Halo 2's Campaign Isn't Quite 1080p On Xbox One

Halo: The Master Chief Collection is doing something similar with Halo 2 to what was done with the original Halo: Anniversary Edition on the Xbox 360: the game will bounce back and forth between two renderers, simultaneously during gameplay. However, this isn't going well for the Xbox One's 1080p endeavors.

The Inquisitr pieced together a rather compelling and interesting story from a NeoGaf thread that consisted of pixel counters breaking down some of the resolution discrepancies from screenshots released of the upcoming Halo: The Master Chief Collection that featured the Halo 2 portion of the package.

While every other aspect of Halo 2 will run at 1080p and 60fps on the Xbox One, franchise director Frank O'Connor admitted that the campaign mode may not hit 1080p consistently...

“There's a chance that H2 Anniversary campaign could run at a different resolution to accommodate the second frame buffer. But the intent is to overcome that hurdle.”“We'll keep showing progress throughout the year using a process we call "game development."

So the pixel counters strike again. These guys are getting really good at judging resolutions from screenshots and trailers, eh?

According to O'Connor, they're making good progress and things aren't finalized just yet. The Inquisitr also notes that Frank mentioned that the main reason why it's not 1080p is because it's running a dual buffer for the old renderer used for the original Xbox, as well as the brand new renderer that features upgraded graphics and effects for the Xbox One. Buffering both renderers is what's causing the Xbox One to miss the holy grail of native 1080p for Halo 2's campaign mode.

Interestingly enough, many people commented that it would be a heck of a lot more efficient to only buffer one renderer and scrap the ability to switch back and forth mid-game. That seems like the more appropriate way about things instead of trying to house both render engines at the same time during the middle of the game. Choosing at the start whether you want decade old graphics or new-school graphics seems to be the proper way about it. I mean, if it allows the team to hit 1080p across the board, why not?

This does bring up another interesting situation: will they still call Halo 2 native 1080p at 60 frames per second even if every other mode except for the campaign is running at native 1080p and 60 frames per second? I mean, will one mode dictate whether they can have that feature on the back of the box or not (not that Microsoft has been keen on allowing resolutions on the back of the box anyway)?

All these questions and more will have to be answered on the next Days of Our Resolution.

For now, gamers will just have to settle for knowing that 343 Industries happen to be working their butts off to get the collection primed and ready for release this fall, exclusively on the Xbox One. You can learn more about the Master Chief Collection and Halo 5 right here.