The last weekend, Halo Infinite opened the doors of its multiplayer for the first time to a few lucky ones. The opportunity for our colleagues at Digital Foundry to test the performance of the new FPS from 343 Industries on all available platforms.
The sample is certainly limited, with only three maps and in matches opposing four players against four bots, in an unfinished version of the game to come at the end of the year. But it did, however, provide a first glimpse of the game on PC, Xbox Series X | S and Xbox One, for generally positive results, except on older generation consoles.
Read also:
Halo Infinite: battle royale or not battle royale, that is the question
To enjoy an FPS, it is better to have a good fps account
When it comes to multiplayer for a shooter, a good framerate is paramount. A watchword that seems in this case respected to the letter by 343 Industries, with a few exceptions. In any case, Halo Infinite appears particularly well optimized on the Xbox Series X|S, which effortlessly maintains the constant 60 fps and also does quite well in 120 fps mode.
However, Digital Foundry reported some jitters in this mode on Xbox Series X, even with Variable Refresh Rate enabled. Something that was not reported on Xbox Series S. Our colleagues thus estimated that the problem would not come from the Series X processor, but rather from its graphics card.
Unfortunately, the fluidity does not seem to be as good on the different models of the Xbox One. The One X remains the best off, managing to maintain 30 fps at the highest resolutions. However, the One S finds itself losing momentum and struggling to maintain this framerate, even with dynamic resolution scaling activated. A finding that does not bode well for Xbox One S owners wishing to take advantage of Halo Infinite, while the solo should be even more resource-intensive.
Read also:
Halo Infinite: Single-player spoilers have crept into the multiplayer beta
Good resolutions for the end of the year
Staying on the topic of resolutions, these seem to scale to the target framerate on Halo Infinite, when the hardware is able to keep up. Thus, it should blithely run in 4K/60 fps or in 1p/440p at 1 fps on Xbox Series X. For its part, the Series S seems capable of displaying the game at 080 fps in 120K/60p. To aim for 4 fps, on the other hand, the resolution can sometimes drop to 1p, or even 080p at times, offering an unsightly rendering to say the least.
The Xbox One X also aspires to hit 4K, provided it runs Halo Infinite at 30 fps. The One S has the same problems as its little sister the Series S and will sometimes need to drop to 540p to maintain the constant 30 fps.
However, these results should be taken with a grain of salt, as the technical beta is not representative of the final version, which could offer better optimization. Similarly, these results remain confined to the performance of Halo Infinite multiplayer. The single player mode, which promises a much larger playing area and more elements on the screen, could be much more resource intensive.
Scheduled for the end of the year on the aforementioned platforms and the Game Pass, Halo Infinite could still be approached during at least one new technical test to come. This may be an opportunity for 343 Industries to use the lessons learned from this first technical beta to improve the formula.
