Quote: "Do you know if this practice has a positive effect on game load times and frame rate?"
I can't see how it should have a positive effect on game loading. It still has to load the models before it can use them, so your game won't have a faster loading time because of it. But it surely have a positive effect on the fps. Think about this:
Every dynamic object in fpsc need to be checked every loop to see if they hit something and how they should react(as said above). Now lets say you start in the beginning of the level and you have a loong way to a room where you have dynamic objects... Now would you have the game should check those entities even if the player can't see them? Or even know they are there? Of course not! So just before the player enters the room, an activation of the dynamic entities happens, and from now on they are gonna be checked. This way they will only be checked when needed
Of course they will from then on be checked through the rest of the level.
Quote: "Trigger Zones vs. entities which is best practice that increases game frame rate?"
Hmmm, you can't really put them up against each other. But trigger zones can help you. You could eventually have a room with objects that first got spawned when the player stood outside the door. If this was dynamic entities, they would not take any frame rate on calculating what they hit and how they should react, before they point where they are actually needed. Although be carefull with this little trick. If you wanna spawn too many entities at once, the game will freeze after how many entities it has to activate and place. So don't use a trigger zone to spawn many objects
But it should easely handle a few.
-The Nerd
PanzerGames
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Free Particle Engine For dbpro :
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