- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
HaloPC has its pro's and cons elmo. The netcode albeit(sp?) laggy has a certain cheat proof way. I know about such wall hacks and stuff like that but I think compaired to other games I bet I can say Halo does pretty good on the no cheating level.
I don't want to go into specifics here and break the rules of the b.net forums, but HaloPC's netcode isn't as hack proof as many people think. True, it's not nearly as bad as counterstrike, but then again neither is Unreal. There are hacks for HaloPC and CE. I've seen them and talked to people who have used them, and they work even on dedicated servers. So server side netcode would almost seem to be the worst of both worlds -- ridiculous lag and warping, and still people cheat.
Unreal's method is far better. The netcode is client side, so you can (miracle of miracles) actually aim at your targets instead of shooting at thin air 3 inches ahead of them. There's a small bit of lag here and there, but it's almost unnoticable after playing HaloPC/CE for so long. Oh, and it doesn't even lag with 32 players. But there's not much problem with cheaters because Epic took such great measures to counteract them. The consequences are so high that most people don't even try (your CD key is banned from the whole online part of the game, so you're not just banned from one server). Plus many servers have anti-cheat software that you must download to play on their server. Kind of like an anti-virus software that scans your system to make sure you're clean before you join the fun. By the way, everything that you must download to play on a server happens automatically (maps, mods, anti-cheat programs, etc). So you don't have to get booted from the server, close the game, fire up the web browser, find a map hosting site, find the map you want, pray that it's the same version, download it, figure out where to extract it and put it, fire up HaloCE again, find the server you were playing in, join, and then find that after all this time that game ended and they're on a different map. Rinse and repeat.
And besides, even if there is a small amount of cheating, I'd rather have client side netcode and more people to play with (and more servers to choose from) than tons of lag and fewer players to play with (but like I said, HPC/CE isn't immune to cheaters). So Unreal's implementation seems to be a win-win solution.
Doesnt UT2k4 use more of multitexturing or something along those lines? That could be one reason it performs better. You have got to give credit to Gearbox for trying to improve the performance with the fast shaders though. At least the tried, they could have left it right there.
STB, I know all the defenses. I used to defend Gearbox until I was blue in the face. But all their excuses, er, explanations ring pretty hollow with me now. "Well, your 9800 Pro gets unplayable framerates on the indoor levels because of blah blah blah..." I put that in the same category as their excuses for the ridiculous lag. "Well, you see it's all because of the slow internet and complex physics." But I say BS because the game still lags on LAN! Slow internet?! On LAN?! CPL uses state of the art networking hardware. Complex physics? Hmm, doesn't seem to pose a problem for the Xbox's 733MHz Pentium III with 64MB of unified (i.e. combined video and system) memory. Back to graphic performance: My theory is that Gearbox didn't bother to make the indoor maps playable on even good hardware because they thought Bungie's maps sucked (these are their words, I'm not making that up). Kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Damnation lags like hell on almost all video cards, so nobody plays it. Ditto for Chill Out and other indoor maps. I guess Gearbox figured "these maps blow, so nobody will want to play them. Lets not bother to make them perform well on even top of the line video hardware."
I could be wrong on this but is it a companey's job to add more features to a game they are only converting?
Maybe, maybe not. I haven't read the contract between MS and Bungie and GB. But I will say that it's not GB's job to mess up what's already there. Halo Xbox doesn't lag on LAN. HaloPC/CE does. If anything, GB should have kept the old Xbox netcode just for LAN purposes. (FWIW, the HPC beta didn't lag because it still had the Xbox netcode, except with the ability to join and quit mid-game.) Can you imagine trying to put up with the lag at a LAN tourney when there's money on the line? But Randy just shrugs it off when Warthogs warp all over the place, or the host wins in Slayer, etc. In fact, the game winning flag cap at Winter CPL was a fluke because of lag on LAN. The Warthog was trucking across the map with the flag, someone nailed it with a rocket, direct hit, it starts flipping. For all appearances, it looks like the defense stopped the flag carrier. But surprise! Suddenly the hog warps ahead, back on to all four wheels, and drives off safely for the tournament-winning flag cap. Now you tell me: how would you feel if you lost $15,000 because your rocket lagged out on LAN? I would be livid.