DF Direct Special: Halo Evolved! Project Foundry Demo + Studio Changes Reaction

[@DigitalFoundry]

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[@ledizzy2634]

That advert was inserted a little awkwardly in the video my friend :)

[@v1kt0u5]

@@ledizzy2634 nothing wrong with it dude, comfortably after the intro and you can skip

[@abysswalker3357]

yea can't wait for a UE halo with lots of traversal stutters !

[@williambarton5681]

@@abysswalker3357 In the future they will pop up a mini-advert for microtransactions during the stutter.

[@Vorance]

Slight correction @ 4:57 , the Slipspace Engine is a heavily updated and modified version of the Blam engine, which has been used since Halo 1, not post Reach.

[@ThomasCaiJinzhan]

Shader compilation studder will be glorious

[@zombiebillcosby]

Haload

[@Torso6131]

AND traversal stutter. Don't forget the traversal stutter.

[@Psychotoxic86]

@@Torso6131 A lot of traversal stutters.

[@b1thearchitect401]

Yeah can't wait to skip and stutter around these big beautiful maps missing my shots and getting killed because busted UE5 performance!

[@unnoticedhero1]

@@Torso6131 I'd hope the switch to Unreal would help open them up to support from The Coalition who were one of the few devs in UE4 that fixed those issues.

[@D-OS_II_Fan]

John's last name is Halo.

[@SirPhoenixofSoCal]

Yea I thought everyone knew his name was jokingly John Halo

[@DoodleDonkey45]

@@SirPhoenixofSoCal ...it's not? 😭

[@zeroprime1000]

Lol

[@ReachTea]

His middle name is Petty Officer ffs 😔

[@Ty-sm9cv]

His friend call him Johnny H.

[@KillahMate]

They moved to Unreal because when the 18 month deadline comes around and they fire all their workers as is standard practice at 343, they then need to be able to onboard all the new hires as fast as possible - after all, they will be firing those in 18 months as well.

[@TakisEnjoyer]

Technically they're not "firing" them since it's contract workers, but yeah Microsoft is known to abuse and overrely on contract work force with their games which doesn't bode well with proprietary engines. Instead they could properly employ people and let them master and improve the engine, but I guess the few thousands they can save on this is more important to them.

[@jurassictyrantkingYT]

It's probably going to be 6 years before we see the next Halo game, Next-gen

[@RandalphTheBlack]

And it will be 🥴 lmao 😢​@@jurassictyrantkingYT

[@chrismitchell4665]

This isn't very original bro. They brought it up in the video several times. Why are you repeating it here?

[@robertlawrence9000]

Exactly. That's another reason they changed the studio name. 'HALO REVOLVED DOOR'

[@nicktubby9710]

Dont worry people, Master Chief is asleep, adrift, aboard the Forward Unto Dawn. Waiting for Cortana to wake him when he's needed.

[@jarg8]

At this point, truly their best bet is to take the Resident Evil route and start fresh. Lovingly update the original games to revitalize the fandom and show new audiences why we love this world and then go from there. Maybe sneak an ODST or Reach style spinoff in there for old fans like us to really leverage the universe's depth. I don't think I trust MS or "Halo Studios" with much else.

[@thel1355]

@@jarg8 I wouldn't trust Halo Studios to remake the title screen without fucking it up.

[@pikachu896]

This is what I've been saying for years. 343 games/books/anything isn't canon for me. Master Chief's been sleeping since Halo 3 ended.

[@Zebrahhh]

@@pikachu896amen, no matter what they say, 4 and onward, never happened, to me.

[@mjc0961]

@@jarg8 Isn't that was Halo Master Chief Collection already was? And they screwed it up and it took them several more years to fix it? It was an Xbox One launch title, or close to it, and it was only a few years ago they finally fixed lighting issues in Halo 1. If I remember correctly. Could be totally wrong.

[@connor56347]

Call me cynical but I feel this move is to mitigate the level of training new hires will need who will work on short term contracts like Microsoft loves to do, so they can maximize performance from short term employees and maintain the same hiring practices they've been criticized for without it impacting development as much.

[@jdmz1103]

I dont see anything wrong with this, pretty standard industry practice. If anything, it's a smart business move that allows flexibility for the studio

[@twist3d537]

ok?

[@c_rock3512]

It was needed regardless. The BLAM engine clearly Maxxed its limitations on infinite. It was time to move on.

[@phattjohnson]

@@jdmz1103 What we need is good GAMES and this process isn't conducive to that. If you can't see anything wrong with this you've probably only been gaming since the PS3 era or later.

[@extremepayne]

@@jdmz1103From a bean counter perspective, hiring temp contractors sounds great! But on the dev side of things, you want long term employment of your employees to build up that institutional knowledge. That’s how things actually get done fast or well. Even if it means paying people for time they aren’t technically working directly towards the immediate next product. Keeping devs on pays dividends in the long term

[@FSAPOJake]

The #1 reason they're doing this is for talent acquisition and retention. 343 has had a lot of trouble recruiting and retaining talent, and maybe they feel that by moving to UE5 it'll be easier to find people that can work on their games without huge and costly onboarding and training for new hires. Plus they'll be able to get assistance from The Coalition.

[@Iron84]

I feel that The Coalition angle hasn't been talked about enough, so thank you Alex Battaglia for bringing that out

[@maizeman90]

Not just talent acquisition/retention, but also simplification of the development process between them and partner studios. Partners have to burn time learning the engine as well.

[@robertlawrence9000]

So they can regularly hire and fire people. Hopefully they get some talent that can use the engine well and make HALO great again

[@dedmin6119]

Finally, gears of halo :)

[@twist3d537]

@@robertlawrence9000 contracts end

[@Seb_Falkor]

Sweet! Stutter filled Halo here we come!

[@divinepixel7023]

In 6 years -_-

[@TheBean87]

Won’t see it on Xbox

[@gavinderulo12]

There are stutter free UE5 games.

[@ReachTea]

I already saw TSR artifacts in the flowing water

[@v1kt0u5]

Noisy ghosted suttering =S

[@Sivec5054]

I didn't have any issues with the Infinite's image quality. UE5 performance and image quality is a mess though

[@existentialselkath1264]

At the same resolution, halo infinites anti aliasing is one of the blurriest in the business when you're actually moving. It's honestly awful and you have to mod the game to disable it.

[@mayen67]

It depends on visual feature set they use. Devs dont have to use all UE5s expensive features.

[@tenow]

@@mayen67 not using nanite and lumen mostly negates all visual benefits and at the same time doesn't fix traversal stutters

[@agodelianshock9422]

I believe by the time the next Halo comes out we'll have seen these issues resolved. I've already seen really great fixes from devs at CD Projekt and other notable studios. Even independent devs are starting to figure out solutions now that the knowledge is becoming widespread.

[@MaxJones123]

It’s also about how they can develop the game. Not just how it looks.

[@agodelianshock9422]

Changing the engine won't improve the writing.

[@xXLilSmurthXx]

The writing in Halo 4 and Infinite wasn't bad. Now 5....5 was bad.

[@YaoiStick]

@@xXLilSmurthXx Yeah agree. Or I do get people that had issues with Halo 4's story and such, but I always digged it. Not Halo 1-3 ((and Reach)) good maybe, but as a whole I enjoyed Halo 4's campaign. Just felt like "OOF" when Halo 5 dropped and the game didn't even feel like a sequel to 4 and kinda ruining the emotional moment of Cortana's death.

[@redfoxsports4749]

This is odd because to me Reach and combat evolved are the only halo games with decent writing. Mainly due to lore building. 2 and 3 seemed very cheesy to me and pretty convoluted. 4 was no better or worse than 2 and 3 imo.

[@asdfjklo234]

@@xXLilSmurthXx Halo 4 was the blandest campaign I've ever played. The way most action games try to manufacture awe with banal overused tropes is exasperating.

[@The-Steve-The]

@@xXLilSmurthXx okay... but it wasn't good either.

[@yc_030]

We might not know anything about the game but with ue5 we can expect it to run at 720p 40fps

[@simonrockstream]

30

[@infinitysynthesis]

Not if it releases on next gen in say 2026-2027.

[@James-dc6ft]

​@@infinitysynthesisyay I'll play it with my PS6 pro for I'll buy for 2k

[@infinitysynthesis]

@@James-dc6ft lol

[@THE_DEEZLE]

@@James-dc6ftplay it on KZbin maybe😂

[@wileymanful]

Maybe its just me but was the issue with Halo really image quality? I always thought it was about the actual quality of the games themselves, not the engine. If anything hearing Halo is moving to unreal engine 5 just makes me that more worried about it. I'm not exactly thrilled about playing a stuttery mess that runs at 30 fps, 860p upscaled to 1440p or something. They're really missing the forest for the trees if they think that was the issue with infinite

[@oo--7714]

Brother this channel is a technical one

[@wileymanful]

@oo--7714 I know. But Microsoft still saw all the criticisms people had of modern Halo and decided that they need to go to UE5. That's the big thing they announced. It was their choice to choose a different engine

[@redfoxsports4749]

The splipspace engine was super hard to develop for and they had a huge issue with short term temp hires that took a long time to learn the engine so everything took way longer than normal to develop and create. Unreal 5 is a widely known issue so they will be able to create at a much faster rate especially when hiring new people

[@wileymanful]

@redfoxsports4749 now see that I can get. I read in a few more comments that the slipspace engine took a shitton of time to actually make, was hard to learn and no one who worked on it originally is still left. If it's less "oo shiny new toy" and more about developing things easier, that makes more sense

[@jdmz1103]

Infinite problem was always the lack of content. Gameplay is solid, but when it launched it took a year to get any kind of meaningful content update

[@darthbob1337]

John Spartan was the name of Sylvester Stallone's character in Demolition Man. Man, imagine if he played Master Chief back in the day lmfao

[@Dd-fb2tj]

what a film

[@shahlegno5890]

The problem is with his height

[@communistwookiee4727]

But how do you use the three sea shells?

[@mbsfaridi]

The mask would've been off like in Judge Dread.

[@AdmiralBison]

I am the Chief!!!

[@jpasan]

I'm still trying to get why they don't use Id Tech's engine. They own the studio

[@mihirchitnis905]

That engine is optimised for closed levels and not for fully open world games.

[@djtomoy]

everyone uses unreal

[@forasago]

DF explained this in the video. It's so they can use and discard novice gamedevs as 1.5 year temp hires and release yet another barebones broken """Halo""" game. MS is mismanaged to comical extent. They apparently pissed away half a billion dollars on Infinite, a game with a feature set worth maybe 20 million in today's inflated dollars. A tiny fraction of Halo 3's feature set and without looking it up I'm going to state confidently that Halo 3 didn't cost 100 million, and wasn't made by people hired for 1.5 years at a time but rather seasoned veterans who demanded competitive salaries. With id's engine nobody at 343 would know how to use it so they would get even less done. With UE at least they can make a tech demo with zero gameplay, not even animations, but hey, look at this static environment. LOL

[@DrunkencoderPayk]

exactly what mihirchitnis905 said. 3d engines tend to be either optimized open spaces, indoor or open world. for each scenario you have uninterchangable methods of managing world. (render room by room, use things like an octree bla bla bla) :D halo sits in a tough position because it always was a mixed between open space and indoor areas and when they went for open world on top of it, it was too much, and there was properly never a fitting alternative back then except falling back to non-openworld

[@James-dc6ft]

It doesn't work like that. It's surprisingly complicated and stupid

[@evrico7]

I now want a mature rated reimagined Halo. Bring back the flood. Start over. No sequel. The story is all over the place.

[@shotwell25]

I sincerely think they should just scrap the entire fuckin timeline and start completely over. Start again with a CE remake, then remake halo 3, then go from there.

[@danielpiekut]

1:28 New Halo Switch 2 CONFIRMED

[@jdez095]

Lol

[@Lucromis]

Halo infinite has quake wiggling hands but no split screen coop.

[@phattjohnson]

They've got pride skins though. That really brought the party home.

[@Timtowtdi-oop]

​@@phattjohnsonthere ain't no party like a sausage party ~

[@pierreo33]

@@Timtowtdi-oop only a man can please a man

[@Stefantius]

I remember them saying the same things about 4, 5, and then Infinite, this doesnt excite me in anyway shape or form

[@trzmouhamouha2119]

Bruh the video just came out how u did watch the full 30min ?

[@MeekAndBackFirE]

except Infinite actually had awesome gunplay.

[@joshuadiaz890]

How sad, such a negative person. They’re restructuring and rethinking their formula yet nothing can make you happy? Just move on from halo then this isn’t for you

[@damianabregba7476]

Infinite tried something. This automatically makes it better in my books

[@v1kt0u5]

@@joshuadiaz890 Halo Infinite's multiplayer already looks beautiful and plays amazing. Now imagine it filled with sluttering, noise and ghosting.

[@sean8102]

The SlipSpace Engine must be one of the most short lived in house engines right? I get it was built on top/ an evolution of the existing "Halo engine", (forgot the name). Then again IDK the state of that engine like code wise. I've heard most of the people that worked on it are long gone. But just one game and abandoned. Not saying it's not the right thing to do or wrong. But UE just makes me neverous about stutterstrugle on PC. We'll see though, fingers crossed and hope for the best of course. Also of course will be super crucial they nail the gameplay feel in a new engine.

[@GenerationZ313]

Unless I'm mistaken, the Luminous Engine also had a short life as well.

[@icedcapplord710]

​@@GenerationZ313Luminous at least got two games lol

[@timytimeerased]

from the itw on Xbox wire Slipspace was using old tools too, some stuff thats been passed from the previous engine. It was a mess

[@samic]

No. It's just an engine developed on an old code and some improvements until they started calling it SlipSpace Engine.

[@nonyabusiness6084]

Bonny Ross managed that studio horribly. She brought in contract workers to build the damn SlipSpace engine & then the people who actually built the damn engine were gone. So they couldn't fix any problems or update the engine at all. Given Microsoft's insane money, I think it's ridiculous that they are going to UE5 rather than just having an entirely new engine built strictly for Halo. But this time with proper management that doesn't have contract workers building the engine.

[@krupniok]

Next Halo will be in 480p upscaled to blurry 4k

[@redfoxsports4749]

That’s why it’s so fun to game on pc

[@ktrotter11]

​Even PC does this.... Dlss/FSR etc​@@redfoxsports4749

[@v1kt0u5]

Halo Infinite's multiplayer already looks beautiful and plays amazing. Now imagine it filled with sluttering, noise and ghosting.

[@islandofmelanat]

​@@redfoxsports4749hate to break the news but every pc game coming out soon is requiring dlss to hit 60fps on medium lol. The Blur is coming for us all 😱

[@Psychotoxic86]

​@@redfoxsports4749aha with bunch of stutters even on a highest rig. UE5 works poorly on pc and consoles, but in different ways.

[@c2ashman]

The engine was not HALOs big problem. The problem was 343 having no clue what made HALO work in the first place. Renaming the studio might also not work. If the creative people in core positions have not changed...oh boy. And please leave XBox Series S behind. What a lump of lead when it comes to dragging down Series X.

[@FelipeSilva-tm4ps]

The creative people in charge have changed, that's why they change the name of the studio too. For sure we are going to see some different.

[@DARS_04]

the engine was a pain in the ass to make and work with and for some reason they swapped out contract workers yearly or something and had to to teach how to use these tools several times.

[@TheVentrexian]

Series s holds back your brain not the x

[@liamness]

The engine absolutely was part of the problem, at least given Microsoft's insistence on using a revolving door of contractors throughout the project, rather than building up a core of in house knowledge throughout the project. If they're not going to change their hiring practices, then using Unreal should lead to fewer problems-easier to hire and train people up quickly if you're using tools that a lot of people looking for game dev work are already familiar with.

[@MrFrexxia]

The engine was a big problem, because they spent a lot of time on the engine that could've been better spent on the actual games

[@nitmare64]

I believe they will make a Halo 1 remake.

[@robtennant98]

I think the Slipspace engine is just a rebuilt version of the Blam engine used from Halo 1 to Halo 5

[@berthein5476]

not rebuilt. more like what bethesda did with gamebryo to creation engine. under the hood slipspace was 99% Blam. it was just so bastardized and taped together, that nothing worked on their end.

[@ArchieGamez]

​@@berthein5476And whenever they update the game, theres always something that breaks too

[@icantthinkofagoodusername4464]

@@berthein5476 Yep. Apparently it got more stable later on after launch, but by then few were left with the necessary knowledge to build upon it properly or fix remaining issues.

[@jeffreymarley6877]

💥BLAM💥

[@darthv72]

Makes you wonder... with the change to UE5, will John Spartan finally know what to do with the three sea shells?

[@TheVVumpus]

i.e. “we’ve changed…trust us!!” LMAO

[@StruggleBoxing]

Master chief now looks like a plastic Mattel action figure 😂

[@thedandyp]

Do you know what UE5 doesn't help with? The story. Halo Infinite had many flaws, the engine itself was way down there in the list of importance. A tight, simple story, a strong representation of the almost mythic Master Chief and fun gameplay. That's it, that's all you need.

[@Ozzymandius1]

Halo, at this point, is like trying to keep someone who is in a complete vegetative state alive with tubes and machines.

[@Trojan_]

Infinite's story/campaign wasn't the issue either.

[@Notepad123]

The next halo doesn’t even need master chiefs. Theres millions of years of lore they can choose from. It’d be cool to have something about the human forerunner war.

[@cargorunnerUK]

I agree the campaign was very underwhelming. No epic moments at all. It was just a way of introducing you to the characters & then they never added any more story, They actually sacked the writing team

[@Marine_Veteran_Vegan_Gamer]

I hate that almost all AAA games are switching over to UE. Looks promising, but I'll remain skeptical until proven otherwise.

[@Unearthlywhales]

Why? What makes it so problematic. Epic has created some tech that is beyond what other companies can develop in-house. Trying to develop the same kind of tech might also cost way too much? So what to do?

[@v1kt0u5]

@@Unearthlywhales What about sluttering and sub-par performance for equivalent visuals but filled with noise and ghosting?

[@asdfjklo234]

@@Unearthlywhales 1. Epic having that much leverage over the gaming industry is unhealthy 2. Developers often fail to imprint their own artistic direction on the game ending up with the typical Unreal Engine look.

[@leviathan5207]

UE has massive problems, namely horrendous traversal stutter and usually lackluster optimization frim the developer side. They just grab UE 5 of the shelf and usually don't spend much time actually making it work well. That is why people have come to hate UE and especially UE5. UE4 was also utter trash when it first came out. I still remember trying to play Insurgency Sandstorm on release and being appaled by th performance issues.

[@Marine_Veteran_Vegan_Gamer]

@@asdfjklo234 Exactly. Lords of the Fallen is a perfect example of your statement

[@PackHunter117]

*Fun fact the Covenant uses nanolaminate which essentially is like organic alien titanium. They “grow” and “3D print” stuff in Assembly Forges. High Charity had the majority of them.*

[@shpankey]

Alex, the origins of the tech/engine of Halo was from a legenday lead programmer by the name of Jason Jones (severly underrated imo as he was in the likes of J Carmack and T Sweeney in those days). Anyhow, Jason led engine development of an amazing series called Myth The Fallen Lords and later Soulblighter. That engine for those games was incredible and known for it's insane physics. Anywhoo, Jason wanted to do something new and started modifying the engine for an RTS. This eventually was switched to a FPS that became Halo CE. After Halo 1 & somewhere during Halo 2, Jason again wanted to do something new and broke off to begin modifying the engine again for a game that eventually became Destiny. To me, Jason's groundbreaking programming in developing the most comprehensive and incredible physics along with his absolute dedication and obsession with nailing down the absolutely perfection of control. Remember back then FPS control felt terrible until he revolutionized it for console FPS gaming on a console. As you can tell I'm a big fan and feel his contributions to gaming aren't recognized & celebrated enough. But that is the main guy who made the Myth, Halo and Destiny games have the amazing feel (control) and amazing physics. He is the main person responsible for that special magic they all have. The IT factor that's hard to explain to people. If you get time google Myth The Fallen Lords physics examples. Some are hilarious and amazing. Later we seen some demonstrations of those same physics again in Halo, but blowing up a molatov cocktail in Myth that then shot a Ghoul weapon so far up into the atmosphere that it took several real-time minutes to come back down. Lol PS this coming from a former Comet in Myth TFL (highest rated player in the world on the old Bungie.net). Bungie also sent me hand signed full Soulblighter poster and the gold master disk (signed by Jason himself) of Myth Soulblighter (now infamous gold master due to the bug it shipped with deleting issue). This for not only being the Comet at one time but also for running a popular Myth website. 🙂

[@gnasherdk4878]

Bungie loves you and Bees, It would be a pipe dream if They made Blam! Open, Even if it is an old version of CE, It would be a open-carnage of Soffish For the modding community.

[@brettboi3730]

Thanks for sharing, would be awesome if someone made a documentary on Jones and his contributions to gaming!

[@TylerGarner0]

@CDSparks Dude, you are a true fan of the series. The physics are what makes Halo such a profoundly enjoyable and unique series. Its the thing most don't ever notice but it's why we all love to play it. I have never played an unreal engine game that had anything close to satisfactory and persistent physics like Halo does. Everything is floaty and has no weight to it... somehow EVERY UE4/5 has this lame quality. As an aside, have you played Earth Defense Force 5/6? I feel it has a lot of similarities to Halo's physics "personality" and its one of the most fun games I have ever played.

[@SeFu2006]

I didn’t know Halo’s physics were because of Jones, Halo 2’s physics are still my favorite to this day

[@nimbulan2020]

If they're rebranding due to poor perception, why did it take them so long? 343's been around for 17 years consistently screwing up every project.

[@SSGLGamesVlogs]

Just what are you saying? That you want to get screwed for another 17 years?

[@nimbulan2020]

@@SSGLGamesVlogs I'm saying I don't buy that anything's actually going to change. They've had every possible opportunity to do so already and haven't. Rebranding, to me, just looks like a weak effort to boost public opinion and nothing else.

[@SSGLGamesVlogs]

@@nimbulan2020 I can see what you're saying. But if you could elaborate when you say change?

[@nimbulan2020]

@@SSGLGamesVlogs I mean the studio not botching every launch and actually making a game that Halo fans want for once. They keep talking about going back to the core of Halo but the games they release don't really do that at all.

[@SSGLGamesVlogs]

@@nimbulan2020 I agree about the botching part. The Split Screen cancellation hurt us. But gets tricky when talking about what Halo Fans want. Seems different people want different things. As far as a Big MP mode goes, I can tell you I want to continue the Dominion/Warzone path.

[@ArtwithBen]

The new graphics won’t fix the physics, writing, or music. And honestly it has that UE5 overkill. MC looks like a toy in a realistic landscape full of distracting shimmers.

[@drumjod]

At 1:26, did anyone else hear Alex say, "There's also the announcement that there's going to be a switch to Unreal Engine 5," and initially think he said, "There's also going to be a Switch 2 Unreal Engine 5" in regards to the Halo series?

[@evanlynch9221]

The engine was never the issue and changing it won't fix anything.

[@gonschor7dleven]

Exactly. It’s the studio and the creatives. There are one man indie games that are more creative than any post-Bungie Halo.

[@juanpaco3226]

The engine was pretty much a GREAT issue lmao

[@vrapbrap]

True. Even the "best" halo games are only "pretty aight" I found out after playing the collection. Every one that actively sucked, and even the good ones with absolutely horrendous level design from time to time (like whats up with halo 2's super inconsistent levels?) made it pretty clear that the engines have never been at fault. Heck, I played a ton of multiplayer across different titles too and infinite's multiplayer was easily the most fun, but uh oh, I guess the engine prevents it from being fun for some people because they've huffed so much copium and forgotten that the whole design philosophy of the halo multiplayer and games in general hasn't moved forward at all since the first two titles. I do enjoy arena shooters and older designs for this stuff, but people seem to be at the same time wanting it and not. To quote that one blizzard goober, "you think you want it, but you don't." For the next title they really should just cook something new and not listen to the grumpy fans that will not be pleased with anything anyways. Gamers don't ever even know what they want. In my 30 plus years on this planet. I've learned that people just know nothing about what they want and they will never, ever accept the fact when they've outgrown something or if when something just isn't catering to their specific likes and dislikes (which they naturally don't even know.) An epic gamer is never wrong or at fault. Its always something else. The worst thing a developer can do, is to listen to the "fans," that do nothing but shit on their projects.

[@argo9721]

I mean, seeing from multiple reports the engine seems to be the issue but OK

[@john_hunter_]

@@argo9721 The game engine is an issue, but it's not the root cause of the issue. It all leads back to bad management. Bad management led to a bad game engine. They contracted software developers to build the engine. When their contract expired in a short period of time, they contracted new software developers to learn the engine & build upon the code. Even when they got the game engine to a functional stage, the game failed to be good. The campaign wasn't great & it lacked couch co-op. Their multiplayer also didn't have consistent content updates.

[@parasolo89]

I rather that the devs just stays away from UE5 and have their own engine if possible because many UE5 titles suffers from stuttering and other caveats.

[@ocaalways]

if your pc cant run it, just say that

[@parasolo89]

@@ocaalways I'm not making this statement solely of my experience, It's a wide known problem.

[@CriminalGameplay]

This is mostly a dev issue not the engine.

[@Liam_blake00]

@@parasolo89it is mate ignore the other comment. You can’t 4090, 7800x3D your way out of unreal stutter

[@MaxJones123]

Own engine costs time and money they want to invest in other areas

[@ThePhenomf4]

I’m really looking forward to playing all of these Halo games on the next Xbox with my son. My brother and I co-op’d most of these games and had a blast. Can’t wait!

[@xFrxsty]

Wholesome! One of the reasons I got a series X is to beat Halo MCC on split screen with my nephew, worth it

[@bingobongo1615]

I mean, Halo infinite had some issues but imo it looked absolutely amazing in the end… One of my favorite looking pc games. Especially forerunner technology looked just otherworldly and amazing.

[@xtr.7662]

Looks fine way better than any past halo game just not high end since its on xbox one they are nitpicking especially when john likes praising fromsoft and nintendo visuals its quite funny

[@wanshurst2416]

is that nathan fillion in halo? i never realized that...

[@SIXminWHISTLE]

He plays Buck in ODST and Halo 5, and a generic marine in H3. ODST's main cast has a couple of other Firefly actors.

[@hotdogcandy]

​@@SIXminWHISTLE Bungie were fans of Firefly at the time.

[@riekopo7638]

Halo 2 was supposed to have very good lighting but they dropped it because it wouldn't run well on the hardware.

[@Castlecrasher777]

Still so frustrated how they handled MCC. I bought it day one on Xbox One (which I rarely did for games at that point) wanting to play Halo 2 BTB maps online again and it didn't work for the longest time. Bought it later again on PC, and no one plays those maps. Waterworks, Headlong, Coagulation, and the DLC maps for that game were awesome.

[@Joostinonline]

And coop on PC is completely unplayable. There's like a half second of input latency for everyone but the host, and they removed split screen.

[@KS-ep9ij]

“Took you long enough” - Dr Halsey

[@TakisEnjoyer]

I feel like UE5 switch sounds pretty "dangerous" for the game developers in time when they're already extremely vulnerable. Microsoft is more free than ever to do mass layoffs now since they don't have to keep the people with engine experience :/

[@FrasiersBurner]

They already laid off the engine team a while ago

[@TakisEnjoyer]

@@FrasiersBurner I mean they were probably planning the switch for a while so no wonder.

[@Tehknologix]

Id software should develop the next halo. Doom guy, Phobos, Crash. It just makes sense.

[@Thedownliner2015]

Amusing they actually think changing the engine is going to spark their creativity again. If it wasn't there to begin with changing the engine is not going to make a blind bit of difference.

[@kayceee6770]

Infinite has development issues which stemmed from their engine, they could hardly get anything out especially with no existing experts on the tech they were using. This would allow them to streamline their process, the engine has nothing to do with creativity but actually getting ideas implemented. Like come on, Craig was a running joke on how bad and flat Infinite looked before an additional year or so on dev. Then all the endless bugs there was, how long it took Forge to get release. Technically an engine move will solve so many needless problems, then it's just on the team to develop a good game.

[@devonmarr9872]

Honestly Halo 2 Anniversary engine is what they should use

[@Spendingryan]

I hope for more moments like the "Pillar of Autumn" taking off, in reach, or the battle of tip of the spear, or when the "Forward unto Dawn" descends in halo 3, I hope we get those huge vistas and battles with a higher quality coat of paint.

[@Why_It]

If they're switching to UE, then I hope to god they learn to optimize. They can't be afraid to tear that engine apart to make their own variant that'll make the game they're wanting. UE5 base is okay at a general use-case for prototyping ideas and small-scale experiences, but actually making a full AAA game would require a competent dev team to re-work how the game manages their high-quality assets.

[@CPSPD]

lumen on, TAA left at default, camera motion blur on, nanite with 200gb worth of assets, 720p upscaled to 4k, FSR1

[@Killswitch1411]

@@CPSPD Don't forget to crank up Chromatic aberration and all the lens flares!!

[@shakshaka8355]

Same 343 rebanded as halo team And as always xbox with all talk no delivary!!

[@levthederg]

If they're not gonna use Slipspace anymore, then they should give the keys to the kingdom to the community. It would grant 343 a lot of good will, tbh. But a man can dream, ya know?

[@MegaCygnusX1]

It's not Halo without Bungie. That simple, really.

[@PapaClay115]

Dude imagine if bungie was allowed to keep halo and we got what destiny is but in the halo world. Wish I lived in that timeline

[@basshead.]

They should sell the rights to CDPR, so CDRP can make Mass Effect style RPGs.

[@psychshift]

Bungie's not really bungie anymore.

[@SSGLGamesVlogs]

Sounds like you want *Armor Lock* back.

[@Notepad123]

Bungie turned their backs on us.

[@heilong79]

Halo infinet looked great, I just re-installed it and was blown away by how good the single player looked.

[@NoisR]

halo needs to be made by a different studio

[@Anonymous-Digits]

Halo needs to be made by a studio that will never listen to a "community" that views the classic games as imbalanced, that thinks the problem with Halo is "the game engine", and wants the developer to focus on "community content and armor cosmetics".

[@forasago]

@@Anonymous-Digits what imaginary community is that? sounds like a bunch of people so tasteless they would accept the shit 343 pumps out. in other words, consoomers, terminal slop apologists, people who would accept literally anything presented to them by a sufficiently large company. 343 don't listen to these people, these people listen to 343.

[@apimb1396]

Nope

[@NoisR]

@@apimb1396 no? cause all the halos made by 343 were so good right?

[@roytore5062]

Halo is dead, killed off by MS and their politics and incompetence. There will come a new franchise, from an independent studio, that replaces it

[@osirismaximus2787]

Martin O'Donnel used 90s digital synthesizers and sound modules to make the Halo soundtrack. The soundtrack is the soul of Halo. The new Halo must have 90s digital synthesis.

[@forasago]

"We're all rooting for these guys because they NEED success"? John, this is called the sunk cost fallacy. 343 have literally apologized and vowed to do better next time after every Halo game they've made. They did it after 4, they did it after 5 and now they're doing it again. Every time the narrative is, okay, we admit that was a misstep but the next game will be what the fans want. It has been a lie every time and this time will be no different. They are reeling the more trusting fans in with nostalgic Halo 1 vistas, the armor, the pistol and such, and in the end it will be another bait and switch 343 game. The physics and AI will be awkward and not feel like Halo AGAIN. The graphics will not look like the tech demo AGAIN. There's the employee turnover and there's the fact that they have been working on new Halo content in Unreal Engine since 2022, and this basic environment art showcase is what they have to show for it. The spartan and elites aren't even animated except for ONE Master Chief animation. If they make this in two years, how many years will they take to make a GAME? Infinite.

[@SoulbentAnime]

Yeah it's amazing how people still shill for them. 343i will fail again. It's too bad really.

[@BlackGravity-ox7yw]

I want Halo to go back to the Spartan story line. The Cortana arch was a flop for me.

[@jarde1989]

At this point in time… The next halo game is better off running on UE4 rather than 5

[@SussedRage]

It's clear the most important benefit UE5 is speed. Speed with staff, speed with creation and ultimately speed with output. Hopefully the story is getting some attention too.

[@IwinMahWay]

That's why they're going with remake

[@SIXminWHISTLE]

John's last name is -117. Spartan-IIs and IIIs don't usually have last names.

[@adamksenior6669]

It's not his last name it's his service number. He was the 117th of 150 preliminary candidates for the Spartan II program. Once he made it into the program, they stitched his service number into his collar. The 117 for him was like my basic training number of 236. The only difference is they didn't use my name in conjunction with the number and his remained part of his identify due to the nature of the Spartan program.

[@dustblowingman]

Johns Halo 5 Analysis is still one of my favourite videos. I remember being so excited for it and it was great.

[@patrickstevens2473]

dont believe anything those people tell you. remember infinite?

[@reNINTENDO]

I'm actually really impressed with Slipspace on the multiplayer side. I think the maps look fantastic, run well, and are super clear and readable (especially with super sampling on PC). The same can be said for the armor and Spartans as a whole. I won't deny the single player visuals aren't always stunning (though the art direction is consistently great), but I'm going to miss the use of in house tech either way.

[@Simte]

I undestand the complexity of game development nowadays and the idea behind UE but it really bugged me when they mentioned in the vidoc about being a tech company and a studio at the same time was to the detriment of the past games. Part of the Bungie "charm" was developing groundbreaking in-house tech, which while not perfect, provided the "Halo" feel, I mean how can you beat geniuses like Chris Butcher actual PhD students with a passion for game development working in those projects.

[@_-ghostfps-_8651]

Didn't them trying to develop "ground breaking tech" bite them in the ass with halo 2 ultimately leading to the game looking really flat and looking worse than halo ce in a lot of aspects?

[@Simte]

​@@_-ghostfps-_8651I agree with things you said don't get me wrong there were many issues with Blam, but most of Slipspace's failures was caused because of MS meddling and the vertical way in which development was operated, not because of the talent pool of devs. That culture is still the same, it's just a name change.

[@blackdoc6320]

I think the biggest thing with the demo is that it's just that, a small test demo and I think that really comes through when like you said it doesn't feel like a huge leap. I think once they design a map as a map and then there's actually some life added to it, it'll all come together. (Also side note, the awful anti-aliasing blur in Halo Reach gives me hardcore nostalgia and I love it)

[@DrunkencoderPayk]

as a former game dev.... the vertex precision diagnostic seems to be on point from what was going on there. the thing is, on nintendo ds we didnt even had floats, but rather 32Bit fixed point crap. i was a relative motivated but unexperienced developer back then and even i fixed the world coordinate problem :D its really hilarious. you actually just need to cut the map in pieces and use a transform action. in our case, we tried to fit each character and map piece as much into the fixed point precision range as possible before we transformed them to the place where it belongs. SOLVED by a junior dev on much less capable hardware.... i mean magnitudes less capable! (a graphic artist had to cut the maps, to be fair here and our maps were not open world, but that could be automated)

[@Jacob-mh3rp]

I’m also a dev. Wouldn’t you assume that they had some larger issue that hindered them from fixing it? Sure it *could* be negligence, but I find that making that assumption usually amounts to misunderstanding the problem.

[@DrunkencoderPayk]

@@Jacob-mh3rp yes, i would assume that as well. maybe the entire world was in a data structure where splitting the map was not trivial.

[@illreytito]

DF wants Halo on their favorite platform

[@TheVillainOfTheYear]

Why not Id Tech?

[@spiderz5898]

Cuz ID don't wanna share the engine for a good reason.

[@namelessalias0007]

It's way easier to hire people with experience in Unreal Engine. One of 343's biggest issues was the use of 18 month contracts. So it might take someone 6 months to learn the in-house engine and then they can only contribute to the game for 1 year.

[@samirjaved83]

😅

[@dovonovich]

Shortly after 25:00 a comment is made regarding how game visuals(?) "doesn't feel like a gigantic leap ...from where we have already been." *If Halo looks at all like their showcase, then for me, it'll be the best looking game I've ever seen.* Call me a simple man, but I refuse to believe any game can look as good as that PNW visual.

[@n0ah7]

HALO WILL NEVER BE ON PS UNTIL MICROSOFT EXIT THE CONSOLE AND GAME PASS BUSINESS. ENOUGH WITH THE COPING. 😭

[@JagsP95]

4th times the charm! After all 12 years should be enough time to learn and make a proper halo game!

[@IsraelWokoh]

That was a really awkward ad placement, I must say. Couldn't you have placed it straight after the DF intro?

[@Book_Of_Essence]

I came to the comments just to check if anyone else was bothered by that. Clumsy af

[@brandon_nope]

adhering to KZbin's new guidelines

[@IsraelWokoh]

@@brandon_nope what guidelines?

[@exit_libris]

It's giving "Microsoft, hire this man" energy

[@phant0mdummy]

Sh2 remake PC performance video needed.

[@memoryboy]

I'm guessing they're waiting on a patch release, the game really needs it.

[@wanshurst2416]

until dawn too. oh boy is it bad...

[@Liam_blake00]

@@wanshurst2416thisssss

[@Liam_blake00]

I’m dying for this to be released. I just want confirmation I’m not losing my mind and my pc is not the issue!

[@wanshurst2416]

@@Liam_blake00 my 7800x3d seems to bottleneck. my gpu is sitting at 50 % and 40 fps sometimes. i can't even activate framegeneration -.-

[@JoeyDoingThings]

This studio could remake Halo: Combat Evolved in Unreal 5, using all the new tricks, in under a year, and sell it for $40, and everyone would buy it. That’s something they should consider doing, and maybe they are?

[@FrasiersBurner]

A complete remake would be a full priced game, not $40. Look at Silent Hill 2 remake.

[@JoeyDoingThings]

@@FrasiersBurner I said they could sell it for $40, not saying that they will. I think they should do a remake in UR5, and put it on GamePass, and sell hard copies for $40, and they game would be well received, don’t you think?

[@josecangrejo3086]

Stuttering Engine 5

[@ArouzedLamp]

Imagine an AI tool of which analyzes assets of a game being used and recompiles the work flow into unreal engine. A rough outline on how to get started on a remake

[@lawyerlawyer1215]

This is my childhoods franchise ❤

[@AliSoojery-f9z]

I barely comment, but you guys are the OG on digital foundry for me. A video with John, Alex and Richard or a duo of these team members is always the best for me. All crew members are awesome though, haha.

[@JKSmith-qs2ii]

With those graphics we’re returning to 30FPS. I say we but heck I’m never going to play it.

[@shaecouture7480]

PC version wont be so no worries here.

[@KizaruB]

@@shaecouture7480but it’s UE5 so it’ll probably be unoptimized trash

[@DubElementMusic]

Digital Foundry, halo infinite maybe doesnt have lumen, but it has a stable image quality over all. i prefer this

[@Svante]

As long as 343 is involved, it will continue to be shit, no matter what engine they use. I wish that someone like ID, took over Halo, and used their own engine for it. Then we didn't have to suffer from Stutter Engine 5.

[@FunziesGuy]

Glad y’all did a direct on this. Infinites first week was fun but once the content ran out, it died. I feel like the market for co-op fps games has dried up recently as well so an awesome halo campaign would be great to have. Definitely pulling for a come back ❤

[@HiroKompleX]

I don't get the correlation of Halo going multi-platform because of its switch to Unreal. Gears and State of Decay are on unreal and NO ONE thinks those are going to PS5. XBOX needs to squash or confirm these rumors. The Xbox brand has enough damage

[@CondorCalabasas]

One of the dumbest takes Ive seen... Xbox needs more exclusives, but also they shouldnt have their #1 exclusive anymore? Uhhh what?

[@nightfire540]

Best video I’ve seen breaking this down yet. Great job 👏

[@omarcomming722]

Where're the Stutter Hill PC video x(

[@DewtehDew]

Alex is working on it.

[@TheSidorak12]

Never gonna forget how much Alex Bs'ed about how great the slipspace engine and halo infinite is when it came out, just to now be like yh shit was massively flawed.....no integrity with this guy, so fake

[@jdanielortega]

Halo Studios' Director of Production "PJSkitlles" says he couldn't work on a game that glorifies guns like CoD, BF, or RB6, and struggled a lot but ended up coming to the conclusion that Halo is pretty sci fi so he will be able to work safely within the Halo team. THIS is the problem. People who have issues with guns, working on an FPS (emphasis on the S) game, is 80% of the problem.

[@icedcapplord710]

Eh, there's a substance to Halo in terms of actually having a story and dense lore that aids the combat. Halo's always been sci-fi first despite shooting being the core gameplay but there's just a lot more to chew on with a Halo game in terms of narrative than something like CoD which is basically just "look how cool my guns are" and really hasn't tried in the story department for ages I don't think these people are actually sensitive to guns or else they wouldn't have applied to the studio that only makes shooters, but CoD and Battlefield just sound way less fun to work on and especially with a company like Activision, you're basically slaving away at that game your whole life because they don't make anything else nowadays in addition to Activision and especially EA just being really bad places to work in terms of environment

[@coolbrotherf127]

Yeah, they are so obsessed with DEI hires that they can't hire people who even enjoy working on shooters anymore. It's so clear Halo has been run by people with no passion for the franchise for a while and have forgotten that Halo became popular because it really appealed to young men because of its setting and themes. If the project leaders can't even relate to the audience who are the biggest Halo fans or implement the themes fans expect from the games, then it's just doomed to fail.

[@JobbyFraggle]

You don't have to include gun porn in a Halo game. Games that go over the top with adhering to realism with real gun models and allowing you to fawn over guns in model viewers are definitely glorifying guns. Halo doesn't need that and isn't about that, so I don't see a problem with what this person is saying.

[@ericd.9038]

​@@coolbrotherf127 I don't think y'all talking about DEI even know what it actually does💀Especially in a market like game development, and even moreso a company right in the middle of a big city like 343, there will be no shortage of great candidates who all take the same tests and pass the same interviews across every background/ethnicity.

[@leighsherval1023]

​@@coolbrotherf127uncool brother

[@coleG112]

My GOD I hope we get Halo 5's cutscenes and characters. They looked so incredibly perfect.

[@curryking1]

Time to peddle out the same excuses from digital foundry for 343 all over again except this time 10 years later 😂😂😂

[@Danieldialga]

Cant wait to experience traversal, shader and streaming stutter in halo too now.

[@DeLuciosX]

For me, it seems like the same problem solution technique from MS and 343(now Halo Studios) that didn't worked in the last 10 years. Throwing everything overboard, try new things and when that doesn't work out, try the same process again. And the timing is rather weird, HaloInfinite is nearly 3 years old. So normally, you should have something more than concept renders. And with rebranding the studio, it stinks heavily to a reboot in development. UnrealEngine at least means, an easier production for the game, since new staff doesn't need to learn how to work on their engine and UE is well documented, so most issues you can have in production, has most likely been already adressed by some other devs.

[@Heakz]

I forgot just how good halo 4 looked even now, and for xbox360 its even more impressive. It is a shame that for whatever reason they have been having problems with the technical side of development and have been unable to maintain that level of quality, hopefully this is a step in the right direction.

[@Dan_Jado]

The copium and hopium that we halo fans have is insane XD

[@Hybred]

I'm happy about the UE5 switch for the sake of workflow efficiency, but I disagree with people who are happy about it for graphical reasons. Don't get me wrong, it has gorgeous lighting / great potential, but the lighting is unstable due to performance limitations. I just got done playing Silent Hill 2 where reflections ghost, things are fuzzy/fizzly, theirs just so many artifacts and issues because hardware isn't quite ready for true real time lighting so we run these effects at super low resolutions then accumulate a ton of past frames to denoise them creating these graphical artifacts. I can fix most of these issues using commands, but then I lose more than half my FPS, and it gets to an unplayable level of performance. So yeah UE5 definitely can look gorgeous, especially in renders like this where they can max things out beyond what we'll have in game, YT compression hides the artifacts & their doing slow pans. But most UE5 games don't look good, I feel like the drawbacks don't outweigh the benefits. Which basically means we'll have a worse performing game with worse visuals in many aspects. So I'm happy because the Slipspace engine got ruined after Halo 5, they really butchered this once beautiful engine so I understand, and I can't wait to see Halo releases not take 6 years.

[@smeepUCA]

HALO gonna look nice on PS5 Pro 😊

[@Balc0ra]

This won't matter much unless they resolve the issues they had internally with their leadership. Many a former 343 employee has come forward after this reveal on how much they pushed for Unreal 5 even before Infinite. Even more so after they lost a few that knew slipspace in and out causing issues. But the main issue they claimed was that they had no creative freedom. What Pierre said was how you did it. No one could suggest anything, and it caused internal arguemts leading to loss of talent that left. If anything of that is true. Engine change won't do much.

[@colinmx.]

So renaming a bad studio will make a difference 😂

[@zetaknight2143]

I think it's interesting to see how internal work can be done, with Halo Studios moving to UE The coalition already obviously has experience and we can see lended internal work. some of the shots from the ice biome really seem like assets from Gears 5 were shared. The ice shaders look good in Halo though.

[@MadnessMan13]

Just came here to say Halo 3’s art design is timeless.

[@AFryingPan]

I find it better looking than this unreal demo.

[@MadnessMan13]

@@AFryingPan I agree with you. Graphical fidelity can only take you so far. A talented art team can make something look good for decades.

[@maizeman90]

I agree. Actually started playing H3 again Tuesday night and remain in awe as to how well it visually holds up. The baked lighting in that game is phenomenal, especially for back then.

[@EarthsSaviour]

For me, the music is a critical factor

[@stabinghobo57]

I have Zero faith that Microsoft can make Halo great again.