I'd say this is newsworthy only due to Halo's history.<p>Back when Halo 1 was launched, it was one of the first games to use dynamic octree subdivision on height maps combined with indoor portals, which meant it was superior to the Unreal Engine w.r.t. large landscapes with caves at the time. By now, of course, all other game engines can render similar landscapes. And that's why the original USP of the Halo engine is now moot.