Bungie responds to Halo 3 resolution critics

Shortly after Microsoft and Bungie Studios‘ monumental Halo 3 release for the Xbox 360, voices were heard all over the internet complaining about the game’s resolution having shortchanged buyers. The whines and moans stem from the fact that when set at the 720p resolution, Halo 3‘s vertical resolution actually runs at 640p.

The fiasco has had more fuel thrown to it since then by the graphics-conscious crowd, prompting Bungie to post a response statement in their official site.

“It’s more complicated than that,” says Bungie. “In fact, you could argue we gave you 1280 pixels of vertical resolution, since Halo 3 uses not one, but two frame buffers – both of which render at 1152×640 pixels.”

“The reason we chose this slightly unorthodox resolution and this very complex use of two buffers is simple enough to see – lighting,” Bungie adds. “We wanted to preserve as much dynamic range as possible – so we use one for the high dynamic range and one for the low dynamic range values.”

According to Bungie, this technique allows the application of full HDR, which results in the visuals being a lot more realistic than those of average games. The famed developers also explain why they didn’t bring that up in earlier statements.

“It would have distracted conversation away from more important aspects of the game,” says Bungie. As a parting shot, they added that doing so would have given “tinfoil hats some new gristle to chew on as they cataloged their toenail clippings.”

Shortly after Microsoft and Bungie Studios‘ monumental Halo 3 release for the Xbox 360, voices were heard all over the internet complaining about the game’s resolution having shortchanged buyers. The whines and moans stem from the fact that when set at the 720p resolution, Halo 3‘s vertical resolution actually runs at 640p.

The fiasco has had more fuel thrown to it since then by the graphics-conscious crowd, prompting Bungie to post a response statement in their official site.

“It’s more complicated than that,” says Bungie. “In fact, you could argue we gave you 1280 pixels of vertical resolution, since Halo 3 uses not one, but two frame buffers – both of which render at 1152×640 pixels.”

“The reason we chose this slightly unorthodox resolution and this very complex use of two buffers is simple enough to see – lighting,” Bungie adds. “We wanted to preserve as much dynamic range as possible – so we use one for the high dynamic range and one for the low dynamic range values.”

According to Bungie, this technique allows the application of full HDR, which results in the visuals being a lot more realistic than those of average games. The famed developers also explain why they didn’t bring that up in earlier statements.

“It would have distracted conversation away from more important aspects of the game,” says Bungie. As a parting shot, they added that doing so would have given “tinfoil hats some new gristle to chew on as they cataloged their toenail clippings.”