Sneak Peak at Halo3

[Koray]

http://www.bungie.net/images/news/inlineimages/AnniversaryMCNewsweekLrg.jpg

(Unofficial Screens Follow)

http://xs109.xs.to/xs109/06464/halo3_200611_19.jpg

http://xs109.xs.to/xs109/06464/halo3_200611_18.jpg

http://xs109.xs.to/xs109/06464/halo3_200611_17.jpg

http://xs109.xs.to/xs109/06464/halo3_200611_08.jpg

is it me, or do the textures look ____ty?

I mean, look at gears of war, 360 can produce AMAZING graphics. Wtf? I'm underwhelmed. Perhaps Bungie needs to ask Epic for some help.

[DimensionWarped]

The fanboys who never play real FPSs will still insist its the most beautiful awesome FPS ever. No matter how much the textures suck, no matter how much cooler, sexier, and more fun Crysis is, none of it matters.

I hate Halo.

EDIT:

Happy 1500th post!

[Koray]

Grats.

CrySis fully utilizes DX10, it's no comparison. Not even fair.

[DimensionWarped]

I don't care if its technologically fair. I'm just pissed off because Halo 2 is a very slow and painful FPS to play but fanboys still claim its the best thing since sliced bread.

[wesker]

Dude, I play TFC and that's a reeeally fast FPS.

But I still love Halo and Halo 2.

Call me crazy but I kinda like the not-so-spectacular graphics of Halo. It's always looked different while other games looked more amazing.

[TSS_Ty]

I don't think it's anywhere near the quality of the final product, and I'm pretty sure Bungie know that. There's some nasty tiling on grass textures, but I'm quite happy that it has a more Halo 1 look to it.

It'll probably be 10 to 12 months before it's released, so a lot can (and hopefully will) change in that time. It's a shame they're having to start hyping it early because of the PS3 release.

[1LT Worm]

In that first picture, MC's armor looks more like pottery. You'd think metal armor would be smooth.

[SefirothDB]

First screen looks worse than their E3 video, oh surprise If that's single player, bleh.

The others are multiplayer, yes? That has a pass, since they've got to make sacrifices in order to provide a smooth experience.

In both cases, early builds are rarely representative of the product quality - the final product is always better and Halo 3 won't be an exception. In fact I do expect Bungie to deliver much closer to their target render.

[opinion]That being said, HL > Doom 1/2 > Serious Sam >>> Halo.[/opinion]

[FuzzMaster]

I think it looks fantastic.

[tentril]

Fuzz: Unless you're kidding you have a bad perception of fantastic. As Koray said, Gears of War looked fantastic. This just looks good.

EDIT: The textures don't look much better than Halo 2.

[Aaron C-T]

The first one is just so.. wrong. There's no other way to say it really. It's quite possibly the worst texture job ever. All they did is go into Photoshop, fill the image then apply tons and tons of noise to it, then they grayscaled it and adjusted the contrast. And there's no conistency. His armor is shining as if it's slick, and his visor is also slick. Yet for some reason one has tons of indentations and the other doesn't. Then, compared to his armor, his gun is practically unscathed. For some reason they use bumpmaps on the background but the screws and the like are completely flat.

At least the multiplayer screens look decent, and they don't appear to over abuse bumps. Those aren't completely free of problems either though- check out those wheels/rims in that capture the flag shot.

Fuzz: You mean for the first screen? o.O?

[Carl Winslow]

That is DEFINITELY an incredibly lazy job. It seriously doesn't look any better than Halo 2. actually, it kinda looks worse the way the armor is done. I mean god, Bump-maps are becoming the lazy way to add "detail" which isn't anything worth mentioning.

[Eraysor]

To be honest, that looks pants. I've always said Halo and Halo 2 looked rubbish, and this pretty much continues the trend. Bungie aren't good with textures. Or environments for that matter, everything looks so blocky.

[DimensionWarped]

Actually, going with the trends on modern armor development, having ridges or bumps in armor is actually a good way to lessen the impact of projectiles. The ridge method is currently employed by tanks for deflecting... well, tank shells. Perfectly smooth surfaces are actually less effective than slightly bumpy ones for armor in reality.

I will agree that his normal/parallax/whatever bump method map looks terrible though.

[Kain]

Thus the ridges on Gothic armor, etc. Yea, it kinda looks like a high-tech plastic foam impact-absorbing armor. The way it's done, though, it looks like toy/recreational armor or some kind of mold. Mostly cause it's so shiny and looks like it's smoothed-over styrofoam (sp?).

[Aaron C-T]

DW: Sure, that may be true. But for crying out loud it looks bad. I mean.. just look at the black part of his hand holding the gun. The hell is that?

"I mean god, Bump-maps are becoming the lazy way to add "detail" which isn't anything worth mentioning."

For real, dude. Bump maps are supposed to enhance detail in textures. Not replace it. And you certainly aren't just supposed to use tons and tons of noise for no reason.