LAG

[Fruitcup]

Do you think the decorations are worth the lag? how far for aesthetics/gameplay do you go?
I have some areas on my island that lag a tiny bit, it used to bother me but now I'm used to it. I want all of my town to be decently decorated but I don't like having things load in on me.

If an acre loading system like the gamecube game was implemented do you think it would stop lag? and would you want/use it?

 

[Le Ham]

If someone plays this game only for the design aspect and little else, I can see being able to ignore the lag. But for those of us who care more about the gameplay as a whole, it detracts from the experience. In most areas I don't have so much furniture that the game hits huge frame rate drops (unless it's windy, oof) but I frequently notice when some furniture loads in from a distance.

An acre loading system, if one is not already in use in a different form, might stop lag, but I suspect it would annoy the vast majority of players and become one of the game's major flaws if it were implemented (at least without other options). Maybe a better solution would be to add graphics/performance settings or something?

 

[Uffe]

I want to decorate areas to make them look great, but I don't want to play Animal Crossing in lag. I've gone to some really nice islands through the Dream Address, but the lag made it not so fun to be in. If they had the acre loading system as you put it like the GameCube did, maybe it wouldn't lag as much or at all. All I can say is, if they allow outdoor decorations like this to happen again, I hope the system the game plays on is strong enough to prevent lag, or strong enough to allow a lot on screen without every item placed loading into existence.

 

[Noel_in_Sunrise]

I do not have any lag yet.

No amount of lag if worth it for me. If I get any lag in the future, I will remove whatever I have to to get rid of it.

I think that having acres could cause loading times between acres, which would be even worse. If anything, they should have made the game a little less pretty to avoid lag. As long as it was a step up from the last game, people would have been happy. They should have used simpler geometry on meshes and potentially simpler lighting models.

I really wish I knew for sure which things are most likely to cause lag so I could plan around it. What effects it most: adding lights, amount of objects in any area/complexity of geometry, or number of unique items? Maybe the shadows maps or transparency is most to blame.

 

[Pyoopi]

I would prefer if I didn't have lag at all but there is an area that has it. It's mainly because I have a lot of light sources and animated things (like trees and pumpkins); so.. I've tried to cut down on items there but it still has that jagged feeling when pass through.
I'd be more cranky if I have tight areas and whatnot where you start shimmying around or you watch your character pause into a mid-lunge, lol.

And I don't think a lot of people understand that lighting is the biggest villain in games. If you ever had to build a level in Unity or Unreal and you have a lot of light sources; you're going to be praying your computer doesn't crash. It's upsetting when I'm lighting my environments and the whole thing goes down. (thats why you increment save). The only thing I can think of is if they had baked lights. The only downside, it might look weird. I don't know.

 

[niko@kamogawa]

I will definitely redesign my island if there's one. Luckily, the one I came up turned out quite well. I am not experiencing any slowdowns except when there's a fishing or bug catching tournament. But that's only in my plaza area.

 

[Noel_in_Sunrise]

I would prefer if I didn't have lag at all but there is an area that has it. It's mainly because I have a lot of light sources and animated things (like trees and pumpkins); so.. I've tried to cut down on items there but it still has that jagged feeling when pass through.
I'd be more cranky if I have tight areas and whatnot where you start shimmying around or you watch your character pause into a mid-lunge, lol.

And I don't think a lot of people understand that lighting is the biggest villain in games. If you ever had to build a level in Unity or Unreal and you have a lot of light sources; you're going to be praying your computer doesn't crash. It's upsetting when I'm lighting my environments and the whole thing goes down. (thats why you increment save). The only thing I can think of is if they had baked lights. The only downside, it might look weird. I don't know.

Ugh, I had a team project from hell where the level took hours to bake the lighting in Unreal. As a programmer who mostly does Unity work, it was not a nice first exposure to Unreal for me to be working entirely with 3D modeling students who didn't see the point in planning polycount and object density. My projects take minutes to build and test. I don't know why our team lead thought it was acceptable to have to wait two hours to test early versions of the level.

You bring up such a good point. As far as I know (this might have changed as I graduated around five years ago haven't had to do lighting or rendering work since), dynamic lighting does not get baked, so I don't know if they could speed things up this way. I wish they had used a simpler lighting model. It wouldn't have looked as good bit ai would prefer that over lag.

 

[Mick]

I don't consider my island heavily decorated, but I do have a little bit of lag along one horizontal path on the left side of my island. I haven't narrowed it down to a single cause yet, maybe it's just the combination of multiple things (trees/weeds/flowers in the wind, general item use, patterns all around to stop flower spread, items with light sources...) that are doing it.

It is only slight but it has been bothering me a little, and I might soon just start tearing things down until I notice it improving. I really hope it's not the plants or light sources that are causing this, because both of those are really nice to decorate with.

I suppose it might not be entirely preventable, the switch just isn't a very powerful console and this game seems to just barely stay within the limits sometimes.

 

[Chris]

My opinion may not hold much weight because I'm not really into the terraforming/decorating side of the game so much, but I prefer functionality over appearances. If the game starts lagging I start digging up flowers or tearing things down.

 

[dizzy bone]

My island is really full but I actually haven't experienced much lag (delayed movement or frame rate drop). But sometimes I will experience furniture pop-ins. I admit that pop-ins do annoy me as it's a bit disorienting, but the one thing that holds my interest in this game - after I get tired of the dialogue, "newness factor" and the grind of daily tasks- is the decoration and design aspect, so it's something I learn to live with. I don't really notice it much anymore. It seems from feedback that my island lags much more for other people visiting me (online play or dream address) than when I play alone. I get a bit self conscious that pop-ins or island lag will ruin a visitor's experience on my island because I really love hanging out with friends online, but the most important part is that it's still playable for me. I've decided to redo a lot of areas of my island so I'm keeping lag in mind, but if I really enjoy how it looks with heavy decorations I probably wouldn't change it even if I experienced a little lag.

 

[eseamir]

I haven't run into any lag on my island yet but I agree with the people above me that value playability over aesthetic, I personally don't really want to have a "blank" or undecorated island but I don't think I could get to the clutter levels that I've seen on some people's islands. personally I find them super pretty to look at but the trade off for lower functionality just wouldn't be worth it for me, as soon as things would start lagging or making it difficult to move around they would be gone

 

[Fruitcup]

I really wish I knew for sure which things are most likely to cause lag so I could plan around it. What effects it most: adding lights, amount of objects in any area/complexity of geometry, or number of unique items? Maybe the shadows maps or transparency is most to blame.

That would be great to know. Aside from too many objects, what I've noticed is that my town starts to lag a tiny bit when it has to load things on different cliff levels all at once.

And I don't think a lot of people understand that lighting is the biggest villain in games. If you ever had to build a level in Unity or Unreal and you have a lot of light sources; you're going to be praying your computer doesn't crash. It's upsetting when I'm lighting my environments and the whole thing goes down. (thats why you increment save). The only thing I can think of is if they had baked lights. The only downside, it might look weird. I don't know.

I had no idea and that makes so much sense! I love the lighting in this game, it makes it so magical

I will definitely redesign my island if there's one. Luckily, the one I came up turned out quite well. I am not experiencing any slowdowns except when there's a fishing or bug catching tournament. But that's only in my plaza area.

That's interesting, I haven't heard of that happening before. I wonder if its cause of all the villagers gathering or that one extra tent, how odd

My island is really full but I actually haven't experienced much lag (delayed movement or frame rate drop). But sometimes I will experience furniture pop-ins. I admit that pop-ins do annoy me as it's a bit disorienting, but the one thing that holds my interest in this game - after I get tired of the dialogue, "newness factor" and the grind of daily tasks- is the decoration and design aspect, so it's something I learn to live with. I don't really notice it much anymore. It seems from feedback that my island lags much more for other people visiting me (online play or dream address) than when I play alone. I get a bit self conscious that pop-ins or island lag will ruin a visitor's experience on my island because I really love hanging out with friends online, but the most important part is that it's still playable for me. I've decided to redo a lot of areas of my island so I'm keeping lag in mind, but if I really enjoy how it looks with heavy decorations I probably wouldn't change it even if I experienced a little lag.

Same here. Usually when the lag is not too bad items need to pop in only once per visit/gameplay, at least thats been my experience with my friends. I loved your new leaf town with the dirt paths and the orange sunset, I can't wait to check out what you've done with your island!

 

[Noel_in_Sunrise]

That would be great to know. Aside from too many objects, what I've noticed is that my town starts to lag a tiny bit when it has to load things on different cliff levels all at once.


I had no idea and that makes so much sense! I love the lighting in this game, it makes it so magical

That's interesting, I haven't heard of that happening before. I wonder if its cause of all the villagers gathering or that one extra tent, how odd


Same here. Usually when the lag is not too bad items need to pop in only once per visit/gameplay, at least thats been my experience with my friends. I loved your new leaf town with the dirt paths and the orange sunset, I can't wait to check out what you've done with your island!

Oh, this is a great insight that I have not heard before! It did not occur to me that different cliff levels rendering together might be taxing. This might have something to do with how the game loads and unloads objects.

 

[BigBadButterfree]

I have an area where I threw all my Halloween stuff and it doesn't really lag, but when I first cross the bridge to get there I can see all the objects render one by one.

I have other areas where the flowers have absolutely taken over and THOSE lag a lot.

 

[Livia]

Sometimes I get lag because of my hundreds of flowers, but I love them too much to throw them away. I also have one area where the picnic basket will pop in suddenly when I walk by.

 

[dizzy bone]

Same here. Usually when the lag is not too bad items need to pop in only once per visit/gameplay, at least thats been my experience with my friends. I loved your new leaf town with the dirt paths and the orange sunset, I can't wait to check out what you've done with your island!

Oh wow I'm touched someone remembers my new leaf town haha Yeah pop-ins work similarly for me as well. After the first pop-in my game will load properly from then on unless I'm running around real fast which I rarely do. And they generally occur during specific daylight hours. I rarely ever experience pop-ins at night!

 

[6iixx]

i've only ever had pop-in shadows - is that technically the same thing? i don't want to make my game lag, obviously (who does), but i definitely like the aesthetic i've started to get going with my island decoration. i know that having multiple waterfalls in one area can cause your game to stutter a bit when trying to go about that specific area, but i've never personally seen that.

would it be a good idea to start to lessen the items / decor because of the pop-in shadows? o:

 

[Mairmalade]

That would be great to know. Aside from too many objects, what I've noticed is that my town starts to lag a tiny bit when it has to load things on different cliff levels all at once.

I noticed the same thing between different cliff levels. I have a cafe, garden, and ponds on the main level near Resident Services; a large spa immediately above it with trees, items, and waterfalls; and my house with a garden and more trees/flowers on the third. This is the only area where I have a lot of items condensed into a small area and experience framerate issues, so it doesn't happen often nor does it bother me. If I had to deal with it everywhere, that'd be another story though!

Bringing back an acre system reminds me of Sims 4 trying to improve the open-world performance issues from Sims 3 by having smaller neighborhoods as opposed to having the entire world open. I'd rather have the occasional 'blip' in Animal Crossing compared to a loading period per acre. I realize the Gamecube game (which I love) had acres, but there was a lot less in each.

 

[QueenOpossum]

If an acre loading system like the gamecube game was implemented do you think it would stop lag? and would you want/use it?

I just youtube'd some footage from the gamecube game - I'd never played it, I started with WW.

I would not like that, at all. The camera jerking across the screen when it load the new area is completely immersion breaking to me.

I do not have any spots that lag.

 

[EmmaFrost]

The lag is definitely noticeable, but it doesn’t really bother or deter me. It happens. I didn’t know it was dependent on how busy/decorated your island is!