This month has been a favourable one for 360 owners, with the demo of Forza 2 and the Halo 3 beta arriving on many consoles. However, both games in their current form lack one vital graphical feature: anti-aliasing. Forza 2 apparently does have 2xmultisampling, but I cannot notice it at all.
After the technical masterpiece that was Gears of Wars - a game that runs at 45 frames per second with 4xAA (yes, that's four!) and 720p, many would have expected games like the other two I mentioned earlier to at least put in the same effort. The disappointment is exacerbated by Peter Moore's pledge that the 'days of jaggies are over' due to the 360's eDram that provides the frame buffer with some headroom for apparently free 4xAA. Granted, he said that games have to be built up from the ground to support this feature and that is fair enough - we got our taste of this with Gears of War, which looks and runs fantastically well. So why on earth do two of Microsoft's own projects lack anti-aliasing?
Just now I went on the Halo 3 beta and looked in dismay at the hideous, hideous aliasing, and then on the Forza 2 demo and frowned in disappointment once more. It's moments like these when you really realize how much of a technical achievement Gears of War is.
Bungie and Turn 10 really need to get their backsides in gear - two of the most anticipated titles of the year, on a platform that the developers really should be taking advantage of, and yet we're not getting what is expected of them. Halo 3 for example, does sport better special effects such as HDR and other lighting tricks, but the aliasing really lends support to the 'Halo 2.5' suggestion.
In fact, if you put in Halo 2 on your 360, then put it to 480p and then changed the picture to 4:3 with borders, it looks considerably smoother than Halo 3 on the same picture settings due to actual anti-aliasing being added. It's that sad.
Give us anti-aliasing!!! You made the eDram, use it!
(edit: silly silly typos and errors)
After the technical masterpiece that was Gears of Wars - a game that runs at 45 frames per second with 4xAA (yes, that's four!) and 720p, many would have expected games like the other two I mentioned earlier to at least put in the same effort. The disappointment is exacerbated by Peter Moore's pledge that the 'days of jaggies are over' due to the 360's eDram that provides the frame buffer with some headroom for apparently free 4xAA. Granted, he said that games have to be built up from the ground to support this feature and that is fair enough - we got our taste of this with Gears of War, which looks and runs fantastically well. So why on earth do two of Microsoft's own projects lack anti-aliasing?
Just now I went on the Halo 3 beta and looked in dismay at the hideous, hideous aliasing, and then on the Forza 2 demo and frowned in disappointment once more. It's moments like these when you really realize how much of a technical achievement Gears of War is.
Bungie and Turn 10 really need to get their backsides in gear - two of the most anticipated titles of the year, on a platform that the developers really should be taking advantage of, and yet we're not getting what is expected of them. Halo 3 for example, does sport better special effects such as HDR and other lighting tricks, but the aliasing really lends support to the 'Halo 2.5' suggestion.
In fact, if you put in Halo 2 on your 360, then put it to 480p and then changed the picture to 4:3 with borders, it looks considerably smoother than Halo 3 on the same picture settings due to actual anti-aliasing being added. It's that sad.
Give us anti-aliasing!!! You made the eDram, use it!
(edit: silly silly typos and errors)
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