360 Maxed Out By Halo 2.5 – Bungie Forced To Drop Resolution To Non HD 640p
For those noticing the obscene amounts of jaggies in Halo 2.5, it’s because it’s not running at an HD resolution.
Instead it’s being rendered at an SD resolution of 640p and then scaled to 720p introducing further aliasing.
Here’s the low down:
one exemple of halo3 edge (i tested several edge with the same result) on my 1080p TV with 1:1 mapping (Samsung “just scan” mode)
http://upsilandre.free.fr/images/Halo3nativereso.jpg
it’s the same result that Perfect dark (ratio 16/27 for 1080 display or 8/9 ratio for 720 display)
i tested approximately sixty X360 games (and lot of PS3 games too ), all are 720p except two 1080p (VT3 and NBA street), two 600p (PGR3 and Tomb Raider) and Two 640p (Perfect Dark and Halo3)EDIT: the context of the preceding Halo3 edge photo
http://upsilandre.free.fr/images/Halo3nativeresocontext.jpg
it’s an edge of the sniper rifle
It looks like Halo 2.5 really is the graphical peak of 360′s power whilst PS3 continues to pump out jaw-dropping graphics in the shape of Heavenly Sword, Lair, Killzone 2, MGS4, GT5P, Uncharted, Ratchet & Clank etc.
Ah yes. Very technical… I like the new approach. Kind of contradictory though. Before you review the game, you say the graphics suck and its “HALO 2.5″. Now you say the graphics are maxing out the 360. If they were so bad, it wouldt be maxed out would it? I mean, Gears of War is the best looking game available on any system right now, and that didnt even max out the 360…. It was an interestig attrempt though. So more conclusive evidence might help next time.
On a different subject, who else thinks its funny that 3 of the 4 games most likely to be nominated for Game of the Year (Based on reviews, early previews and previous awards at E3) are exclusive to the XBOX 360… Despite the horrible “reviews” on SDF, it looks lik XBOX is going to continue its streak of great software…..
HALO 3
BioShock
Mass Effect
Assassins Creed
And on a seperate note, I notice this article didnt mention Unreal Tournament 3 in its list of “awesome looking” PS3 games. Maybe its because it was just announced that there wont be cross plaform play on UT3 (PS3 vs PC) because the underpowered PS3 couldnt handle it. lol Maybe you PS3rd place fanboys can buy Shadowrun and see what cross platfrom play feels like….
IN other news halo sold more than any ps3 game in one day.
You’ve been talking about Halo 2.5 for awhile but what about halo 3?
Its funny how you go so far just to make this game look as if it was the crappiest game ever made, and it outsold everything Sony has every offered. You have made an even bigger fool of yourself…..I know, I didnt think it was possible either.
I don’t know why we keep spending so much time arguing the fact that Halo 2.5 sucks ass and is the worst game never released. I’m having so much fun struggling to control the dragon in Lair on my Sony Playstation 3 George Foreman Grill. Halo 3. Whats a Halo 3??? Let me pop in Heavenly Sword. Ohhh pretty. Pwned. I just beat it by the time you read this. I love Cell. Sony will one day rule the world! The Playstation 4 is going to combine the Cell processor with the Emotion Engine to create Utter Failure and it will play Blu Ray, UMD, Mini Disc, and Beta. Microsoft Game Over. SDF Victory.
http://www.joystiq.com/2007/09/25/halo-3-split-screen-wastes-16-9-hdtv-edges/
Welcome to the HD era of gaming …
“Welcome to the HD era of gaming … ”
Hey, at least we have games to play.
Nice use of the word whilst. Reminds me of Hot Fuzz. “Have you ever fired 2 guns whilst jumping through the air?”
How can you ‘Finish the fight” if you cannot even begin it ??
http://forums.xbox.com/1/15792880/ShowPost.aspx#15792880
http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=13193500&postRepeater1-p=1
“Hey, at least we have games to play.”
.. wait a minute do you mean that your Halo3 DVD actually works ??!!?! .. you lucky bum !
Look, graphics alone don’t make consoles sale. That theory has been proven time and time again and if you think the PS3 is different then you are dead wrong. Thats why the Wii is out selling the PS3. Its cheap, and has lots of fun games to play. Games are meant to be played, not to watch.
can you stop calling it halo 2.5? thats fucking annoying. now back to playing halo 3
um… i had to join just so i could leave a comment on this article.
did anyone else notice that it isnt even halo 3?!?!? look at the sniper scope. the scope in halo 3 shows exactly what you are looking at. the scope in the pic about is from halo 1.
this HAS to be a joke site.
WHERE ARE THE PS3 NEWS MOTHER FUCKERS?!?!!?!?
Enjoy your 12-15 game that u can finish in 2 days them come back and realize that you pay $130.00 for a game that u can finish in one after noon
i will. actually i got the standard edition for $60. single player is cool multiplayer is awesome.
absolutely i will enjoy it
i paid extra because i want to show off that i got artwork and backstory dvd’s as well as a kickass statue of master chief
also near infinite time shooting people online
but forget our slightly inferior graphics, you have such great games like ratchet, mgs gt5p and uncharted, let alone final fantasy
oh waaait
you all paid 750 dollars for a console with 2 games?
go love your left hand
These assclown motherfuckers deleted my post. Fuck this place. Have fun Sony Fagboys.
Want to see something funny?
As a person who owns all three current gen systems, I can easily list out the major problems with all three.
The 360 has piss-poor quality issues and has so many different SKUs its ridiculous, XBL is great, but should be free, and its slightly costly.
The PS3 is far to costly for a gaming system, it lacks major “must have” games at the moment, PSN is free, but is lacking against XBL, and now it loses hardware based backward compatibility for software based BC.
The Wii lacks HD graphics (which do make a difference), its online is more or less a joke at this point, it lacks many hardcore aimed games (We need more Metroid Prime types than more Mario Party types! A balance would be great), Its “multimedia” functions are weak, and they need to cement more quality 3rd party support for the future.
There, I can look at my systems critically. But you know what? Each ane every one of them offers something different, unique, and great. All of them have great games, and all of them will have a library that fills out and offers something for everyone. No one system is flawless, and looking at any like they are is pure crap.
Gaming is about having fun and enjoying games, not trying to “prove” your system is the best, as best is opinion anyway.
Seriously, this site is a joke. Let it go, go play whatever games you enjoy on whatever system you like, and have fun.
“Its funny how you go so far just to make this game look as if it was the crappiest game ever made, and it outsold everything Sony has every offered. ”
How about Gran Turismo 3 – 14.8 million sold
Compared to a max number of 12 million 360′s sold, and not all people will get halo 3… it doesn’t beat everything sony has ever offered.
I noticed that ever since Halo 3 came out this site is either not posting as often, or just posting news about “Halo 2.5″. Does this strike anyone else as odd?
WHERE THE GOD DAMN PS3 NEWS!!!!
I thought this site is about honest good review about PS3 !!!!!! WELL…… WHERE IT IS!!!!!!
Maybe there’s nothing good about PS3 so you guys decdied to bash about xbox 360, mmmmmm interesting.
Man this site made me wanna buy Xbox 360, thanks I’ll buy it tomorrow and get Halo 3 oh sry Halo 2.5.
Where is the PS3 news? The PS3 is so uninteresting and boring that they have to concentrate on the 360 to fill the news section. It’s waht happens with a console without a single good triple A exclusive and some bad ports out at this moment.
i just dont get this… like most of the poeple have commented on this site, where is the ps3 news, the front page is filled with “halo 2.5″ lol seriously SDF you guys are really running out of “awesomely truthful” things to say about the ps3 or what, cause this site isnt delivering.
@PS3UP
“Enjoy your 12-15 game that u can finish in 2 days them come back and realize that you pay $130.00 for a game that u can finish in one after noon”
I bet those people will enjoy the game. Since they can afford a $130 game, they can certainly afford Live and play online with their new game. Anyways, if you don’t like it, don’t buy it. There really is no reason to whine about a game if you’re not going to play it or buy it. But I guess whining here about stuff you don’t really care about will make you feel better for spending all that money on a rival system that has so much potential but currently no way to deliver it to you (aka. games).
btw. SpruceCaboose Wii also lacks multichannel (>2 channels) audio, since it can only deliver stereo and mono. I’d say that’s quite bad too… and no DVD movie playback.
SpruceCaboose, I appreciate some rationality on this site but I have to take issue with one thing you said:
“so many different SKUs its ridiculous”
Xbox 360 SKUs:
-Core
-Premium
-Elite
That’s three. Four if you count the Halo 3 edition, which is basically just an airbrushed Premium and only available in limited quantities. Same goes for the promotional Simpsons units produced solely as competition prizes.
PS3 SKUs:
-20GB (admittedly phased out in the US and canada as well as never being released in Australia, but it exists)
-60GB
-80GB
There are rumours of a 40gig model, as well as a model with a HDD in excess of 100 gigs intended to target the media-hungry Japanese market.
If you’re gonna pick on a console for having a “ridiculous” amount of SKUs, spread the love around.
Can’t disagree entirely with quality issues, but Microsoft have sunk a lot of money into ensuring this is minimally inconvenient (of course it would have been nice if they put that money into preventing the issues in the first place), and hopefully the new heatsinks (present in the Halo 3 edition 360′s, incidentally) will go a long way to improving these breakdown issues.
Source : http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=topnews&cid=12821
Quote from Bungie:
“You Owe me 80p!
One item making the interwebs rounds this week was the scandalous revelation that Halo 3 runs at “640p†which isn’t even technically a resolution. However, the interweb detectives did notice that Halo 3’s vertical resolution, when captured from a frame buffer, is indeed 640 pixels. So what gives? Did we short change you 80 pixels?
Naturally it’s more complicated than that. In fact, you could argue we gave you 1280 pixels of vertical resolution, since Halo 3 uses not one, but two frame buffers – both of which render at 1152×640 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, combined with our advanced lighting, material and postprocessing engine, gives our scenes, large and small, a compelling, convincing and ultimately “real†feeling, and at 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. Making this decision simpler still is the fact that the 360 scales the
“almost-720p†image effortlessly all the way up to 1080p if you so desire.
In fact, if you do a comparison shot between the native 1152×640 image and the scaled 1280×720, it’s practically impossible to discern the difference. We would ignore it entirely were it not for the internet’s propensity for drama where none exists. In fact the reason we haven’t mentioned this before in weekly updates, is the simple fact that it would have distracted conversation away from more important aspects of the game, and given tinfoil hats some new gristle to chew on as they catalogued their toenail clippings.”
To me it does make sense, therefore you lose.
Bungie =1, Internet+SDF = 0
Meanwhile, in other sony news:
MICROSOFTMICROSOFTMICROSOFTMICROSOFT. Waaaaaaaaaaa!!!!
how about some actual news about sony instead of constant ms lies and complaints? Just wondering….
fuck all of your couches
With about a dozen sites already dedicated to get the latest and greatest news about the PS3 this site seems only to exist to post truly insane and downright offensive news all in the name of getting a rise out of 360 fans.
It seems to be working.
But regarding the topic at hand, here’s a question for you 360 loyalists: If a third generation game like Halo 3 can’t manage 720p what does that say about the future of your favorite console?
Sony continues to talk about their 10-year plan. What is Microsoft’s plan for the future of the 360? When 2010 rolls around will they drop the 360 like it never happened like they did with the Xbox 1? At least Sony is still supporting the PS2 and probably will for another 2 years because it’s a good system with a HUGE install base. MS just seemed to give up on the first system like it was an experiment thereby forcing people to upgrade whether they wanted to or not.
I’m not suggesting that the PS3 is the be all, end of all of machines or that Sony is doing everything so much better than the Microsoft. But, they do seem to have a better plan for the future of the system. If consoles came out every two years I would claim 360 the winner right here. But with an average life cycle of 5 to 6 years getting a console is truly an investment that you make for the future.
via Bungie.net
“One item making the interwebs rounds this week was the scandalous revelation that Halo 3 runs at “640p†which isn’t even technically a resolution. However, the interweb detectives did notice that Halo 3’s vertical resolution, when captured from a frame buffer, is indeed 640 pixels. So what gives? Did we short change you 80 pixels?
Naturally it’s more complicated than that. In fact, you could argue we gave you 1280 pixels of vertical resolution, since Halo 3 uses not one, but two frame buffers – both of which render at 1152×640 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, combined with our advanced lighting, material and postprocessing engine, gives our scenes, large and small, a compelling, convincing and ultimately “real†feeling, and at 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. Making this decision simpler still is the fact that the 360 scales the
“almost-720p†image effortlessly all the way up to 1080p if you so desire.
In fact, if you do a comparison shot between the native 1152×640 image and the scaled 1280×720, it’s practically impossible to discern the difference. We would ignore it entirely were it not for the internet’s propensity for drama where none exists. In fact the reason we haven’t mentioned this before in weekly updates, is the simple fact that it would have distracted conversation away from more important aspects of the game, and given tinfoil hats some new gristle to chew on as they catalogued their toenail clippings.”
@ SpruceCaboose
Thank you for visiting this site, your completely unbiased view is exactly what this site needs!! I realize it’s a joke site, but ppl have got to realize that each system has it’s own strengths and weaknesses, no system is perfect!!
MattAng
Even if Halo 3 isn’t technically HD, it still beats most HD games and still looks great.
AHA! What was that about ‘mighty PS3 = HD’? *LOL*
COD4 (PS3) 1024×600p 2xAA
Uncharted (PS3) 960×1080 in 1080p
Def Jam: Icon (PS3) 1152×648
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (PS3) 1920×1080 FullHD
Transformers (PS3) 960×1080
Pirates of the Caribbean (PS3 720p): 960×720
Pirates of the Caribbean (PS3 1080p): 780×1080
VF5 (PS3 1080p): 1024×768
http://www.gamebrink.com/blog/2007/11/15/most-hd-game-resolutions-not-even-720p-let-alone-1080p
COD4 has better graphics than halo3 and that didnt max out graphical power lol …..