New ‘Halo 5: Guardians’ Footage Released, Shows Dynamic Resolution Scaling In Works
Halo 5: Guardians fans who have been clamoring for some new footage of the game don’t have too longer to wait. Developer 343 Industries released a brief gameplay capture of the upcoming Halo series entry today via YouTube, showing off a small sample of solo campaign footage.
What’s exciting about this is it’s the first time players will get the chance to see the Elite home world within the Halo universe. The campaign footage shown from Halo 5 is titled “Sword of Sanghelios,” and it gives us a clue that the Elite homeworld is, well, called Sanghelios. The footage shows Agent Locke and his team of Spartans moving through the areas in the campaign, showcasing the verticality and openness that Halo 5 is looking to bring to the series.
In a post released with the video, however, the team at 343 Industries finally talked about resolution and framerate in Halo 5. The developer explained that while 60 frames-per-second is paramount to the Halo 5: Guardians experience, resolution is going to take a backseat in order to enable the 60 FPS gameplay.
“Framerate is king for us on Halo 5. Gameplay is defined by the way that players experience the game from controller to screen. We want the connection between you and the game to feel seamless and instantaneous. From the beginning, we set ourselves the goal of delivering consistent 60fps gameplay across all modes of play. Delivering on this goal meant re-engineering the gameplay systems at the core of our engine. It required sustained commitment from the entire team as we continually optimized the experience, and the difference it makes to the play experience is immediate and obvious.
“60fps gameplay is supported by a new progressive resolution system that allows us to dynamically scale the resolution at which we render the game (up to 1080p) based on the needs of the scene. This enables us to deploy resources where they have most impact across a diverse series of experiences throughout the game while delivering the most visually stunning Halo game ever.”
This isn’t the first game to feature the dynamic resolution scaling on Xbox One, however, Halo 5: Guardians is the most high-profile first-party title from a Microsoft studio to be forced to employ this technique in order to hit the standard 1080p resolution, albeit briefly. For most ardent fans of the Halo series, the fact that the resolution scales isn’t going to be a huge deal, as they’d rather have the locked 60fps. However, the idea of Microsoft’s flagship title being unable to reach a consistent 1080p, 60fps presentation on their own platform is another piece of ammo for Sony and PC players who tout the power of their platforms over the Xbox One.
What do you think of the new gameplay? Excited for Halo 5: Guardians coming out at the end of October? Upset about the dynamic framerate scaling being used in Halo 5: Guardians? Sound off in the comments below.
[Image via YouTube, 343 Industries]
