Halo: Reach (PC) Known Issues - 12/3/19

Halo: Reach (PC) Known Issues List Update: 1/29/20

Top Community Reported Issues

Audio Issues: Players have reported various issues regarding game audio not sounding as expected (muffled, inconsistent volume, low quality, etc.). This is a known issue present at launch and work has continued since the last update. We hope to have some more in depth discussions on this in the February Development blog. This ongoing work has also led to preemptive fixes to help prevent similar issues from occurring in future MCC PC releases

Stuttering Issue: This has been a hard one to lock down and we are still investigating. Our investigation has progressed and forked into two paths: 

• 3^rd party software : We are working with partners to see if there are ways to improve how we handle some of the more problematic software between us, them, and EAC. Examples include keyboard lighting applications or other peripheral customizable option applications.  
• Uncapped framerate: Prototyping on a framerate limiter has shown some good initial results of stuttering going away once a cap is set to what your monitor supports.  

If you're experiencing this issue and haven't yet filed a support ticket, please do so - the more information we get, the more effectively we can get to the root of what's going on. Here's how to create a ticket.

Menu Performance: We are aware of reports where players are experiencing performance drops in the menus outside of gameplay. We are still attempting to investigate issues players have reported on this. If you are experiencing this problem, please visit the Halo Support site and create a ticket.

Screen-tearing / V-sync issues: There have been some bugs fixes around this that will be in one of our upcoming patches and we will continue to address issues as they pop up. As a reminder, if V-Sync is off, screen tearing will happen. In order to isolate this issue we would like users who are experiencing issues to please visit the Halo Support site and create a ticket.

Co-Op Latency: At this time, we have not been able to identify any issues around this feature and the functionality is on par with the rest of MCC. There is no active development happening around improving/re-writing the legacy network code around this area of the game. Unfortunately, this would be a massive undertaking and just isn’t within the realm of what the team can currently support.

EAC Error Messages in Game: We are continuing work on improving our anti-cheat solution and how we can better support 3^rd party applications within that ecosystem. Improvements here will come online as we roll out future patches. As part of our investigation, we’ve enabled more verbose logging. We are continuing to monitor and improve where we can. 

Some users have been reporting various EAC error messages appearing while playing. This includes a “UE4 Critical Error,” “You’ve been banned” and others around map files. If you are experiencing any of these, please visit the Halo Support site and create a ticket.

We are currently investigating the UE4 critical errors and believe we have resolved the ban message appearing. If you are receiving the UE4 Critical Error, please make sure you are on the latest version of Windows. Error messages appearing for map files require you to resolve them as the local files have changed around these. In order to resolve these, we recommend you use the “Verify Files” options on Steam and to re-install the game on the Microsoft Store.

Key bindings: We’re aware that many players would like to be able to bind actions to more than one key. Work is in progress to support rebinding both text chat and push to talk.

Mouse Input: WWe have seen a small percentage of players reporting this as an issue, please continue to submit support tickets if you experience input delay problems. This is an area of the game that we will continue to monitor and improve upon where we can. 

The patch we released this week does address an issue that should improve the input performance and experience for M+KB players. We’re eager to hear the community’s feedback, please let us know how this change feels for you. Don't forget, users who are experiencing issues to please visit the Halo Support site and create a ticket.

Idle Stops Matchmaking Search: This feature is by-design and is done to prevent AKF/idle players from entering matchmaking. This is still on our list but nothing active on this one in January as we try to tackle higher priority issues.

View Model:  We’re aware that when altering the default FOV the view model is larger and not scaling as players would like. As discussed in December’s Development Update Blog, an initial implementation is in iterative development which will allow players to make changes to the view model along the X and Y axis (horizontal and vertical). This work is still in progress but will be flighted for feedback prior to release.

Can’t Crouch While Moving: The way crouching and moving works in Reach is currently true to the way it worked in the original game on Xbox 360. However, we understand this doesn’t necessarily meet player expectations on PC. We are currently testing and prototyping potential alternative solutions to address the community’s feedback around the inability to crouch while moving using mouse & keyboard. We are planning on flighting this prior to release. Feedback/reception from the player base will determine its launch readiness post flight.

Aim Assist / Controller vs. M+KB: This continues to remain high on our list and we are actively talking through solutions. Nothing to share in this update, but we hope to have some more to talk about in our February Update.

We are continuing to investigate ways we can improve this for players on PC while still retaining the necessary functionality for controller players. We know there’s been a lot of feedback around this across the community and we are definitely listening and digging into this on our end. Investigations and discussions are underway internally but we do not have a timeline we can commit to or more information to share quite yet.  

The patch we released on 12/18/19 does address an issue that should improve the input performance and experience for M+KB players. We’re eager to hear the community’s feedback, please let us know how this change feels for you.

Achievement Issues & Support Tickets: We have added this to our issues list because while it’s not at the top of any list that is visible, problems with achievements have been one of the most reported issues through our customer support team.  That team is continuing to work though these issues but due to the volume, this is going to take much more time for us to get through. 

The good news here – we are not ignoring these tickets. Our support agents are likely to ask you follow-up questions to help the investigation, please try your best to work with them and leave your frustration out of that conversation.

Additional Known Issues

• There is a known crash we are investigating on PC when exiting the title.
• Player’s character model appears to desync briefly when moving after an assassination.
• When using the narration feature, all menu options are not read for all screens.
• When playing Co-op or multiplayer, players will appear to play a falling animation when entering an elevator.
• Prior to installing Halo: Reach, users who participated in flights will want to delete all files at C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\LocalLow\MCC.
• Players friended only over Steam do not appear in the Roster (must be Xbox Live friends). You can join upon your friends through Steam’s friends list.
• To send an Xbox Live friend request you will need to use the Game Bar, Xbox Companion app, or add them at Xbox.com
• When launching in Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, or Korean the voice language pack may not install (Full KBA).
• If a capture card is set to the default audio input device, all PC audio will transmit over voice channel (Full KBA).
• Bluetooth headphones will prioritize communication audio after passing the main menu Full KBA).
• When moving the game’s window while in Fullscreen using the Windows, shift, and arrow keys it can cause the game to appear as a still image.
• Cutscenes during Tip of the Spear can see performance drops using AMD graphics cards.
• When trying to “Save As” File Share game types and maps that are not Halo: Reach they appear corrupted on relaunch of Halo: Reach. This is because you don’t have the content required to play them.
• Uninstalling the Steam version of the game with the Microsoft Store version installed will remove the Easy Anti-Cheat client and make the Microsoft Store game be unplayable. To resolve this please uninstall and re-install the Microsoft Store version.

Previously Resolved Issues

Server Relays Blocking Matchmaking: We received reports yesterday that players were having troubles finding matches with relays enabled. After further investigation, an issue was discovered, and as of this morning we believe this is now resolved. We will continue to monitor relay performance and matchmaking.

Microsoft Store and Game Pass App Missing Launch Options: The Game Pass team has resolved an issue reported by some users who are unable to launch Reach within the Game Pass App.

Won’t Fix and By Design Known Issues

• With the Duke control scheme Switch grenade is mapped to LB and Flashlight is mapped to RB
• When attempting to join friends using Steam’s friends list or overlay your party will not be brought with you. To alleviate, join friends through your Xbox Live Roster in game.
• Players who have picked up the active camo powerup are easier to see when moving on non-title update (vanilla) settings than title update (TU) settings
• When entering full screen for the first time if previously snapped to half of a screen on 4k monitors, the game will not display properly when entering full screen. Simply Alt + Enter to resolve this.
• There is no way to rebind the pause function