I was just wondering because i know they dont have interactive lighting or anything (pretty sure) so i want to know before i spend alot of time loading my map up with them...i really could use them for asthetics but i dont want one bit of framerate lag and will just as soon leave them off. Also, how about objective items like cap plates/flag stands, anyone notice whether having alot of them in view will cause lag? Im prolly gonna put them cuz i have a feeling they wont but might aswell probe the minds of more knowledgable forgers while im at it Thx!
Any item seen on screen affects your frame rate despite not having any effects on lighting. If the object is on your screen the game has to render that entire object. Halo 4(correct me if I am wrong here) runs at 30-32 FPS. The amount of rendering the game has to do the determines how high or low your FPS is. So include them but if you even get a little bit of frame rate lag it is a smart ideation to cut back on unnessary object use. Hope that helps. -waterfall
Basically if it is a block and the and has to render it visually then it will affect frame rate. It does not however affect the dynamic lighting budget so that's one less worry. The story of my forging life is ridiculous frame rate issues so I know alot about it and how to avoid it. Deffinately avoid using too many objects in the one spot. For example you mentioned you wanted to use them for aesthetic purposes but make sureyou're not using a ridiculous amount such as 5+ dominion objects on the one aesthetic piece. Basically every object gives a frame rate drop, just whenever you have created a structure, go to spartan mode and walk aroun te map and view it from every angle that you might see it in a match Nd see if it lags. If it does then either try to remove some pieces, rework the design to use less pieces, and or put a line of sight blocker that will reduce the amount of objects on the screen from te problem angle if that makes sense. On my ironclad map it was perfect no lag up until I put all the spawns, kill zones, and capture plates down. Then it all went to ****. But in a custom game the franerate drop was gone so be mindful of this and switch between the two game modes every now and then to check.
I don't think his question is really "do dominion pieces affect framerate?" but rather "do they affect them more than your average piece?" and the answer is a half yes. The dominion base shields do cause framerate or screen lag. But mostly only when placed one behind the other. Try this, and you will see that no two should be visible through the other. Using several side by side should be okay though.
That's correct Halo 4 runs at about 30 FPS or so, I could tell that the first day I popped it in as I was playing PC games that previous few months and it really bothered me seeing 30 FPS when I was so use to 60 FPS. But you do get use to it and if you don't play PC it feels normal. [br][/br]Edited by merge: This is very true I put a Mantis boxed in by 4 dominion shields and it really jacked down the framerate if I scoped in and aimed around that area to look past it. Those dominion shields probably cause the most FPS lag out of any dominion piece. Probably the more of them you use on a map really has an effect also, whether they are behind one another or not... I would assume.
on laforge I used a LOT of them, and there is no framerate drop until you go to splitscreen w/ it, and that has been improved since I remarked a while ago that it wouldnt' play splitscreen. I think it has a lot to do with making sure that two dominion shields never overlap. previously, I had two side by side, one for each screen, and each of those shields overlaped one that was going diagonal for the adjacent, angled computer monitor. I later changed to one screen per surface, and the result is what you see below, two screens same color side by side. There is still overlapping going on, but less of it. In other words, there is a possibility that overlapping these, even behind the dominion console thingies, causes framerate drop. I also removed part of the chairs that you see in the following photo, which has increased framerate even more... So, for framerate and asthetics, perhaps part of the technique can be, Add as much as you want, then see if framerate is diminished by it, and scale back by asking yourself "what can I live without?"