Forging Hopium
One week following 343’s roadmap reveal which left much of the Halo community disenchanted, today we got what may be 343’s first step into a potential redemption arc as Forge was officially revealed. Of course, unless you’re a Halo fan who’s been locked in a loot cave the past few weeks, you’ve probably seen unofficial demonstrations of Forge’s potential through multiple leaks. Despite those leaks, today’s deep dive has reignited optimism for many Halo fans as it dove further into the exponential evolution of the Forge engine and gave us a couple of exciting new map examples. This showing was Part 1 of four videos in the series that are as follows:
- Part 1: Building – what can I make and how do I make it?
- Part 2: Scripting & Bots – what is scripting, how can I use it, and how can I test my map with bots?
- Part 3: Lighting & Audio – what lighting, art, and audio tools can make my maps look and sound great?
- Part 4: File Sharing & Canvases – where can I build my maps and how can people discover them?
I Need a Map
Since the primary complaint from the community is Halo Infinite’s lack of fresh content, starting Part 1 of their video series showing off the possibilities for high-quality map building potentially addresses one of the game’s largest weaknesses. If Halo 5’s Forge creation tool was a Magnum, Infinite’s tool set looks like it’s arming the Forge community with Rocket Launchers. Highlights included:
- Access to assets from both the campaign and multiplayer
- An entire portion of the opening level was shown recreated in Forge
- Assets can change shape, size, color, or textures
- A clump of dirt can be scaled to become a large mountain terrain
- Can change color or material types on complex items
- Exponential possibilities vs previous versions of Forge
- The budget is 7000 objects in Infinite vs 1600 in Halo 5
- Can scale objects infinitely up or down yet regardless of size, the object count of the item doesn’t increase
- Forge Community Work Together
- Mash items together to something new, save them as a prefab, and share them with other creators
- Detailed information about Forge maps allows creators to see how objects were made
- Quality of Life
- Numerous enhancements were made so that creators can experiment and iterate more efficiently
These Are Forge Maps?
Showing is more powerful than telling, and 343 went step beyond and decided to show off a map our very own Co-Founder Jon (Sikamikanico) created from scratch as part of his work on the Halo’s Forge Council.
Sadly, we’re not allowed to capture images from the build, so these have been taken from the stream, but the leap in quality and detail is astounding.
Using a more updated version of the Forge engine than what we’ve seen from previous leaks, we see an impressive combination of imagination and quality.
Jon put together a quick DropPod on the reveal and an amusing game of Spot the Difference!
Do these look like Forge maps to you….or would this map fit in among other developer-made maps in a playlist? Tell us in the comments below.
