The Halo Infinite theme is going to be sung even more loudly now that it supports Dolby Atmos.
Game developer 343 Industries has announced that the upcoming Halo Infinite will support spatial audio formats such as Dolby Atmos, Windows Sonic and DTS Headphone: x for even greater immersion. Per a blog post, Infinite ‘s lead audio director, along with designers and engineers, explained what spatial audio could do for Halo Infinite on Xbox Series X.
“Halo Infinite is the first Halo title to support the Virtual Surround Sound technologies Dolby Atmos, Windows Sonic and DTS Headphone: X,” said Halo Infinite, Chief Sound Technical Designer, Chase Thompson. “These spatial audio technologies allow us to make sounds feel like they’re playing behind you or above you, when you’re only wearing stereo headphones.”
Changes were also made to the campaign mode and multiplayer audio, which were mostly praised by fans. Weapons and environmental sounds will be greatly enhanced to enhance the experience, which is heard analytically between Halo 5 and Halo Infinite. Sound Director Sotaro Tojima says he plans to write music differently than before by feeling lighter. He wants players to think of this as a resume of the game’s music.
“I really like the scores for Halo 4 and 5 where we tried to introduce a story carefully but as a result, it was tonally less optimistic than previous Halo games,” said Tojima “The stories of the original games also had dark elements, but the music was mostly focused on the brighter side, which worked well.”
The production studio has also been focusing more on getting sounds in the world to be as authentic as possible. The blog post also contains several audio samples to help compare the jump in audio quality between Halo 5 and Infinite.
For multiplayer, this level of 3D audio could give players more audio information when they see a player’s movement. Dolby Atmos succeeds in bringing audibility above an audience, which not only gives more presence, it may help players know when someone is above.
Halo Infinite was originally slated as an Xbox Series X / S launch title, but was pushed back after a poor fan reception following a launch event. It was reported that the game is plastered with developmental challenges, which has led to a major talent leaving the project. Now we know, courtesy of actor Verlon Roberts, who plays Spartan Griffin, that slate is due out in November this year. Other than the unannounced crash from Roberts, no official release date has been released.