The future of Halo is being built with Unreal Engine 5, that’s great but I’ve never really been drawn into Halo. I couldn’t even finish the Halo TV series when it came out. I say that as it’s true in my case but I’m a big fan of Unreal Engine and how they have elevated game graphics to the level of what you see below.
New look at Halo game graphics
Take a look at this spectacular video of the Halo developers who have contributed to the new Halo world:
This is a new direction for the graphics of Halo as the Microsoft team is moving its Halo development to Unreal Engine 5.
343 Industries is now becoming Halo Studios as part of this engine change announcement, hoping to mark a new chapter in the history of Halo.
Halo moving to Unreal Engine 5 is being positioned as the first step of a transformation for Halo Studios to change its technology, structure, processes, and even culture. “We’re not just going to try improve the efficiency of development, but change the recipe of how we make Halo games,” says Pierre Hintze, studio head at Halo Studios.
The team building Halo will move from the studio’s Slipspace Engine to Unreal, after the proprietary engine it built for Halo Infinite became difficult to use and strained development. Halo Studios has had to dedicate a lot of staff to developing the Slipspace Engine, and parts of it are almost 25 years old.
“One of the primary things we’re interested in is growing and expanding our world so players have more to interact with and more to experience,” says Chris Matthews, art director at Halo Studios. “Nanite and Lumen [Unreal’s rendering and lighting technologies] offer us an opportunity to do that in a way that the industry hasn’t seen before. As artists, it’s incredibly exciting to do that work.”
Halo Studios isn’t committing to any release dates or new Halo game announcements just yet, but the team has been building some examples of Halo running in Unreal. Dubbed Project Foundry, the work is “neither a game nor a tech demo,” but more of a research, development, and training tool. It’s also the foundation for how the studio is changing up the way it builds Halo games.
Halo Studios is now working on multiple Halo games, while the Slipstream Engine will continue to power Halo Infinite. “We had a disproportionate focus on trying to create the conditions to be successful in servicing Halo Infinite,” says Hintze. “[But switching to Unreal] allows us to put all the focus on making multiple new experiences at the highest quality possible.”
As I said I am not in tune with Halo and the story has never gripped me, but Halo being on Unreal Engine 5 gives me a reason to play the game. Ill pick it up and come back and share how I found the game and the story as well as how amazing the graphics are.