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Halo 2 Restored Lighting
Description Discussions1 Comments266 Change Notes
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Engine: Halo2
Game Content: Campaign
File Size
Posted
Updated
8.505 GB
27 Jun, 2024 @ 2:01pm
27 Jun @ 8:39pm
22 Change Notes ( view )
Required DLC
This item requires all of the following DLC
Halo 2: Anniversary
Created by
Mr.PirateFox
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Halo 2 Restored Lighting

Description
(Updated to the latest MCC version. Im gonna kms if the game updates again without me having a backup of the files)

A project of mine that restores the dynamic lighting in Halo 2, using SEV's custom shaders
( https://github.com/777Sev777/Halo-2-Custom-Shaders ) for better shadow filtering.

The plan is to restore what was supposed to be the game's original per-pixel lighting in all missions to make the models and textures look a bit more like they were supposed to before the Pstencil engine was scrapped

SEV's Youtube channel: https://youtube.com/@i_sev_i?si=P-T7H2Ou-5t2C9PG

About SEV: he is the guy who basically started all of this. He made a video showcasing the dynamic lighting in Halo 2 a few years ago, and he is also the author of the "Halo 2 E3 Pre-Release" mod that can be found in NexusMods (but sadly hasnt been updated to the lates MCC version), which was the first mod that tried to recreate the original lighting, along with some other things, like encounters, weapons, etc. He's also the creator of the shader that i have been using for the improved shadow filtering, which is publicly available for anyone to use. Currently, he's working on the Ruby's Rebalanced team for Halo 2 to add this lighting to that mod.


Note: this arent stencil shadows. Even when the mod tools say so, they are shadow maps, and act like shadow maps. Stencil shadows would be pixel perfect, this ones are not

Note 2: the performance hit is quite big because of the additional lights placed on the levels and the shadows being casted from them (enough to make a 1080ti drop drom 144fps at 1080p), so be prepared for framerate drops


Known issues (all unfixable, sadly):

Shadow resolution too low: its a problem with how Halo 2 works, and the resolution can't be manually changed, its all dependant on the light properties (size, fov, and range)

Dissappearing shadows: caused by the game culling the objects that generate the shadows when they are out of your FOV. Consecuence of the game's optimization

Lights appear/dissappear at range (mainly large levels): again, because of optimizations with LODs, lights can suddenly pop in and out depending on how far you are from them.

All campaign missions starting from Cairo Station are available
Popular Discussions View All (1)
1
14 Jul @ 6:24pm
Compatible with other mods?
Riekopo
266 Comments
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Earthworm Jim 26 Jul @ 6:53pm 
Like in the e3 demo
Earthworm Jim 26 Jul @ 6:52pm 
Would it be possible to update the mod to give the warthogs headlights the dynamic shadow casting lights? They look really good
sKUBS 25 Jul @ 4:16pm 
the game looks so good, holyyy
Earthworm Jim 25 Jul @ 1:13pm 
Ahh yeah that makes sense. I'm super happy with the current form of the mod it runs more then well enough on my steam deck which is my only PC. This is hands down my favorite mod you definitely made the right choice on performance
Chinfu1189 23 Jul @ 12:23am 
I know you said the preformance can be really heavy and you had to lower some areas for sake of it would any plans to release side version of this mod for us users with beefier pcs to mess around on?
Mr.PirateFox  [author] 22 Jul @ 3:18pm 
It was really bad relative to how soft and diffused the shadows looked. The light needed to be a certain size to cover enough of the bridge to actually cast a coeherent shadow, but the size was so big that the shadows were too low res to really capture any fine detail from objects aside from the bridge, and if i wanted to reduce the light size, i needed to add a lot more to compensate for the lack of coverage, which in turn tanked performance without looking that good, so i just decided to place non-shadow casting lights to at the very least bring out the texture detail which only works with dynamic lighting
Earthworm Jim 13 Jul @ 8:07pm 
and how bad was the bridge with shadows fps wise. i wanna see that
Earthworm Jim 13 Jul @ 8:04pm 
how did you recover and get this fixed? have any plans to ever retouch it?
Mr.PirateFox  [author] 7 Jul @ 12:50am 
Flickering shadows are because of object culling, and the bridge doesnt have shadows anymore because of i changed the light to one that isnt shadow casting, because of performance. This is the main problem of the mod aside from the shadow quality, the game can only handle so many shadows before the performance goes to shit. It is never going to be close to how stencil shadows look, but this is the closest it can get
CRAZYGREG0511 6 Jul @ 4:13am 
Okay so, from what I can tell the mod is working fine, but... I've noticed that (I played this when it first released) that areas that had shadows are missing like the bridge for starters in metropolis, and I noticed that the shows seem to either work or not work, and they flicker and disappear. Maybe that's why I don't see the Shadow quality in HALO 2 like it should be.