Halo 5 uses a dynamic resolution to keep those 60 frames rolling every second

Even though Halo is about as popular as a vegan braai down here, you have to admit that it is one of the prettiest looking game franchises around. Each entry in that series has managed to push unbelievable visuals out of the hardware that it was running on, with Halo 4 being the kind of game that made Xbox 360 consoles spontaneously combust thanks to the bleeding edge tech.

Halo 5: Guardians is looking proper pretty as well. And that’s thanks to a silky smooth frame-rate, because I’m all about the frames. According to developer 343 Industries, Halo 5: Guardians will make use of a dynamic resolution in order to keep that frame-rate rolling at a consistent rate of 60fps.

Essentially, this allows the resolution to decrease “based on the needs of the scene,” as Microsoft explained.

This enables us to deploy resources where they have most impact across a diverse series of experiences throughout the game while delivering the most visually stunning Halo game ever.

“In much of the campaign you may be playing at 1080p, but when we want to get really crazy with vehicles, visual effects and combat we can trade some of the resolution in order to maintain the crucial 60fps,” campaign environment art lead Justin Dinges explained.

Without this system, we would need to either reduce the scale of our most intense combat encounters or lower the quality of content across the game in order to stay at 60fps at all times.

With progressive resolution, we get the best of both worlds: epic scale experiences that look incredible while running at a consistent 60fps.

Fair enough. Drops in frames per second are always painfully obvious in games, creating a jarring effect that doesn’t do a title any favours. Drops in resolution however? You’ve probably seen that tech in other games, and didn’t even notice it happening. And when it comes to visuals, frames will always trump resolution in my book.

Which is the primary reason why I played Quake 2 at 320x 240 resolution, back when I had a Pentium II and a Voodoo accelerator graphics card. Man, 2014 was a weird time for me.

Last Updated: September 15, 2015