Halo Infinite wasn’t running on an Xbox Series X for its gameplay reveal
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It turns out that the gameplay reveal ofHalo Infinitewasn’t actually running on anXbox Series X, but on a PC that’s “representative of the experience players will have on Xbox Series X”.
Halo InfiniteopenedMicrosoft’sXbox Games Showcasein impressive fashion, providing an in-depth look at Master Chief’s next adventure. The game is powered by developer 343 Industries’ new Slipspace engine, and will run at 60fps at 4K resolution.
However, a developer from 343 confirmed that the game was presented on a PC with similar specs to Microsoft’s new console in a press Q&A session, and wasn’t captured on Xbox Series X hardware.
This isn’t particularly surprising considering that video games are primarily developed on PC first before they’re optimized specifically for consoles. Halo Infinite is coming to PC when it launches, too, so showing footage from the PC version of the game that’s still in development makes sense.
Rough landing
It does raise some interesting questions, though. Some fans have commented on a couple of technical issues that stood out during the game’s short demo. Pop-in was present when driving around in the Warthog for example, and some textures appeared noticeably flat.
Seeing pop-in was rather surprising considering the Xbox Series X should be able to load and stream assets on its super-fast SSD drive without a hitch. But maybe this issue will be eliminated when the game is running natively on Microsoft’s next-gen console.
343 Industries has also confirmed thatray tracingwill be added after launch, which has the potential to add more realistic lighting, reflections and shadows to the game. The developer has promised to evolve Halo Infinite over time, and this would be the first update of many.
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Halo Infinite will launch alongside the Xbox Series X when it releases during “Holiday 2020”. The game is included as part ofXbox Game Passand is also playable onXbox OneandWindows 10PCs.
ViaPCGamesN
Adam was formerly TRG’s Hardware Editor. A law graduate with an exceptional track record in content creation and online engagement, Adam has penned scintillating copy for various technology sites and also established his very own award-nominated video games website. He’s previously worked at Nintendo of Europe as a Content Marketing Editor and once played Halo 5: Guardians for over 51 hours for charity. He is now an editor at The Shortcut.
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