- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Well I've had Halo PC since it came out. I don't think I'm the only one who was disappointed. I'm a long time Halo fan for the Xbox, and was looking forward to Halo PC. Unfortunately Gearbox (namely Randy Pitchford), and Microsoft have done nothing but dance around the issues. Randy Pitchford says most claims of bad performances are lies, so they didn't even bother to try and fix it. Than they pointed the finger at Bungie, who passed the blame back, then Gearbox blamed Microsoft (who couldn't care less). In a classic "shoot the messenger" scenario, Gearbox suggested we try disabling FSAA, getting the latest drivers for everything we could, and download their mediocre patches. Halo still runs like hot crap, and I can run Unreal Tournament 2004 at 1024 w/ everything as high as it can go. My system is as follows:
Athalon XP 2700+
Geforce FX 5900 Ultra
1.5 GB of RAM
Nothing. It means crap. I've tweaked and tweaked, but nothing. I follwed tweaktown's guide to get Windows XP flying, and it did get better. However, it's still not as good as the Xbox version with the same resolution. This is a disgrace, and Gearbox is to blame. Maybe they were rushed, but they've made enough excuses. Halo CE isn't any better. Same crap different bucket. This is a IGN interview with good ole Randy, and no it wasn't altered in any way shape or form. He's a just bull-blam!- artist, no way he runs Halo at 1600x1200, not in this life.
IGNPC: Aside from the up in resolution, what can PC owners expect out of the graphics engine that Xbox owners did not have?
Randy Pitchford: The effort has been to recreate the Xbox visual effects as much as possible while supporting both bleeding edge and older video hardware (and everything in between). If you have a fancy new high-speed fully DirectX 9 compliant video card, you'll see our custom implementation of the Halo pixel shaders (surface effects such as reflection, specularity, bump mapping, etc). The way Gearbox engineered the visual effects for the PC version allows programmers to write custom shaders without having to rebuild the game. So, we've shared this technology with ATi and NVIDIA and they have been contributing to make the game even faster and nicer on their hardware.
IGNPC: There has been some talk of certain graphical effects needing to be reworked for the PC... What effects are these? How have they changed?
Randy Pitchford: Every single pixel shader has been rewritten for the PC. It's far beyond the scope of this interview to go into each one of them...
IGNPC: What was the hardest part of porting the game from an aesthetic standpoint? Did anything have to be omitted during the porting process? Basically, will all of the decals, dead bodies, glowing lights, ejecting brass, and flying Covenant corpses be here?
Randy Pitchford: For folks with high-end PC hardware, I would think along the lines of whatever the opposite of an omission is... Of course, while we've done a lot of work to support people with older hardware, they cannot expect the game to look as awesome as it does on the bleeding edge systems.
IGNPC: What are we going to need to run this baby at 1024 with maximum detail settings? What is the absolute minimum required to run Halo at low detail and a playable level?
Randy Pitchford: Minimum specification is still being determined. It's going to be a mid-speed Pentium III, a good DirectX 7 compliant video card and a reasonable amount of RAM for a system of that type. For the ultimate experience, get the fastest CPU you can, a top-of-the-line video card from ATi or NVIDIA and at least half a gig of RAM, then crank it up as high as your monitor will let you (I tend to run in 1600x1200, but the game can go higher). When you play this game on that kind of system when it comes out later in the summer, it will be the best possible thing you can show your friends -- and it doesn't hurt that it's just kick-ass fun, too.
Ha ha, funny joke, now go and blame the consumers for Halo PC's (and CE's) short comings. Man, what a goddamned liar. And before the flame wars start, I don't hate Halo, not even close. I love everything Halo, and I'm mad at Gearbox, not Bungie. They can't fess up that they did a hack job. Posting on their site draws nothing but critisim from the Gearbox fanboys. Bungie forums are usually more tolerant of others opinions, well I'll see in a little while. They made a product, offered crappy support, and then abandoned it like a bastard child (well they say they haven't, but they really have). Feel me?
[Edited on 7/9/2004 5:53:03 PM]