Assuming 343i developed all their Halo 4 assets in higher resolutions and complexity ready for next generation Halo 5 & 6.
Who would care if the Halo 4 menu, lobby, service records, file share, characters, buildings, textures, sounds and as much as possible can be kept as is then transposed straight into Halo 5 & 6?
The reason I want this to happen?..
I’d like to hear how the community feels about resource investment. Do we all want more campaign missions, more spartan ops, more story, more animation, more maps, more testing, more tweaks etc.
In contrast it seems developers are continuously rebuilding the characters, textures, sounds etc all over again with every game, every Halo game specifically?
Surely with Forward Unto Dawn, Comics, Books, Halo 4 and all the hard work 343i have done they have the highest standards of models, weapons, skins, menu’s etc Why not focus resources on the content now? Make the games super polished and insanely full of content.
So far I’m surprised the community prefers shiny new things over quality content.
Sure the next-gen graphics are a given but I’d like to see all those artists, level designers, story writers etc focusing on the game content rather than redeveloping every time.
Imagine 343i saving say 20-40% of their resources for Halo 5 that are better spent on character performances, story development, animation work, gametypes, maps, missions etc
I’m curious if we get 50 replies just which way the Halo community prefers…
> So far I’m surprised the community prefers shiny new things over quality content.
>
> Sure the next-gen graphics are a given but I’d like to see all those artists, level designers, story writers etc focusing on the game content rather than redeveloping every time.
>
> Imagine 343i saving say 20-40% of their resources for Halo 5 that are better spent on character performances, story development, animation work, gametypes, maps, missions etc
>
> I’m curious if we get 50 replies just which way the Halo community prefers…
You realize that there are different departments of the development team, right? So while one is hard at work on creating a new graphics engine, another is deeply involved in recording new sound effects for weapons, and yet another department has their eyes glued to a storyboard figuring out what happens next.
Shiny new things are a part of the life cycle of a game, and that stuff DOES help make quality content. If they kept recycling and never changing or improving things, what would more than half of the development team be working on?
The process you described is not how a video game is developed. Not everyone does every job. It’s like a puzzle, and they all come together in the end to make a final product.
> You realize that there are different departments of the development team, right? So while one is hard at work on creating a new graphics engine, another is deeply involved in recording new sound effects for weapons, and yet another department has their eyes glued to a storyboard figuring out what happens next.
>
> Shiny new things are a part of the life cycle of a game, and that stuff DOES help make quality content. If they kept recycling and never changing or improving things, what would more than half of the development team be working on?
>
> The process you described is not how a video game is developed. Not everyone does every job. It’s like a puzzle, and they all come together in the end to make a final product.
All valid points mate. I certainly understand the process involved with game making etc.
I should have been a little clearer that I like to see all those resources do those same jobs but created new things instead of redesigning existing things.
I’m am so hyped with the quality and quantity of Halo 4 redesign…all the way from character models and weapons to maps and story.
However for Halo 5 & 6 I’d like to see all the assets possible remain the same and resources invested in new content rather than redesign.
I’d rather have them make new assets for multiple reasons. First reason is the fact that these assets have most likely be made keeping eye on what detail the 360 can process and what it can’t. They could look better as high resolution models, but new assets could look even better. These assets are also made the lightning system in mind and as for a new generation of hardware, it’s probably best to revamp your lightning, some of the models could end up looking odd with lightning they weren’t designed for.
Second reason is that many of their current artistic assets look unpleasant. I’d rather have them redesign the Jackals and Grunts in hopes of getting actually good looking character models for them this time. Same goes for the graphical user interface.
So, as they can do much better job with all their models, animations and everything else with the new hardware, I’d rather have them use enough time making the game look beautiful than simply take all the previous assets and throwing them in.
> If it keeps the graphics the same i would be fine with it. I really have no clue how the next gen console could have better graphics then halo 4.
With the rumored ten times the performance of the 360, I think it can do that pretty easily. Especially as the graphics of Halo 4 are pretty bad by today’s standards, to be honest. They are fine when you think they were designed a seven year old console in mind, but with modern technology you could get so much more.
> > If it keeps the graphics the same i would be fine with it. I really have no clue how the next gen console could have better graphics then halo 4.
>
> There’s always a way. If It’s impossible to make it look better then there is a way to make it run smoother. Maybe 60 FPS.
No it’s not. If it’s possible to make a game run at twice the framerate, it must also be possible to keep the framerate the same and run it at twice the graphical performance. In case it’s impossible to make a game perform any better, it’s also impossible to make it perform smoother without halving the graphical performance.
> I’d rather have them make new assets for multiple reasons. First reason is the fact that these assets have most likely be made keeping eye on what detail the 360 can process and what it can’t.
The developer source for the console graphics/engine/netcode etc will obviously have to be written and coded from the ground up.
The designers regarding textures are using far higher resolution than the 360 could ever handle. They iterate out lower compress or reworked version for the game itself.
The designers regarding character models are using far high higher polygon and spline counts etc. Sure there are some tweaks to be made but with Forward Unto Dawn and Spartan Ops CGI they must be using very high resolution HD/Blu-ray quality assets.
The physics may not require design from the ground up, they could easily be using Havok’s latest version in the engine for the next generation etc.
Overall I still would like to save as much resources as possible and invest those in new content rather than rehashing existing content every new game version.
> > I’d rather have them make new assets for multiple reasons. First reason is the fact that these assets have most likely be made keeping eye on what detail the 360 can process and what it can’t.
>
> The developer source for the console graphics/engine/netcode etc will obviously have to be written and coded from the ground up.
>
> The designers regarding textures are using far higher resolution than the 360 could ever handle. They iterate out lower compress or reworked version for the game itself.
>
> The designers regarding character models are using far high higher polygon and spline counts etc. Sure there are some tweaks to be made but with Forward Unto Dawn and Spartan Ops CGI they must be using very high resolution HD/Blu-ray quality assets.
>
> The physics may not require design from the ground up, they could easily be using Havok’s latest version in the engine for the next generation etc.
>
> Overall I still would like to save as much resources as possible and invest those in new content rather than rehashing existing content every new game version.
Yes, the models are often made in higher resolution for games, but they are still made certain things in mind. For example, static objects such like structures in a campaign mission can look completely out-of-place if you move them to another location. Simply for the reason that the artist designed the structure that was designed to stay immobile for that particular piece of that particular map with that particular lightning.
Of course, character models are bit different because they have to look good in different places. However, you still have certain ways of doing things for those models and if any of those ways are changed to a better one, you also have to rework your model. It’s not just about texture resolutions and polycounts.
In the end, a much better choice is to redesign every asset. I’d support redesigning your models even when continuing with the same hardware. For a completely new piece of hardware that allows you to do new things, you’d be a fool not to optimize everything; your engine, your assets, your tools for that hardware.
Regardless, I’d be ready to stand with my opinion solely for the reason that half of the Covenant character models were a huge letdown to me and I’m already looking forward to getting rid of them when Halo 5 arrives.
> Regardless, I’d be ready to stand with my opinion solely for the reason that half of the Covenant character models were a huge letdown to me and I’m already looking forward to getting rid of them when Halo 5 arrives.
I think you’ll find all the redesign work 343i have been doing is for the next games in the trilogy and 10 years of Halo. I highly doubt they’ll be changing the character designs very much at all.
Hence why I want to retool and re-purpose resources and assets so we maximise content output and focus during the production life cycle.
I understand your points but the techniques used in Maya, SoftImage, 3DStudio etc and kinematics (inverse), textures, lighting etc are able to have huge saving if they started with production prior to Halo 4 for the whole trilogy.
From what I have seen I believe they have and I’m curious about their studio modus operandi regarding Halo 4 to Halo 5 transition.
I imagine work on Halo 5 has already begun in small teams but post Halo 4 launch within a couple of weeks/months they’ll be back to the grindstone of Halo 5 I’m sure.
> > Regardless, I’d be ready to stand with my opinion solely for the reason that half of the Covenant character models were a huge letdown to me and I’m already looking forward to getting rid of them when Halo 5 arrives.
>
> I think you’ll find all the redesign work 343i have been doing is for the next games in the trilogy and 10 years of Halo. I highly doubt they’ll be changing the character designs very much at all.
>
> Hence why I want to retool and re-purpose resources and assets so we maximise content output and focus during the production life cycle.
>
> I understand your points but the techniques used in Maya, SoftImage, 3DStudio etc and kinematics (inverse), textures, lighting etc are able to have huge saving if they started with production prior to Halo 4 for the whole trilogy.
>
> From what I have seen I believe they have and I’m curious about their studio modus operandi regarding Halo 4 to Halo 5 transition.
>
> I imagine work on Halo 5 has already begun in small teams but post Halo 4 launch within a couple of weeks/months they’ll be back to the grindstone of Halo 5 I’m sure.
I understand your point, too. I just don’t find myself agreeing with it. I personally rather take a small amount of unique content than large amounts of content that I’ve seen before. It’s just part of what makes that new experience: the visual changes (in places where they are rational). Of course, my opinion is heavily impacted by the fact that I dislike some of the character models and really hope they get changed.
So, my view on things is that they should make new assets. I understand the content argument very well. I would like to have more content. However, if it’s a choice between a fresh look and more content, I lean towards the fresh look. Especially when I know what they can do with the look with all the fancy power of the Durango.
> I understand your point, too. I just don’t find myself agreeing with it. I personally rather take a small amount of unique content than large amounts of content that I’ve seen before. It’s just part of what makes that new experience: the visual changes (in places where they are rational). Of course, my opinion is heavily impacted by the fact that I dislike some of the character models and really hope they get changed.
>
> So, my view on things is that they should make new assets. I understand the content argument very well. I would like to have more content. However, if it’s a choice between a fresh look and more content, I lean towards the fresh look. Especially when I know what they can do with the look with all the fancy power of the Durango.
More than fair comments mate, thanks for taking the time to post. I’m all for a major graphical upgrade for next-gen too.