Halo 2 Vista X06 Press Kit Content

[rossmum]

At least you KNOW something.

Tagging is pretty quick and easy to pick up. Most of the functions are either self-explanitory or display info on mouseover (except for some... lol, some of you may know what I'm talking about)... just play around, you'll soon get the hang of it.

[Katarn]

We would be turning a simple tree that is maybe a few hundred polys into this massive mesh of a several thousand polys. Something like this that has such an insignificant visual impact would not be worth the massive performance hit. All of the trees in that scene probably total around 1,000 polys. Now imagine EACH TREE being several thousand polys. No thanks, I'll take the bump mapping, which looks nearly just as good unless you sit there and study it.

How would you graphically that H2V compares to games of this generation on the PC, i.e. oblivion/FEAR/Prey/others. Since H2V is a very-boxed-in shooter compared to that of Oblivion, and Oblivion comes through with shining colors in a very large space while still managing to put out 5000 poly rocks with normal maps (no joke). You also say it would be quite a waste of having trees that are several thousand polies, even scarce as they are! Games like Oblivion, Gothic 3, and even oldies like Lineage 2 manage forests full of multi-thousand poly trees including normal maps? Are you saying that the BLAM engine is inferior even in its updated state? Does H2V support HDR or 16x FSAA or 32x AF? Even with all these updates, can you sit here and tell me that H2V won't be made a fool of visually by games coming out at the same time like Bioshock, FEAR extraction point, Gothic 3, Unreal 3, UT 2007, ETQW, and Crysis that support all these features WITH their thousands of multi-thousand poly statics? I mean, the UT3 engine can support million-poly scenes with the next level of technology: virtual displacement maps. BIA3 looks amazing on the X360 with this technology, imagine it on the PC!

On a side note, you really have to turn down the bloom and FSAA factor because it's crossed the threshold to blur, rather than a visually satisfying effect. It looks distinctly bloom, so make a note to the devs that going HDR would be a far better course.

[Terry]

Ok, I have a question...
What are the chances of this working at all on an intel gma 950 :X

[TheGhost]

How would you graphically that H2V compares to games of this generation on the PC, i.e. oblivion/FEAR/Prey/others. Since H2V is a very-boxed-in shooter compared to that of Oblivion, and Oblivion comes through with shining colors in a very large space while still managing to put out 5000 poly rocks with normal maps (no joke). You also say it would be quite a waste of having trees that are several thousand polies, even scarce as they are! Games like Oblivion, Gothic 3, and even oldies like Lineage 2 manage forests full of multi-thousand poly trees including normal maps? Are you saying that the BLAM engine is inferior even in its updated state? Does H2V support HDR or 16x FSAA or 32x AF? Even with all these updates, can you sit here and tell me that H2V won't be made a fool of visually by games coming out at the same time like Bioshock, FEAR extraction point, Gothic 3, Unreal 3, UT 2007, ETQW, and Crysis that support all these features WITH their thousands of multi-thousand poly statics? I mean, the UT3 engine can support million-poly scenes with the next level of technology: virtual displacement maps. BIA3 looks amazing on the X360 with this technology, imagine it on the PC!

On a side note, you really have to turn down the bloom and FSAA factor because it's crossed the threshold to blur, rather than a visually satisfying effect. It looks distinctly bloom, so make a note to the devs that going HDR would be a far better course.

Well it was the same with HaloPC, I think. First of all, it's a port. And second of all, it's a 2-year-old game that you're comparing to newer and next-gen games. Taken those two things into consideration, I don't think the criticism is fair or justified.

[Katarn]

Not the same with HaloPC, you see, times have changed. Halo PC was released before half-life 2 (and the next-gen so to speak). Being a port doesn't matter, they are marketing it as a standalone game and since it's a vista-exclusive, many people will be paying $250 for the game. And since the engine and graphics have been "updated" which they haven't done with halopc, other than the higher resolutions, i think my questions are well-justified. Y'see this time it seems that bungie has a lot more support for this port as they're doing it themselves.

[TheGhost]

Well, I'm paying $250 for the OS regardless, and the fact that Halo 2 PC is only for Vista is a pleasant coincidence.

[WhÎþLå§h ÐÆmØÑ]

Well, I'm paying $250 for the OS regardless, and the fact that Halo 2 PC is only for Vista is a pleasant coincidence.

Exactly.

[rossmum]

Way to give me a headache, Katarn.

I agree somewhat though, especially on the bloom. Looks a bit overdone.

[Cortexian]

So Nitro, I have a question directed mainly towards you and not H2V, hat is your position at bungie? What do you do? You mentioned that you know alot more "all-around" things then the other people at bungie... Wow, I have so many questions that I can't even get them right way up in my head so that I can write em! (if your allowed to talk about it) Are there any plans to release a Demo version of the game for Vista before the actual release? Are there plans for any sort of H2V demo?

[Zeph]

How would you graphically that H2V compares to games of this generation on the PC, i.e. oblivion/FEAR/Prey/others. Since H2V is a very-boxed-in shooter compared to that of Oblivion, and Oblivion comes through with shining colors in a very large space while still managing to put out 5000 poly rocks with normal maps (no joke). You also say it would be quite a waste of having trees that are several thousand polies, even scarce as they are! Games like Oblivion, Gothic 3, and even oldies like Lineage 2 manage forests full of multi-thousand poly trees including normal maps? Are you saying that the BLAM engine is inferior even in its updated state?

Someone is being a tad crititcal. Yes, the title is being released in 2007, but the game itself was DESIGNED to run on a five/six year old console putting out 480i video. Pushing the engine isn't the job of Bungie's Vista team, it's the job of the mappers out there who can afford to scream damn the framerate when in Max.