Halo Infinite - OUT NOW - no campaign spoilers pls

[frumious]

Boo!  Not to worry, thanks for the rapid responses.

[Transient Curse]

I fired this up to have a look at the new mini season pass (not live at the time, apparently).

 

I've never heard anyone talking about this, but does Halo seem to constantly stutter ever to you? It's like the game and tv are out of sync, but only a tiny bit, or that you're constantly being dragged back a tiny, tiny amount constantly while you're moving forward.

 

I'm not normally sensitive to this sort of thing, and my TV has VRR, but I've been aware of it since the Beta tests - I don't know if I got used to it or it went away, but yesterday it seemed worse than ever. To the point where I turned it off. 

 

I'm going to try and get some more time with it over the next day or two, but I think I'm going to do a full power off and restart before I do and make sure it's not quick resuming.

 

It seems quite clear to me, and I don't see it in other games, so it's definitely a Halo thing. Given the appetite to overblow any minor problem with the game, I assume it would have been front page news on Neogaf for 6 months if other people were noticing it. So... am I imagining it? 

[metallicfrodo]

Always feels butter smooth to me from a framerate point of view. Occasionally if it gets laggy in MP it can feel jittery, but only as per normal with online with a bad connection. Can’t really get a handle on what you are describing to be fair.

[Kryptonian]

I can't say I've ever noticed that, I play on an LG OLED and BenQ 1440p screen on both Series X & S. I've changed between 120/60hz a few times but haven't seen what you're describing. 

[Transient Curse]

I just googled and it does seem like some other people have noticed it, phew! You can see it here:

 

 

[JPL]

16 minutes ago, Transient Curse said:

I just googled and it does seem like some other people have noticed it, phew! You can see it here:

 

 

I honestly can’t see anything weird in that. What am I supposed to be looking for?

[Kryptonian]

18 minutes ago, Transient Curse said:

I just googled and it does seem like some other people have noticed it, phew! You can see it here:

 

 

 

I'm not great with the differences in framerates (I should've added that to my first post), which of the 3 settings in this shows the issue? I think I saw some tearing in the last one

[Transient Curse]

1 minute ago, Kryptonian said:

 

I'm not great with the differences in framerates (I should've added that to my first post), which of the 3 settings in this shows the issue? I think I saw some tearing in the last one

 

All 3. 

[Kryptonian]

2 minutes ago, Transient Curse said:

 

All 3. 

 

Actually shouldn't the 60hz one in the middle be ok as it's titled as a 120hz issue?

 

I can't see it in that video but I'm going to look into it too as it's a slow work day  

[Kryptonian]

I found the reddit post that goes with the video:

 

 

They say:

 

Quote

Thank you, but it's all double checked and working fine.

 

As you can see in the video the game runs perfectly smooth in Performance mode @ 120hz 4K VRR. It only presents this issue in Quality mode, so I do believe it's an issue with the game rather than my TV setup.

 

&

 

Quote

Hmmm, the problem I’m reporting isn’t 120 vs 60.

I understand Performance / 120 is smoother as it should. The issue is even comparing 60 vs 60, if the Xbox is set to 120hz, the game stutters heavily. So Quality with the display set to 60Hz is smooth like other 60 fps game (even if less so than 120). But the same Quality mode with the same 60 FPS, with the display set to 120hz results in heavy stuttering.

As someone else pointed out in another comment, I believe the game’s frame rate cap is broken and causes issues on high-refresh displays. That or the VRR implementation is broken, resulting in stuttering. Hope I made it clearer now.

 

 

Where's the Quality and Performance options? I've been playing on my Series X on my 1440p (HDMI 2.0) screen lately and can't see these options in game, is it a system thing?

[Transient Curse]

It's most pronounced on the 3rd of the three, but I see it throughout. 

 

Perhaps they're talking about something else. 

[Kryptonian]

I reckon your eyes are just too good

[Transient Curse]

I think it's one of those, once you see it things.

 

Although, having said that it doesn't generally bother me much, but last time I played it seemed more pronounced. 

 

I'm not sure what modes I've got the game / system / tv set to, but I think I at least can do some fiddling.  At the very least I feel sort of vindicated (though I think they're saying the 60hz mode doesn't have an issue and I am saying I can see it...)

 

Ah well. 

[Kryptonian]

Rather stupidly, I'm trying to recreate it here now. I do still play semi regularly - I do the battlepasses and the events - so it's probably not the best idea trying to ruin it

[spatular]

I see something like this, not all the time but occasionally the game seems to be a bit jerky, in multiplayer, i assumed it was a network thing but i dont know. I think i see it more in the newer maps like that outside one with the column of hexagons in the middle (small hexagons, although it does it a bit on the new one with the big hexagons too), but not sure. It doesnt really bother me most of the time/mostly doesnt affect gameplay. my tv is 60hz and doesnt have vrr.

[Mars]

For some reason I can only get 60 FPS on PC with V-Sync turned off, really annoying.   With it switched on, the cap is locked at 30FPS.  It used to work and I have no idea what's borked it.

[footle]

4 hours ago, Transient Curse said:

I just googled and it does seem like some other people have noticed it, phew! You can see it here:

 

 

 

What's the point of that video - we're looking for stutter in a 120 or 60 fps video, where the video itself is compressed and running at 60fps.

And not necessarily a synched 60fps because it is taken from a camera pointing at a tv screen?

Of course there are going to be artifacts.

 

(this does not mean that there aren't artifacts when you play it).

[Mars]

I'm getting Artifacts all over the place:

 

[K]

Frank O’Connor has left 343, and Microsoft. I don’t think this is exactly a killer blow to the series - I wasn’t a huge fan of the madly convoluted post-Bungie lore and storylines, and the games from Halo 4 onwards seemed to be made up of multiple attempts at extended universe cross-title events and characters that never seemed to stick. 343 spent years trying to make the Banished into a thing, and they never really seemed to take off. Still, this is hardly positive news for the series or the developer. They seem to be shedding senior people all over the place. 

[JoeK]

I love all the lore and silly shit, but quite honestly 343 have got themselves into such an almighty pickle with all of this that I do wonder if a back to basics reboot would be better all ‘round. 
 

 

[RubberJohnny]

Someone did a before/after of the credits and it's pretty dramatic:

 

 

Also Joe Staten has ended up at Netflix, of all places:

 

[JPL]

2 hours ago, JoeK said:

I love all the lore and silly shit, but quite honestly 343 have got themselves into such an almighty pickle with all of this that I do wonder if a back to basics reboot would be better all ‘round. 
 

 

I’d say so. Reboot the whole thing.

[Petrousgyre]

Or maybe make a new game rather than churning out another mediocre Halo game? Microsoft don't seem to get that the value of a game is the people who make it, not the game itself. Put it this way: around two weeks after Halo CE was released Naughty Dog released the original Jak & Daxter on PS2. They made two sequels and a cart racing game before getting to move onto the Uncharted Trilogy and then The Last of Us. Each game series represents a marked improvement in mechanics and storytelling. Halo, by contrast, has simply stagnated.

[Uncle Nasty]

4 hours ago, JPL said:

I’d say so. Reboot the whole thing.

 

Infinite was supposed to be a reboot.

[Girth Certificate]

Reboot it again, finish that Cortana's Giant Robot Judgement Day storyline.

[JoeK]

Just now, Girth Certificate said:

Reboot it again, finish that Cortana's Giant Robot Judgement Day storyline.

 

Yes. This. 

 

It might have been a 'nanas story, but at least it was somewhat of a continuation of what happened before. 

 

Throwing people into a world where you really needed to know what had been going on in Halo Wars 2 was absolutely baffling.

 

Also: Halo doesn't need to be open world. Not everything has to be open world. And if it is open world, then it really needed more stuff in it, and more diversity.

 

I really enjoyed playing Infinite - it was great fun. But as a continuation of what had gone on before it was a shockingly poor decision and kind of cements my opinion that the decision to take 343 off direct control and hand it over to someone else is probably a good thing.

[Pob]

And on the contrary, I thought it was a superb prototype for a new direction and an entirely natural evolution of the of the first game's sandbox. Personally I would much prefer that Halo Infinite form the blueprint for the next game rather than be chucked out or rebooted. Sort out the story and the tech, of course, but keep the idea.

[Girth Certificate]

Yeah I'd keep the open world. For it's faults Infinite is still the best 'load up a warthog with marines and go for a joyride' game ever. And the hookshot is the best.

[Pob]

My dream for Halo Infinite 2 would be for the game to progress across a handful of those floating 'Islands' that make up the destroyed bit of the ring. Each island would be its own open sandbox area that could be freely explored and have its own biome and gameplay style. E.g one would be a Covenant stronghold with a heavily fortified base in the middle and a bunch of support buildings scattered around the landscape, so a kind of 'behind enemy lines' map. One would be the UNSC home base which would come under attack at some point in an all-out-war scenario. One would be unexplored but full of secret artefacts that both sides are after, so a bit like Attack On The Control Room. Maybe one would be a fully Flood-encrusted horror show, but obviously better than Flood levels in earlier games.

[JPL]

16 minutes ago, Pob said:

And on the contrary, I thought it was a superb prototype for a new direction and an entirely natural evolution of the of the first game's sandbox. Personally I would much prefer that Halo Infinite form the blueprint for the next game rather than be chucked out or rebooted. Sort out the story and the tech, of course, but keep the idea.

I totally agree with this. I think the open world, as poorly done as it was in Infinite, is the best direction for Halo and, as you say, really goes back to the open nature of the first game. By reboot, I was meaning the story as they’ve managed to tie themselves in knots with it to the detriment of the gameplay and that should never happen. Even if Bungie did exactly the same thing when they removed the Elites from Halo 3. Luckily they had the chops to still create a great game, but imagine how good it could have been with the Elites in it.