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Bungie Explains Halo 3's Resolution

Posted by Zonk on from the looks-pretty-good-to-me dept.

For some folks artisitic merit or financial success of Halo 3 isn't what's really important: it's about how many pixels are on the screen. After there were some complaints about the 'truth' of the game's HD nature Bungie posted a missive on their site clarifying the output process for Halo 3's visuals. "Halo 3 uses not one, but two frame buffers - both of which render at 1152x640 pixels. The reason we chose this slightly unorthodox resolution and this very complex use of two buffers is simple enough to see - lighting. We wanted to preserve as much dynamic range as possible - so we use one for the high dynamic range and one for the low dynamic range values. Both are combined to create the finished on screen image. This ability to display a full range of HDR ... gives our scenes ... a steady and smooth frame rate, which in the end was far more important to us than the ability to display a few extra pixels."

4 of 181 comments (clear)

  1. Re:So... by SpeedyRich · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Indeed; to actually render at 1080p, one needs a more powerful console - like a PS3, for example.

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    ## NB: Comment here
  2. Re:Wait for the PC version... by morari · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Of course, by the time it comes out for the PC it will look dated (like Halo 2) and the people with the high-end rigs will be playing something else. It already looks pretty dated to us PC gamers, who will be playing less generic, mediocre titles...
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    "He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
  3. LAME by DragonTHC · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    My PC does HD gaming!

    Real HD.

    Like 1080p HD and 720p HD. not just one wacky pseudo-resolution.

    I can play in any resolution I like.

    That doesn't mean I don't like the idea of the xbox 360 and halo3.

    I just think it's a total fucking cop-out for Microsoft to release their flagship game product on their flagship HD console product in anything less than full HD resolution. This hints at severe hardware limitations in the console hardwre.

    So, is the console capable of pushing enough frames out at full HD resolutions? What would happen if Halo3 ran one framebuffer at full HD? Would it stutter? Would it falter? Would it overheat the console and crash?

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    They're using their grammar skills there.
  4. Re:Fuck Upscaling by Ristol · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Disregard parent, turns out I just needed to get my eyes checked.
    -OP

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    What wouldn't Jesus do?!