Halo Infinite's Season 2 patch fixes long-standing animation bugs, adds new graphics modes - Eurogamer.net

Halo Infinite was rough around the edges on release with animation issues, frame-pacing woes and extra problems in cutscenes.

Some issues were tackled post-launch, but it's with the release of the Season 2 patch that some long-standing issues have finally been resolved.

We took a look at the fixes that 343 Industries has put in place on PC and Xbox Series X/S, covering animation, cutscenes and graphical modes, and identified some lingering issues with frame-pacing, v-sync and VRR that unfortunately still persist.

Let's start with the good stuff first: Halo Infinite makes a much better first impression on PC, Series X and Series S, thanks to fixes to long-standing issues with the game's pre-rendered cutscenes.

Still, the problem's now solved - and the improvement is palpable: it looks right, the washed out look is gone and the jerky playback issues are finally fixed.

Cutscene playback - an issue we highlighted pre-launch and that Microsoft told us would be patched - has finally been fixed too.

This one is weird: even if the game ran consistently at 60fps or 120fps, actual movement within the cutscene was very jerky and very offputting, giving the illusion of a much lower performance level.

New graphical modes have also been added to Xbox Series consoles, while other modes have been renamed based on their frame-rate targets.

That means that the Series X and Series S now each have three modes to choose from: 30fps, 60fps and 120fps.

The Series S 120fps mode actually debuted with the beta flight of the game, but disappeared for launch.

With this mode enabled, the game remains at a ~540p internal resolution with variable rate shading (VRS), with the final image temporally upscaled to 1080p.

The image quality for frame-rate tradeoff works well indoors, especially in multiplayer where action is more or less a locked 120fps, but the open world sections of the game's campaign run at a juddery 70-90fps.

Drops to lower frame-rates in action-packed moments or during rapid traversal can also occur, but it's clear that the mode delivers significantly higher frame-rates than the 60fps mode, which is the name of the game.

Series X also sees a 30fps mode, which caps the game's frame-rate to 30fps to ensure the highest possible internal resolution at a given moment.

This mode still uses VRS, but it's less obvious due to the higher base resolution.

In practice though, this mode doesn't offer a massive visual difference compared to the 60fps mode, and halving the frame-rate robs the game of a certain level of fluidity and responsiveness.

The 30fps mode also marks the return of our old nemesis: improper frame-pacing.

Unfortunately, the 30fps mode on Series X isn't the only place that experiences frame-pacing issues.

In short, any mode that caps the frame-rate below the refresh rate of your TV or monitor exhibits the same problem, like playing the 60fps mode on a 4K 120Hz display which actually looks worse than playing the game at 60Hz - something that should never occur.

This issue affects all Xbox consoles and PC, while PC still has the v-sync bug that causes small, regular frame-time spikes - something we've been reporting on since the flighting process last summer.

So, following the Season 2 patch, Halo Infinite is in a better place than it was, with some long-standing issues finally resolved, even though several frustrating technical issues persist.

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