You may have come across the rumor throughout your travels across various outlets of the Internet that states that Halo 3 doesn’t run in “true HD,” or native 720p resolution. It turns out that this is, indeed true, but it’s not quite the big deal you would expect any non-Sony fanboys to make of it.
Games like Call of Duty 3 have applied the same downscaled resolution of 1152×640 (or 640p) in the past, and Luke Smith from Bungie explains why this decision was made after the break.
Luke Smith:
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. 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. Both are combined to create the finished on screen image.
In other words, we’ve traded pixels for gorgeous lighting effects, that otherwise would send the game into a slide-show-esque mess of confusion. It’s not Gear of War, but when you look at the beautiful vistas and intense glares and reflections coming from HDR lighting, it’s a trade-off I’m willing to make…
