[XGS 2020] Halo Infinite – Digital Foundry explains trailer graphics – Halo.fr

The reception reserved by the general public and the critics to the graphics of the presentation of Halo Infinite of this Thursday was so lukewarm that even the BBC relayed the general opinion. But this time it’s Alex Battaglia from the hardware experts at Digital Foundry who commented on the reasons behind the appearance of the demo, considered disappointing for a console of the new generation. His technical analysis is very interesting for understanding the design of modern games, and we offer a stripped-down and translated version here.

According to Digital Foundry, the main reason for the smoothness of the demo is due to two factors: its dynamic lighting and the choice to present the mission with a setting sun. Compare Halo Infinite with Halo 5 : Guardians or another recent game like The Last of Us Part II is indeed difficult since the two do not use the same system to generate their light. The Last of Us Part II uses static lighting, which means direct light, indirect light (think of a red ball sitting on a white desk, the red of the ball will indirectly light up the table), shadows and reflections have been precomputed (baking) during a long process but giving very realistic results. The disadvantage of this technique is that dynamic elements that are added later in the scene are not included in these calculations, which is why enemies, the player character, or moving objects often have a different color or do not produce shade.

The dynamic lighting of Halo Infinite has the advantage of being able to calculate in real time the lighting of all objects in its scenes, including moving objects. It also becomes possible to change the lighting according to the time of day, which will be used in Halo Infinite with the day-night cycle. On the other hand, this technique is much more expensive in computing power since it is necessary, for a 4K resolution in 60 FPS, to calculate 8.3 million pixels every 16.3 milliseconds. Technologies Ray Tracing via the hardware, like that expected on Xbox Series X (but which will be absent from the versions Xbox One and Xbox One X), promise to make this type of calculation less greedy for the graphics processor. This is where the shoe pinches for the demonstration of Xbox Games Showcase.

Indeed, we learned after the conference that the Ray Tracing would not be introduced in Halo Infinite only after its release, via a free patch. In other words, the demonstration used less advanced dynamic lighting technologies, and therefore less realistic in their rendering. As explained Digital Foundry, the long shadows caused by the setting sun in the demonstration are at the origin of the flatness of the textures: without Ray Tracing, indirect light is replaced by a more simplistic technique called probe light, and all objects and enemies that are in the shadow of trees appear with the same solid lighting and do not cast shadows. In addition, since the shaders used to create detail are entirely dependent on light, they can no longer perform their work of visual enrichment. These issues are clearly visible in the screenshot below, where the Grognard’s legs appear to be overly lit while in a shadow, and the amount of detail is greater on the Brute exposed to direct light.

Digital Foundry is not, however, confident that the Ray Tracing is compatible with the promise of 4K 60 FPS on the hardware of the Xbox Series X and expects a concession to be made in the form of upsampling from 1440p rather than native 4K. Besides lighting, Digital Foundry Also points to a dynamic detail resolution (LOD) which is too low which leaves visible the appearance and disappearance in real time of certain elements on the screen (grass, foliage, mist) to save computing power, the absence of dynamic shadows caused by the Major’s hands on the weapons he is holding, and concessions on the transparency of energy shields, which appear as a solid neon-colored coating rather than filaments.

The developers have already pronounced on the graphical evolution expected for the final version of the game, and intend to shine Halo Infinite by other aspects, such as for example high resolution surround sound as evidenced by WccfTech.

What do you think are the priorities for the final graphics of Halo Infinite?

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