10 Ways Halo CE Anniversary Was Downgraded From Its Beta Builds

Why did they change Keyes in the Anniversary Jenkins' cam? He looked really cool in the marine body armor and it matched with the original CE cutscene.

The Beta Chief armor looks more Reachy

It's worth noting that CEA cutscenes use different animations and camera angles. Besides the obvious asset-loading issue that comes with switching between 2 generations of graphics, being able to switch between classic and anniversary mid-cutscene would mean that the engine would have to load 2 different animations for a single biped in the same game-world and somehow being able to seamlessly switch between them. Probably not a fun time for the devs, especially with so little time. The reason you can do it in H2A is because the remastered cutscenes are just pre-rendered movies that play over the classic cutscene, which is still playing in the background.

You know there’s actually is a reason to why Sabre changed Keys is outfit in the Flood introduction cutscene in the final version of CEA compared to when he actually wore a combat outfit in this version just like the classic cutscene. It was because of him in the Proto Gravemind on Keys because Sabre modeled him into the Gravemind still wearing his captain uniform even in the early CEA builds and so changed his outfit in the flood introduction cutscene to the captain uniform too. So it’s more like Sabre made a mistake when making the the Proto Gravemind for CEA

I feel like the beta chief looks less chubby, compared to the release version.

The classic/remastered switching was usually like 3 sec's. But i remember it sometimes took like 7 sec's when there was lots of action going on in the game.

Hopefully modders will be willing to bring these changes forward and into pc

4:34 In H2A's case, it helps that the remastered cutscenes are entirely pre-rendered, instead of running in-engine. So the game doesn't have to do as much to switch graphics mid-cutscene. 9:00 The beta design is definitely far more gruesome. Looks like something you'd see in The Mona Lisa comic. 14:50 I can't imagine a scrolling texture like that would have too much performance impact, but I don't know for sure. As for the deployable shields, they are a bit harder to see through in the beta version, so that's probably why they changed it.

Its really sad this enhanced port was held back by porting the PC edition and releasing on an aging console.

Maybe the Keyes model was changed because they made the proto gravemind with the captains uniform on accident and they didn’t want to have to redo the complex model

The reason you can't do graphic switching in CEA cutscenes is because the models used in CEA had much more dynamic elements allowing for more detailed animations which were used to update the rigid animation of the 2001 cutscenes. Problem is that CEA's cutscenes are all ingame so switching between graphics while the cutscenes play would completely break the animations. I imagine Halo 2 Anniversary would've also kept you from switching graphics if they did their cutscenes in game however the Anniversary cutscenes are entirely pre-rendered so there's no issues switching between them.

Ahaha that cut out skull could have been good if they also replaced the voice of the covenant species with ridiculous over the top weird death sounds and gasps.

Having seen Noodle's video on Halo CEA, I really wish they used the beta animations in the final release. In his video he mentions that some animations just look broken when you just paste new textures on them, notably in the Cortana cutscenes

It would be nice if they updated CEA on MCC and allowed you to switch graphics modes during cutscenes since now the freezing issues wouldn't be a problem on the Xbox One/Series Consoles.

damn pre release halo(the mission not the game) had a cool look, like gears 2 vibes

Could modders port these Beta features and models to MCC?

flmaethrowner

9:40 Gotta correct you here: The CE Proto-Gravemind was indeed a shade of yellowish-green, though with considerably less random giant spinal columns.

8:11 I can think og one. The rank on the armor is inconsistent with Keyes' actual rank. Assuming it was a shared body texture, I can see that as the only reason to go with the dress uniform rather than have that inconsistency.

A lot of the artistic visual style and tone is so much better in the unreleased beta and more closely resembles the original while still looking like a nice upgrade. For example in the main menu, the skybox is very "busy" and the colours are oversaturated in the final version. The elite shields is a subtle difference but looks better in the unreleased version. I used to like H:CE:A but now I think it looks like a blurry watercolour painting. H2:A is leagues better.