Beautiful Halo Infinite-Inspired Creation Made in Dreams for PS4

After watching the first-ever Halo Infinite gameplay during Microsoft's Xbox Game Showcase last week, one Halo fan decided to bring the shooter to PlayStation via Dreams.

[AngainorG7X]

Beautiful

[crazyCoconuts]

That is so cool. Amazing what people can do with Dreams

[chrisx]

Which is amazing because this actually looks better than halo infinite.

[rainslacker]

Yeah, some of these things coming out look so much more impressive than the marketing stuff they've done with it which tends to look more cartoony. Dreams is really a great game engine and creation suite. If they made it more robust for the professional, I think it could actually be a well respected professional engine that Sony could distribute.

[Tech5]

next they should recreate this guy in dreams and out do his mo-cap.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jsCb...
i'm pretty sure that will be very easy to do.

[Mr Pumblechook]

A troll headline that borders on the genius level, LOL!!

[bouzebbal]

Lmao definitely looks better

[sprinterboy]

Noah cyrus joined up with Dreams/Sony and other artist from around the world after she couldn't do her music video due to covid19.
Its an amazing music video all done in dreams with people coming together to make her vision come true.
Worth a watch on YouTube

https://youtu.be/NtHDce9uCn...

[KingofGambling]

@Sprinterboy
Nice.

[spicelicka]

People do some crazy things!

Here is Halo Infinite in Halo 5 forge!

https://twitter.com/AlexRcr...

[gamer7804]

nice work, I'd love to see a realistic take on halo, I know its not its style but it would be cool.

[UnSelf]

this looks better than Halo 5

[medman]

I concur.

[stuna1]

Lol it's beautiful, but embarrassing at the same time! A better conceptualized vision of a game being made in a game of a competitors current generation console, that looks better than the next gen version coming to the console it built to be on!? What the hell is wrong with this picture?!!!!!!!!!

[morganfell]

It is an indictment. A game inside a game on a competitor's current gen console shows far more promise than it does on its home console as the flagship title of that company. Nadella should take one look at that and say Phil pack your bags and you can take Bonnie Ross with you when you leave.

[-Foxtrot]

I wonder what you could do with a team full of people like this and the 500 million Halo Infinite is getting

Hell...even half of the team / money

[cell989]

Goes to show what the hell are they exactly spending all that budget on lol

[jukins]

Phil is out im convinced after 2021 if xbox doesn't move the needle

[Ausbo]

You want Phil fired because halos graphics don’t look next gen.

Wow.

[morganfell]

"You want Phil fired because halos graphics don’t look next gen."

If you think that is the extent of his mismanagement then you are the one about which people should be saying "Wow".

[sprinterboy]

The dreams creator was also honest, with the footage is still in development at the start
Not like MS who knew it was the finished game they were gonna release and because of the backlash now say its still in development, early footage lol.

[medman]

@shaggy2304
You speak as if you have no clue that there was zero animation in the environment shown in the Halo Infinite demo. The trees were as stiff as could be...no movement whatsoever. Worst still, the grass was clipping and culled directly in front of the players movement, pop in everywhere, flat textures, and who can forget Craig the brute. Worst. Demo. Ever. Microsoft games studios are more effective at generating memes at this point than they are at creating games.

[Destiny1080]

Just the Title menu alone, has more creativity then that entire halo demo

[TheExecutioner]

hehehe that is so true

[GamerRN]

The title looked good. Everything else... Well it runs at 30fps with no AI no enemies or gameplay engine just walking around a 3D space. It's a little better looking but mostly the lighting

[stuna1]

You're still not getting it! Everything you said might be true. The statement being made is this a demo or re-imagining of Halo inside of dreams which is on current generation PS4 Pro looks extraordinarily better than the game looks on next gen Xbox series X or PC equivalent! That is the point being made.

[GamerRN]

@stuna1

Actually I don't think you get it. It's a tiny nap dement already running at half the framerate. Yeah, it definitely looks good. But not only is it not a full game, but it's not even a full level. All of those things impact a game. AI, gameplay elements, features, enemies, all of those things effect framerate. You add any of that to that little tiny demo and it would barely run...

But, i still agree, it was a cute lil demo

[-Foxtrot]

For not even being a week since Halo Infinite was shown off, they've done pretty well in such a short time.

[ClayRules2012]

They most definitely have. I applaud them!

[TeamIcoFan]

That moment when a fan made project in a ps4 game looks better than an actual next gen title.

[ClayRules2012]

Haha, right. This fan did a great job. It’s baffling, but also just goes to show you what patience, creativity, and the will to actually make something with genuine care will get you.

Microsoft & 343, i don’t know, but i would’ve loved to have been a fly on the wall during that whole conversation about where to take the series and how they were going to push “Next Gen” etc...because what they showed off last just proves again “Having the most powerful console in the world” as “Phil Spencer” loves to hear himself say, means nothing, especially when your first party studios produce results like this for their Next Gen conosole thar are inferior to games such as Sony’s juggernaut/masterpiece games to end the generation like TLoU2/GOT.

[jwillj2k4]

I guarantee you “Pushing next gen” was never said in that conversation.

“How can we increase revenue” on the other hand....

[Vegamyster]

Halo Infinite isn't an amazing looking game but suggesting this incredibly blurry video with nothing going on in it looks better is laughable.

[Army_of_Darkness]

@vega

But this does look better... And that's even more laughable!

[rainslacker]

No one's suggesting that it looks better. They're asserting quite firmly that it looks better.

[Vegamyster]

Army_of_Darkness

Only on N4G could a video which looks like it's 360p be praised for looking better than another game because its not on there preferred platform.

rainslacker

Which makes it worse but thanks for pointing that out lol.

[ClayRules2012]

@jwillj2k4

Very well said. Sounds more like how that conversation went.

[Vegamyster]

Clickerticker

I didn't realize a 40 second demo someone made with no enemies, particle effects, combat, exploration, map, character animations was so full of detail, especially considering it's so blurry you can't even see what details that are there.

[PyroMessiah86]

Cool but it doesn't look anything like Halo.
Halo has never had gritty realistic graphics and only Halo 4/5 pushed in that direction. The majority of the fanbase didn't really like 343 pushing Halo in that direction and called for a classic artstyle return.

That kind of talk is all over the 343 forums and Insider Forums. Hense we are getting a Halo/Halo 3 themed reboot. This looks like neither so it isn't what that true fans were asking for.

Don't get me wrong, it looks great and well done to the creator but this isn't Halo and it isn't what the true Halo fans were asking for. Looks more like Crysis/Farcry. That's not Halo at all.

[TeamIcoFan]

Excuses, excuses, excuses...

[PyroMessiah86]

Excuses? Where?

Just truth. Haven't you played Halo CE, 2, 3, Reach? Show me the gritty ultra realistic graphics there?

Do you visit Halo forums? Are you part of betas where fans asked for a classic Halo artstyle constantly? Is this video representing a classic Halo artstyle?

Answer is No I bet to the majority of those questions.

[F0XH0UND922]

Oh boy, here we go again with the damage control. It's not even good damage control though. Some fans wanted more of a CE artstyle, nobody asked for the game to look like shit. Artstyle and bad graphics are not mutually exclusive. Pyro, dude, most people (including Halo fans) are underwhelmed with the recent debut footage. Get over it.

[PyroMessiah86]

It looks good, didn't say it didn't. Though it's basically let's slap a Halo ring on the title screen and call it Halo. Theres more to it than that and it's also true that Halo never had ultra realistic graphics. Is that or is that not true?

So how is this damage control. In the end I dgaf I'm not on 343 payroll. Just like Halo. Though hey liking anything from MS/Xbox isn't 'cool' at N4g. So the disagrees are guaranteed on anything positive towards Xbox here

[rainslacker]

art style and bad/good graphics are never dependent on one another.

Any art style can have the graphics improved on them as new hardware or techniques become available. Even basic black and white stick figure type design gets improved over time. Almost every franchise that has gone through several generations has proved this to be the case. You can keep the art style and improve the graphics. The only time it becomes bad graphics is when they don't bother to make them good, or go in a different direction and change up the game design itself.

Actually changing an art style though is a big thing, and if it's good or bad graphics just depends on how much they try to make it good, or don't try and it ends up being bad.

Lots of people confuse the two concepts of art style and graphics quality.

[rainslacker]

Yeah. I remember when R&C came out on PS4. That series never had gritty realistic graphics either. Yet, when Insomniac had more power to work with, they updated the graphics to do what current hardware could do, and improved on the visuals with things that fit that art style. Things like particle effects, better lighting, more stuff to do. More things going on at once. Various other little things like little movements on the gun which weren't there before. Better shaders and lighting. They didn't make the game gritty, but by improving the graphics, they actually made it more realistic, thus, more immersive.

I've seen too many people confuse art style and graphics quality. Lots of games have less realistic art styles, that doesn't mean they have basic graphics. In fact, it's a common fallacy that simple looking graphics take less power to render....usually applied to cell shaded style games. But a pixel is a pixel, and what I saw was pretty basic rendering of those pixels. If anything, given how basic some of the designs were for the demo, the graphics actually should have looked better because there was more room for the lighting to do it's thing.

[ginsunuva]

The issue is what they showed was even more HaloCE artstyle than CE itselfl.

[PyroMessiah86]

I'm not after a Halo game that looks like it was just a bunch of megascans stuff put together to look pretty.

[SullysCigar]

You'd best let 343 know.

[sprinterboy]

Please stop with your comments, your seriously embarrassing yourself

[Critic4l_Strik3]

Ok...so who's gonna say it?

[Kaedro]

I took the liberty of saying it. Three comments bellow you.

[SullysCigar]

Dreams is straight up amazing. It just got better with VR last week. Next, they're beefing up multiplayer. And we're seeing all this on a 1.8TF PS4! Then will come the PS5 update.

A message to the real life developers out there: be better...

[Stanjara]

I knew it!

[Kaedro]

It's amazing how 1.8 teraflops + 1 person can produce more amazing visuals than 12 teraflops + an entire development team.

[SullysCigar]

And 500m dollars, or so they say!

[jznrpg]

I thinks that’s BS . It’s clearly looks like it’s on a lower budget for GamePass

[rainslacker]

The 500m budget is a long term budget for their GaaS content creation over ten years. Same as it was for destiny. I wouldn't be surprised if half that budget is marketing though.

Given the size of the team, and it taking 5 years, along with creating an engine at the same time, I'm going to guess the development budget for the game proper is probably between 70-100 million. The final quality is not always reflected by the budget of the game though.

[HannibalLecter]

Hey it's what DREAMS is all about.
Create your dream or dreams.
He was a halo fan saw that event recently and said what the hell?
Nope, hold my beer.
Fairly quick response and
Pretty impressive actually.

I always have supported their games.
Little big planet was something wonderful as well for what it was.

These are wonderful developers I'm glad sony saw that and scooped them up.
Dream, Create and Share!

Can't wait to see what others can dream up with the tools they are given with this..

[RaiderNation]

Maybe 343 shouldve used Dreams to make Halo Infinite instead of the slipspace engine.

[rainslacker]

After watching the demo, it seems that MS new engine is severely lacking in a few areas. Some of the technical issues weren't ones that would be developer inability to make it work, but problems with how the game engine itself interacts with the hardware. This could have been an issue for development, which is why it looks like they're so far behind given that it's releasing soon.

Not trying to defend anything, nor excuse what was shown, just saying that the engine looks like it still needs a lot of work as well.

[jwillj2k4]

They feel it’s fine because it’s a gaas game. GaaS has a negative connotation to it. Right now it means ship now, maybe fix later.

GaaS is AaSss

[lonewolf10]

If as they claim that was from a January build of the game then hopefully those improvements have been made. Only time and actual release will tell though.

[Bruh]

The main thing making this project look better is the lighting. The Slipspace Engine's lighting tech is way too advanced to scale to Xbox One and Series X. Its why, despite having a dynamic GI set up, the lighting looks flat as hell. Its rely on the GPU to place probes and light darker shaded areas and guess what on a 1.6 TFLOP GPU you aren't getting that lmao

As DF said, the Ray Tracing's gotta be a GI based because with their vision of a real time world, you need tracing

[rainslacker]

Yeah, OK. So don't use the Slipspace lighting engine for the game if they aren't going to implement raytracing, and if they need it to make the game look better, then delay the game until you can implement the RT. If what you say is true, which it isn't, then you're basically saying that MS knows that there is no way that this game would be ready in time for the launch of the console, but will ship it incomplete anyways.

They're still releasing this game on current gen and PC. There are millions of PC gamers that don't have RT enabled GPU's. What you're saying is that for those people, despite all of MS, "Don't leave gamers behind" talk, they really don't care about delivering a quality product to those people who aren't willing to invest in next gen.

There are literally hundreds of lighting engines that can be used out there, and devs don't need to just use the one's that come with the engines. In fact, even in engines with really good lighting engines, it's extremely rare that some third party tools aren't also used for lighting or shading effects.

Also, they were showing this game on a PC. Are you suggesting that they didn't bother to find a PC with a GPU that had that enabled to show off the feature?

No....the game is just behind schedule. It's painfully obvious. Just accept it and stop trying to make excuses. Making excuses now is just going to make you look foolish when it's finally released, and it doesn't end up looking much better. What will be the reason then? Just wait for the RT patch?

Laughable just how much people will excuse for MS sake. Why? You're the consumer, demand better.

[Bruh]

Where did you see me making an excuse for them? Also what part did I state was wrong?

[rainslacker]

Your post reads like you're trying to excuse the quality of the demo with things that don't actually make the demo better. Hence, making excuses.

As far as what you got wrong.
1. The main thing making it look bad is the lighting.

-This isn't accurate. he lighting isn't helping. The textures are low quality, and the shaders are terrible. The lighting would probably look better if they had better shaders, but overall, the lighting is pretty basic.
2.Slipspace lighting is too advanced for X1/XSX
-Not even really sure what this means. I assumed it meant that it was ahead of what the hardware was capable of, but I also assumed you phrased it wrong, because as it reads, you are saying that it won't work on either. I assumed you meant that it's too advanced for X1, but works fine on XSX. This would be OK, in principal, except this was supposed to represent XSX.
-If you meant that the lighting engine was too advanced for both, then MS is just incompetent. Why build a game engine that uses a lighting engine that is beyond current hardware capabilities?
-If the lighting engine was too advanced, then a dev would have to pick a different lighting engine. MS is the one that wanted to use this engine, and make this game cross gen. This game started as an X1 game, and SlipSpace is designed around working with the current X1.

3. The lighting looks flat
-What does this mean? Lighting doesn't look like anything. You see a pixel that is drawn based on what the texture would look like if light hit it. Pretty much the same principal as how we see light in every day life. If the lighting looks flat, it's because the textures and shaders are crap.

4. Relies on the GPU to place probes

Huh? What's a probe? Why would the GPU be determining what is a light and dark area? The GPU doesn't care either way if something is light or dark, it simply renders what it's told to render. GPU's are really stupid processors. If something is dark, it's not for the GPU to decide if it should be dark, or highlighted in some way. The GPU simply processes the pixel, based on the shaders and lighting parameters.

5. "on a 1.6 TFLOP GPU you aren't getting that"

OK. But this game was supposedly running on a PC spec'd similar to the XSX. What does the lower GPU have to do with anything?

Is "Enhanced for Series X" all BS?

6. DF said, the Ray Tracing's gotta be a GI based because with their vision of a real time world, you need tracing

I don't normally do this, but I'm going to call out DF over the past couple months. While they are generally knowledgeable about current tech and design, they also often make generalizations which assume too much. Regardless of their reason, DF isn't always right, nor should their word be taken as gospel. They are usually accurate enough to be respected, but in things like this, I would suggest if you have no clue what all that means, to not make conclusions the way you are.

For a real time world, you don't need tracing, nor is GI required to do tracing. SlipSpace doesn't need it to make their lighting look good, nor does it require some God level GPU. Open world doesn't mean that the graphics have to be scaled back to basics. There are several examples of high quality graphics this gen to prove your conclusion wrong.

If MS is using a lighting engine it's systems can't run, then that's a failing of the lead designer, whose responsibility it is to make sure that the team has what they need to make the game they way they want.

[Bruh]

@rainslacker
**Never understood why I can't just reply to your comment directly on this page

1. Never stated the textures and shaders are of high quality, but its no news or story that when you show areas in indirect lighting aka. area in shadow, your lighting needs to bounce appropriately on surfaces and shaders to make the scenes look nice. Its why ND opted for a baked GI on their engine, same with SP with GOT, using baked GI lighting maps for each lighting condition. I'm sure as a top notch " engine designer" like you can note that doing baked GI with dynamic time of day is incredibly time consuming. Its why next-gen engines all support dynamic GI, to ease time consumption with lighting. So my point really being lighting is the main issue here

2. Gonna wrap a lot of your points into this. I wrote it confusingly, which is my bad. But one GPU is responsible for how many bounces can be done on probes set either by hand or by the engine dynamically. By hand being baked and dynamically through the engine itself. Hence the difference between dynamic GI and baked GI. Slipspace has dynamic GI, but again if you build to the lowest common factor, how do you expect the engine to be fully taken advantage of? Its literally my question, not an excuse. My whole point with Infinite, is people attacking it for its visuals when its been said by 343 that its an Xbox One game that will run with enhancements on Series X. How far do you think they can push the engine with the Xbox One hindering overall design (limitations really)

[jwillj2k4]

You need to reflect on the history of technology. It’s not what’s best that wins out, it’s what has the highest adoption rate. It doesn’t matter how great your hardware is if the end product doesn’t impress the majority of the people. As it stands, your 12tflop machine looks like outdated technology.

[WelkinCole]

Don't get why many Halo fans don't want a more realistic artstyle like this. I would think they want to evolve to a more photorealistic art style with more power provided by newer gen consoles?

[jwillj2k4]

Oh they do, they were just as surprised as everyone else during that show 🤣 🤣 🤣

[Ristul]

This is how I imagined a next gen Halo to look like, more realistic and beautiful environments. Sad that a fan was able to make a more visually stunning game then a AAA studio.

[WelkinCole]

Apparently its the fans themselves that prefer the more colourful artstyle. Can't blame the devs for doing what the fans want

[ShadowWolf712]

Is that why they were drooling over those ultra high-res, detailed renders of Chief's armor that Xbox was posting to tease the reveal?

[rainslacker]

There could be a great many that would like that. Maybe not super gritty and dark, but something more realistic that fits the art style of the world. Halo was always kind of realistic for whatever level of realism was available for it's time in the first few games. About as much as any other game really. It didn't have some of the fancy cool stuff in it that some other games did, but I never thought it was a slouch.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

Where is the gameplay?

[ForwardDude]

With all the drama happening at 343i right now concerning bad working condition coming out, it no surprise the best looking Halo game is now on PS4.

[CertifiedGamer]

Looks better than the Xbox showcase

[Inverno]

Nintendo sending a C&D in... oh wait

[Good-Smurf]

Well that 500 million went to the wrong developer that's for sure.
And did I noticed that Yongyea was doing free ad for Game Pass guy's been raving it for its perceived "insane value for money"
I learned that the hard way with Emulators sure I can have thousands of games at my disposal for cheap but don't have the time and motivation to play them not to mention my quality of time to spend with each title are thrown out of the window.

[rainslacker]

Way back in the PS1 and PS2 days I used to download a lot of games and burn them to play on the consoles. I had thousands of games, and was really into the whole thing. I never played 99.9% of them though, and half of what I did play I barely spent much time in them. Now I do have quite an extensive collection of actual legally owned games(threw out all my copied stuff long ago), and I still don't get to play them as much as I'd like, but I do spend time with the ones I do play.

Game Pass is a really good value IMO, but it's just not the kind of thing that works for me, or the way I play games. I'm sure I could find use of it if I had the sub, but I wouldn't get anywhere near the full value out of it....and I'd be on GP schedule of availability. Some games I can play for a month or more if I'm really into them.

[F0XH0UND922]

This must be the new build that 343 supposedly has 🤣

[neomahi]

It looks better than the Xbox Series X version. ..

[chiefJohn117]

Is there more to it or is it just that? It's pretty ugly there but kinda cool you can recreate a similar opening to the halo demo somewhat

[Charal]

Impressive, and a glimpse of what a true next gen halo could have been.
There is so much more atmosphere mood in this Dream construction than in 343 demo.

[sampsonon]

it looks better than the game.

[Rhythmattic]

I waited for VR support, Always respected MM.... But with this it reminded me to go purchase Dreams.... It was in my wishlist, and low and behold, as a PS+ member , $38!!!!!!!!!! (Aus)
Damn.... It really shows how Sony support their Developers.....
Like MS and its flip flopping , just like Milo, Kinect... and .. hmmm... Project Spark????

[sprinterboy]

Looks better than the reveal event footage, at MS event haha j/k

[SamTheGamer]

MS should buy a PS4 and Dreams and give it to 343 devs.

[Nacho_Z]

Dreams on PS5 is going to be crazy if this is what you can do on the PS4.

[THC CELL]

Vr dreams is amazing

[KevDro22387]

This looks better then halo infinite

[BenRC01]

And you can play it in vr lol

[medman]

??

[averagejoe26]

Why does this look better than Halo Infinite?

That's embarrassing for Xbox.

[GoodGuy09]

Cant wait to see the game on ps5 and the future itll have.

[GamingInFrames]

You're hired!

[Nodoze]

As many have noted, this looks better than the actual game. VERY surprised that MS would show off Inifinite in present state. It looks AWFUL.

[anast]

That hurts.lol

[dietis_h]

when a sony exclusive does a halo title better than the actual company, lmfao.