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Re: Had me wondering too.
Posted By: uberfoopDate: 12/7/12 11:45 p.m.

In Response To: Re: Had me wondering too. (Phoenix_9286)


: For as pretty as Halo 4 can be, every last explosion in the game is seriously
: disappointing. The miniature Cruisers just break apart in chunks. Vehicles
: on average blow apart with a fraction of the fanfare they had in Reach.
: The Litch putters overhead forever before it blows up in a pathetically
: weak explosion that appears to vaporize the entire ship. Sometimes when I
: watch these explosions, it feels like I'm playing Halo 2. Not a game
: released eight years on. If the engine can't handle a miniature Cruiser
: exploding in a cinematic, let alone a satisfying Wraith explosion during
: gameplay, I really doubt it can handle anything like Truth's Keyship
: fleeing after activating the Ark Portal, only with "better
: graphics".

Eh, the Truth Keyship blasts really aren't all that impressive. There's a decent amount of stuff going on in them, but not that much, and they just sort of vanish. Nothing really changes in the scene afterwards; no decalls or objects floating about or anything.
Halo 3's explosions shine in 2 major ways:
1-The HDR implimentation that Bungie used (and which causes Halo 3 to be quite limited in detail) allows them to preserve a surprising amount of visual detail while significantly blowing out the screen, and
2-Breaking objects apart according to pre-existing wear and location of incoming damage, and letting the pieces physics about with class.
Not that Halo 4's explosions are much better, but it's not really the explosion effect itself that makes Halo 3's booms awesome.

Actually, as far as explosion effects themselves go, I was only ever all that impressed by first game. It uses what looks like some presumably expensive multiple alpha layers. The guy who came up with it was probably the same insane (but awesome) guy who decided that dynamic lights would cast huge specular reflections off of terrain.

Message Index



Replies:

At the end of Reclaimer...Phoenix_9286 12/7/12 7:22 p.m.
     Re: At the end of Reclaimer...uberfoop 12/7/12 7:26 p.m.
           Re: At the end of Reclaimer...Vincent 12/7/12 7:36 p.m.
                 Re: At the end of Reclaimer...Phoenix_9286 12/7/12 7:46 p.m.
     Re: At the end of Reclaimer...Leviathan 12/7/12 8:10 p.m.
           Because...munky-058 12/7/12 8:28 p.m.
                 So, not much smaller than a womp rat? *NM*SonGoharotto 12/7/12 9:07 p.m.
                 Re: Because...Buttskunk 12/8/12 12:05 a.m.
           Re: At the end of Reclaimer...uberfoop 12/7/12 8:29 p.m.
           Re: At the end of Reclaimer...Phoenix_9286 12/7/12 8:50 p.m.
     Re: At the end of Reclaimer...Leisandir 12/7/12 8:33 p.m.
     Re: At the end of Reclaimer...Ragashingo 12/7/12 8:34 p.m.
     Had me wondering too.Quirel 12/7/12 8:53 p.m.
           Re: Had me wondering too.Ragashingo 12/7/12 10:14 p.m.
                 Re: Had me wondering too.Phoenix_9286 12/7/12 11:15 p.m.
                       Re: Had me wondering too.Ragashingo 12/7/12 11:42 p.m.
                             Faked surface detail STRIKES AGAIN!uberfoop 12/7/12 11:53 p.m.
                             I hope it's a major step up gameplaylyscarab 12/8/12 3:21 a.m.
                       Re: Had me wondering too.uberfoop 12/7/12 11:45 p.m.
                             Re: Had me wondering too.Ragashingo 12/8/12 12:48 a.m.
                                   Re: Had me wondering too.Vincent 12/8/12 4:43 a.m.
                       That's how Covie cruisers rollkornman00 12/8/12 12:54 a.m.



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