Overall consensus, good but there's room for improvement. Aspects of the original Gearbox version are absent at this time for example.
Last edited:
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
Digital Foundry - Halo CEA Tech Review
- Thread starter AgentStrange
- Start date
Overall consensus, good but there's room for improvement. Aspects of the original Gearbox version are absent at this time for example.
Thanks to the incredibly generous HTupolev this video has some awesome comparisons between the OG XBox Version, the 2003 Version with mods, and the MCC version. There is way more than I even show in the video of course, but time makes it so that deadlines are a real thing an this video needed to be pushed out!
If anyone wants some raw capture of the comparisons as screenshots, just ask.
If anyone wants some raw capture of the comparisons as screenshots, just ask.
Sorry to be a bother but by chance did you guys notice an issue with the first cutscene with the Remastered graphics?
In the OG graphics the text on the ship saying: "Pillar of Autumn" is displayed correctly but I noticed that in the Remastered version they seem to be visibly floating and the ship textures themselves were also very very low resolution. (I was playing at 4K Enhanced)
There was also some weird slipping during a few cuts.
Edit: Or wait... was the text supposed to be floating in the remaster?
Last edited:
Awesome video as always from DF. Interesting that this was based on the Gearbox version and some of the audio differences...
On another note, I just downloaded and tried playing coop with my friend this morning. It was barely playable unfortunately. We spent around 3 hours trying to work on our ports and firewalls and it was a mess. Game would have connection interrupted non-stop, and when it wouldn't we had really bad input lag/latency. Saw no fixes online either, and we had no problems with Reach
On another note, I just downloaded and tried playing coop with my friend this morning. It was barely playable unfortunately. We spent around 3 hours trying to work on our ports and firewalls and it was a mess. Game would have connection interrupted non-stop, and when it wouldn't we had really bad input lag/latency. Saw no fixes online either, and we had no problems with Reach
Halo:CE seems to have got a bump in performance in Xbox with the latest patch. Seems smoother overall particularly in those vehicle sections. Halo 2 Ani, despite an update still has issues but damn if if doesn't look gorgeous in HDR. Seems us Xbox owners may have to wait for XSX for locked 60 for these games which is a shame.
Yeah, I remember Tupolev, amazing in depth work.
I hope 343 make the changes and additions, certainly seems possible if the community got that far but time and money.
I wonder if they used the PC version all that time ago because it had the networking more so than any other aspects. Would an Xbox port have been more of a cost sink ?
I never noticed that tank aerial moving before.
Does anything look cooler than that warthog rolling in down the slope in that cut scene.
I hope 343 make the changes and additions, certainly seems possible if the community got that far but time and money.
I wonder if they used the PC version all that time ago because it had the networking more so than any other aspects. Would an Xbox port have been more of a cost sink ?
I never noticed that tank aerial moving before.
Does anything look cooler than that warthog rolling in down the slope in that cut scene.
Great video, Alex. To your frequent calls about the Halo community, I assume 343 will say, "we offer a sandbox option to enable mods and look forward to what the community has in store," aka, path of least resistance.
But the continued lack of split-screen on PC is a damned shame, particularly in light of this 2017 statement:
arstechnica.com
But the continued lack of split-screen on PC is a damned shame, particularly in light of this 2017 statement:
Halo split-screen combat is coming back—and it’s here to stay
Halo team leader says removing split-screen from Halo 5 "eroded trust" with fans.
arstechnica.com
Both CEA on 360 and CEA in MCC are missing the original Xbox graphical effects because CEA is based off of the Gearbox PC port. So the only game that looks like the original is the original, and modded 2003 PC port which is brought closer to the original Xbox version or better with Chimera/Restoration.
Great video, Alex. To your frequent calls about the Halo community, I assume 343 will say, "we offer a sandbox option to enable mods and look forward to what the community has in store," aka, path of least resistance.
But the continued lack of split-screen on PC is a damned shame, particularly in light of this 2017 statement:
Halo split-screen combat is coming back—and it’s here to stay
Halo team leader says removing split-screen from Halo 5 "eroded trust" with fans.
Fuck. I assumed it was gonna have it. Pass.
Good video highlighting all of the issues with CE ports. Still to this day my preferred way to play the game is on the OG Xbox - the game just never looks right in any other version. 343 only letting you use the CEA sounds in MCC (up until now) was also seriously annoying, they're massively inferior to Bungie's and really help to ruin the atmosphere.
The Chimera guys have done a great job but there are limitations to what you can do without access to the source code. Hopefully 343 contacts them and works with them to get the MCC port the justice it deserves.
The Chimera guys have done a great job but there are limitations to what you can do without access to the source code. Hopefully 343 contacts them and works with them to get the MCC port the justice it deserves.
Thanks. So it would be nice if MS made the OG Halo run on Xbox One as well with the near-4K upscaling.
It is so incredibly disappointing to me that this is the state of Halo: CE today.
Halo was such a special game on the original Xbox, and it's a shame that none of the ports/remasters are faithful to that original version.
It's a game I played for years in single player, co-op, 8-player LAN parties, and even over the internet via LAN emulation software on PC, and a game where I pored over every little detail and effect. It's seared into my brain.
The lack of split-screen/co-op support is a real shame when that could be such a better experience now on large high resolution displays and ultra-wide aspect ratios.
One thing that I don't think was mentioned in the video, which immediately stands out to me in the Halo: CEA footage, is that the crosshair is opaque.
It may seem like a minor thing, but I can't think of a visual element in the game which is on-screen more than the crosshair, and they didn't even get that right.
Unfortunately I suspect that asking for EAX support is going to be a dead end.
Most "remasters" on PC have EAX support ripped out of them - and I can think of several reasons why that might happen; the use of more modern audio APIs for one.
It actually sounds like they tried recreating the effects with CEA, but just didn't get them to sound right. Usually what happens is that the environmental effects are missing entirely without any attempt to recreate them (see: all the infinity engine "remasters").
It's exactly what I expected, but that's still disappointing.
Halo was such a special game on the original Xbox, and it's a shame that none of the ports/remasters are faithful to that original version.
It's a game I played for years in single player, co-op, 8-player LAN parties, and even over the internet via LAN emulation software on PC, and a game where I pored over every little detail and effect. It's seared into my brain.
The lack of split-screen/co-op support is a real shame when that could be such a better experience now on large high resolution displays and ultra-wide aspect ratios.
One thing that I don't think was mentioned in the video, which immediately stands out to me in the Halo: CEA footage, is that the crosshair is opaque.
It may seem like a minor thing, but I can't think of a visual element in the game which is on-screen more than the crosshair, and they didn't even get that right.
Unfortunately I suspect that asking for EAX support is going to be a dead end.
Most "remasters" on PC have EAX support ripped out of them - and I can think of several reasons why that might happen; the use of more modern audio APIs for one.
It actually sounds like they tried recreating the effects with CEA, but just didn't get them to sound right. Usually what happens is that the environmental effects are missing entirely without any attempt to recreate them (see: all the infinity engine "remasters").
It's exactly what I expected, but that's still disappointing.
Is it though? It's really only been ported once - by Gearbox. Since then all future versions have been based on that one. There are libraries to run older versions of D3D on newer ones, so not really any further porting needed. The port from PC to XBone originally probably wasn't very involved either given it's already using D3D and x86.
I doubt it would be that hard to port relative to any other classic game if they started with the original Xbox source code. The problem is they're trying to cut costs by starting with the version that is already largely ported for them.
It's more practical to use the gearbox port as it already supports a higher framerate and an online netcode among other technical reasons.. It also doesn't help that the original BLAM engine is extremely archaic and a technical mess with how the game was developed.
I think the main point of the Master Chief version is to be played with the remade graphics, so I think that's one key reason they didn't give the accuracy that much thought, fixing each of those issues seems unrealistic given how many major bugs they have with the collection, I kind of wish they would just add Halo 1 to the BC program for preservation. and leave MCC with the PC port flaws anyway,
sounds unlikely, the gearbox port was released in 2003 and the Xbox version in 2001, you would think they would have time...
sounds unlikely, the gearbox port was released in 2003 and the Xbox version in 2001, you would think they would have time...
Perhaps that's the reason, but I think most people have little interest in the remastered graphics.
You are probably right though; there are so many issue that it's unlikely they will fix them all - especially considering not much has improved since 2011.
I have to wonder if the better approach would be to start fresh with a new port handled by another team than trying to salvage Gearbox's original port, but that's obviously not something Microsoft would entertain. I doubt it would ever make back its money.
While that may fix the accuracy problem, it also means that you miss out on modern features like widescreen support and high frame rates.
And of course that means it's locked to an Xbox using controllers too, since MS still haven't brought backwards compatible Xbox games to PC.
That's still better than the alternative of having to dig out an original Xbox I suppose.
Definitely not. Having two half definitive editions of a game is the absolute worst. Plus this would mean PC gamers would still, years and years later, never get the correct edition of the game. We shouldn't have to rely on mods for one of the most iconic games of all time, and for the beginning of microsoft and xbox's signature franchise. MCC needs to be the complete, full experience.
Not against adding the original to BC as well, but that's a completely different team.
We need the full support on PC like the game deserves.
Guess I'm not quite understanding what you mean. You mean they were put on hold to get the PC version out?
You would think a studio whose founding was based on being a steward for Halo would care more about the preserving the visual identity of arguably the most important game in their franchise.
It's like if Ghibli kept making blu-rays using fucked up Betamax transfers or something.
It's like if Ghibli kept making blu-rays using fucked up Betamax transfers or something.
I wonder why Gearbox changed/messed up all those effects when they did the original PC port in the first place. Was it something about the original Xbox hardware that PCs would have trouble replicating back then?
One of the people at 343i talked about digging up Xbox devkits and looking over the original Xbox code and try to bring the Custom Edition used in CE:A to the Xbox in graphical standard.
Especially considering it was known at the time for being a great looking game with an influential style.
The part that bugs me more than anything though is the lack of features on PC still. I really really hope these are just because they are shortcutting their way to get it on PC due to all the impatient people and they still are planning on these features. Because lack of split screen is really stupid, and lack of HDR is dumb too.
This is exactly how I view it. In Film, this treatment would be destroyed and no one would dare try and sell it I feel. The backlash would be brutal. Yet in games, this happens all the time.
I find it so disappointing. Halo is Art, yet is treated nothing like it in these releases.
Woohoo!
The plasma pistol false-overcharge sound quirk exists in the original version of the game, although it's comparatively rare. You can spend several minutes going through levels and aggressively spewing a constant stream of plasma pips at enemies and walls and whatever and only experience it once or so. It seems to be a pretty constant presence in the MCC campaign audio when you do the same.
I wonder about the lack of latency in coop. When I've played coop in the MCC version of CEA, it seemed like they allow the client's first-person camera to move asynchronously, but have the actual functionality remain lockstep. This was a departure from the 360 version of CEA, where the client experiences full lockstep. I think I actually disliked the MCC approach more: it seemed harder for me to compensate for it, since difference elements of the experience had different timings of input versus reality.
Coop isn't strictly necessary to see things like the AR ammo counter. ARs on the ground also show the ammo counter.
This can look somewhat hilarious if you use the "infinite ammo" glitch: if you tap the reload button and then immediately swap with a weapon on the ground, your previous weapon will reload itself while sitting on the ground, and it won't use up any of its stored ammo doing so. But, it will still only reload itself with - at maximum - however much ammo was available in your backpack. AND, if the initial reload does not fill up the weapon's magazine, it will keep reloading itself until it's full. In the case of the AR, if you have one round in the magazine and one round in your backpack and you do this glitch, the weapon will reload itself on the ground FIFTY NINE TIMES, and you can watch the ammo counter increment by 1 each time.
The plasma pistol false-overcharge sound quirk exists in the original version of the game, although it's comparatively rare. You can spend several minutes going through levels and aggressively spewing a constant stream of plasma pips at enemies and walls and whatever and only experience it once or so. It seems to be a pretty constant presence in the MCC campaign audio when you do the same.
I wonder about the lack of latency in coop. When I've played coop in the MCC version of CEA, it seemed like they allow the client's first-person camera to move asynchronously, but have the actual functionality remain lockstep. This was a departure from the 360 version of CEA, where the client experiences full lockstep. I think I actually disliked the MCC approach more: it seemed harder for me to compensate for it, since difference elements of the experience had different timings of input versus reality.
Coop isn't strictly necessary to see things like the AR ammo counter. ARs on the ground also show the ammo counter.
This can look somewhat hilarious if you use the "infinite ammo" glitch: if you tap the reload button and then immediately swap with a weapon on the ground, your previous weapon will reload itself while sitting on the ground, and it won't use up any of its stored ammo doing so. But, it will still only reload itself with - at maximum - however much ammo was available in your backpack. AND, if the initial reload does not fill up the weapon's magazine, it will keep reloading itself until it's full. In the case of the AR, if you have one round in the magazine and one round in your backpack and you do this glitch, the weapon will reload itself on the ground FIFTY NINE TIMES, and you can watch the ammo counter increment by 1 each time.
Well. Occasionally it happens. If I remember right the Fiddler on the Roof bluray is horribly done and the audio progressively gets unsynced.
Upon replaying CEA, I've realized that they completely ruined the graphics.
Most of the stuff I like. Some of the forerunner and covenant art-design is a bit boring, but they absolutely ruined the effect you get when shooting elites.
In classic, you see the shield light up and spark, indicating how much of their shield is left. In CEA, there's almost none of that.
It makes the game feel a whole lot less dynamic.
Most of the stuff I like. Some of the forerunner and covenant art-design is a bit boring, but they absolutely ruined the effect you get when shooting elites.
In classic, you see the shield light up and spark, indicating how much of their shield is left. In CEA, there's almost none of that.
It makes the game feel a whole lot less dynamic.