Ray Tracing

I know everybody is super excited about the screenshots from the February update.

However, they left out any mention of ray tracing. In an update so heavily focused on graphics, it seems like this was intentionally avoided. The game was delayed a whole year. There is no reason why ray tracing shouldn't be included at launch now. Are they abandoning that promise like id did with Doom Eternal?

Sir Cool One wrote:

Firstly ray-tracing never has been a launch feature. It was always supposed to be a post-launch feature, despite the delay there is nothing to suggest that this has changed.

Secondly, and this is subjective, does anyone else feel ray-tracing really doesn't change much in some situations? I mean its great when characters and entities don't look "glowy" and I suppose real-time reflections are cool looking too. But it simply doesn't seem vital and frankly is imo a pretty poor performance trade-off. Why do ray-tracing when you can have a massive resolution, a bigger render distance (which is hugely important in Infinte), and stable frame rates? I don't get the point.

Raytracing definitely changes a lot, but its entirely dependent on the game's usage of it. Raytracing affects more than just light. So its used in a wide variety of degrees per game. It also tanks performance given how demanding it is. If they can make it so the game runs at stable 60 with it, im all for it. If they cant, I dont want it in the game

Microsoft has continuously bragged about how powerful the Series X is, how pretty the games will look, and how it supports ray tracing. It would be silly not to include the main next-gen graphical leap on their flagship title. Delaying the game should not also mean delaying the lighting feature again. Including it at launch should help justify the original delay.

Also, I love how Xbox fans were all about graphics.

Infinite took some serious criticism for the graphics and suddenly everyone claimed, "I don't care. I only like gameplay!" It felt like the Nintendo community.

After the February update, people start caring about graphics again. And honestly, the screenshots changed very little from the gameplay demo. Had 343 released still high resolution screenshots from July, they would have looked nearly identical (this is different than simply pausing the video). These screenshots don't show off the in-game draw distance, particle effects, lighting, motion of soft objects. Still a pretty style though.

The last halo Infinite blog was more about Zeta Halo rather than actual graphics. It was to show you what the environments look like now.

Any mention of tech performance like Ray tracing will be much later in the year.
As it was initially planned as a post launch update I’m not too sure that it will be released for launch now, even with the delay

H4m Assassin wrote:

Microsoft has continuously bragged about how powerful the Series X is, how pretty the games will look, and how it supports ray tracing. It would be silly not to include the main next-gen graphical leap on their flagship title. Delaying the game should not also mean delaying the lighting feature again. Including it at launch should help justify the original delay.

Also, I love how Xbox fans were all about graphics.

Infinite took some serious criticism for the graphics and suddenly everyone claimed, "I don't care. I only like gameplay!" It felt like the Nintendo community.

After the February update, people start caring about graphics again. And honestly, the screenshots changed very little from the gameplay demo. Had 343 released still high resolution screenshots from July, they would have looked nearly identical (this is different than simply pausing the video). These screenshots don't show off the in-game draw distance, particle effects, lighting, motion of soft objects. Still a pretty style though.

seems like you have more of an issue that people aren't up in arms anymore about visuals. While important, not everything needs to be a technical showcase or a graphical powerhouse. I also don't think Halo is their flagship title anymore. It hasn't been for a while. Given the amount of IPs and talent MS has and is now developing, Halo is more of a pillar, one that stands with many. It's not the crown jewel, and I don't think MS is trying to act like it is anymore. Much of the focus was on Halo cause of the launch of the new consoles and how there were no other 1st party titles launching in that window.

Also, no, not everyone claimed "I don't care." A good chunk of the halo community did but much of the 3rd party viewpoints only focused on visuals. Unfortunately, visuals have become the main focus when it comes to games and their initial reception (at least from a 1st party perspective).