Halo Infinite developers, 343 Industries, delivers yet again with a new “Inside Infinite” High-Level Update. In this month’s Inside Infinite, 343 Industries went in depth with Halo Infinite‘s complex sound design! While there wasn’t a substantial amount of news this month, unlike February, the content unveiled is still exciting!
Sounds Of Zeta Halo
It’s no secret that Halo Infinite is a spiritual reboot to the Halo franchise. Halo Infinite’s sound design is no different, pursuing the “what’s old is new again” philosophy that 343 Industries has been using with Infinite thus far, from it’s art style to it’s reminiscent narrative.
Zeta Halo is a mysterious new place to the player, so 343 Industries went above and beyond to make the players feel immersed in Zeta Halo. From familiars wildlife and plant life, to mysterious and foreboding Forerunner interiors.
Woah, how did they do that?!
Excellent question, heading! Halo Infinite will be the first Halo game to use Dolby Atmos, Windows Sonic, and DTS Headphone:X 3D audio technology. 343 Industries introduced new audio systems in order to further immerse us in the world Zeta Halo.
One cool method that they’re doing is a “room-and-portal” system, which makes sound travel realistically through open and enclosed areas. Additionally, another cool method that they used is placing sound files on almost every square inch of the map, making the world even more lively than it already was.
New weapon, new sounds.
We’ve heard about ambiance, and environments. How about we get to the bread and butter of First Person Shooters. The guns. 343 Industries went into the layers of a weapon sound by using the brand new Banished Skewer as an example.
They made multiple audio layers for the weapon respectively named as The impact, Mech (projectile), Sci-fi, and Tails. Meanwhile making the weapon sound like it was made by a violent, BRUTE-al species. These four layers were combined to make this beautiful weapon sound
Pretty cool, right?
Words from Joe Staten
Joe Staten weighs in by describing a gameplay scenario that made effective use of Halo Infinite’s sound design.
“Earlier this week, I was playing the game with a focus on rescuing scattered squads of Marines from their Banished captors. After one triumphant jailbreak, two high spirited Marines piled into my Warthog, and we sped jauntily down a dirt road into a forested valley, just as the morning sun was peeking through Zeta Halo’s shattered arch. One cue, a hopeful piece of music began to play and, no joke, some of the ring’s alien birds started chirping in the passing underbrush.
Which was, of course, when all hell broke loose.
“Heavy weapon fire incoming!” one of the Marines shouted. The rest of the world grew quiet, clearing the soundscape for a roar that erupted stereo right; the same roar that had been drilled into my brain’s fear center since Halo: CE. That’s a SPNKR! I recognized, a split-second before its familiar smoky contrail tore across the Warthog’s hood and exploded against a tree to my left. And where there’s one SPNKR rocket, a second isn’t far behind.”
Conclusion
Wrapping this article up, Halo Infinite will release in Fall 2021 on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC via Steam & Windows 10! 343 Industries will be coming out with an Inside Infinite on the last Thursday of every month; so get ready for some “Infinite” news.
My name is Ivan Velasco, Also known as Stormio. you can follow me on twitter @StormioUA, or follow my Twitch for epic livestreams!
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