Weekly Update
Feb 27, 2004
Greetings, and welcome to the February 27th edition of the Bungie Weekly Update, where you can act as a fly on the wall at the wacky happenings at Bungie HQ! Remember that these weekly updates are designed to illuminate Bungie and Halo fans on the game development process –not the game itself. But I am occasionally allowed to bestow a special nugget or two every month or so, therefore consider yourselves lucky this week!
· Lorraine, has been all giggly this week, because the brand-spankin’ new halo.net will be ready to launch in early March. We have been running daily bandwidth tests, to see if we will be able to handle the tsunami-like data transfers we are about unleash upon our servers, but you’d be happy to know that we’ll be ready for pretty much anything. We also have been communicating constantly with some of our mirror partners (that helped ease the E3 demo footage downloads last year), to help lighten the load a bit. To quote the classy lady herself: “Bring it on, biotches! “
· Marty and the audio team have been hard at work figuring out the “vocals” for the new covenant species. Most of you already got to hear some of the Brute’s baritone-like voice nuggets from the E3 demo, but none of you have been exposed to the absolute aural terror that is “Morning Thunder”. “The Morning Thunder” is when all the latest vocal samples are pumped through the Bungie in-house speaker system, first thing, every Monday. This all started as a joke from our re-recording lead, Phil, but now has become the routine wake-up call for sleepy programmers at the start of the week. Thankfully, for the last two weeks, we have been hearing the absolutely amazing Prophet voice samples, I can’t really describe the hypnosis-inducing beauty that Marty somehow has been able to give these creatures, but he totally managed to capture the grace, power and authority these leaders possess.
· Paul and Adrian put the final touches on all the returning Halo 1 multiplayer levels, which are more than ready to make their triumphant comeback in Halo 2. I can’t say which oldies got to make it back in the sequel, except that they all look amazingly new, yet perfectly familiar (imagine a MP map going trough one of those make-over shows). The levels have been completely broken down and rebuilt from scratch with new high-resolution texture maps, detailed bump-mapping and shiny, re-vamped light sources. They also kept a log of all the little problems/issues (glitches, map warping, limited spawn points) from the first game, and will make sure that every level is “solid” in all respects, so that no glitchy shenanigans will be happening online.
· Speaking of online play: Ryan and the rest of the multiplayer test team have been finalizing the maximum player limit for the online multiplayer modes. Many lengthy meetings have been held on this issue and questions like “ How many is too many? “ or “What UL/DL speeds will we optimize in? “ and lately: “ Why do high-ping readings make baby Jeebus cry?” Believe me when I tell you the guys have been slaving long and hard on the new network code, and promised a number that “feels” right, and above all else “plays” right. And the new rule around the office lately has been: “Never make baby Jeebus cry!” (probably something the “Canimators” came up with).
· Greg and the animators have been playing around with the new ATV’s handling this week. And yes “play” is the key word here. The ATV has quickly become the new favorite vehicle in MP games; its speed and bouncy suspension have been the source of constant amusement for players and onlookers alike. But the guys are still tweaking it, in order to make it fit properly with the other new rides in the game. The new engine allows for up to a dozen of the little buggers on the map at the same time, so you can only imagine the chaotic fun that has resulted from this. Hamilton Chu is the only one still bugged that we have not decided on the official name for it. They are down to three names this week, and should have one decided pretty soon, I can’t tell you what the three finalists are, except that they are are all small, furry and fast. VERY fast.
· Mat Noguchi, has been pounding out the voice chat system. He has been tweaking the transmission quality, bandwidth efficiency and selecting and testing some of the possible voice filters (so far he’s particularly proud of the “grunt” setting). He is even trying to make it work on a LAN, so you can hear your teammate scream through your headset from four dorm rooms away when you “accidentally” run him over in the ‘hog. He is also experimenting with some other downright revolutionary voice chat features that I honestly have never seen implemented before, but are sure to be copied by others after we show them off.
· Jason has been pouring over all the new multiplayer options that the sequel will offer to players. There currently are three times as many options being experimented with, compared to the first game. He wants to give the game as much flexibility as possible, but is afraid he might cause a riot in the testing department each week. Simply put, every time he adds a new option, a whole new barrage of play/bug testing is required and Jim (our unlucky media coordinator) needs to collect all of the old beta-discs, confirm all of their serial numbers and burn two new boxes of updated beta discs for everyone. So obviously he is not the jolliest guy around here, when its beta update day.
· And Finally, Joe Staten and CJ approved the final Halo 2 box art, and it will absolutely blow you all away. I have seen some of the skillful Photoshop fan creations on the net, but none of them even come close to this DVD case-sized Sistine Chapel. CJ was so impressed that he requested that poster-sized versions be shipped to us as soon as the art department can print them. I begged (quite pathetically) for an early picture for all of you. But the big guy himself denied me. But don’t worry you will get to see it before anyone else I promise, so stay tuned!
Next Week: Some more interesting tidbits, maybe a new MP picture. And last but not least, a look at Mister Chief’s adventures in babysitting......
http://img26.photobucket.com/albums/...fandJeebus.jpg 
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