Halo 1 & 2 for PC
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  • Subject: Halo 2 Vista Articles
Subject: Halo 2 Vista Articles
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Hey all, I'm the guy over at Futurelooks (a.k.a. SuperAl) who put up those pictures of the settings. I wish I had time to take more photos (no vidcam unfortunately), but I figured the PC settings would be of some interest, besides, you've got all these nice videos anyway. :)

Most of the settings were pretty standard, and not particularly interesting (keyboard remapping, audio levels etc). As you can see, there's a strange repetition of resolutions in the settings for resolution. As a hardware techie, I thought the inclusion of in-game AA settings was great news. Halo:CE PC really needed it.

Anyways, they had the 360 controller hooked up at the same time as the keyboard and mouse. I did notice that the invert was messed up for the 360 controller (it just didn't work), but otherwise the rest of the functions were good. A buddy of mine picked up the controller and did the moving while I aimed with the mouse for a little bit. It was pretty funny at the time.

The keyboard and mouse worked just like I expected based off of Halo:CE PC. For some reason the HUD still displayed the Xbox mappings instead of the keyboard, so I didn't quite figure out the dual-wielding. In any case, sniping just became a whole lot easier, although I suppose the 24" LCD helped out.

Easily the biggest change visually is the resolution, but the next best thing was that the detail of the models did NOT decrease as they moved farther away, hence making the sniping very nice. Everything was just so clear. Even the HUD scaled properly for the widescreen as you've maybe seen in the videos.

As far as textures go, there wasn't much different from the xbox for the environments (some pretty low-res parts here and there). However, there was some sort of extra sheen to the chief's armour. It definitely looks different (if not better) than on the Xbox. The weapons, of course, looked quite a bit nicer in general, especially the Cov Carbine. One thing that did annoy me was the lack of AF (anisotropic filtering). It got a little distracting for my eyes.

Some of you may have noticed in Halo:CE PC that without the 30fps frame limiter, the animations appeared choppy. This is clearly not the case for H2V, which was running, for the most part, at 60fps. Overall, it looks like the porting is going quite well. Just cross your fingers on the Vista drivers being optimized for video cards all-around.

I can't wait to see the single player campaign :D

[Edited on 1/15/2007]

  • 01.15.2007 12:27 PM PDT
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anyone who's played more than you has no life

anyone who's played less than you is a noob

halo 2 vista has just gone from "oooh i want it" to "meh, if i bother getting vista i'll pick up a cheap copy." really, it didn't look too different to playing H2 on a 360 in a high resolution. ah well.

  • 01.15.2007 2:23 PM PDT
Subject: okay wat?
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Posted by: Masterz1337
ack we have to deal with xbotters now :(. Hope theres an option to make your dedi server PC and keyboard only.
Ah, one of those "Why-Didn't-I-Think-Of-That" ideas, good thinking, Masterz1337. By the way, mind if I use the term Xbotters?

Posted by: Samuelsoon97
first off you guys may yell at me, but I own an Xbox and halo2. So yes I am kinda breaking the rules but i also own halo 1 for the PC so its up to yiu guys. So anyway i agree with that the screens look great. But theframe rate thing kinda confused me. Ive owned halo 2 for two years and ive never had any framerate problems. Also Its alot harder to aim with a controller so auto aim will even things out not uneven (WORD?) it.
Big deal, dude. I own an Xbox 360. Us PC gamers may have some beef with console gamers, but it's mostly in good jest - after all, we're both still gamers. It's just that PCs, mice, and keyboards are superior to consoles and controllers is all when it comes to (MMO)RPGs, first-person shooters, and real-time strategy games.

  • 01.15.2007 2:34 PM PDT
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Throw in a joystick and flight sims are better on PC. Plus a racing wheel means racing games are better on PC as well. I guess that just about covers the gamut of gaming genres.

  • 01.15.2007 2:44 PM PDT
Subject: Halo 2 Vista Articles
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Posted by: Anton P Nym
who says you have to be an ace to have fun?

Posted by: TUI_Obi_Wan
Stupid parents let their stupid children play games that are rated M when they should be playing Big Birds Spelling Adventures

Posted by: Kira Onime
Also the AR is actually good in CQB now and no longer a glorified baseball bat.

I'll probably be using my 360 controller when I get H2V just because I'm used to it for Halo 2.

Heck, I've even been using it for Halo PC, and I'm doing fine with it.

  • 01.15.2007 2:47 PM PDT
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Posted by: Aj6627
I'll probably be using my 360 controller when I get H2V just because I'm used to it for Halo 2.

Heck, I've even been using it for Halo PC, and I'm doing fine with it.
You did not just say that. 1v1, now!

  • 01.15.2007 2:51 PM PDT
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Posted by: Aj6627
I'll probably be using my 360 controller when I get H2V just because I'm used to it for Halo 2.

Heck, I've even been using it for Halo PC, and I'm doing fine with it.


Traitor.

  • 01.15.2007 2:52 PM PDT
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it does feel like Halo 2. it may be because the players have no Hand Eye co-ordination, but it doesn't feel like Halo 2. There something odd. and I wonder if BxR's and BxB's are in the game with the 360 controller and all....doubt it though. an whoever posted saying Halo 2 takes no skill is on crack. Just play a pro or even anybody that is a higher level than you, and you wouldn't be able to do anything. READ MY SIG. TO UNDERSTAND WHAT SKILL IS.

and for those of you that don't know, Achronos is a moderator and Bungie employee, so he knows what he is talking about.

[Edited on 1/15/2007]

  • 01.15.2007 3:11 PM PDT
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Posted by: Alexei
Hey all, I'm the guy over at Futurelooks (a.k.a. SuperAl) who put up those pictures of the settings. I wish I had time to take more photos (no vidcam unfortunately), but I figured the PC settings would be of some interest, besides, you've got all these nice videos anyway. :)

Most of the settings were pretty standard, and not particularly interesting (keyboard remapping, audio levels etc). As you can see, there's a strange repetition of resolutions in the settings for resolution. As a hardware techie, I thought the inclusion of in-game AA settings was great news. Halo:CE PC really needed it.

Anyways, they had the 360 controller hooked up at the same time as the keyboard and mouse. I did notice that the invert was messed up for the 360 controller (it just didn't work), but otherwise the rest of the functions were good. A buddy of mine picked up the controller and did the moving while I aimed with the mouse for a little bit. It was pretty funny at the time.

The keyboard and mouse worked just like I expected based off of Halo:CE PC. For some reason the HUD still displayed the Xbox mappings instead of the keyboard, so I didn't quite figure out the dual-wielding. In any case, sniping just became a whole lot easier, although I suppose the 24" LCD helped out.

Easily the biggest change visually is the resolution, but the next best thing was that the detail of the models did NOT decrease as they moved farther away, hence making the sniping very nice. Everything was just so clear. Even the HUD scaled properly for the widescreen as you've maybe seen in the videos.

As far as textures go, there wasn't much different from the xbox for the environments (some pretty low-res parts here and there). However, there was some sort of extra sheen to the chief's armour. It definitely looks different (if not better) than on the Xbox. The weapons, of course, looked quite a bit nicer in general, especially the Cov Carbine. One thing that did annoy me was the lack of AF (anisotropic filtering). It got a little distracting for my eyes.

Some of you may have noticed in Halo:CE PC that without the 30fps frame limiter, the animations appeared choppy. This is clearly not the case for H2V, which was running, for the most part, at 60fps. Overall, it looks like the porting is going quite well. Just cross your fingers on the Vista drivers being optimized for video cards all-around.

I can't wait to see the single player campaign :D


Awesome! Thanks for that big chunk of information!
Do you know how high the AA went? I saw in the picture 2 Sample and 4 Sample... I've never heard of this "sample" terminology... I would assume it would be like 2x and 4x anti-aliasing? Lack of AF? Crap... are you sure the option was not just disabled? After playing halo last night, I just realized how bad Halo needs AF... infact, I was debating myself, "What does halo need more, AF or AA"... it obviously needs both.

Again, thanks for posting that, makes me want H2V even more now! :D

  • 01.15.2007 3:15 PM PDT
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Anti aliasing works with samples. The bigger the sample, the clearer the lines.

  • 01.15.2007 5:04 PM PDT

___.............._______/```````````````:::--..
|.==,-.~;. ____:._______ __’__’__’_ _ _\===
|................--:---:--:--‘---:,, ,,, ,,, ,,,:---: /=
`-.,.__._._,,...---:::/\R

Posted by: snowysnowcones
All of these are from CES 2007:

Shacknews
Gamespot
Game Trailers (Beaver creek)
Game Trailers (Beaver Creek Round 2)
Game Trialers (Sanctuary)
Game Videos Sanctuary
Game Videos Beaver Creek
Future Looks Photo gallery

Shacknews posted that the auto aim will be the same from the Xbox version if you choose to use a 360 controller, which is some good news...

From what I can tell in the videos, H2V looks sharper, and the MC's look alot better... Although, when they die, they look a bit weird :S

I love the new Vista Games! They have Xbox Controller support! Even though I have gotten use to the Mouse and Keyboard, I will love the idea of using my controller.

  • 01.15.2007 8:57 PM PDT
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Posted by: snowysnowcones
Awesome! Thanks for that big chunk of information!
Do you know how high the AA went? I saw in the picture 2 Sample and 4 Sample... I've never heard of this "sample" terminology... I would assume it would be like 2x and 4x anti-aliasing? Lack of AF? Crap... are you sure the option was not just disabled? After playing halo last night, I just realized how bad Halo needs AF... infact, I was debating myself, "What does halo need more, AF or AA"... it obviously needs both.

Again, thanks for posting that, makes me want H2V even more now! :D


No problem. :)

As Chewy Gumball mentioned, anti-aliasing (multi-sampling in this case) works with the number of samples, so 2 samples = 2x AA and so on. The system the game was running on was using an 8800GTX, and this definitely supports higher AA modes. It could be that the CES 2007 build of the game doesn't query the video card for AA support, and instead they have it set in the engine for only 2x and 4x at the moment. Hopefully, that changes.

As for AF, it was probably just something they forgot to turn on and they didn't have it implemented in the menus while the game was running. If worse comes to worst, you will probably have to force AF through the control panel just like for Halo CE PC.

Cheers.

[Edited on 1/15/2007]

  • 01.15.2007 9:55 PM PDT
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Cool! :D

Like you said, hopefully the anti aliasing samples will get higher... an 8800GTX can go up to 16x right? Or maybe it was a driver issue with 8800's vista drivers.. who knows, but like you said, I hope it changes... although, at least its better than nothing! :-)

  • 01.15.2007 10:16 PM PDT
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There are a lot of weird AA modes going on with the 8800GTX that I don't fully understand, but yes it does go up to 16x AA and another variation of 16x AA as well. Let's hope the developers are listening. :)

  • 01.16.2007 7:11 AM PDT
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cool...

By any chance, did you notice if there was an HDR Lighting option? From the videos, it looked like there was some nice contrast between the lighted and darker areas.

Thanks for all the info! :D

  • 01.16.2007 11:22 AM PDT
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From what I could tell, it wasn't HDR (nor was there an in-game option). It was just bloom. Plus, the video camera might have skewed the contrast ratio somewhat as it auto-adjusts for bright and dark objects.

So... no, from what I played, there was no HDR lighting, just bloom.
Posted by: snowysnowcones
cool...

By any chance, did you notice if there was an HDR Lighting option? From the videos, it looked like there was some nice contrast between the lighted and darker areas.

Thanks for all the info! :D

  • 01.16.2007 1:23 PM PDT
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Posted by: snowysnowcones
cool...

By any chance, did you notice if there was an HDR Lighting option? From the videos, it looked like there was some nice contrast between the lighted and darker areas.

Thanks for all the info! :D


I already said that earlier :/

But anyway, yeah i think it is HDR. If you really concentrate on that video you will see that the light will shift around a bit. Because at first you won't be able to see the textures because the light is too bright, but it shifts a little so you can see it, later. Thats kinda how HDR works.

  • 01.16.2007 4:42 PM PDT

* Pr: ĭnʹtərnĕts: "I hear there's rumors on the uh (pause), Internets...

HDR lighting, or rendering is what you mean.

Because HDR, by itself is just an acronym for High-Dynamic-Range.

  • 01.16.2007 4:52 PM PDT
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Posted by: HaloPlaya4Eva
Uhm. Did anyone notice the guy had a speaker icon on the screen? Now I'm not sure on this but I thought H2V didn't support voice? I'm thinking this is the Xbox version. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. The gameplay is HORRIBLE but if that's for the computer it looks pretty good.


is has to be on H2V because halo 2 for xbox did not support that resolution.

and if people are using mouse and keyboard it looks like it will require skill to play this game instead of luck like in the first one on pc

  • 01.16.2007 5:36 PM PDT
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Thats not hdr. You would get darker darks if you had no light, and brighter brights if there was. Its just a contrast change, or change in bloom amounts.

  • 01.16.2007 6:16 PM PDT
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One lonely picture

  • 01.17.2007 12:44 PM PDT
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I was lucky enough to go to CES and played alot of H2Vista. It looks fantastic though it seemed a bit laggy. Somone playing next to me said that was because of the video cards getting hot from running all day. Not sure if that is true.

But it sure does look purdy!

  • 01.17.2007 1:57 PM PDT
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Posted by: bolynn
I was lucky enough to go to CES and played alot of H2Vista. It looks fantastic though it seemed a bit laggy. Somone playing next to me said that was because of the video cards getting hot from running all day. Not sure if that is true.

But it sure does look purdy!
Lucky bastard...

  • 01.17.2007 1:59 PM PDT
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Posted by: bolynn
I was lucky enough to go to CES and played alot of H2Vista. It looks fantastic though it seemed a bit laggy. Somone playing next to me said that was because of the video cards getting hot from running all day. Not sure if that is true.

But it sure does look purdy!


I doubt that's true, I bet its nvidia's Vista drivers like somebody previously stated in this thread

  • 01.17.2007 2:32 PM PDT
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To be fair, it could be a combination of the two. That place was jam-packed and I couldn't stand the heat of all those people there; it was pretty disgusting. Running the game all-day with a high-powered computer system in close-quarters will likely lead to heat issues and hence performance issues.

For the rest of you HDR lighting proponents, you may want to consider that cameras have many different settings, and that the photos and videos you see now are not 100% accurate as the lighting conditions surrounding the monitor are not ideal; it was quite dim with the orange lighting, so any bright object or area on the monitor will be emphasized as long as the photo/video takes into account the poor surrounding lighting conditions.

[Edited on 1/17/2007]

  • 01.17.2007 3:01 PM PDT