Halo 3 (and possible wars and reach?) port to PC?

[jimmyyaesu]

I love Halo but I love my PC too... Halo 1 and Halo 2 were made for PC... why not Halo 3? It would be a pretty cool idea don't you think? (to bring all the customization and graphics update that the PC offers to Halo 3???)

Maybe we can even get Halo Wars and Halo Reach on the way over too and maybe even get some cross-platform going on?

[Mr Biggles]

everyone ask this, and i agree, Halo 3 should of been on PC as they would of got a lot more customers and it would of worked a lot better, as long as they could of got rid of cheaters and hacks, it would of been great

[VivaLebowski]

Ironically, beacuse its a strategy game, Halo Wars seems to me to be the game that absolutely needs to stay on Console. Its a simple, rock paper scissors game which is way to simple for console PC players...I love it. More than I love any PC RTS's (Starcraft is too hardcore for me lol) but it doesnt belong on PC.

 

Then again, this is kinda analagous to how Halo 1 was for PC, it being the game changer for Console shooters that it was, and it worked great for PC. Thats where I first played it since I never owned the first Xbox.

 

So probably I have no right to judge . But if they were to port Hwars to PC, they should def add custom games and some things to add more depth to it.

[jimmyyaesu]

Indeed, but if they were to bring it to PC, and add the ability for custom maps, bigger battles, unit count, and maps it would be great! (same here with Starcraft being too hardcore for me xD)

And as for the problem with cheaters and hackers, allowing dedicated servers solves this problem as admins clean them out generally

[Loser]

It would be stupid on Pc

[jimmyyaesu]

Not neccesarily, Halo 3 on PC would not be stupid at all... if anything be a good thing.. if you hate the mouse and keyboard there is an xbox 360 controller option... plus the upgraded graphics, better mapmaker which allows more stuff on the map (since PC is not really limited by 512 mb of RAM so it can hold alot more on maps than the 360), and mods.

same goes for reach

Halo wars on the otherhand is an RTS game which are amazing on pc... also maybe they can add things like 4v4 and 6v6 and even higher unit caps... again plus mods and mapmaker

but they would probably have to desogn a new UI for the mouse and keyboard

[Minuette]

You can just find a modification for Halo 2 which adds the H3 campaign, like GTA 4 to San Andreas

[jimmyyaesu]

Yeah but that's not the issue... A true Halo 3 PC port would have:

-Bettter graphics

-Halo 3 mapmaker

-Halo 3 maps and multiplayer

-Halo 3 campaign + Co-Op

-Halo 3 menus and ect.

[a live dinosaur]

I would love Halo 3 for PC, even though I have a Mac. I still have my PC, but don't use it. Playing Halo on my Mac laptop when I am on a trip would be amazing, but difficult to play multiplayer. I also don't see the point of this, though. If you have an Xbox 360, why not just play it on there? All you are doing is wearing away your computer life with a game that you can play on the Xbox 360. I also think Halo 3 is supposed to be Xbox exclusive. You need Xbox Live to play it. Then again, 343i could decide to do this. I love the idea, though.

[jimmyyaesu]

The reasoning behind it is simply because I don't always have access to my Xbox and the Xbox version of Halo 3 is kinda dead in terms of population when there is a significantly larger community of players willing to purchase Halo 3 if released on PC (many still playing HAlo 1 and Halo 2 on pc currently).And the features that a PC version could offer would just extend the life of the trilogy that started it all by finnally letting PC players finish the fight in the game's full glory (true 1080p, Improved graphics, DirectX11 upgrade, Anti-Aliasing, ect.)

[Twinreaper]

Xbox Live service at times can be completely unreasonable and sparatic in the way it handles network transitions around clients and servers, or with Reach, between clients and hosts. having a PC Halo 3, would allow players to host or buy their own dedicated servers which by most standards, are very well maintained and upgraded over Microsofts servers.

 

The PC ports also allow users to create content and share it in meaningful new ways. Pc ports have far greater extended the life of even Halo 1, more so than anyone could have ever thought. Bringing titles back to the PC would be a great step forward in preserving the Halo 3 population. But as I said previously, most people out there have rigs that are barely able to play halo 2 at mid settings right now. The system requirements for Halo 3 would be likely too much for normal everyday gamers to afford. OS and hardware would be crucial in the ports success. Obviously you would not want a downgraded DX10/11 title like halo 3 to run with DX9 capabilities. The shader model support alone would make H3 look worse than Halo 2....if that's even possible? lmao

[jimmyyaesu]

Indeed but you should also take into consideration that Halo 2 was a terrible port from a programming perspective. A game that is slightly upgraded from the original that ran smoothly on a pentium 3 and 64 mb of ram still lags on hardware that can run Battlefield 3 at max settings... So if someone like 343 Industries that actually knows how to program makes the port, it can be very well optimized and alot of people can run it.

(Also, Halo 3 on xbox 360 is a DirectX9 game since the 360 can only support DX9)

(also keep in mind that the 360 ran Halo 3 in high resolution with only 512 MB of ram and 3.2 ghz triple core cpu)

So the idea of Halo 3 pc in not really far-fetched unless you plan on running it on the same machine you played Halo custom edition on...

[DaveAtStateFarm]

I'm not so sure about Halo Reach, but maybe Halo Wars ande

[Twinreaper]

You have to.remember that a console enviroment is quite.different than a pc. The software.coding and hardware is layed out to operate more.efficiently and handle a greater range of graphics with lkmited hardware or lower tech hardware. Pc has a ton of overhead in the threading and north/south bridge data transfer protocols. Halo 2 was not ported horrible. Keep in mind that the tools used to.create and compile the game were PC...meaning that the only difference that had to be tweaked, was the platform specific format the compiler pushed out. Every tag except BSP, Shaders and Models are the same andas their pc counterpart. the only difference in Halo 2's case is the 12 byte endian header, and some padding.

[tinkicker]

Hi, all. I'm new to this forum and I've got questions and comments. Please hear me out.

As a veteran PC guy (bought my first one in 1993 and have built every one of mine except one up to my new Intel i5-2500K Win7 rig), I've always liked them far better than a console. I've bought both a Playstation and an XBox and returned both. Why? My PC's always had better graphics and were faster, and they always will be because if I don't like the performance I don't have to wait for a new console to come out. I get on Amazon or EBay and buy a part and put it in and I'm bleeding-edge again.

Most all of my newest action shooters run at 80-90 frames per second at full 1080p, which is just short of grabbing a rifle and running outside myself.

Consoles may perform like that at times, but then you've still got the issue of the inprecision of the controllers versus my mouse/keyboard. A friend of mine told me just to slow the controller down if I needed more precision. WTF?!? Slow it DOWN??? Anyway, everybody's got their likes and dislikes there, no big deal, but I'm all about efficiency, and my thumb just isn't as efficient as gripping an 800 dpi optical mouse to nail Covenant in the left top eye socket ridge.

So, yeah, I'd love to see Halo 3 on the PC. In fact, go ahead and throw in Reach and Halo 4 and on and on infinitum. What's the problem with doing it? Somebody forget how to do it since Halo 2? Isn't my money as green as some 17-year-old's with an XBox? In fact, at my age and income level, I can spend a LOT more on games than most kids. ARE YOU LISTENING 343?

Four years ago I was still running Windows 98SE, then I bought a Dell Inspiron with Vista, and I've never understood people's hatred of that operating system. Before everyone starts yelling, listen up: that new rig I built lately? Win 7. Acts no different to me than Vista did, other than being 64 bit and looking a little different, yet people say it's totally different, far better than the Vista fiasco, blah, blah, blah. Then I hear folks talking about how Halo 2 for Vista was a terrible port. What am I missing? MY Halo 2 has always run and played perfectly both on Vista and Win 7. No glitches that I know of. I just don't get it. I'm not saying others haven't had problems, but what are they?

Is it a case of them needing to be a PC builder in order to make it run right? I guess that book, "How to Build and Upgrade Your Own Personal Computer" I bought back in 1995 was a wise purchase.

Somebody throw me a bone. Please.

[ramzeyd]

It would make perfect sense to port the games and as a pc user i welcome the idea, I ony wonder wheather 343i would update graphics for halo 3 or leave tham as they are?

[Slenderman]

I love Halo but I love my PC too... Halo 1 and Halo 2 were made for PC... why not Halo 3? It would be a pretty cool idea don't you think? (to bring all the customization and graphics update that the PC offers to Halo 3???)

Maybe we can even get Halo Wars and Halo Reach on the way over too and maybe even get some cross-platform going on?

I think you are asking for too much. The people at 343i do not make computer games, they make halo xbox games. The best thing you can do now is to wait until an emulator for the xbox 360 comes out.

[Cryphakon]

It is the same process the only limitation is that of the console mindset.

 

Hi, all. I'm new to this forum and I've got questions and comments. Please hear me out.

As a veteran PC guy (bought my first one in 1993 and have built every one of mine except one up to my new Intel i5-2500K Win7 rig), I've always liked them far better than a console. I've bought both a Playstation and an XBox and returned both. Why? My PC's always had better graphics and were faster, and they always will be because if I don't like the performance I don't have to wait for a new console to come out. I get on Amazon or EBay and buy a part and put it in and I'm bleeding-edge again.

Most all of my newest action shooters run at 80-90 frames per second at full 1080p, which is just short of grabbing a rifle and running outside myself.

Consoles may perform like that at times, but then you've still got the issue of the inprecision of the controllers versus my mouse/keyboard. A friend of mine told me just to slow the controller down if I needed more precision. WTF?!? Slow it DOWN??? Anyway, everybody's got their likes and dislikes there, no big deal, but I'm all about efficiency, and my thumb just isn't as efficient as gripping an 800 dpi optical mouse to nail Covenant in the left top eye socket ridge.

So, yeah, I'd love to see Halo 3 on the PC. In fact, go ahead and throw in Reach and Halo 4 and on and on infinitum. What's the problem with doing it? Somebody forget how to do it since Halo 2? Isn't my money as green as some 17-year-old's with an XBox? In fact, at my age and income level, I can spend a LOT more on games than most kids. ARE YOU LISTENING 343?

Four years ago I was still running Windows 98SE, then I bought a Dell Inspiron with Vista, and I've never understood people's hatred of that operating system. Before everyone starts yelling, listen up: that new rig I built lately? Win 7. Acts no different to me than Vista did, other than being 64 bit and looking a little different, yet people say it's totally different, far better than the Vista fiasco, blah, blah, blah. Then I hear folks talking about how Halo 2 for Vista was a terrible port. What am I missing? MY Halo 2 has always run and played perfectly both on Vista and Win 7. No glitches that I know of. I just don't get it. I'm not saying others haven't had problems, but what are they?

Is it a case of them needing to be a PC builder in order to make it run right? I guess that book, "How to Build and Upgrade Your Own Personal Computer" I bought back in 1995 was a wise purchase.

Somebody throw me a bone. Please.

 

Get a decent mouse with variable DPI, 5700DPI FTW! I can lower the sensitivity for those tricky shots and bump it back up for vechiles. Accuracy and high-sensitivity without trade-off, all my console playing mates keep asking me why I change the sensitivity to max (10 Insane on Halo) every time until they try it.

[Snipeside]

People have been waiting for the day now for over 3+ years. I agree, it would be great to have.

[Loser]

if Halo 3 was on pc people would just use mods and hack.

[Kodman Eats]

Halo should be on PC.

[Twisted Oracle]

Halo 3, Wars, and Reach on PC most likely will never happen

[killerdude1635]

Cost > Profit, not very many people would actually buy it on the PC, well not as many as you'd think, so there'd be some profit loss.

 

 

Also, to put your mind at ease, no future halo will be coming to PC.

[Suryoyo]

still hoping it will be for pc :/

[Twinreaper]

Cost > Profit is not accurate. The compiled format in which the game is spit out by tool.exe is derived and processed on the PC platform. Therefore making it automatically compatible with the DirectX codebase for whatever target platform they want. The real time and issue comes from making it open ended via a HEK (Halo editing Kit). This is where the time and resources come in mostly.

 

To make it a full HEK every bit of the game has to be decompiled and interchanged to a standard format capable of being reproduced by an installed consumer version of the tool-set.

 

By my estimate it would take no longer than 6.5 months to completely recompile the entire source and have it ready for tool usage. Add maybe an additional 4 months for secondary items like networking, Live etc...

 

The total cost in man hours would roughly come to $1,512,000.00 Now that is assuming they use the max needed team of about 42 employees for a full year at industry standard pay. It could be far less depending on the contract with a secondary studio or less team members. But the cost does not outway the profit on that one. Even though Halo 3 sold a lot of copies in it's time, there is roughly still about 47% of the PC gaming population that has not played anything past Halo 2.