Texture/graphics quality is horrendous 343.

Games Other Halo
1

Now before I go into this, I’d like to clarify that Halo 4 is a beautiful looking game. When I play a game I notice the little things that make a huge difference.

Let me begin by saying this is looks great… from a distance. It’s only when you get close up to things it starts to get ugly. It’s a shame for the curious few who like to examine the inside of a Hog or Ghost, or check out the dead body of the Elite you just shotgunned to the face… thing. Here goes:

Texture quality - My god is it appalling during gameplay, next time your in game, look down at your legs, look at the Covenant AI’s, look at the vehicles SO. MUCH. PIXELATION. The only times you use the full resolution textures is for the HUD, the weapon you’re holding and cinematics. Now before people reply with “Ohhhh but the cinematics are rendered and not from gameplay!, Ofc they will be better!” Halo 3’s, Reach’s, ODST’s, cutscenes were all in-game animations… As are Halo 4’s. So graphics are just temp upscaled for the movies, this cannot be done in game because it would take longer to load and will make the gameplay lag. This is true, go look at the Halo 4 vid docs, there is a shot of the inside of a Hog… All high definition and beautiful but in the actual game it looks like they’ve plonked a Halo 2 Texure on it.

Just a note 343: You gave us a second disk to install MP, didn’t it occur to you that it could be used to install the HD textures?

The lighting system - For environmental purposes it is amazing, it light flickers as leaves and particles float around. But in first person it is extremely poor. For example, when entering a dark room/area that has been forged your armour stays tremendously bright as it would do outside, bringing up forge stuff… Your strange new lighting system makes a game with 8+ people lag… A LOT.

Motion blur - The game has none, and without it looks horrible and a little laggy to those who notice such things. I’ve just been playing Reach today and the motion blur is what makes Halo’s low FPS into a much smoother and fluent game feel, without the motion blur on Halo 4 it’s low fps is visible, seriously it must be running at 24fps. Reach did, but had motion blur and made it look beautiful. Also, it makes in-game animations very unrealistic. Even Halo 2’s were smoother for Blam sakes, and did it Have motion blur? Nope.avi

Explosions
The most disappointing portion and biggest let down of this potentially fantastic game. Seriously, i get more exited over party poppers.

I’m not mad, just disappointed.

2

> Now before I go into this, I’d like to clarify that Halo 4 is a beautiful looking game. But as an artist and video editor I notice the little things that make a huge difference.
>
> Texture quality - My god is it appalling during gameplay, next time your in game, look down at your legs. SO. MUCH. PIXELATION. The only times you use the full resolution textures is for the HUD, the weapon you’re holding and cinematics. Now before people reply with “Ohhhh but the cinematics are rendered and not from gameplay!, Ofc they will be better!” Halo 3’s, Reach’s, ODST’s, cutscenes were all in-game animations… As are Halo 4’s. So graphics are just temp upscaled for the movies, this cannot be done in game because it would take longer to load and will make the gameplay lag. This is true, go look at the Halo 4 vid docs, there is a shot of the inside of a Hog… All high definition and beautiful but in the actual game it looks like they’ve plonked a Halo 2 Texure on it.
>
> Just a note 343: You gave us a second disk to install MP, didn’t it occur to you that it could be used to install the HD textures?
>
>
> The lighting system - For environmental purposes it is amazing, it light flickers as leaves and particles float around. But in first person it is extremely poor. For example, when entering a dark room/area that has been forged your armour stays tremendously bright as it would do outside, bringing up forge stuff… Your strange new lighting system makes a game with 8+ people lag… A LOT.
>
> Motion blur - The game has none, and without it looks horrible and a little laggy to those who notice such things. I’ve just been playing Reach today and the motion blur is what makes Halo’s low FPS into a much smoother and fluent game feel, without the motion blur on Halo 4 it’s low fps is visible, seriously it must be running at 24fps. Reach did, but had motion blur and made it look beautiful. Also, it makes in-game animations very unrealistic. Even Halo 2’s were smoother for Blam sakes, and did it Have motion blur? Nope.avi
>
>
>
> Conclution: Spend less time making copious amounts of Armour people care little about anymore, rendered cinematics, making Chief talk more than my nan during a film, and rolling in all your cash and finish you Halo 5 beta please.
>
> I’m not mad, just disappointed.

How old is the xbox 360 again ?

3

play spartan ops and look at the back of the phantom…it’s that bad.

4

> How old is the xbox 360 again ?

Halo: Reach and CEA had better graphics than Halo 4

Your point is exactly? Did you even read this post?

5

> > Now before I go into this, I’d like to clarify that Halo 4 is a beautiful looking game. But as an artist and video editor I notice the little things that make a huge difference.
> >
> > Texture quality - My god is it appalling during gameplay, next time your in game, look down at your legs. SO. MUCH. PIXELATION. The only times you use the full resolution textures is for the HUD, the weapon you’re holding and cinematics. Now before people reply with “Ohhhh but the cinematics are rendered and not from gameplay!, Ofc they will be better!” Halo 3’s, Reach’s, ODST’s, cutscenes were all in-game animations… As are Halo 4’s. So graphics are just temp upscaled for the movies, this cannot be done in game because it would take longer to load and will make the gameplay lag. This is true, go look at the Halo 4 vid docs, there is a shot of the inside of a Hog… All high definition and beautiful but in the actual game it looks like they’ve plonked a Halo 2 Texure on it.
> >
> > Just a note 343: You gave us a second disk to install MP, didn’t it occur to you that it could be used to install the HD textures?
> >
> >
> > The lighting system - For environmental purposes it is amazing, it light flickers as leaves and particles float around. But in first person it is extremely poor. For example, when entering a dark room/area that has been forged your armour stays tremendously bright as it would do outside, bringing up forge stuff… Your strange new lighting system makes a game with 8+ people lag… A LOT.
> >
> > Motion blur - The game has none, and without it looks horrible and a little laggy to those who notice such things. I’ve just been playing Reach today and the motion blur is what makes Halo’s low FPS into a much smoother and fluent game feel, without the motion blur on Halo 4 it’s low fps is visible, seriously it must be running at 24fps. Reach did, but had motion blur and made it look beautiful. Also, it makes in-game animations very unrealistic. Even Halo 2’s were smoother for Blam sakes, and did it Have motion blur? Nope.avi
> >
> >
> >
> > Conclution: Spend less time making copious amounts of Armour people care little about anymore, rendered cinematics, making Chief talk more than my nan during a film, and rolling in all your cash and finish you Halo 5 beta please.
> >
> > I’m not mad, just disappointed.
>
> How old is the xbox 360 again ?

Completely invalid, as there are many games on the Xbox 360 that look much better than Halo 4. Gears of War 3, Mass Effect 3, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and Assassin’s Creed III, just to name a few. Heck, even Halo: Reach was graphically superior.

Halo 4 excels at lighting (in most situations, as the original post noted), but textures are mostly horrible and that really makes everything look dated.

6

No one cares that you’re some editor.

343 can’t please anybody I swear.

7

Noting the motion blur actually won’t win you any favor - most people on here complained about Halo: Reach’s use of that effect.

8

OK OP. You have, say 100 points to put into graphics.

343 put 80 of them into lighting and particles, and 20 of them into textures.

You can’t improve both. I also rarely look at my legs.

9

I think I’m the only one that doesn’t care about graphics. It’s probably from being old and coming from the days of Atari. I just like fun entertaining gameplay which Halo 4 is slowly but surely getting.

I’m eagerly awaiting the release of SWAG’s game for graphic comparison.

holds breathe

10

> No one cares that you’re some editor.
>
> 343 can’t please anybody I swear.

“No one cares that you’re some editor.” - You’re right, nobody cares, It’s irrelevant.

“343 can’t please anybody I swear.” - You’re right again, they don’t care, we’re irrelevant.

11

So do people have a checklist of what hasn’t been complained about yet? I think we got our legs down…any other body parts we want to mention?

P.S - Thank god the majority of xbox players aren’t graphic or video designers/editors then, no? I, for one, as a clueless gamer think the graphics are amazing.

P.P.S - I know this is irrelevant but…conclusion*. I’m sorry, but bad spelling makes me go crazy. I can’t help it! D:

12

> OK OP. You have, say 100 points to put into graphics.
>
> 343 put 80 of them into lighting and particles, and 20 of them into textures.
>
> You can’t improve both. I also rarely look at my legs.

Sorry, legs were one of many examples, look at the covie AI’s dayyyyymmmm so much grain.

13

If you have a problem with it then don’t play it.

14

> > How old is the xbox 360 again ?
>
> Halo: Reach and CEA had better graphics than Halo 4
>
> Your point is exactly? Did you even read this post?

Im literally just asking you how old the 360 is, such a mean person :frowning:

15

There is a portions on Exile that really stand out texture-wise.

16

Personally, i think the game is freakin’ gorgeous, but I do agree, the lighting lag is really cumbersome, even in offline custom game.

17

> > > How old is the xbox 360 again ?
> >
> > Halo: Reach and CEA had better graphics than Halo 4
> >
> > Your point is exactly? Did you even read this post?
>
> Im literally just asking you how old the 360 is, such a mean person :frowning:

Sorry mate, I read it in a really sarcastic way… About 6/7 years old now?

18

> So do people have a checklist of what hasn’t been complained about yet? I think we got our legs down…any other body parts we want to mention?
>
> P.S - Thank god the majority of xbox players aren’t graphic or video designers/editors then, no? I, for one, as a clueless gamer think the graphics are amazing.

The legs were cited as an example of an overall problem - that being the fact that textures are horrible muddy looking when you’re anywhere close to them. In some spots, such as “Reclaimer” and all of the Spartan Ops missions that use that same graphics design, the textures and colors really make the level look, at best, bland, and at worst, horrible. The sky is one big, pixelated, green sprite that completely breaks the immersion with anything more than a cursory glance. Those little white rocks that were breakable in “The Ark” in Halo 3 are also in this level, but they’re grayish-white and horribly pixelated. That’s just to cite a few problems related to that level’s graphics.

And it’s really just a small example of an issue that dominates the game. Halo 4 looks great at a glance, but 343 Industries really dropped the ball on the details. In quite a few spots, it’s extremely noticeable.

Addendum: “As a clueless gamer” is a horribly ignorant place to put yourself. I’m in the same boat. I don’t know anything about the technical aspects of graphics. However, I pay enough attention when I play to note that Halo: Reach has better textures than Halo 4, which looks muddy. If you play a large enough number of games, you’ll naturally and subconsciously make connections about what looks best, regardless of your intentions.

19

> Personally, i think the game is freakin’ gorgeous, but I do agree, the lighting lag is really cumbersome, even in offline custom game.

To be sure, the art design itself is amazing. It, by all rights, could and should be a beautiful game. But, in my opinion, the main thing holding it back is texture quality. The immersion just falls apart when you look at things in any detail.

20

> There is a portions on Exile that really stand out texture-wise.

I don’t play enough War Games to know what you’re talking about. Do you mean positively or negatively? Could you cite a specific example for me? I want to see.