Twinreaper

Like I said, they are far beyond Alpha stage. Alpha stage is when the engine is completely finihsed and they have prelim assets to begin first wave testing of game handling, physics and collision. Truth is, because they have had development of Halo 4 going on for more than 2 years now, they were way past Alpha stage internally well before christmas last year. THAT is my major gripe with the way it looks in the video. The bump mapping is great, and the detail on the models are phenominal, just everything else is kinda blah. Something anyone else probably didn't notice, was that the reflection in the visor did not move or change in response to the surrounding environment. Which means real time reflections are not present, at least for the multiplayer or third person views anyway. Sad.....RTR (Real-Time Reflections), are soemthing i really wanted to see happen in halo 4.

I think you guys misunderstand the physics involved when it comes to stairs. Stairs have always used an invisible plane over top of them, so that the height of the steps does not effect or stop player movement. Also, grenades do not bounce of stairs without the planes. They tend to just sit or get stuck. Because of physics limitations with things like grenades, they do not bounce or respond well to mutiple collisions of a "stairs" magnitude.

Can't say I'm impressed yet. The idle animations are good, but the movement of the model permutations with the animation looks choppy and stiff. There is no real specualr or environment mapping that I could see on the player models. The map itslef looks like it was fully lit and had all shaders light responses adjusted to be flat and same levels all across it. I know this is early on, but realistically, they are waaaaay past the Alpha stage. Development time left by my estimate is about 6 months. They have to have the final disc or discs, ready to be shipped out for manufacturing roughly around October 11th or 12th. That being said, I highly doubt we will really see a great many changes regarding what we see in any newer videos or press releases. 6 months dev time, is really only enough time to really hand the game over to proper testers and start hammering out the teir 0 bugs (worst bugs), then progressively work from there. Not saying I'm not giving it a chance, just pointing out some observations and opinions. The direction they are heading still looks solid and I have no doubt the game will be fun. Just not visually stunning for me is all.

Good point Timbo. I can't remember if they added invisible collision surfaces to smooth the steps or not in Reach. In a map I just did for H2MT, I didn't use the sloped geometry over my steps, and the nades go all weird, yet your biped can still clim b up the stairs with ease. very weird indeed and an excellent question Timbo. You might wanna post that question up to BS and see if she answers it back. i don't see why letting us know small things like this would be any kind of a security issue.

Please elaborate on what you refer to as "Core or Classic" mechanics. I want to be able to compile information very accurately. Thanks Biggie!

Scrapy!!!! Your here! Finally man! Just so you guys know, Scrapy is a fellow member of the H2MT team from Monstrmoose. make a proper introduction here will yah man! Geeze....

The entire system was retooled. They decompiled the entire Reach engine into basic layers to add and build on. Things such as "Particle Effects" are different than in Reach. Unless you have some pulled tag values from a non-existant .map file that you are getting this from? Particle Physics and Effects are not an easy or mildly entertaining form of visual data to play with nor create. The function fields in which control the flow of particles, color, and shape and size are no joke to play with. What we see in GI is not the final product, nor will 343i show us anything jawdropping out of the gate to a publicized magazine before a VidOC. As for the damage effects and damage responses along with ragdoll physics, this will of coarse be the same. The initial ragdoll response to physics is always going to be the same. The Bipeds are not rigged any differently to allow a wider variation in responses. As for the quality of Physics, Halo has always had top notch physics and collision handling via the great and uber talented people at havok, in which provide the source code to implement the handling. Player movement speed is dictated by fields located in both the globals and biped tags. Things like this are changed easily as well as adjusting the speed of a player holding certain weapons or using certain vehicles. That is a non-issue and will change I assure you. As for general engine use for Halo 4, Reach's engine was the obvious choice in terms of usability, scale and implimentation. Reach's engine along with Megalo, really opened the doors for possabilities we haven't even begun to imagine yet....well at least not the majority of you non-programmers anyway. Reach's engine variant was the best possible starting point going forward with halo 4 and the rest of the new trilogy.

This is not surprising in any way. For christ sake, the biggest news story a mainstream media company like Inside edition could come up with last night, was a "The worlds cleanest Dog", who gets vacuumed! All I could think about was Anthony Sullivan (tv product guy), selling "Pet Vac". lmao laughed my ass off with my wife for a good 30 minutes straight. Let them all laugh at us and accuse video games of terrorism....they'll all come crawling to us when an Alien invasion takes place. We will be ready!!

I love how vicious the books make the jackals out to be. They actually went to say that they were actually smarter at learning languages than the Elites. But yeah, Glasslands is a great read for anyone who hasn't read a single book, or is looking to get into the halo Universe thru a book. I'm more interested in what parangosky has planned for Halsey and the massive amount of Forerunner tech they collected from the Dyson Sphere. Next book is shaping up to be awesome!

Couldnt have said it better myself Director. Also as a side note, we know for a fact that the Elites are not gone, but they are ina great turmoil back at Sanghellos and the warrior class Elites are utterly all but helpless now according to Glasslands, which Frank did say is a part of this new trilogy. So yeah guys, the Eiltes will definatly be back in a big way. Hopefully we will see a sequel to Glasslands sometime in the near future to give us a peek at what may happen in Halo 4, 5 and 6.

Not a problem at all Vaar. it is my personal goal to begin to unite everyone thru honest understanding and trying to bridge the gap between all our sub-culture player forms. Anytime I can help you out in any way, do not hesitate to ask. All i ask is that you spread the kind word to all you know in other forums. Kinda like paying it forward a little

Sad to see you go Bubonic. You've been a great friend to me and for the community as well. Your knowledge of the halo Universe was second to none, and I will greatly miss you. Perhaps after some time I can hope to see you here again? best of luck to you in the future, for whatever it holds my friend.

Ok guys, as I was saying in another post, this kind of thing is killing us as a community and not helping us being taken seriously. There is no reason for anyone to call out another member for supporting their cause or years of devotion. Doing so only helps to further fuel debates and anger between the cultures. Viva, please understand that certain people or sub-cultures devote a large amount of time to a game or anything else in life. The passiona nd time devoted to Halo is no different than the passion car builders feel for rebuilding vehicles, or that artists have for painting, etc.... That being said, as a passionate person that you have shown to be Paar, you have to also look at the other side of things. I know it is not easy to abandon parts of your routine expectations and passion but there has to come a time when you let go a bit just to see if there is something new you can find. Halo 4 holds many mysteries for us and as such, we must wait the proper coarse of things to come albeit slow and not forthcoming soon. Everything will be reveiled in time, and I think as a great community of followers, we owe Halo back a little bit in the form of waiting and giving it a chance. This is a new developer and new ideas, and whole new generation of gamer coming into the franchise. Older members have seen the community and titles grow and a lot of the time we have to hold our tongue and embrace the change first and formost as to set an example. Please try to be a little patient and see what is going to happen. After waiting and more is reveiled and you still feel upset or up in arms about what is happenening, then at that point you can decide which path to go fully. I would hate to see passionate people like you leave and not look back. With such a strong passion and feeling, you could help the push for community wholeness and also help me get the community to be truley heard thru unity.

You raise a good point Viva. But since information or bits of engine code elude us modders at the moment, it is unclear how they changed engine wise, and if they were able to achieve any success with milder compiling components on the console via forge. Given their passion for Forge, according to their own word at halo Fest, it will be interesting to see how far they have taken it and if they have been able to optimise anything down to the point of it being workable outide the PC backend.

This is a great concept and i see a lot of potential for this. With a great scripting system engine, the Ops variety could be near limitless and provide many months to years of enjoyment. It will definatly help kill the time between titles. My only concern is the time we have between the new console release date. it has been slated as 2013, which gives us a year or so before a new console. Do they plan on supporting Spartan OPS into the new console, or will they drop it slowly after it's release. Either way...this is looking more and more like a feature I will revolve my halo life around. Can't wait to see more!!

This is a great concept and he has my support. although I am not a competative type, I applaud his desire to bring MLG and it's following culture into the light. Not only is he bringing entertainment to the droughted film industry, but he is also ina way, helping to educate the entire community about the lives and thinking of an MLG Pro / Competator. Best of luck to this project!

As part of my much needed and welcomed campaign to bring together the community, I am following this up with a very simple yet much needed compiled list of reasonable community geared ideas to 343I. It is my hope through gathering the viewpoints of every possible sub-culture within the community, that I will be able to compile a medium all encompassing view of what the community needs to begin to heal in terms of solid core gameing experiences. Experiences that would allow the entire community to get what they want, and have a great experience TOGETHER. This thread is for only Fun / Tricking / Machinima types from within the culture. Please limit the post to one per person, as I will have to go through this and compile a complete list and it is much easier to do with a 1 post limit. I will close this thread exactly 2 months from now. With the information you provide, I can then compile it, relay it to the right channels and make sure all of our voices are heard in a clear, kind and professional manner. Hopefully 343I will take this community much more seriously in this way, rather than a bunch of scattered posts and threads. Also, please do not use this to flame, insult or otherwise diminish the main goal....TO MAKE SURE WE ARE ALL HEARD PROPERLY. Thank you and good gaming gentlemen.

As part of my much needed and welcomed campaign to bring together the community, I am following this up with a very simple yet much needed compiled list of reasonable community geared ideas to 343I. It is my hope through gathering the viewpoints of every possible sub-culture within the community, that I will be able to compile a medium all encompassing view of what the community needs to begin to heal in terms of solid core gameing experiences. Experiences that would allow the entire community to get what they want, and have a great experience TOGETHER. This thread is for only Casual and Semi Casual types from within the culture. Please limit the post to one per person, as I will have to go through this and compile a complete list and it is much easier to do with a 1 post limit. I will close this thread exactly 2 months from now. With the information you provide, I can then compile it, relay it to the right channels and make sure all of our voices are heard in a clear, kind and professional manner. Hopefully 343I will take this community much more seriously in this way, rather than a bunch of scattered posts and threads. Also, please do not use this to flame, insult or otherwise diminish the main goal....TO MAKE SURE WE ARE ALL HEARD PROPERLY. Thank you and good gaming gentlemen.

As part of my much needed and welcomed campaign to bring together the community, I am following this up with a very simple yet much needed compiled list of reasonable community geared ideas to 343I. It is my hope through gathering the viewpoints of the 3 major sub-culture within the community, that I will be able to compile a medium all encompassing view of what the community needs to begin to heal in terms of solid core gameing experiences. Experiences that would allow the entire community to get what they want, and have a great experience TOGETHER. This thread is for only MLG and True Competative types from within the culture. Please limit the post to one per person, as I will have to go through this and compile a complete list and it is much easier to do with a 1 post limit. I will close this thread exactly 2 months from now. With the information you provide, I can then compile it, relay it to the right channels and make sure all of our voices are heard in a clear, kind and professional manner. Hopefully 343I will take this community much more seriously in this way, rather than a bunch of scattered posts and threads. Also, please do not use this to flame, insult or otherwise diminish the main goal....TO MAKE SURE WE ARE ALL HEARD PROPERLY. Thank you and good gaming gentlemen.

I can definatly understand everyone's fustration with the removal of a staple character like the Elites. Even though they did reveal that the elites were not going to be included as playable, I think it was a descision that was not made lightly. Removing the Elites, leaves a void to be filled by potential other races or a specific race. But I can really see how a large majority of the community will miss them and be angered by this. All i can say is, please wait and give it a chance. Perhaps in time, as we get more information we will love the fact that the Elites were replaced with a more badass species? Halo 4 is not a remake of Reach though. yes they did borrow the Reach engine and add onto it, or stripped it down...still unclear about the amount of both they did....but yeah, we can't be 100% how different it will feel right now. personally speaking I think halo 4 holds a lot of great things in store for players, as long as they are able to hang on long enough to see and experience them. generally speaking to the community, I hope every one of you at least hang in there and give it a chance and see if there is something you can find that you like. 343I has devoted 3 years thus far into this game, and I think it would be highly unlikely that any one of my fellow brothers/sisters, won't find anything they like.

Greeting and salutations my fellow Halo Community members. For those of you that know of me, this post will not be a surprise, but unexpected in some ways. For those of you have not heard of me at all, a little background and introduction first. My name is Twinreaper. I am a Generation 1 (old old school) modder and programmer with a rich heritage that stretches back beyond Halo 1, and stretches into every halo title produced, except Halo Wars. I was around at the ground floor when we were all starting to plan and build the now "Halo Community". I have participated in many posts, threads and websites around the internet. I hold a lot of credibility within my people and communities. I pull no punches and always tell you how it is. As a first step, I want to formally and officially apologize to anyone I may have insulted, looked down on, or made feel bad in the past. It was not my intention and in hind-sight I admit that my path was wrong. Now, my reason for this post... Over the years I have seen this community evolve and in ways devolve. When I first came to Halo and started to build lifelong friendships, the community was still in it's infancy. People were still trying to figure out where they stood and what halo meant to them and to the people who shared their love for it as a whole. As with any community over time, is has been through many changes and many many troubling times. These troubling times have now become the present day "Halo Community" in which we all participate. While Halo may be a great title and have some great people that are a part of it, this community alone over the last 5 years, has declined into the "basement" of the gaming world. Gamer Communities the internet over, now laugh at us and mock us at every turn. Once a great pillar of the gaming world, we are now shunned and left with no credibility or solid backing by anyone...even our own franchise. No one takes this community seriously anymore. No one wants to listen to anything we have to say. Now yes, there are certain times in the case of Reach TU, where the devs did give us a listen....but beyond that mostly what we speak of and talk about in terms of goals and game ideas is lost on deaf ears. SO you may be thinking to yourself, "You have no idea what you are talking about". Rest assured I know completely all too well in which I speak in terms of the community. Anyone who would go to various websites around the net, could plainly see how divided and segregated we have allowed ourselves to become. Because of the fragile nature of a community with various sub-cultures, we lost our main goal. Our main goal used to be a simple fun gaming experience in which we all participated, respected one another, and worked towards making the gaming experience a great one, for all walks of life and gaming preferences. Now, we have sub-cultures who would rather shun, insult, ignore and plain out despise any other sub-culture whom does not share the same views. This is dangerous! This alone is why Halo is failing as a community and a franchise. We have lost ourselves amongst the years of gameplay and interactions resulting their of. In order for this community to continue to grow and prosper, we need to begin to heal our current wounds and come to a great communal understanding. Regardless of whether you are a "Hardcore", "Casual", "MLG", "Fun", "Modder", "Noob" or part of any other sub-culture, you must realize this now.....we need to come together and put aside our past judgments and hangups that we have with each other. There are a great many threads here at 343i that are a shining example of everything I have spoken about. But one thing remains clear and front center...WE NEED TO FACILITATE A CHANGE!!!!!!! I personally am stepping forward to promote and lead this change. Moving forward....You want 343i to take us seriously? You want 343i to listen to this community and really give us great things? You want to be part of something big, and not just a bystander? Do you love your game and community enough to change? I do! And that is why I am officially calling for all gaming sub-cultures of Halo to start trying better to get along. we need to come together and work together properly if we are to survive into something that can once again be the role model and top of the food chain in terms of gaming communities. I don't want us to dwell and further spiral down into a nothingness from which we can never return. It does not matter if you like competitive play, if you casually play, or if you just like to have fun. There is no good reason why any of us have to continue to be jerks towards each other simply because we do not see eye to eye of gaming styles and title decisions. Halo is what united us, and it must be Halo that continues to keep us together. Shed off any misconceptions or hard feelings about title updates, title mechanics, gaming cultures, personal feelings, and help start getting this community back on track. No gaming company wants to try to even begin to listen to a community that is virtually broken. Help fix it now, and you may very well help to facilitate and change in the community and the game itself! No more will intolerance towards sub-cultures be tolerated. We must learn to work together, not bicker back and fourth about what "Halo really is", or "What a Halo game really is". halo means different things to many people, and must be respected as such. Please join with me now my fellow community members, and help to spark a change in the way we view each other and the game in general. Do not allow fear or unsettling feelings prevent you from becoming better towards the community and yourself. Join with me and say "We wont take it anymore, we are Halo HEAR US ROAR!!!!!" If this post has spoken to anyone at all at any level, then I feel good about what I have started and what I have done. I sincerely hope that these words can start to facilitate the change and help change the state of things. In the end isn't that what we all want? To get along and have a great gaming experience? I thank you for your time in reading this, and if you have a similar goal or desire to see the community once again become the king of the gaming world, please sign a comment in the post and show your support!!!! Thank you all once again, and good gaming to you all! - Twinreaper This post has been promoted to an article

Constantly, that comment about MLG kids picking on him in school was uncalled for. Don't try to be an internet tough guy, and please be kinder to the members here. I personally take issue with your analysis of competative players learning the workings of the game better than casual. If you wanna go that route pal, I can first hand tell you I know how the game works better than ANY MLG kid. I'm an old school generation 1 modder from back before Halo. I have taken apart, recompiled and created more assets than I can count, and I KNOW the workings of the game far better than anyone else. That is a FACT. But look guys, this is all getting way out of hand. This thread in particular is a shining example of why no game company of individual dev will ever take this community seriously. This thread alone shows the great dividing line that has fractured this now fragile and broken community way past any turning point. The Halo community has become the proverbial laughing stock of the gaming world. We used to hold a lot of credibility, and now we are nothing more than a bunch of segregated cry babies whom can't even calmly talk or argue with any valid points or glimmer of comradery. This alone is what killing Halo for us, and it does not look to me as if it will change unless soemone finally stands up and calls for communal understanding and peace. You want 343i to take us seriously? You want 343i to make a game we want? Well thats great, but before any of us can put a say in, we need to start healing the wounds we created amongst ourselves first. Bubonic, I respect you as a member but I have come to expect more from you in terms of dealing with members in the threads. I found your post to be quite insulting. Please remember that you are an older member here and a role model of sorts for your high knowledge of the Halo Universe. Please try to keep the hate and rants in check for me, please? End rant, and end participation in this thread.