Many years after its original launch, Halo: The Master Chief Collection continues to be updated and improved by 343 Industries. The game has expanded from Xbox One to PC (Halo 4 is being added soon) and of course, it’ll be available for Microsoft’s next-gen consoles, the Xbox Series S and X.
In the latest blog update, the developers also answered a community question about the potential addition of ray tracing, which is one of the foremost new hardware features of the new consoles. Senior Producer Matt Hohl didn’t exactly confirm it but also didn’t discount the possibility.
I’m personally excited to see what we can do with the power of this new hardware in the future. The complexity and scope of Halo: The Master Chief Collection poses unique challenges that I am still learning about, but I love the opportunities it offers for how we can roll out new features and enhancements in the future. One thing I have already learned here is that this team listens to the community as a crucial element to our planning. I love that and am excited to see what we can do together in the future!
As to what is actually going to be in the game once it launches on Series S and X, here’s the lowdown from Hohl.
First, there is a raw performance improvement across the board. Players with compatible displays will be able to experience up to 120fps at 4K on Series X and 1080p on Series S. This was a big engineering effort as each game within MCC has unique performance challenges. While there are similarities to the efforts on the PC versions of each game, the work to do this on Series X|S is not always the same and included some unique challenges.
Regardless of whether players have a display setup for 120 fps, we have also included some graphic enhancements to the game such as increased draw distances within levels and improved split screen experiences in Campaign and Multiplayer. And I can’t wait until everyone gets to experience these loading times. A personal favorite for me is the added FOV slider. These improvements along with other Halo: The Master Chief Collection update items really make the whole experience feel new and fresh.
Of course, PC users can already sort of enjoy Halo: The Master Chief Collection with screen space ray tracing thanks to Marty McFly’s ReShade-based shader. Here’s our previous coverage of Halo Reach with this graphical mod enabled.
