X-Originating-IP: [216.225.81.140] User-Agent: Microsoft-Outlook-Express-Macintosh-Edition/5.02.2022 Date: Fri, 19 May 2000 21:30:57 -0700 Subject: Re: New Section From: Mostafa Sadraii <mosadraii@hotmail.com> To: Louis Wu <halo@bungie.org> Mime-version: 1.0 Halo Observations: Here are some observations I made regarding all of the Halo trailers released so far. I am only pointing out things that I have not seen mentioned before. And yes, I'm also one of the freaks who has watched each trailer 50 times. :) -In a few of the trailers, I can see a flaw (?) in the engine. Any kind of flare (whether from a weapon or the sun) can be seen through the alien hovercraft. The vehicle seems otherwise solid so I believe this is a flaw. But I faintly remember this vehicle being named the "Ghost," so this characteristic may be intentional. -The hovercrafts kick up dirt when they lift off! Very good attention to detail on Bungie's part. (MWNY Trailer: 1:56) -The marine standing in the passenger seat of the jeep is actually standing with one foot _on_ the seat and the other on the floor of the jeep. (MWNY Trailer: 1:59, 2:15) -Every marine has a buil-in jet pack. Maybe the little gadget on their shoulder is an extension of this item. -I've seen many birds and butterfly-type things flying around. It seems like Halo is going to be a very live environment. And not to mention the ground creatures (yet to be seen outside of E3). -You can actually walk through the "sunrays" that hit the ground through the clouds. They are all real modeled polygons. (Saw this on a pic). -The suspension on each, single jeep tire actually works! You can see it in action on the Incite trailer at the time frame 2:50. -I have strong belief now that the Halo engine calculates LOD (level of detail) on the fly. If you scrub back and forth on the Incite trailer between 3:43 and 3:45, and the Gamestar trailer between 0:26 and 0:28, you will see the hills ahead of the camera actually "move" or "reshape" themselves a little. I'm into 3D animation and modeling and I can tell that there is definitely some polygon shifting going on there. I couldn't believe it the first time I saw it. And some of you wonder how Halo can have such high framerates. :) -For those who don't know, realtime LOD is when a model has a few polygons when it is in the distance and a few thousand (or more detail) when close to the camera. This gives the illusion of the whole level being high detail while maintaining excellent framerates. -The break lights on the jeep really work! (Incite, 3:58). -The alien hovercraft can do flips in the air. (Gamestar Trailer). -I've also seen 3 different tire textures (mostly the hub part) on the jeep. Maybe there is an autoshop lying around somewhere on Halo? ;) -The handheld alien blaster actually has 2 barrels (or blasters) that fire. (Gamestar, 5:17) -Explosions from rockets send off fragments of rock and debris, very cool. -Judging from the Gamestar trailer's battle scene, the people at Bungie have really bad aim. ;) -You can get a sense of Halo's navigation system at the very end of the bTV Day 4 video. Question: What the hell is that monkey-type creature seen on the bTV Day 4 video at 0:40? That's it. I hope this helped some of you become more familiar with the Halo world as we know it. Things will definitely change as development continues on Halo, but this should at least help visualize some concepts for those who don't have the bandwidth to watch the trailers. If I have made any mistakes in my observations, please correct me, because we are all striving for the tru7h. Sorry for the long post. (Yeah right, you all know you enjoyed it ). :) Take care, Mostafa (aka "Mo") |
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