Last weekend, the Halo Infinite technical preview made its debut on Xbox One, Xbox Series and PC. It gave the first look at how the game has developed since its debut last year. Overall, the feedback is great. If you are curious about Halo Infinite technical preview, here is the review as shared on Eurogamer by a technology editor and digital foundry named Richard Leadbetter.
Richard Leadbetter, John Linneman and Alex Battaglia use a trio of multiplayer maps for sampling. According to them, Halo Infinite plays well and they said the team did a good job by fixing many technical issues that were seen in last year’s gameplay. Overall, they cannot wait for the release of the game but they are wondering how far the experience can be increased across generations.
While the Halo Infinite technical preview is exactly like that and cannot be used as the representative of the final experience, how this game is designed to scale across the generations still can be seen. First of all, let’s check out the Xbox Series consoles. According to an article written by Richard Leadbetter, Series X targets 4K resolution in 60Hz mode. It uses the image reconstruction techniques and dynamic resolution scaling in order to get there. It seems like there is a continuous horizontal scale in effect in the region of 75% native resolution. However, it will kick in vertical scaling as well to be able to make the frame rate remain the same. What about the Xbox Series S? For this, it seems like the same techniques are used. The difference is that it targets 1080ps rendering instead. These two run very well with only the most minor deviations from the 60 fps target performance level.
Not only that, when the hardware is set to that output, Halo Infinite also supports 120Hz gaming on Series consoles. On Series X, the target resolution decreases to 1440p with 1080p can be observed. As for the junior Xbox, it seems like it is within a 540p and 900p window. When it comes to the performance, it is not that solid on Series X and even with VRR. It is due to a few strange things that can be noticed with ease. What makes it even strange is that Series S delivers a much more solid experience with a tighter lock to the 120fps target. Everyone is wondering why don’t Xbox Series X function like they are supposed to when they offer performance and quality modes. Actually, there is a graphics menu offered by the developer that can be used to tweak elements such as motion blur. The thing is, it makes no difference right now and there does not appear to be any motion at all, regardless of the platform. It shows that it is still new and still needs to be developed.
When talking about the current visual make up of the game, Series consoles in general look the same. The resolution is apart. This weakness is the reason why people always compare it to the last gen Xbox consoles. What makes it obvious is the target frame rate which halves from 660ps to 30fps. Besides, the inconsistency with both Xbox One X and Xbox One S shows that there are frame pacing issues. while 30fps is met, the inconsistent frame delivery does not look or feel good when it kicks in. Furthermore, Xbox One X is the perfect match for its Series X equivalent as it simply runs at half the frame rate.
Apparently, the Xbox One S is stripped back, even on the content that is simple just like on the one shown by the first of the three maps released in the Halo Infinite technical preview. The environment detail is decreased, the dynamic resolution is down to as low as 540p, there are no longer screen spare reflections, the ground tessellation is decreased or eliminated, and a few shadow maps are nowhere to be seen. Fortunately, it works and it is able to be played. However, it is still concerning how the graphically more demanding campaign is going to work well on the base machine.
With that being said, it seems like a diminished base Xbox One version is not always a bad thing. It is possible that the developer is pushing the more capable Xbox hardware further without getting forced by the need to accommodate the lowest end console.
About the PC version, these trio said that it is promising. However, there are a few clear issues to address, especially the fact that the components seem to be useless that cause the frame rate to drop while showing a lot less compared to when these components are used well. The second thing that does not seem to work well is the frame rate caps. Just like the frame rate caps, the in game v-sync also does not seem to work properly. Both with 60 fps and 120 fps with v-sync enabled actually running 1 to 2 fps slower. This thing results in the clear judder in motion. The good news is that it can be handled by unlocking everything and using driver level v-sync. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of work to fix.
Without talking about the tech specs, the Halo Infinite technical preview seems to have gone down well with the player base. When it comes to the gameplay, the developer looks ready to give a multiplayer experience that looks really real and genuine with some innovations that set it apart from the classic one. Even though a lot of people do not find the idea of a bot match interesting, the thing that was seen by these three was a good Al implementation.
The Halo Infinite technical preview review by Richard Leadbetter, John Linneman and Alex Battaglia does not stop here and is still long. If you want to find out the details, you can go to the official website of Eurogamer at eurogamer.net.
AUTHOR BIO
On my daily job, I am a software engineer, programmer & computer technician. My passion is assembling PC hardware, studying Operating System and all things related to computers technology. I also love to make short films for YouTube as a producer. More at about me…
