Bungie reveal that they DO have a 1080p test build, but it is wont be to be used in the final game to prevent 'sacrifice' of features. Although upscaled 1080p is coming to Xbox 360 Elite.
Halo 3 addicts desperate for their next hit of news are in luck, Bungie have just released their weekly update and this time there is actually a bit of meat on the bones.In response to the whole issue of screen resolution Bungie's Frankie has been admirably open in a very deftly worded piece.* He reveals that Halo 3 wont have a resolution of 1080p on standard Xbox 360s.* The Xbox 360 Elite will support a non-native, resolution of 1080p via use of its scaler and HDMI port.This really, really, bothers me because I thought that the Xbox 360 Elite just had a shiny new HDMI connection (and bigger HD), but is otherwise the same. But now it seems there are things the Elite can do that the standard 360 can't? I'm not going to profess to be technical minded-i'm not. But if a standard 360 display 1080p why does the Elite need the HDMI and scaler?* He also says that Bungie has a number of test builds of Halo 3 in different resolutions from 480i all the way to 1080p, as they have 'a lot of experience' in testing games at different resolutions. But as reported in PlayThree.net's previous Xbox 1080p story, Halo 3 in 1080p leads to performance issues, and rather than sacrifice features 'for a bullet point number on the back of the box' Bungie have decided to not use it. Frankie's says;
"1080p at 60 fps is awesome for fighting games and barely a stretch for Live Arcade games. But if you want epic battles, dozens of bad guys, huge vistas and colossal structures, with advanced AI, HDR lighting and explosive physics, then you’re not getting those at 1080p at 60fps. Actually, that’s not entirely accurate – Halo 3 will display at 1080p through the Xbox Elite with its scaler and HDMI port, but not natively. We’ve seen it do just that and it looks utterly lovely. So if you have a 1080p TV, enjoy it yourself in a few weeks. Most people, and I mean the VAST majority of people don’t have a 1080p TV, so it would be foolish to sacrifice even a single feature for a bullet point number on the back of a box...
Actually, HD resolutions are one of the tougher things to account for when building a console game. PC game makers are used to supporting multiple resolutions and we do have lots of experience in this regard. But when you add it to the test cycle, it becomes this enormous amount of work. Every aspect of the game has to be tested at 480i (normal, ancient TV resolution) all the way up to 1080p resolutions to check for everything from graphical glitches to controller lag."
"1080p at 60 fps is awesome for fighting games and barely a stretch for Live Arcade games. But if you want epic battles, dozens of bad guys, huge vistas and colossal structures, with advanced AI, HDR lighting and explosive physics, then you’re not getting those at 1080p at 60fps. Actually, that’s not entirely accurate – Halo 3 will display at 1080p through the Xbox Elite with its scaler and HDMI port, but not natively. We’ve seen it do just that and it looks utterly lovely. So if you have a 1080p TV, enjoy it yourself in a few weeks. Most people, and I mean the VAST majority of people don’t have a 1080p TV, so it would be foolish to sacrifice even a single feature for a bullet point number on the back of a box...
Actually, HD resolutions are one of the tougher things to account for when building a console game. PC game makers are used to supporting multiple resolutions and we do have lots of experience in this regard. But when you add it to the test cycle, it becomes this enormous amount of work. Every aspect of the game has to be tested at 480i (normal, ancient TV resolution) all the way up to 1080p resolutions to check for everything from graphical glitches to controller lag."
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