They should give the PC version a SSGI option like Days Gone has.
The second flight was almost certainly using some sort of SSGI, SSDO or had some cleverly baked bounce lighting in.
My guess the campaign being dynamic has a GI solution, MP being static they could bake those in.
Not a Halo specific comment but as a nvidia 3000 series owner, I am a bit annoyed that XGS isn't leverage more of those feature sets (especially when you compare it to the Sony pc ports). I will really be annoyed once the first UE games comes out cause there really is no excuse then.
The issue is MS doing their own (ports) means their relationship with AMD will pretty much always be a problem with new releases.
When/if they give port jobs to outside studio we may get lucky and that studio is quite happy to maximize Nvidia tech.
When UE5 games start coming out they are even less likely to fixate on including Nvidia tech in ports.
UE5 has its own brilliant TAAU solution and a hybrid raytracing solution thats seemingly quite happy to run on AMD hardware....so they will have no real need to look to Nvidia for single platform plugins
That's the kind that would most benefit Halo Infinite's graphical style. I don't know if it's more or less demanding, I forget the specifics on comparative demand to something like ray traced reflections, but I do feel it's the one that will most make Halo Infinite look more incredible with the visual style it's aiming for.
I definitely want Ray Tracing in Halo Infinite, just not at the potential early launch compromise of the core game without ray tracing. If they had enough time to do both things that would be great, but it's clear 343 is telling us that there were other things that were a higher priority for them. Many, I think, tend to forget that there has never been any Halo game even remotely close to what this game is trying to accomplish, not even the most impressive parts of Halo 3 compare to what they're aiming to do with the size, openness and level of freedom being offered in this game. Save for the more expectedly linear interior sections of the game, the outdoors sections of Halo Infinite's campaign could possibly be as or more open than both major scarab encounters in Halo 3, with many more tactical possibilities.
Global Illumination is by some margin the most expensive visual use of Raytracing......its also the most transformative which is a slap in the face when so many devs simply wont use it. Reflections are nice but honestly SSR + clever cubemaps do such a good job I have to work hard to notice RT reflections vs SSR during gameplay......but Global Illumination completely changes the scene there is no question when GI is on vs off.
AO is the cheapest, followed by shadows/reflections (which costs more will be based on geometry density)
Reflections can easily be tweaked and mixed to gain performance......low quality RTGI literally spoils the whole image.