, but at the end of the day this is comparing screenshots to gameplay. I think it would be really cool if after they kind of do their re-reveal of the game, recreate the initial demo we saw as close as possible with the updated graphics. That would be really cool to see.
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Henry Gerold
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Henry Gerold

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Fully Skully wrote:
I completely agree. I don't know much about graphics speaking like global illumination and all that so I just look at something and like it or dislike it lol When I saw the demo I thought the graphics were meh. When I see the screenshots the graphics look good. One thing that I can tell for a fact is a big improvement is the gun textures. The sniper looks like that render they showed in one of the previous updates, so I would assume the AR got that same upgrade. As far as lighting goes, the time of day definitely changes a lot. The demo was set in the evening it looked like, lots of orange lighting. If you look at the day/night cycle screenshots, the one that looks to be in the same time of day looks better than the demo in my opinion. The textures of the rocks also seem higher quality, but at the end of the day this is comparing screenshots to gameplay. I think it would be really cool if after they kind of do their re-reveal of the game, recreate the initial demo we saw as close as possible with the updated graphics. That would be really cool to see.
I think it would be best to show a new area of the campaign to avoid the “still looks like crap” debate. Everything is still work in progress, there’s still 7/8 months of improvements and polishing to be made and people tend to forget that
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Fully Skully
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Fully Skully

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Henry Gerold wrote:
Fully Skully wrote:
I completely agree. I don't know much about graphics speaking like global illumination and all that so I just look at something and like it or dislike it lol When I saw the demo I thought the graphics were meh. When I see the screenshots the graphics look good. One thing that I can tell for a fact is a big improvement is the gun textures. The sniper looks like that render they showed in one of the previous updates, so I would assume the AR got that same upgrade. As far as lighting goes, the time of day definitely changes a lot. The demo was set in the evening it looked like, lots of orange lighting. If you look at the day/night cycle screenshots, the one that looks to be in the same time of day looks better than the demo in my opinion. The textures of the rocks also seem higher quality, but at the end of the day this is comparing screenshots to gameplay. I think it would be really cool if after they kind of do their re-reveal of the game, recreate the initial demo we saw as close as possible with the updated graphics. That would be really cool to see.
I think it would be best to show a new area of the campaign to avoid the “still looks like crap” debate. Everything is still work in progress, there’s still 7/8 months of improvements and polishing to be made and people tend to forget that
Yes of course. I'm saying do their re-reveal which would be whatever they wanted to show. Then after that do a demo comparison.
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MorseyBaby
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Fully Skully wrote:
Henry Gerold wrote:
Fully Skully wrote:
I completely agree. I don't know much about graphics speaking like global illumination and all that so I just look at something and like it or dislike it lol When I saw the demo I thought the graphics were meh. When I see the screenshots the graphics look good. One thing that I can tell for a fact is a big improvement is the gun textures. The sniper looks like that render they showed in one of the previous updates, so I would assume the AR got that same upgrade. As far as lighting goes, the time of day definitely changes a lot. The demo was set in the evening it looked like, lots of orange lighting. If you look at the day/night cycle screenshots, the one that looks to be in the same time of day looks better than the demo in my opinion. The textures of the rocks also seem higher quality, but at the end of the day this is comparing screenshots to gameplay. I think it would be really cool if after they kind of do their re-reveal of the game, recreate the initial demo we saw as close as possible with the updated graphics. That would be really cool to see.
I think it would be best to show a new area of the campaign to avoid the “still looks like crap” debate. Everything is still work in progress, there’s still 7/8 months of improvements and polishing to be made and people tend to forget that
Yes of course. I'm saying do their re-reveal which would be whatever they wanted to show. Then after that do a demo comparison.
That's not a bad shout. It just depends how much they want to 'spoil' for us pre-release
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Rickygforce
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This is great and all but I doubt we're getting anything that could qualify for footage until the E3/Inside XBOX window middle of this year. Until then, we'll probably only get screenshots.
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AveryArmory
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I did not really have a lot of issues with the original gameplay reveal from last July. I thought that the art style was sound and that the game overall looked pretty good. There were problems with LOD and textures and I did feel that the original demo they showed had lighting that kinda made everything look a little washed out. The biggest change that I can see from that original demo to these new screenshots is that everything seems to have more contrast to it. To my eye it really helps all the textures pop more and it just looks nicer. All the assets are largely the same from the demo and the screenshots, so the foliage, trees, ground and other textures look pretty much the same to me. They just look better to my eye because the lighting has gotten better and is bringing out more of the asset. The sniper screenshot is very good looking but even there you can see the flowers and grass off to the right look pretty much the same as they did in July. The water right in front of Chief also has that screen space reflection thing going on where it's reflecting something it probably shouldn't be. So the screenshots in my opinion are not perfect by any means but the art style is still there and I do think it looks quite good.
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kevanted
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kevanted

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AveryArmory wrote:
I did not really have a lot of issues with the original gameplay reveal from last July. I thought that the art style was sound and that the game overall looked pretty good. There were problems with LOD and textures and I did feel that the original demo they showed had lighting that kinda made everything look a little washed out. The biggest change that I can see from that original demo to these new screenshots is that everything seems to have more contrast to it. To my eye it really helps all the textures pop more and it just looks nicer. All the assets are largely the same from the demo and the screenshots, so the foliage, trees, ground and other textures look pretty much the same to me. They just look better to my eye because the lighting has gotten better and is bringing out more of the asset. The sniper screenshot is very good looking but even there you can see the flowers and grass off to the right look pretty much the same as they did in July. The water right in front of Chief also has that screen space reflection thing going on where it's reflecting something it probably shouldn't be. So the screenshots in my opinion are not perfect by any means but the art style is still there and I do think it looks quite good.
Agreed
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