Back in July, the next-generation Halo experience was finally showed off to fans for the first time. Halo Infinite would be taking the franchise into an ambitious open world setting on a completely new Halo ring. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be very long after that gameplay where Halo Infinite would have to be delayed indefinitely into 2021. It was an understandably tough blow for fans and Xbox alike, who would once again shepherd a console launch without a Halo game. News on the game had been incredibly sparse, save from the occasional quashing of rumors. Recently, 343 Industries posted a development update detailing the progress made since the delay.
One of the more important highlights from the Halo Infinite development update was specifically “Art & Graphics,” one aspect of the gameplay reveal that saw vocal criticism. Many fans echoed a sentiment that the visual fidelity shown was subpar, or otherwise not indicative of next-gen graphics. 343 Industries clearly took that criticism to heart, as many of the in-engine character renders and screenshots shown in the update were aesthetically very impressive. Granted, none of it was gameplay running in real-time, but the stills and screenshots alone show incredible progress compared to what was shown in July.
As a disclaimer, comparing these two specific environments together comes with one caveat: These two portions of Halo Infinite‘s in-game world represent two very different locales and architectural styles, so keep in mind that some technical differences can be attributed to art style variations. That being said, under the assumption of that not being the case here, 343 Industries seems to be dedicating a lot more effort into detail work.
Much of the surfaces in Halo Infinite‘s gameplay trailer had a sort-of glossy sheen over environmental textures, with very little imperfections in the metals or ground. Colors originally were unrealistically vibrant, and had a very high contrast between them. The more recent screenshot on the left-hand side features imperfections, muted discolorations on the metal walls, mixing vibrant blue colors with more subtle darker blues. Later on, the detail work becomes more apparent when comparing character art, but it’s definitely a noticeable improvement in the environment art from this multiplayer map.
Lighting in particular has seen a significant improvement since the campaign gameplay reveal. Comparing the two shots together shows higher lighting accuracy, sense of direction, and shadows are far more natural looking. On the right-hand side from the campaign gameplay trailer, shadows on characters don’t have much sense of direction here, specifically on the blue grunt in the bottom-right corner.
Rather than having darker shades on the character’s left-side, the grunt is lit at the same intensity of light over a majority of the model, as if the majority of the illumination is coming from above them. Compared to the Spartan on the right-side in the recent multiplayer screenshot, lighting here is depicted far more dynamically. A strong light source behind the Spartan illuminates the armor behind them, while having much more subtle light from the skylight brighten the front of them.
Picking from two well-lit scenes where the characters are in the spotlight, it’s the little nuances that show the most improvement between screenshots here. The left screenshot is just one of many in-engine character renders shown off from Halo Infinite, all of which are indicative of even more attention-to-detail. Compared to the campaign screenshots revealed earlier this year, there’s more contrast between edges and scuffs on the armor.
Much of that is emphasized by lighting elements, but also reflections and color vibrancy is far improved from the more glossy look on the Master Chief’s armor. Even more apparent are the differences in detail between the Spartan armor on the left and the pilot on the right. Granted the Spartan armor is obviously much more metallic in comparison to the pilot’s cloth and armor, but even the Spartan armor highlights more minute details in its design compared to the pilot’s appearance.
It’s clear Halo Infinite has come a long way, aesthetically speaking, since it was initially revealed months ago. Even if the graphical criticisms were not the main reason for the game’s delay, 343 Industries has already taken major strides in graphical fidelity in the lead up to next year. There’s still plenty of time between now and Fall 2021, but for now, this is a promising first tease at Halo Infinite‘s improved look.
Halo Infinite is planned to release in Fall 2021 for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
![\"IT電腦補習](\"http://itteacheritfreelance.hk/test/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/logo2-2.png\"){kind=logo}
www.itsec.hk
www.itsec.vip
www.itseceu.uk
Leave a Reply