Infinite Tech Preview – PC Specific Feedback

Games Halo Infinite
1062

Nvidia GTX 1660 TI
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
G.Skill Aegis 4x8GB 3000MHz CL16 RAM

The performance in this flighting was pretty choppy, frame times were all over the place and my hardware was being heavily under utilized. I could not get a steady frame rate regardless of my settings. At high settings with Motion Blur and DoF off, my CPU utilization was 24%, and my GPU utilization was 14%. This was during a match on Live Fire.

I also had screen tearing the entire time, even when enabling settings such as V-Sync or FastSync. This was also an issue I had during the Halo Reach flighting, but updating my graphics drivers fixed that issue for me, but that didn’t fix it this time around.

Neither of these issues were anywhere near as bad in the Weapon Drills as they were in Matchmaking, which leads me to believe something is going wrong in that department.

Live Fire was, by far, the worst offender of the three maps. Recharge and Bazaar were much more playable.

The game was very pretty on high settings, it was playable, but it wasn’t the quality in terms of smoothness that I’d expect from a Triple A title such as Halo.

Furthermore, I had my FoV settings reset almost every time I exited the game. Other settings, graphical or audio, were not affected.

All in all, for a first flight, I would say it’s looking fairly solid. If the optimization can be nailed down for release, I anticipate a very enjoyable Halo Infinite multiplayer experience.

EDIT
I forgot to add this tidbit, but I felt it was fairly important: Enabling Async Compute did help a fair amount with the frame timings and overall feel of playability on my PC. People with Nvidia cards older than Pascal/Turing architecture (GTX 970s for example) won’t be able to utilize this. However, seeing how the 1060 is the most popular graphics card in the world according to Steam’s Hardware Survey, I would say this might be something to recommend for the next flight, just like the Adrenlin Driver Version was suggested.

1063

i7-3770k@3.50ghz (actually 3.61ghz)
32GB Corsair Vengeance 3200mhz cards (4x8gb but running in ddr3 so only 1400mhz)
SEAGATE HDD 1Tb
Asus ROG RX5500 XT 8GB OC

Been running the game all weekend (over 24 hours of ganeplay record between Saturday and sunday) on Ultra settings, had a stable 32 fps ±2 flictuation with 70% GPU utilization, setting down to high made no difference in GPU usage or frame rate.

Loading times aside from the initial boot were incredibly fast, even playing on a 7 year old hdd with a 7 year old motherboard and chipset I had very short loading times.

Issues that I did have:

  1. 3 or 4 hangs that required me to close the game and restart,

  2. in 3 matches I encountered an audio bug (reported) whereby announcer and music cues sounded fine but all other match sounds were muffled, sorta sounded underwater including my own weapons

  3. the chromatic aberration does not look good, appears more as a colorful blotch with a solid large pixel of color in the centre of the blotch,

  4. occasionally bots would get stuck on live fire and recharge where they’d just navigate an endless small loop

  5. the outside the map graphics on live fire were a bit stuttery (not a word I know but ya) but not to an extent that I would notice every match

  6. Occasionally the AI voice would default back to Butlr’s despite having Fret equipped

Overall the flight was an incredibly smooth experience that I really have no complaints about, gameplay felt good, it had the pace of a modern FPS while retaining that classic Halo combat loop.

The weapon sounds are incredible too, if I had neighbour’s I’d totally have had the cops arrive for noise complaints lol I was cranking my sound, the S7 Sniper sounds SO meaty.

I quickly adapted to the new IFF system as it feels natural coming from Titanfall 2 and Destiny 2, I like that we can change the colors too (pink on the enemies and cyan on friendlies to match my RGB). I personally feel that it was quite easy to tell if an enemy had shields or not, and the overshield is pretty noticeable too.

As for the bots themselves, the grenade usage was a culture shock however I quickly adopted it myself and I can easily see it becoming a meta, the ODST bots were harder than the Spartans overall but somewhat dumber, Spartan bot movement felt more fluid than ODST’s and I encountered a lot less of them doing weird things (standing aiming into the ground, getting stuck in a small loop etc) than I did with the ODST’s. Bots overall could do with a fire rate limit on the sidekick as they turn them into lead lasers.
These are definitely the best bots I’ve ever encountered in a video game.

Additional thoughts:

  1. It would be awesome if the spike launcher (I cannot remember the name) imparted more physics on light vehicles and delt less damage, and dealt more damage on heavy vehicles with less physics being imparted (granted we haven’t used it against vehicles this is just a thought)

  2. grenade sticks NEED to go off faster, enemies easily have the chance to take you out in the time it takes for a stick to go off, maybe a second or so reduction?

  3. This will be a common one but the Gravity Hammer NEEDS to ragdoll more, we’re already occasionally sending Spartans into orbit with melee punches but the grav hammer just stops enemies in their tracks (I really like the unpowered melee and powered melee with the Grav Hammer though)

  4. Personally the heatwave does not do enough damage to be classed as a power weapon, I don’t know if that’s a function of the maps we were playing on or something but it’s easier to kill people with an AR than it is to kill them with the Heatwave

  5. sliding is great, I really had no issues with it and it makes for some awesome plays with the grav hammer (sprint slide in and slam) although sprint could be a little faster (even just a percentage or 2 faster) to make it more significant and really make it align with showing up on radar.

All in all, Halo Infinites MP is looking stunning, and playing incredibly well, I really like the new sound system where it amplifies sound sources that pose a direct danger to you, that just skyrockets the immersion, the bots are leagues better than CODs bots which have been around for years already. The game definitely needs some graphical optimisation (For reference Destiny 2 on max graphics only uses 2.6gb of graphics memory) however the artstyle is awesome, I haven’t felt that much nostalgia from that many occasions in my childhood ever.

To the team at 343i (if you see this), thank you for the opportunity to participate in this flight, the game is looking, feeling and sounding amazing, you guys are doing an incredible job and I look forward to playing the final release.

1064

Game crashes when I press Shift+Ctrl

1065

Would be nice to have more granular control over the mouse sensitivity. I.e, allow a second decimal for mouse sensitivities such as 1.25 instead of just 1.2 or 1.3.

1066

I’ve only been able to play one game of bot slayer as every other time i’ve tried it either times out connecting to the server or goes through all the loading stuff, goes to the black screen with the loading dots and then returns to the menu. wanted to try the othe maps but just returns to damn menu everytime…i know it’s an old build but it’s super buggy.

1067

I encountered a few issues with the settings that I selected. For every occasion where I opened the game, my FOV values would be reset, along with the key binds that I changed. There were also occasions where I would load into matches and be sent to the main menu, but I suspect they ended when I joined. In terms of performance, I did not encounter any issues when using Medium settings across all aspects, until the update that affected performance was released (it was promptly resolved after downloading the patch). For reference, my build used a Ryzen 7 2700 processor, 16 GB of RAM (DDR4) and a GTX 1660 Ti.

1068
  • its me again - when spartans move around sometime the dont appear on map - gernades do not do damage fix please - ravenger charge/fire suppose to do damage to enemies bc it not.
1069

Well currently I’m not at home but I would like to add this as a bug. There is probably a performance bug but I’m not sure. My pc ran infinite with 60+ FPS contiuently but I still had something that looked like FPS drops while my gps didn’t dropped at all.

1070

I have tested this game at 1920x1080 resolution, I have a 1060 and a core I7-8700 clocked at 3.20GHz although I believe the team already has my PC hardware spec so I won’t be listing everything.
Overall I will say that the game ran smoothly on low/medium settings, at high I usually got 30/45 Frames Per Second and at ultra I got 20/30 Frames, I did try out the game with the resolution scale set to 3840x2160 on ultra settings and I got 20/25 Frames to my surprise. Overall I will say that 343 Optimized the game really good considering my low-end graphics card

1071

I play on PC 3840x1080 resolution (32:9 aspect ratio) @ 144hz
8700k @ 5GHz
2080Ti
NVME M.2
32GB 3200 DDR4

MENU NAVIGATION/UI:

  • Sometimes menu options completely disappear and/or reset, like key bindings or mouse sensitivity whenever I close and restart the game.
  • The horizontal display margin moves the crosshair off the screen and skews other elements of the HUD.
    <> Due to playing on such a wide resolution, I wanted to bring my motion tracker located in the bottom left edge during gameplay in closer to my FOV so that I’m not looking so far away from the action (breaking my neck).
  • When navigating stuff like the battle pass or spartan customization, the view is zoomed in so far that I am unable to see the stuff I’m previewing
    or customizing on my spartan other than the leg armor.

GAMEPLAY:

  • In the pre-game setup before the game starts, when you can see all your teammates and their respective gamer tags being displayed, the view is zoomed in and cannot see their helmets.
  • When you are dead and waiting to respawn and spectating teammates, the view is zoomed in.
  • When joining a match in progress, the audio seems to be muffled except for other spartans, your ai, and gunfire.
  • After the game concludes, not all teammates are present on the “podium” or are not facing towards you.

OPTIMIZATION:

  • Low quality preset yields roughly 90-100 fps during gameplay.
  • High quality preset yields roughly 65-75 fps during gameplay.
    <> I always strive for a constant 144 fps to match my refresh rate while maintaining a crisp and detailed image.
1072

suggestions:

  1. scope zoom seems inconsistent across different fov settings, commando zooms way too far in at high fov values. this should be adjusted

  2. reticule size is smaller at higher fov settings, this is good however my reticules feel almost too small as i can no longer see through the centre of them. perhaps as previously mentioned a toggle or slider for reticule size.

  3. armor attachments on chest and helmet/wrist and hip are completely grey in color regardless of armor coating, perhaps this was a design choice but i feel like i want some coloration on them.

  4. armor coatings are dissapointing I do like the difference in pattern, layout and material, (gloss matte patterned metallic etc.) however it would be nice to be able to choose at least the primary color of the coating, the coating shows seven colors, it would be perfect to be able to change all of these. (gives you an excuse to make the coating patterns more extravagant when you have to worry less about the specific colors)

  5. weapon balancing and sandbox.

a. for the most part all UNSC weapons feel perfect! the banished and forerunner? weapons however have some slight issues, the pulse carbine is a great concept, but its tracking might be a little aggressive, and the projectile speed for all the alien weaponry is way too fast.

b. the two modes of the heatwave is a nice idea, however the horizontal mode doesnt seem to have any particular use, just a single pattern balanced between the two would be perfect.

c. the ravager, “this isn’t it chief” it feels confused about which role it wants to play, and seems to function poorly in all roles other than direct hits which doesnt seem different enough from the pulse carbine. indirect hits seem to cause an explosion that does very little damage and no knockback, and the charge fire clearly creates and area of denial affect that almost does no damage at all. this weapon should either be reworked into a weapon that focuses on setting fire to players or the environment causing a substantial amount of damage over time. or into a concussive style weapon like the brute shot and concussion rifle of old.

d. gravity hammer seems to have too long of a delay as well as a foreward movement when being used, which can often result in putting yourself into an unintended position which makes you extremely vunerable.

e. equipment is FANTASTIC.

On a side note there appears to be a large amount of stuttering on PC, i couldnt pin down exactly which settings were causing it but running on low settings, disabling v-sync and running at 55% render scale seemed to result in a smoother but still stuttery experience (nvidia rtx3090 + amd 5900x @4k)

1073

What I feel are missing/problems/opinions:

  • The option to unbind certain actions like scrolling to switch weapons. I don’t want to accidentally switch weapons when in combat.
  • UI is hard to get through, I see many people complain and it’s for a reason, use a grid system not a list. Makes everything much more enjoyable.
  • It’s hard to see when the shields are cracked on enemy spartans, preferrably it would be a bigger glow, although I know alot of people reacted to the huge glow on the trailer I feel there needs to be something that marks it, maybe less glow when you land shots on the spartan.
  • Binding certain actions to other keys like push to talk to mouse button 5 or scoreboard back to tab the game crashed.
  • Fov going down to 70 everytime you relaunch the game.
  • UI bugs but you guys probably know about every bug now.
  • Muffled sounds when joining game in progress.
  • Also sometimes I feel the homing on pulse carbine and plasma pistol is very strong and sometimes it is very weak, seems inconsistent?
  • No fullscreen only borderless makes me sad, I really like the settings you guys have done a very good job, what about moving UI elements around for personalization? Like having the sensor in the right corner or stuff like that.
  • You guys have all my specs registered and on some maps I am getting very low frames down to 50 on maps like live fire, I don’t know why maybe because of lightning but this map is more heavy then the other ones to run. From Ultra to Low seems to make a minimal difference.
  • You guys have done an outstanding job on ultrawide and it does really please me, personally I am really hopeful for Infinite you guys are doing a great job!
1074

Unfortunately like many others didn’t manage to get into the preview .

I was plagued with the black screen and 3 dots and a crash to desktop within seconds or warning .

My system is

AMD 5900x
3080 FE
64gb ram
nVME drives throughout.

1075

> 2533274798920690;1074:
> Unfortunately like many others didn’t manage to get into the preview .
>
> I was plagued with the black screen and 3 dots and a crash to desktop within seconds or warning .
>
> My system is
>
> AMD 5900x
> 3080 FE
> 64gb ram
> nVME drives throughout.

Weird I Got the same setup expect a Rx 6800 xt and I can play fine.
Your Windows is up to date ?

1076

> 2533274882711097;1075:
> > 2533274798920690;1074:
> > Unfortunately like many others didn’t manage to get into the preview .
> >
> > I was plagued with the black screen and 3 dots and a crash to desktop within seconds or warning .
> >
> > My system is
> >
> > AMD 5900x
> > 3080 FE
> > 64gb ram
> > nVME drives throughout.
>
> Weird I Got the same setup expect a Rx 6800 xt and I can play fine.
> Your Windows is up to date ?

Yes windows is all up to date , latest drivers etc.

I did manage to get in very briefly before the 7gb update after I fiddled with the firewall settings,. Then the same trick didn’t work and back to crashing again

1077

Hello! I am currently using a AMD Ryzen 7 2700, 32GB RAM and a RTX 3060 TI. I was able to get anywhere from 55 to 65 frames per second, but I believe that was due to the age of the build. I had an issue where sometimes when I would launch the game, the controller sensitivity would be very loose and hard to aim. At times, it was a similar feeling to moving a cursor with a joystick. Often times, restarting the game would fix this, but I did run into other players during the flight who also had similar issues.

One other piece of feedback I would like to request, is it possible that a regular “FullScreen option” will be available at launch? I believe there was only Borderless and Windowed mode for the flight.

Outside of that, it was a really fun flight and I had a great time testing the game out over the past few days. Thank you for all the hard work everyone has done at 343 for setting up the flights!

1078
  • Major issues with stability. Unable to get past 70fps for any settings. it feels like i’m at 30FPS - I even got input latency so aiming is a little bit dificult either on keyboard or controller - The server latency seems fine even if I’m in Europe (assuming servers are all in USA) - Some settings reset when restarting the game and sometimes even between matches
1079

My fps has gotten so much better since the start of the tech preview. Went from about 60-70 to about 90-100. Idk what changed or caused this but its a much smoother now.

1080

A couple items of feedback:

  • Key bindings always reset after every game launch.
  • Sound becomes very faint except for announcer and spartan voices (including my own) if I am matched into a in-progress match.
  • On day 2 setting FOV to 120 would freeze my game after the end of every match at the rewards menu with no errors just completely frozen that I would need to quit game in Task Manager.
  • On armor hall my customization icon options would be blank or not show changes to my spartan after hitting save.
  • On last day of flight noticed my Xbox Series X controller would have a weird input lag comparable to joy-con drift. I can assure you my controller does not have joy-con drift and it was only on the last day of the flight right after the PVP session.

Besides that my PC ran fine on MAX settings using an i7-8700k, 32 GB RAM, and a RTX3080 @ 1440p.
Great Flight!

1081

My ol’ GTX 1060 came through strong this weekend and let me enjoy my favorite gaming franchise’s newest masterpiece.

I know some people had some issues, and I certainly didn’t have a flawless experience, but I just want to express my sincerest gratitude for the team at 343 for making me feel as giddy as 11 year old me was to play Halo: CE. The game feels so enjoyable to play. The guns feel good, movement feels great, and overall I am going to enjoy the hell out of this game.

It feels like a game that has been cared for from its inception. Its been meticulously groomed and tuned and built with all of the tested and true methods of creating an engaging FPS combat experience, all while bring out the best in what a Halo game has to offer.

Thank you, 343, Microsoft, everyone involved in this game and this flight. I am so happy to have been able to check it out and can’t wait to shill this to my friends for the next 4 months.