Halo: Combat Evolved Forum
This topic has moved here: Subject: Is the physics engine the key?
  • Subject: Is the physics engine the key?
Subject: Is the physics engine the key?
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Hey everyone,
Just wanted to start a topic/discussion about what makes Halo so much fun. I was playing Republic Commando last weekend and I have to admit, I found the Single player campaign AWESOME. However the more I started to play it, the more I started to see similarities with Halo. For example, you have a very slight jumping ability, it is exceptionally hard to crouch walk, and the grenades and objects have a kind of 'softness' to them. I know a lot of people have been mentioning how the Halo 2 physics seem a lot rougher and grittier, and seeing as it got somewhat mixed reviews compared to Halo, it would seem as though gamers really go for the 'soft' kind of physics engine. I know this is pure speculation seeing as my liking for Republic Commando is only personal, and is not backed up with critical opinion, but I was just wondering if people feel the same.

  • 03.10.2005 12:20 AM PDT

I think that it is extremely important for a game to be unique. A unique physics engine certainly adds to that. It is vital for a game to produce a singularly special experience that no other game can offer. In doing this, some of the factors necessary include character design, environments, story, physics engine, etc. A good physics engine is important, but is just one of the many variables that contribute to a great game. Part of the reason that games like Marathon, Myth and Halo are so great is that there are no other games like them.

So, I would say that Halo is great because every aspect of the game (including the pfhun pfhysics engine) just adds to its greatness.

Halo 2 has a different physics engine, which can be just as much fun. I don't think most people have seen the full extent of the Havok physics engine in Halo 2 yet. It seems like every time I play, I see something new and say "Damn, that was cool!" Just yesterday I was playing Cairo Station and a marine kicked a chair out of his way and then continued to fight. I think that Halo 2 has not come into its own yet.

Ok, ok, enough Halo 2 in the Library, sorry for the tangent.

  • 03.10.2005 8:08 AM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

whoa whoa whoa, lets not forget what a physics engine is supposed to do here, its supposed to simulate physics, in the most realistic way possible, i doubt bungie set out to make a ''unique'' physics engine, because such a thing would'nt obey the laws of physics. bungie have explained why the physics where as they where in the first one, and personally, i prefferre real to life physics

  • 03.10.2005 8:49 AM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

I dont no what makes it so fun........ i think its cos it makes you feel big....... the graphics r so like real life u can get into the game loads an you can have another identity.......I didn't realise how much i loved halo till my tv broke an now i miss it so bad......i actually read a book the other day

  • 03.10.2005 12:51 PM PDT

Actually, the Halo 1 physics engine was very unique and is actually not that realistic when you get down to it. It is realistic enough that the average gamer doesn't really notice or care to notice discrepencies between Halo physics and real physics. The Havok article has this to say about Halo 1 physics:
The physics in the original Halo, while fun, were sorta simplistic, as Code Gorilla Charlie Gough explains: “Basically, we had this homemade physics engine that we created out of my understanding of high school Newtonian mechanics and the basic concept that if you made things out of a bunch of spheres that were springs, that it would all kind of work... hopefully!”

And Bungie always sets out to make the most unique games possible in every aspect.


  • 03.10.2005 2:36 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

I have to agree with Sardonic, there are very few games with a similar feel to Halo. One thing that is fun to do is play a bit of Halo 2, doing all the acrobatic jumping, sword charging etc, and then going to play Halo 1. It feels like you have bricks in your boots! After about an hour though, like Sardonic said, you just sorta stop thinking about it. But kudos to Bungie for getting Halo 1 and 2 physics!

  • 03.10.2005 4:21 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

I think that the physics could be a little rougher on halo ce. its a great game but most of the stuff can be explained when you read the book

  • 03.10.2005 5:43 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

I think the physics in both Halo's are awesome. Different as they may be, both are well done in their own respective manner. Halo has a more arcade-like feel whereas Halo 2 has more realistic physics. It's all good in my book. On a completely unrelated subject, rt cone, weren't you interviewed on Trixie on xbox.com? I think it was your GT that was interviewed...anyway that's cool.

  • 03.10.2005 7:04 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Its kind of sad how Bungie has deluded itself to thinking $$$. They had that huge article on the front page about the havok physics and how they were better than Halo physics. You know what, maybe they are more realistic, but gameplay wise Halo physics made the game. I love how they had to release a whole article telling us "WHY" the physics are better and that the rest of us who like the first game are wrong. They have totally turned their backs on what they first stood for when Microsoft bought them. Enjoy your millions of dollars Bungie, Halo 2 sucks and the spirit of the true Bungie still remains in the first Halo.

  • 03.11.2005 8:23 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

The true spirit of Bungie is in GNOP.

[Edited on 3/12/2005 6:27:56 AM]

  • 03.12.2005 5:47 AM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

GNOP?

  • 03.12.2005 3:11 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Bungie's first game.

  • 03.12.2005 3:14 PM PDT