Halo Infinite Technical Preview Visuals and Campaign Expectations

[P40L0]

Those below are all screenshots I directly grabbed from my Xbox Series X build (4K/60 - Quality Mode):

This is an early John Linneman impression from DF:



which was exactly my first thought when I first played it yesterday.

We basically already have in our hands a giant graphics/visual upgrade over the infamous 2020 Campaign Demo and this is only a Multiplayer Beta, which historically has always been scaled down compared to all final Halo Campaigns in the past, opening to a strong possibility of further visual enhancements we still have yet to see there.

Combining this to a new, Open World scale for Campaign gameplay and "one-cut" in-game cinematics (ala God of War 2018) makes me SO HYPED for Halo Infinite as a whole package right now.
The game also plays great, sounds flawless and I hadn't so much fun in MP since Halo 3 era.

My only big let down for now is the Co-Op cut for 3 months :(

What do you think?


EDIT:




-Series X is Dynamic 4K @ locked 60fps or Dynamic 1440p @ almost locked 120fps;
-Series S is Dynamic 1080p @ locked 60fps (120fps temporarily disabled);
-One X is Dynamic 4K/30 or Dynamic 1440p/60;
-OG One is Dynamic 1080p/30.

Huge improvement over last year Demo, big praise on textures work on all platforms but with increased resolution on One X and Series X, as well as better shadows, ambient occlusion, anisotropic filtering, geometry and draw distance.
Contact shades only on Series.
Great SSR reflections and cubemaps on all except OG One.

Loading times 6x faster on Series.
Framerate seems much better than first TP, especially on OG One.

 

[Deleted member 93062]

It is how Alex from DF said... Infinite was never a bad looking game, the lighting in the demo just made all the high quality textures look flat.

My big worry is pop-in, I realized in the tech preview that pop-in is really bad unless you turn all the relevant settings to Ultra, even on High I was getting shadows flickering and not popping in until I was really close, was really jarring. Bazaar had the most shadows popping in and Live Fire/Recharge had a ton of assets popping in until I put all the settings at Ultra, hopefully they can optimize that more.

 

[Zebesian-X]

It's all coming together :)

 

[Gunny T Highway]

And this is not even final lighting, which makes me excited for how the release product will be like.

 

[MouldyK]

We basically already have in our hands a giant graphics/visual upgrade over the infamous 2020 Campaign Demo and this is only a Multiplayer Beta, which historically has always been scaled down compared to all final Halo Campaigns in the past, opening to a strong possibility of further visual enhancements we still have yet to see there.

Combining this to a new, Open World scale for Campaign gameplay and "one-cut" in-game cinematics (ala God of War 2018) makes me SO HYPED for Halo Infinite as a whole package right now.

Click to shrink...

I wonder if the Open-World will mean Multiplayer looks better this time than the campaign due to less to show etc.

 

[Apathy]

Yeah that original stuff they showed was no where close to release but they told people it was coming soon. This is what a triple A game should look like. I still can't believe that they might have actually released the original version

 

[tapedeck]

Yeah I'm actually optimistic that the campaign will have some impressive visuals even by todays standards…which is crazy to say given what the game once looked like.

 

[P40L0]

It is how Alex from DF said... Infinite was never a bad looking game, the lighting in the demo just made all the high quality textures look flat. My big worry is pop-in, I realized in the tech preview that pop-in is really bad unless you turn all the relevant settings to Ultra, even high I was getting shadows flickering and not popping in until I was really close, was really jarring.

Click to shrink...

They've not just tweaked the lighting. It's almost as everything was "remastered" in 1 year (lighting, shadows, ambient occlusion, vegetation, ground and environment textures, metal shaders, scratched surfaces, HUD animations, pop-in/pop-up is gone, motion blur and so much more).
And, as I stated, this is just a MP Beta!

 

[DanielG123]

God I can't wait to see how the campaign looks. I hope that it's just as expansive and explorative as the concept art made it out to be. And, stuff like dynamic wind and lighting in the settings has me excited for the final game's visuals and effects (even though it looks fantastic already).

 

[Deleted member 4976]

I was pleasantly surprised by it, and the artstyle helps too.

I think it's going to surprise folks with the final release.

 

[Masterz1337]

It looks significantly better than what we saw before, but I am worried that the campaign will not look as good as the MP and that is why they have not shown much of it.

Also the campaign maps people have explored in the flight show a lot of the same LOD pop in... but that that as it is since we were never meant to see that stuff yet anyway.

One thing I am really happy about is in this update performance at 30 FPS seems better, and while you have to reset it each game, the performance mode looks not much worse than quality mode on the One X.

 

[Deleted member 93062]

We got a tiny snippet of campaign footage in the August update, I know its not exactly the best way to check it out but I would say its looking beautiful outside of some pop-in. Honestly one the best looking games on next-gen for me, I love this aesthetic.

 

[P40L0]

I wonder if the Open-World will mean Multiplayer looks better this time than the campaign due to less to show etc.

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This is a valid point.
But it doesn't seem the case (for now).

This is from months older Campaign build:

 

[Theorry]

And it has a special duffle back also

 

[Deleted member 93062]

And it has a special duffle back also

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This is why my CPU is at 100%. Worth it!

 

[Theorry]

I mean it does seem in line of what we saw in February

 

[WhtR88t]

How could this be a good looking game if it's cross gen? /s

 

[P40L0]

I mean it does seem in line of what we saw in February

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This MP Beta 2 looks even better than this (the M7 Sniper now has dirt/scratches textures on it and metals are more shiny) ;)

 

[Moose]

I think Live Fire could use an additional art pass. I just don't find it aesthetically pleasing like the other maps. I think the actual playable space is fine but the immediate surrounding area is drab. There's a lack of ground flora on the trees, maybe some volumetric fog or lighting tweaks could help as well. Every other map looks good.

One thing that NEEDS to be improved overall are the effects. Explosions lack the great H2A/3 bloom and are generally lackluster. The plasma pistol bolt has no dynamic green lighting on the environment. I miss the gold tint and brightness of shield flares as well hopefully when we can disable enemy outlines we'll also have the gold shields back. There's also a lack of blood splatter on the environment despite having good sprays while shooting someone this is a series from the early aughts embrace your roots and add some blood.

 

[Theorry]

Mostly fan of the textures

 

[P40L0]

I think Live Fire could use an additional art pass. I just don't find it aesthetically pleasing like the other maps. I think the actual playable space is fine but the immediate surrounding area is drab. There's a lack of ground flora on the trees, maybe some volumetric fog or lighting tweaks could help as well. Every other map looks good.

One thing that NEEDS to be improved overall are the effects. Explosions lack the great H2A/3 bloom and are generally lackluster. The plasma pistol bolt has no dynamic green lighting on the environment. I miss the gold tint and brightness of shield flares as well hopefully when we can disable enemy outlines we'll also have the gold shields back. There's also a lack of blood splatter on the environment despite having good sprays while shooting someone this is a series from the early aughts embrace your roots and add some blood.

Click to shrink...

I agree on explosions.
I think Halo 2 Anniversary explosions and fire/smoke effects are way better, so I hope they will improve them for launch (a lot of people complained about them).

 

[Mecha]

The only thing that matters. Did they fix the fruits? 🤣

Just kiddin, it does looks really good. The artists that worked on the textures must be proud.

 

[jon bones]

yeah i played on my lg cx yesterday and was SHOOK

MO feels and looks so good

 

[Dr. Doom]

I think it merely looks 'ok' - looks decidedly crossgen.

 

[Qwerty Keyboard]

I hope the menu UI being used is placeholder, it's fucking horrific and so basic.
Given how bad the font and text was in Halo 4 and Guardians I'm guessing not, but I can hope.

 

[P40L0]

The only thing that matters. Did they fix the fruits? 🤣

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Nope, but bags are ️‍🔥

 

[P40L0]

I hope the menu UI being used is placeholder, it's fucking horrific and so basic.
Given how bad the font and text was in Halo 4 and Guardians I'm guessing not, but I can hope.

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I also agree with that.
I still find Reach UI/UX the best Halo ever had so far. They should just copy/paste it in 4K and with new models, lol

 

[Rickyrozay2o9]

Have they mentioned when we're getting campaign gameplay trailer? I'd imagine soon given the game releases in 2 months.

 

[GFP_RYU]

Question, are you able to your own legs/feet when you look down like in the previous games?

 

[P40L0]

Have they mentioned when we're getting campaign gameplay trailer? I'd imagine soon given the game releases in 2 months.

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Staten just mentioned we will have new Campaign trailers and gameplay "closer to launch" and after current "shutdown mode".
I guess end October, early November. For sure by Halo CE 20th Anniversary (November 15th).

 

[Theorry]

Have they mentioned when we're getting campaign gameplay trailer? I'd imagine soon given the game releases in 2 months.

Click to shrink...

They said they were in "shutdown" mode now. Kinda last phase and then would start to show everything. Cant blame them. They wanna show it again really when its done and not done with still some stuff missing.

 

[Vinc]

Can confirm. I thought the first beta looked ok, this time it looks great. Big leap.

 

[Moose]

Have they mentioned when we're getting campaign gameplay trailer? I'd imagine soon given the game releases in 2 months.

Click to shrink...

I think they're refusing to make a vertical slice because it takes away from actual development. I would expect something when the game is gold.

 

[CubeApple76]

Mostly fan of the textures

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Textures / materials are for sure the highlight, they look fantastic. Also really appreciate the wear and tear they added to the weapons and armor since the initial showing, makes things look a ton better.

 

[Ushay]

I'll be going in fresh, cannot wait to play it. Looks night and day compared to last year.

 

[John Caboose]

Not really digging the sound effects, 343 has this whole weak "plink plink" atmosphere to the human weapons that it seems they kept judging by a quick look at some YT footage posted ITT.

Will of course reserve final judgement for release.

 

[Akai]

Don't care much about actual resolution and that kind of stuff, but I'm very pleased with the visual clarity and the overall art style of the game.

My only complaint, visual wise, is the player outline and shield system. Feel like that could be a lot better.

 

[christocolus]

I totally agree OP. 343i has done such an amazing job so far.

 

[Bulby]

Yes it looks amazing. Im on a Series S and it looks and plays flawlessly on my CX48.

 

[Hey Please]

Insofar as the lighting, shadow maps and Ambient Occlusion is concerned, static time of day allows for higher fidelity result for a given amount of processing power over dynamic ToD (which is what the campaign is supposed to have) given RT for generating shadows is not involved.

No doubt a year's worth of extra time will (and in MP, 'already has') yield improvements over initial showing.

 

[19thCenturyFox]

It's a fantastic looking game and it's insane how well the graphics hold up even on the absolute minimum spec that will run this game. I was just testing out some stuff in training mode because I was wondering how they are doing their reflections and the foliage shadows as it didn't appear to have the usual screen space artifacts that are associated with the more widely used solutions. The reflections on Xbox One are cube maps but not just any random ass cube maps that show entirely different scenery, this is almost on the same level as what Naughty Dog did for The Last of Us 2. Which means indivdual cube maps based on the environment where the reflective surface is placed. It's not as accurate as TLOU2 but it's damn close, I could even spot the reflection of a little red warning sign next to a door.

My guess is that they will use this as a fall back solution and layer screen space reflections on top if this on hardware that isn't the original Xbox One or Xbox One S. If they keep up this level of robustness and detail in the single player campaign, which will likely have tons of puddles, large bodies of water or other reflective surfaces, that means they will have put in a ton of work in order to not break the immersion with screen space artifacts. It's also interesting that a more powerful platforms supposed fall back solution is robust enough to allow its use as the main solution for reflective surfaces on last gen hardware.

As for micro shadows on foliage, I have no idea how they are doing it. I got really close to it and tried to provoke the usual behavior that would cause a screen space solution to break but it didn't happen. The game has dynamic FOV so maybe the cut off point is off screen on my current standard FOV, if you push the FOV to the maximum and watch the edges of the screen and it doesn't fade out that probably means it's not a screen space solution. Now with training mode I'd love for Digital Foundry to take another shot at this because now they can analyize the game while being left alone.

EDIT: Yeah it's using screen space shadows, I just tested it in the worst possible spot before but now it's pretty clear.

 

[jelly]

And it has a special duffle back also

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That's a Kojima checks out Halo 3 at E3 and sees the foliage react to characters running past and leaving satisfied.

 

[HiLife]

I think the art style does a good amount of the lifting too. It's the best since Halo 3.

 

[gr8kamon]

I was very surprised with how good it looked and ran (in performance mode) on my Xbox One X

 

[OtterX]

Its gorgeous.
It's almost like the footage from last year was from an early build made while everyone was working from home in a pandemic. Crazy!

 

[Bulby]

I was very surprised with how good it looked and ran (in performance mode) on my Xbox One X

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Is it running at 60fps on the One X now?

 

[P40L0]

I think the art style does a good amount of the lifting too. It's the best since Halo 3.

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Absolutely. It's actually my favorite one so far, also surpassing the beautiful H2A one.

 

[vixolus]

Its gorgeous.
It's almost like the footage from last year was from an early build made while everyone was working from home in a pandemic. Crazy!

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yeah but by early build it meant some time in June for the July showcase... that's still ~4-5 months until it had to "go gold" and significant changes like the ones seen over the past year would not have made the cut. The delay and refocusing based on feedback has done wonders. Plus they're still working from home, mostly.

 

[Fezan]

I think it merely looks 'ok' - looks decidedly crossgen.

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Yes this. It's like first time people are seeing detailed textures.

Also I remember reading the same thread style months ago

 

[DarthWalden]

Yeah it's crazy how amazing it looks on a series x now especially considering it's a cross gen game.

I wonder how the Xbox one version looks and runs.