 Where possible , the developers drew on or adapted assets from Halo 3 and Reach . For elements that had no analogues , Microsoft sent art director Ben Cammarano to Saber 's offices in St. Petersburg to oversee the redesign of the game 's visuals . Cammarano established four tenets of Halo — what Iones termed " heroic vistas , iconic imagery and characters , clean and vibrant aesthetics , and visceral action " — to guide Saber 's artists . Since the original assets already existed , concept artists took screenshots from the original game and painted over new looks to show how environmental effects , improved lighting , and new textures could change the look of the levels . Some of Saber 's visual designs were considered too much of a departure from the original game — while the artists had changed the position of the Halo ringworld and nearby planets to make a more pleasing skybox , Microsoft insisted maintaining continuity with the universe was more important and vetoed the changes . Vocal fans pointed out other inconsistencies with the game 's visuals in prerelease trailers and pictures that Saber ultimately changed . Iones pointed to the floor designs of the Forerunner structures , the assault rifle , and the look of the Chief as places fans had an impact . The Chief 's armor was redesigned from scratch instead of porting existing assets . 
