Hey 343,
You’re game is currently the only thing keeping me subscribed to live. It’s also accomplished the task of getting my girlfriend into video games. I think you guys have done a fantastic job of breathing some fresh air into an incredible series. But for the love of all that is holy, can we please remember that some people still play Halo in split-screen.
Infinity Slayer is no longer playable for us. The custom maps just aren’t optimized for split-screen… right? 10-15 fps is not a good experience: the feature that was promised on the box is fundamentally broken. We used to be able to avoid laggy maps like complex by voting for something else or by leaving the game. But with custom maps in rotation, that’s no longer possible. For good reasons, these maps are popular. Yet, the vast majority of them play like complete -Yoink- in split-screen.
Something has to be done. I realize that this game is pushing the limits of some ancient hardware, but please be respectful to your fans and find a way for it to work. The game is starting to collect dust on my desk because of those updates. At the very least, if there is no way to improve framerates at this point, there needs to be some kind of map filter for people who are playing in split-screen. Give us our own playlist if you have to. But please don’t leave the game as is because you’re literally abandoning some of your best, and newest fans.
I’ve noticed that too.
Back in Halo: Reach, split screen had all high-res details disabled in order to improve frame-rate. High-res details include blood splatters, weapon casings, detailed animations, bullet holes, in-game lighting, and many other small details.
This feature may have been annoying for split-screeners that wanted to enjoy the game of it’s highest quality, but the truth behind it had shown a far greater purpose.
Come Halo 4, split-screen was no longer denied high-res details, making the visual aspect of the game higher. But this choice of giving everyone the minor details made the game nearly unplayable for those who like to enjoy the game on one console.
In the Forge Mode, one will notice that the Frame Rate is fine, even if you have a four player split screen. That is because high-res objects are hidden in Forge to improve the work space, this feature is present regardless if you are on split-screen or not.
Hopefully that will be an issue to address if we can raise our voices loud enough, there are Split-Screeners left in Halo, and we will not be ignored!
Only in a perfect world, everybody is happy.
When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.
That is all.
Absolutely. It’s gotten to the point for my brother and I that we are waiting to see how the votes fall in lobbies before we decide whether to vote as well or back out. If we can force it onto a map we can play, we vote. If not, we back out. It’s not fun for us only actually getting to play maybe 1 in 3 games we join lobbies for, and I imagine it’s not fun for the people we have to leave playing in an underpopulated game.
Surely now that the weapon balancing is nearing completion, something could be done to improve this. Lockout Forge Maps if someone is split screening, or implement graphics reductions like Reach used to, ANYTHING would be appreciated.
OP is right on the money.
Also, split screen is a big part of introducing people to playing Halo, it’s social & fun. Especially since there is no FF to split screen on anymore.
Up until recently I always had my roommate Split-Screen with me, dodging the forge maps (minus settler) was most unfortunate. Considering the forge maps are infinitely better than the default maps.
I wouldn’t say that exactly. Adrift, Haven, Solace, Ragnarok are all good maps and are default. Abandon is OKAY, however, lol.
Yes, any DLC or forge map causes terrible lag. And I was hoping that hardware changes and upgrades with the Xbox one would solve that, but nope! I can’t even go back and stinking play 360 games on it!
Ugh…another reason not to get it. I’ll probably get one when halo 5 comes out and I can get a limited edition console. Otherwise I don’t care much.
Anyways, yeah the frame rate issues force me and my bro back to Reach SWAT fairly frequently when we play.
The only reason I have an Xbox at all is Halo. 
But to the OP’s point, something does need to be done with Forge maps. Some of them have reduced framerates even in single player (I’ve had problems on Black Site in SWAT).
I would propose that Forge includes an option to fully render all phased objects when saving for playing. You can still save your normal Forge map - but if you want to post it for others to play (or if 343i wants to include it in MP), you can save a version where the phased objects are unmodifiable.
The code to do this must exist, even if it is not currently incorporated into the saving options on Forge, as the game must render the objects during play.
Shatter or “Shattered” I can’t remember is brutal for me when I splitscreen.
I literally have to sit in a corner to let my splitscreen person play and vice versa.
> Yes, any DLC or forge map causes terrible lag. And I was hoping that hardware changes and upgrades with the Xbox one would solve that, but nope! I can’t even go back and stinking play 360 games on it!
>
> Ugh…another reason not to get it. I’ll probably get one when halo 5 comes out and I can get a limited edition console. Otherwise I don’t care much.
> Anyways, yeah the frame rate issues force me and my bro back to Reach SWAT fairly frequently when we play.
Did you read that the Xbox One is forcing people to pay for a used game (since all games have to be linked to the console). If that counts for alternate gamer profiles on the system then splitscreen is basically dead then.
Literally nothing can be done like you stated.
For every player signed in on the console, the Xbox 360 has to render each objective twice meaning if a map has 100 objects on it, then with three other guests, that’s essentially 400 objects on your screen.
They know about this issue because any playlist with a Forge map will always have a developer made map in the first voting slot, and I get this is less than optimal but that’s all they can essentially do.
Introducing a playlist which just clones Infinity Slayer with no community maps is a waste of a playlist, it will be incredibly under populated and that’s not what 343i need, especially with a consolidation coming up in the future.
> Literally nothing can be done like you stated.
>
> For every player signed in on the console, the Xbox 360 has to render each objective twice meaning if a map has 100 objects on it, then with three other guests, that’s essentially 400 objects on your screen.
Agreed. But why cannot a “save as” option be added to Forge that will save a version of the map with the phased objects fully rendered?
> Literally nothing can be done like you stated.
>
> For every player signed in on the console, the Xbox 360 has to render each objective twice meaning if a map has 100 objects on it, then with three other guests, that’s essentially 400 objects on your screen.
>
> They know about this issue because any playlist with a Forge map will always have a developer made map in the first voting slot, and I get this is less than optimal but that’s all they can essentially do.
>
> Introducing a playlist which just clones Infinity Slayer with no community maps is a waste of a playlist, it will be incredibly under populated and that’s not what 343i need, especially with a consolidation coming up in the future.
Didn’t reach scale down graphics during splitscreen?
I remember boardwalk losing most of the shrubbery (had too) and extra graphics when my sister would play as well.
Even halo 3 removed some extra map detail during splitscreen like the light orbs you could place in forge wouldn’t give off any light during splitscreen play.
Thank you so much for posting this. I am so happy to know it isn’t just me. The custom maps are completely unplayable in split screen. Split screen is one of my favorite ways to play. I don’t know if anything can be done about this, but for the love of God please try.
Most forge maps are not designed to save memory, they are thrown together with lots and lots of pieces.
I find it very frustrating to play split
> Agreed. But why cannot a “save as” option be added to Forge that will save a version of the map with the phased objects fully rendered?
Would require UI changes and likely a lot of changes which would make the TU for it pretty huge.
> Didn’t reach scale down graphics during splitscreen?
>
> I remember boardwalk losing most of the shrubbery (had too) and extra graphics when my sister would play as well.
Halo: Reach and Halo 4 still does, but the game is graphically more advanced than Reach, meaning even with the scaling down, it still looks pretty good. Nothing can be done about that really, if they tried to scale everything down too much then the game would look awful.
What we have now is pretty much the best they could do with the 360’s tech.
> Would require UI changes and likely a lot of changes which would make the TU for it pretty huge.
Perhaps (though I don’t think the UI changes are that huge). So as a compromise, why can’t 343i render the community maps before using them in playlists?