Why oh Why

  • Two Factor Authentication is now available on BeyondUnreal Forums. To configure it, visit your Profile and look for the "Two Step Verification" option on the left side. We can send codes via email (may be slower) or you can set up any TOTP Authenticator app on your phone (Authy, Google Authenticator, etc) to deliver codes. It is highly recommended that you configure this to keep your account safe.

Zur

surrealistic mad cow
Jul 8, 2002
11,708
8
38
48
Vault said:
for some reason Halo on the PC plays very badly even on a great PC... it wierd

That's because the title was initially developped for console and then ported to PC. Some of it's code isn't optimized.
 

JaFO

bugs are features too ...
Nov 5, 2000
8,408
0
0
winx said:
Sadly, Halo is liked over UT2k4 because most of gamers just want simple and instant fun with nothing to learn and no skills to earn....
Wrong. They want to 'learn' stuff, but they don't want to waste time trying to learn what should have been in the ff-ing manual and tutorials in the first place.
UT2kx just threw you in at the deep end and expected you to survive between the sharks.
 

killalot0

New Member
May 26, 2005
46
0
0
JaFO said:
Wrong. They want to 'learn' stuff, but they don't want to waste time trying to learn what should have been in the ff-ing manual and tutorials in the first place.
UT2kx just threw you in at the deep end and expected you to survive between the sharks.

yeah your right i am year into ut 2k4 and finally i know all the need tricks, but if i never looked at the forums occasinally i wouldnt even know half the stuff. so i geuss most people don't. :( a shame really
 

edhe

..dadhe..
Jun 12, 2000
3,284
0
0
43
Scotland
www.clanci.net
Yeah he's right, there's *alot* of stuff to learn in UT but with a paper thin manual and non-arbitrary tutorials (and no previous examples of how to work maps) it's impossible for newstarts/busy people/offliners to learn the funky shizzle.

Hopefully this will be fully remedied.
 

Sir_Brizz

Administrator
Staff member
Feb 3, 2000
26,020
83
48
Azura said:
That's because the title was initially developped for console and then ported to PC. Some of it's code isn't optimized.
Not quite. Halo was a PC game that was forced over to Xbox and then ported back to PC.

However, the slowdowns are for one simple reason. The Xbox uses a form of DirectX 8 to do all it's shading and rendering which is optimal for the GeForce 3/GeForce 4 hybrid that the Xbox has. However, when Bungie was finally allowed to port Halo to the PC, DX9 had just been released and was the "talk of the town". So Bungie decided that DirectX 9 support was for them.

What this meant was that all of their DirectX 8 routines had to be ported over to DirectX 9 as well, so even simple rendering methods that are noticeable throughout Halo, such as water effects, will run quite a bit slower than they do on the Xbox. Other things, like the active camo and the energy sword some of the Covenant carry are particular hard on the system because they use a combination of vertex and pixel shaders that alot of cards don't even support. Perhaps the most unfortunate thing about Halo PC is that it was originally a PC game, and it REALLY sucks on PC.
 

Mad Max RW

Road Warrior
Nov 13, 2003
253
0
0
www.duckandcover.net
Actually, Halo was originally an RTS for the Mac. After a year or 2 of development it was switched to PC as an FPS, then Microsoft made them an offer they couldn't refuse and Halo became an Xbox exclusive.

Bungie didn't do the port, the job was handed to Gearbox. They're the same team who previously made the 2 Half Life expansions (Opposing Force, Blue Shift), and the recent WW2 shooter Brothers in Arms. The simple fact is they rushed the port out the door unfinished and unoptomized. I personally knew a guy on the team who confirmed this for me. He's since left Gearbox.
 

Kantham

Fool.
Sep 17, 2004
18,034
2
38
Turns2Ashes said:
Halo is popular because in Halo you can kill people well without dedicating yourself to becoming pro like you have to do with UT2004 if you want to hang with the good players. Example: In Halo, the rockets are fast and super powerful, and in Halo 2 they heat seek with good efficiency. In either game, floaty jumps and no dodging makes them hard to avoid. UT2004 rockets do 87 damage when you shoot someone in the face with one and don't seek all that well, and no matter what, they're very easy to dodge. That's about all there is to it. That and the cost of a gaming PC and all the crap you have to go through just to play (patches, Windows Service Packs, etc).

Gooood points.

My friend ''rock'' in halo 1 online , <<omg , ur good learning server's lag to know where to point Ur pistola>>

It's all about pistol and rocket lunchers, grenades. '' HOST FAG'' , ''CHEATS'' , ''ROCKET NUBS''

In ut2004 you won't see anyone complain about ''rocket nubs'' since all the weapons inside the game are well balanced. Halo 1 is not so bad though , it got some funny stuff , but unfortunately , always the same goddamned levels. In ut2004 the cominity around it is flexible all because of the editor that is easy to use. Halo 1 online is rather boring. I can't really tell for halo 2. The hitscan system (or call it whatever you want) is pure **** in halo 1. You need to shot where the player will head at next even with pistols (wich is the nearest hitscan weapon). I got to agree with T2A for the skillz, you don't have to be good to be good, it's like the monopoly jr. of FPS games.. the pistol like i said earlyer is gay. Most of the maps that are played. Ahem , squse me, i will go straight to the point. THE map that is mostly player is obviously Bloodgulch. Like everyone know it , the players that pretend to be good don't use vehicles. If we go with this point in ut2004, good players will use vehicles without bein called cheater or anything else. WHY? Simple , because Epic equilibrated the vehicles with the weapons without including a N-U-B rocket luncher to take the vehicles down. At least , the avril's rockets are kinda easy to take down and they go slower. They also have a lock that require the player to lock constantly is target while holding the avril in hands.

Also , i laught my aS§ off when a halo1 player say UT2004 is Hyper speeded, These players are just used to play in bloodgulch with the pistol at long range and using grenades. What a pitty.
 
Last edited:

Israphel

Sim senhor, efeitos especial
Sep 26, 2004
1,136
0
0
52
Lisboa,Portugal
A lot of stuff in this thread I agree with (although I'm not totally sure that this thread has any relevence in the UT2007 forum, but that's another point).

Don't much like Halo, but the vehicle physics rocked....UT could learn a little from how much fun and how solid the Hogg feels to drive compared with the 'Bender and Scorp.

As for the game, agree with T2A et al who say that the game is simple and takes no skill to learn. Also, the vehicles were really overpowered compared to people on foot, which led to in incredible amount of people camping the Ghost or the Banshee in spawn and getting lame kills.
Basically it's an OKish (but very repetetive) single player game, with MP tacked on as an after-thought. UT is built from the ground up to be multi-player game, and hence is a millions times more balanced in every way, with weapons, vehicles, maps and movement that are designed to be balanced against other players. Halo is not.

@KirinRiotCrash. Did you ever play Halo on the Mac back in the day of dedicated Mac servers (before the patch came out that made Mac and PC servers compatible)? If so, what was your in-game name? I was wonderig if I ever came across you online. :)
 

Mætlöaff

New Member
Apr 10, 2004
86
0
0
img378.imageshack.us
Sir_Brizz said:
Not quite. Halo was a PC game that was forced over to Xbox and then ported back to PC.

However, the slowdowns are for one simple reason. The Xbox uses a form of DirectX 8 to do all it's shading and rendering which is optimal for the GeForce 3/GeForce 4 hybrid that the Xbox has. However, when Bungie was finally allowed to port Halo to the PC, DX9 had just been released and was the "talk of the town". So Bungie decided that DirectX 9 support was for them.

What this meant was that all of their DirectX 8 routines had to be ported over to DirectX 9 as well, so even simple rendering methods that are noticeable throughout Halo, such as water effects, will run quite a bit slower than they do on the Xbox. Other things, like the active camo and the energy sword some of the Covenant carry are particular hard on the system because they use a combination of vertex and pixel shaders that alot of cards don't even support. Perhaps the most unfortunate thing about Halo PC is that it was originally a PC game, and it REALLY sucks on PC.
More specifically it was originally a Macintosh game, then forced to be ported to console, then ported to PC.
 

Sir_Brizz

Administrator
Staff member
Feb 3, 2000
26,020
83
48
actually it wasn't. It did start out a a Mac game aeons ago, but back at E3 1999 (?) (maybe 2000) they were showing it off for a PC release.
 

Bah_Mee

No one escapes us!
great thread!

of course I am biased since I had to work professionally in both the ued engine and the halo engine, Halo bites the big one, when it comes to editing the levels hands down Unreal ed OWNZ! in halo you have to import your bitmaps one by one through DOS?! what kinda ancient commodore 64 stuff is that!?
hehe I did one level for an xbox zombie game, I don't know if it got released but the zombie could bowl with his head and his hand could come off and you could control it.

I love UT series games they don't have little annoying aliens that talk like smurfs thank goodness!
 

krjal

Minotaur
May 10, 2005
83
0
0
37
Australia
Mac RTS -> PC/Mac 3rd person shooter -> PC FPS -> Xbox um, first person controllermash -> PC first person wannabe shooter -> The End.
 

Israphel

Sim senhor, efeitos especial
Sep 26, 2004
1,136
0
0
52
Lisboa,Portugal
krjal said:
Mac RTS -> PC/Mac 3rd person shooter -> PC FPS -> Xbox um, first person controllermash -> PC first person wannabe shooter -> Mac first person wannabe shooter (thereby completing the circle)->The End.

Corrected
 

JaFO

bugs are features too ...
Nov 5, 2000
8,408
0
0
Who gives a *beep* what Halo 'was' ??
Fact of the matter is that it's only any good on the Xbox, because there wasn't any competition and MS's hype-machine made those people believe it was gods' gift to gamers. As a result Halo has become *the* fps to beat for consoles ...

PC-gamers already had a ton of fps's to choose from, so Halo became just another average fps with some extremely crappy performance.
And it was 'rushed' ??? With the time they (could have) had (and the advances in technology for pc's) the engine should have been purring like a kitten.
 

gregori

BUF Refugee
May 5, 2005
1,411
0
0
37
Baile Atha Cliath, Eireann
Graphically i've no dice with halo, i couldn't care less if it had the graphics of pac man,
the point is that it did so well and is so hyped for such a mediocre game, it blatantly stole thing from every other game going also! I did like the ring world idea admitedy though!