Yes! Weekly Bungie Update: Today!

can you play halo on the PC at over 30fps, or was that a really stupid question? =]

well, it was a very shitty port

but yes, like any modern PC game

didnt seem to be able to change the fps from 30 but i changed it to somehting called VSYNC...and i have to admit i do a see a differnce - much smoother

vsynch prevent frames from being dropped if your fps goes above what your monitor is set to

ie. your monitor refresh rate is set to 85hz.  the game will do its best to match that.  hence, the word synch

it DOES cut down on visual anomalies (tearing, jaggies), but will run slower than leaving it off

More info.   I think it\'s from Game Informer mag.

HALO 2 intro
In an office park in Redmond, Washington sits a nondescript building, not too different from the countless utilitarian structures that dot the landscape of suburban areas around the country. It does not stand apart from any of the buildings that surrounds it, and its white exterior is so familiar and unassuming that few would give it a second glance. On the inside, however things are a bit different.

Posters for various videos games, comic books, and sci-fi movies cover the walls, and desktops are covered with the plastic likenesses of characters such as spider-man, hellboy and a certain mysterious space marine.This is Bungie Studios, home to the xbox\'s most anticipated title, Halo 2. The crew at Bungie is very excited and devoted to their game, and are completely aware of the feverish buzz around it.

They know that any scrap of information, however small will be eagerly devoured by halo fans around the world. Because of the intense scrutiny Halo 2 factoids recieve from the gaming public, Bungie is reticent to dole out too much. But eager to get some new information out to the public, they had some news to share with us, which should make halo fans quiver with delight. The most exciting aspect of halo 2 is the online multiplayer via xbox live, and they revealed the process they used to ensure that halo 2 will be the absolute best online experiance it can be. Oh yeah, and they let us play it, too. But more on that later.

BOOTCAMP
"Multiplayer games are really important to us" says Bungie\'s Chris Butcher, the lead networking engineer. "But we haven\'t done an internet-scale twitch-based action game before." According to Butcher, an online multiplayer mode at one point existed for the original Halo. However, it was scrapped because Bungie didn\'t have enough time to fully develop it before the game was scheduled to ship. With halo2, it is even more critical that things are done right.

When dealing with a title so hotly anticipated, the public will show little mercy if it falls short in any area. To make sure this doesn\'t happen, Bungie initiated the halo 2 online alpha test. "Obviously, you can\'t go live with an xbox live game unless you\'ve tested it," said Butcher. The alpha test was a five-week trial to make sure that Halo 2\'s online features functioned in the real world. Because of confidentiality reasons, only microsoft employees were able to participate, and only 1,000 were chosen.

In order to qualify, candidates for the alpha had to be full-time microsoft employees with broadband and an xbox at home. They also had to be spread out all over the country to ensure that location wasn\'t an issue when playing online. These testers were all given a version of halo 2\'s online mode to play at home in order to collect data on how it performed on the real xbox live network. Since there are several different types of broadband connections (cable, dsl, T1, etc), Bungie needed to ensure that its game worked smoothly in all types of network situations.

Gigabytes of data were collected on halo 2\'s online performance in as many different configurations as possible. The company wants Halo 2 to be as fun and fluid online as playing the original game in split-screen or system link, even in a situation where players are divided between the coasts and have wildly different internet connections. Several Bungie employees confessed to us that they are driven to create a great online title because they love crushing their friends.

Killing your buddies, they say, should feel no different online than it feels when they are sitting right next to you. It should feel great. The results of the test, according to bungie were quite positive and helpful. Max Hoberman, multiplayer design lead, summarized the collected data for us.

"We gathered every piece of data you can imagine, from usage patterns to individual network performance to individual player performance to automatic bug reporting, "Our testers collected so much data it took several weeks just to sort through it all! That kind of data is only being collected for the alpha testing process - so don\'t worry, we won\'t be collecting info on how you stayed up \'til 5 a.m for three weeks solid when the game ships." When the test was completed, the participants were required to return their copies of the game, so don\'t go searching ebay to find some illicit bootleg.

 "Once we had gathered all the data that we needed we pulled the plug, causing a lot of tears," jokes Hoberman. "Lots of these were tears of joy from spouses glad to finally get their significant others back!" Although the testers were sad to give up their beloved games, all at Bungie feel that the exercise was a success Hoberman described how feedback was collected and what people had to say: "We hosted a set of newsgroups for the alpha and encouraged testers to post anything and everything.

 I actually read every single post, over a thousand of them. Topics included bugs and network issues, gameplay questions and comments, and of course, feature requests. We kept track of all of this without giving much away. You\'d be amazed by how careful we are, even within the company, even with other game studios within the company, to not let any secrets out!

 Judging from the feedback on the newsgroup, everyone that participated in the alpha had an amazing time. One comment I saw often was that they liked that the game felt like a natural extension of the original-like an old friend, only with a new look, a clean new haircut, and a fat wad of cash."

TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION
With a game like halo 2, a lot of info gets tossed around. The following is a list of things that have been mentioned by Bungie and are believed to be true or very, very likely.
The setting is earth: What is known about the story so far is that it deals with a covenant invasion of our planet.

However, a second halo is also involved so we have a feeling master chief will be heading back into space. Bungie has stated that there will be low-gravity environments, so space travel seems more likely.

The covenant will be playable: Elites will be a playable class in multiplayer. We don\'t know if any other covenant forces are playable, nor do we know if there will be more than one class of human to choose from.

There will be more vehicles: The warthog, scorpion tank, and the ghost are returning, along with some new rides. There will be several variants of the warthog for different uses, along with more covenant vehicles. The banshee is definitely back, and rumor has it aliens have added a new tank to their arsenal.
More enemies are headed your way: The covenant has added at least two new types of warriors: the brutes and the prophets.

The brutes are huge, gorilla-esque warriors, while the prophets are floating psychics who are expected to be morelike generals than actual warriors, as they look pretty frail . Word is there may be even more enemies, including a huge beast capable of flipping over a warthog! whether this makes it into the final version or not remains to be seen, but it would certainly be pretty sweet.

There will be more multiplayer modes: Aside from the typical deathmatch modes of slayer and team slayer, capture the flag, assault, oddball, and king of the hill will be back for xbox live, split screen, and system link, online co-op is also likely

BASIC TRAINING
The alpha test version of halo 2 consisted of three different multiplayer maps, three game types, and just enough of the actual gameplay mechanics to keep testers coming back, but not so much that they lost sight of the point of the test and commented solely on gameplay issues.

 Not featured in the alpha were some of halo 2\'s highly touted new features, such as dual-wielding. Interactive environments , another mechanic has announced for halo 2, were only included in a very basic form certain objects in the alpha could be pushed around by shooting them, andeven forced off ledges.

The final version, we have been assured, will feature environments that are much more interactive and destructible,. and dual-wielding willbe included as well. The alpha did, on the other hand, contain a few of the features that halo fans have been drooling for. Obviously, the warthog made a return, and it was joined by drivable ghosts and banshees.

 Both of these airborne vehicles feature a new boost function:by holding down the left trigger , the engines flare and send you screaming across the level at unheard-of speeds. Certain multiplayer maps in halo took a long time to cross on foot, and still felt oversized when driven across. These boards can now be traversed in no time, thanks to this new, rocket-assisted flight.

While the exact number of maps that will be included in halo 2\'s multiplayer is still unknown, we were shown three, each with its own distinct look and feel.Obviously, many more original maps will be included, and multiplayer environment lead Chris Carney admitted that fans are hoping for the return of some popular favorites, especially blood gulch.

The inclusion of these classic maps is being considered. Carney, who joined bungie after studying architecture, was happy to show us around the levels he helped create. The first level is called lockout, and is a very small map that is tall and narrow. When describing this stage, he explained not only how it was laid out, but hinted at how it fit into the story of the halo universe.

A multi-tiered concrete structure built into a rock outcropping, Carney said this type of structure was typical of the forerunners-the mysterious, unseen race credited with the creation of the halo.

Since bungie has stated that halo 2 takes place primarily on earth, the news of areas created by the forerunners is certainly intriguing. The forerunner structure in lockout is a central tower with a ouple of satellites attached by narrow bridges. Each area of the structure features multiple levels, which can be traversed by ramps and ladders, as well as a new energy elevator contraption.

Stepping into the swirling energy beam lifts the player up like a strong air current. Not only is this a welcome change from the original halo\'s ladders because it is easier to navigate, but it can also be used in combat. Unlike the ladders, which leave players vulnerable to attack, firing one\'s weapon is possible while riding the beam between floors.

When used properly, the beam becomes an interesting and deadly combat tactic. Lockout was designed as a small map for small games, such as one-on-one or two-on-two. But an unexpected side effect of the level design is that it makes for incredibly fierce matches when more players are involved. Our first round of halo 2 was a classic game of team slayer on this map.

However, rather than the two teams and four players we were accustomed to from our experiance with the original halo\'s split-screen, we found ourselves playing a game with four teams and 14 players! red, blue, green, and gold teams squared off against each other in a fast-paced fragfest unlike anything we expected. Naturally, we stood no chance against bungie\'s group of fanatical gamers; they knew the map, they knew the weapons, and they knew we didn\'t.

We were unprepared for how intense halo 2\'s multiplayer is, and found ourselves getting wiped out every 15 seconds or so. The second level featured in the alpha test is named burial mounds.


A medium-sized map, burial mounds is a barren, desert-themed map which prominently features a military base and huge twisted pieces of metal affectionately referred to as "the ribs" because of their resemblance to the skeleton of a long-dead giant. This board stands out in the halo universe because it could fit so well in the star wars universe.

The sandy, junk-strewn wasteland is reminiscent of tatooine. Burial mounds feels like it was custom-designed for the game type we played on it:Assault. In Assault, one team plays defense. The offense team must carry a bomb into the defense\'s base to score a point.


The two sides switch at regular intervals and the first team to three points wins. The defenders, base has a nice little perk to dissuade attackers; two mounted turrets. Much like the guns on the back of the warthog, those on the base can be activated with a click of the x button and spew out unlimited ammo. When playing defense on this map, we were pretty happy when we mounted the turret on the side of the base and started laying down a heavy suppresing fire.

We may have even cackled a bit when we mowed down a couple red soldiers. But then we saw a light moving rapidly towards us. By the time we figured out it was a rocket, it was too late. Since the pace of this match was not a frantic as lockout, we had a little time to actually appreciate some of the smaller details. It was on this map that we realized that we had picked up one of the new weapons:The battle rifle.

 This improved version of halo\'s assault rifle packed a bit more punch and featured a nifty scope. We also noticed that even though this version was a test, character models seemed to sport more details. This basic version of the game points to the final build being visually staggering. After our team lost the assault game in the burial mounds, we were treated to a final level called waterworks.

An absolutely huge map, waterworks feels like the successor to the infamous blood gulch. Indeed, the basic setup is with a base on each end. However, a couple of things set it apart from blood gulch. First, the entire area is inside a massive cave. Endless stone walls surround the entire area, and the main light source is a huge hole in the ceiling.

The second difference is the giant alien machine in the center of the level. It stretches from floor to ceiling, and is filled with plenty of nooks and crannies to explore. Whereas blood gulch tended to limit combat to the ends of the canyon, the giant structure in the middle of the waterworks adds another combat hotspot in the middle of the map.

The alien machine in the underground cavern leads us to a bit of speculation: The structure seems to be forerunner technology, but the sheer size of the cave leads us to believe that it takes place on earth.

Does this mean that the forerunners, creators of the halo rings, visited our planet years ago? We didn\'t have time to search for more clues while we were being shot, but what we\'ve seen of this level so far certainly makes us wonder. With its two bases and centrally located choke point, Waterworks is the ideal map for capture the flag.

 It also is the map that features the most vehicles out of the three: warthogs, banshees, and ghosts are ll accessible. While using a ghost or banshee in multiplayer is a great thrill (especially for those who haven\'t played halo pc), the danger of doing so is quickly learned. Fly to the enemies side and get shot down, and suddenly your foe has possession of you vehicle along with their own.

Our peek at these three multiplayer maps is only a brief glimpse of what is to come in halo 2. The single-player campaign is still shrouded in mystery, but we have a feeling the online play will be this title\'s biggest draw. Based on our time with the multiplayer mode, it seems obvious that halo 2 will be the top xbox live title the very day that it hits.

You can be certain that we will be online on the first possible day. And that night , and the following morning, and many, many days to follow.

INTERVIEW WITH "CHAR" (BEST ALPHA TEST PLAYER)
Ready to get charred? During the alpha test, one player quickly rose to the top of the pack. Going by the screen name "char," this tester kicked so much booty it inspired Bungie to sponser a "death to char" contest. He took some time out to talk about the game and his amazing killing skills.

Q. How did you manage to kick so much butt while playing halo 2? Were you a huge halo player?

A. The day xbox launched [november 15th,2001], a friend and I sat down and played through co-op. we started around 2 a.m, and I think it took us about 10 hours to finish. Needles to say, I showed up late to work the next day. I quickly organized a weekly game on campus for friends and coworkers. It\'s grown and evolved since then, but we\'re still getting together every week and fragging each other into the late hours of the night over two years later.

Q. What advice would you give someone who wants to improve their game?

A. Start with the single-player campaign. You\'ll get basic skills from that and a good understanding of the physics, weapons, power-ups, and so forth.

In multiplayer, pay attention to the environment (which weapons and power-ups are missing), evaluate your targets (soft targets like a wounded player running away are easy, hard targets like the guy with the battle rifle and overshield standing on the health pack might be better to avoid), pick the right weapon (plasma is good against shields, for instance), and engage or keep looking.

 There re so many considerations, like your weapon loadout, health, shields, position on the map and how these compare to your opponent. It\'s really just about quickly evaluating your situation, deciding how and when to hit, and moving on to the next target.

Q. Tell us about your alpha test stats.

A. Bungie didn\'t share information about player stats that I really wanted to see. I\'d love to know my overall kill/death ratios(as well as per-map and per gametype), kills per minute, accuracy with different weapons, and other stats. I do know that I regulary had high kill/death and kills/minute ratios. After playing the alpha for two weeks, I had a weekend with over 3,000 kills in under 20 hours played.

Q. Without incriminating yourself, what can you tell us about who you are and what you do at microsoft?
A. I get paid to design API\'s for TabletPC and other aspects of tablet as a platform, but I think you could make a strong case for me being an ancillary halo and xbox hardware tester.

Q. Based on what you have played so far, how is halo 2 an improvment on the original?

A. A lot of features we\'re all waiting for, like dual-wielding SMGs or vehicle takeovers, weren\'t in the alpha. I can\'t wait to see all that stuff implemented in the final game. It looks like there is a lot of effort going into balancing weapons and desiging maps. In the alpha, the pistol has been replaced with the battle rifle.

 It doesn\'t have quite the range and accuracy combinationthat the pistol does, but it leads to more balance. Some of the new maps, like burial mounds, are manifestations of pure genius There are also obvious engine improvments. Sounds, textures, and lighting are all stunning. I\'m going to need to upgrade my home theater setup to take full advantage of everything this game has.

Q. Tell us about the various competitions during the alpha.
A. There were weekly competitions organized by bungie during the alpha. Prizes were awarded for various things like "most kills" or "most deaths by falling off a map" one of these competitions was "death to char," and (aptly) had a prize for whoever killed me the most.

It was pretty silly what some people were willing to do to get kills. I had people on my own team betray me in CTF games (I really hope those people lost a kill for that.) People piled into every game I played that weekend in an attempt to get kills-it was a zoo. I would see two players shooting at each other, and as soon as I engaged them, they would both turn on me instead of trying to finish each other off. I think the best example of how my online experiance changed was a CTF game I was in during the competition.

The teams were pretty balanced and my team got off to a 2-0 lead. Suddenly, everyone switches off my team and I now have one teammate and nine opponents. My valiant teammate and I got stomped shortly afterwards. I do have to tip my hat to pun1sher (the winner of the competition) for killing me 33 times that weekend.

Q. Did you win a good prize for being the top player during the test?
A. Besides being the prime target in every game I played after that? Actually, I did receive a very nice halo hoodie. It\'s made appearances at our weekly halo games to many "oohs" and "aahs."

Q. After halo 2 ships to retail, do you think you\'ll still be a top player?

A. There are many people who are better than me at various aspects of the game. Certain people are better snipers, some are wizards with grenades, some are great with vehicles, and some are flag running masters. I\'d be very surprised if there aren\'t people who are better than me across the board when halo 2 goes live.

Q. What are you looking forward to most about the final version of halo 2?
A. This may sound odd, but I\'m definitely looking forward to the campaign-I\'ve always been a big fan of Bungie\'s games since Pathways Into Darkness, and I\'d be surprised if halo 2 didn\'t continue the tradition of incredible storytelling. What I\'m most looking forward to is being able to play against the rest of the world, though. It\'s fun playing against your friends, but the biggest rush will be taking your group of friends and playing against another team and seeing how you stack up!

There wasn\'t anything really meaty in that GI article. Lots of the information given has already been confirmed, or at least hinted at... And the new information that was there, was kinda weak. I\'m looking foward to the magazine article that will cover HALO 2\'s single player campaign though. I think that\'s what everybody\'s really concerned about.

Fifteenth update, originally posted at Halo Center

Friday, April 23rd, 2004

I\'ve only been here a few months, but I can honestly say this is the busiest, most spastic week since I arrived. Everyone is grinding – programmers, artists, designers, marketing, everyone. Going bananas. There\'s lots of activity everywhere you look and best of all, every screen you look at has something cool on it that you never saw before. Might just be a pretty tree, could be some spectacular bloom lighting, and might even be some in-game object that moves around in a fun way. But the level of graphic polish seems to be "sudden."

Things that had previously been flat untextured objects, or textured, but unlit, are now springing gloriously to life, with multiple effects being applied. Those range from bump maps to reflections, to simple lightmapped lighting or the occasionally startling dynamic lights. Actually, you probably saw some of this in the E3 demo last year, but our dynamic lighting isn\'t necessarily static…

Animation Alley

Nathan has been crunching on tons of multiplayer "triage" which is basically the prioritization of bug fixing, and this week that includes first person weapons (we thought you might want these back) as well as a new melee animation system "that is gonna rock the cheese off a 20” submarine sandwich…" Nathan\'s dietary habits aside, it\'s a jammed week in animation.

He\'s also been tightening the vehicle boarding animations, and I can tell you, they look very cool. And the control system for that is pretty nifty too.

As for characters, according to Nathan the Grunts look way better, courtesy of “Billmation” (Bill’s animation).

"Billmation is the process where bill takes 100% sass and curdles it with dynamic motion to create lickable content…better than 80’s scratch n\' sniff stickers I say…" says, Nathan.

John Butkus, also animating like crazy, is fixing bugs and polishing existing animations for an upcoming milestone. He\'s been tweaking and tuning Elite animation, and you\'re going to see a far more articulated, convincing Elite this time around. They look much more distinct and animalistic this time around and his melee attacks (duck!) look terrifying, and the way the Elites reload now is almost too much detail.

John claims it wasn’t anything too earth-shatteringly exciting this week, just a matter of making sure that everything is working right, while Mike has been working on the animations for an updated Elite model, and created a totally sick rocket launcher melee attack for the Chief. And as Nathan pointed out, Bill has been hard at work on the Grunt, and it definitely shows…the Grunt is looking awesome. Did we say how awesome the Grunt was?
 
Print Shop

Lorraine is cranking on an Art book project, collating old concept art from Halo and trying to organize and account for all the Halo 2 art that exists, or is still being pumped out. Grind! She\'s going through literally hundreds of pieces of art and picking out the coolest of the cool.
 
Lorraine ran into a snag with the Halo 2 action figures (had to figure out what to move to where when a piece was changed in the game) But good news is, a new bad-guy action figure is done and ready for manufacturing.  And she\'s figured out which next three to do…
 
Lorraine actually saw the final version of the first stage of the Halo 2 logo. Second and third stage needs some tweaking, but time is running short.
 
Lorraine received samples from another company to do a different kind of action figure and the possibilities are intriguing. Maybe it\'s kung-fu grip with a one-two punch!!!
 
Oh, and she hung her Banshee up over her desk to catch tall people in the forehead. Blam!

Oh, and this week (and some of last week, but I guess I can cheat about it), we also found out that Zoe can do wonders with Halo 2 3D models.

Lorraine, in short, is swamped.
 
Parsons\' Projects (sorry)

Parsons thinks his combination of number crunching and marketing speak is boring, but really, Bungie is a rock band, and Parsons is the bass player. So, he might have a point. But he\'s been busy, no doubt, here\'s his breakdown:

1. Fun with numbers!  Budget is in the air and the bean counters are scurrying around asking stupid questions like, "Do you really need the four-person mini-sub to get your job done?" …Always remember.  The 52’ Plasma TV for Parsons\' palatial office suite goes under "Misc Product Development – Other."
2. Robt and I are working on something pretty cool for the mkt guys (I think it’s pretty funny to use Robt and mkt in the same sentence – funny until he kills me that is).
3. Really busy this week doing a whole bunch of mildly unpleasant things that nobody else would want to do

Environmental Protection

"I’ll give you the whole run-down on the environment side. I’ve been working with Paul Russel on the *CENSORED*. The *CENSORED* bay where the *CENSORED* was, specifically. Mike Zak and Frank C have been slamming away at *CENSORED* and have some real beautiful combinations of indoor and outdoor spaces. Justin, Michael Wu and Chris Barrett have been doing some real nice work on *CENSORED* including some real nice gardens as well as some cool interiors. Don’t know how helpful that was."

Dave *CENSORED* Dunn


Down in the Engine Room…


A letter from Chucky in the boiler rooms.

 
Hmm…
 
We’ve been making new multiplayer maps and game-types work and polishing everything to a nice golden shine.  Cuban’s new HUD system is in place (but what it looks like is a secret!) – it uses all our graphics goodness now instead of being a hard coded custom rendering path.  

Michael’s working on something that will help build the kind of community for which we’re known.  Eamon’s been working with Carney and Steve to get a bunch of sweet physics stuff. Butchy did a bunch of profiling and performance work so that we’re way closer to where we need to be.  Bart is testing and tweaking all kinds of MP code he wrote and he did some performance work as well.  Ben and Hao are pounding away on under-the-hood rendering infrastructure that’ll allow us to cash the crazy checks the designers are writing.  

Luke’s been making a bunch of features like breakable glass work over the network.  Greg’s closing out animation and boarding bugs.  Bernie’s fixed some old bugs with the first person model rendering.  Stefan’s slaving away on Max’s mad UI plan.  Mat’s closing out sound features and fighting fires.  Damian’s off in the corner talking with his AI.  And of course I’m management overhead, and doing a #%#&* fine job of it.  :P
 
Love,
Chucky

And that\'s all for this week folks, hope you take a moment to check out the host site, and we\'ll chat again, real soon. Bye! Oh, one more thing, they even censored Mister Chief this week…

This is all dumb.  Who is reading all that stuff?  I\'ll just wait until I get the game.  But I\'m also the type of guy who doesn\'t like to watch previews of movies.

Originally posted by THX
This is all dumb. Who is reading all that stuff?

... I am. I\'m sure pstwo is. Anybody else?

The updates are the main focus of the thread, but they are pretty much ignored... I think there have been two or three replies concerning the actual updates throughout the entire thread.

Should I stop posting them?

i read them, although i could easily get thm from the bungie site so if u want to feel free =]

It\'s easy to see it\'s all just a big hype machine.  I like to view the screenshots that they post but to learn about all the aspects of the game & major storyline hints ruins it for me.  That and vague references to "we\'re tweaking this & that", or "Lotsa bugs are being fixed!!!!"  YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I guess I just wish the damn game was out already.

The artbook thing is great to hear about.  I don\'t mind the updates at all being posted, Nu, just keep it up with the bold portions so I can skip the useless CRAP and get to reading the good bits.  That censored junk that tells us nothing is really a waste of typing imo.

Frankie posted an article on bungie.net that has a neat rundown of all the Covenant species.

LINK

Rank, their social status... Nothing much was said about the Brute though. And there\'s still at least one new enemy not listed in that article...

Also, notice the profile picture of the Jackal. It\'s the HALO 2 model, and it\'s using the Needler. This also makes me wonder if the kinds of weapons used by the enemy will be a lot more varied in HALO 2. Like... Elites with Fuel Rod Guns(!!!), or even dual-weilding weapons...

Ah, this will be a great game.

Is it me or are there constant efforts to hype Halo2 even more than Killzone?The only difference is that they havent succeded yet