The Halo Infinite technical preview debuted to Xbox One, Xbox Series and PC owners last weekend, giving us our first look at how the game has evolved since its controversial real-time debut last year. The reaction has been broadly positive - and rightfully so - while our sampling of the game has been limited to a trio of multiplayer maps, the game plays well and it seems that many of the technical issues seen in last year's gameplay debut have been comprehensively addressed. With some hands-on time under our belts, we're excited about the release of the game - but to what extent can this experience scale across the generations?
That's one of the key questions myself, John Linneman and Alex Battaglia tackle in a new DF Direct, but the story is fairly straightforward here. While the technical preview is exactly that - in no way representative of the final experience - we can see the broad strokes in how this game is designed to scale across the generations. Looking at Xbox Series consoles first, Series X targets 4K resolution in 60Hz mode, using image reconstruction techniques and dynamic resolution scaling to get there. It's almost as if there's a continuous horizontal scale in effect (in the region of 75 per cent native resolution), but it will kick in vertical scaling too in order to maintain frame-rate. Xbox Series S? It seems to use the same techniques, but targets 1080p rendering instead. Both versions run very smoothly indeed with only the most minor deviations from the 60fps target performance level.
Halo Infinite also supports 120Hz gaming on Series consoles when the hardware is set to that output. Target resolution drops to 1440p on Series X, but 1080p can be observed, while the junior Xbox seems to reside within a 540p to 900p window. Performance isn't particularly solid on Series X and even with VRR, some judder is noticeable. Curiously, Series S delivers a much more solid experience with a tighter lock to the 120fps target. Curiously, Xbox Series X (and indeed Xbox One X) offer performance and quality modes, but they don't appear to function right now. In fact, there's a graphics menu on offer which allows for tweaking elements like motion blur but right now, it makes no difference - there doesn't appear to be any motion at all on any platform. It highlights that it's still relatively early days.