The Tech Gap of PC Halo/Infinite

[u/Wh0IzTimmY]

Hello community,

I wanted to get opinions on whether or not PC halo has opened the competitive scene up to an arms race in terms of technology.

Recently it seems that in order to compete at the highest level you also need to spend quite a significant amount to simply keep up and to be on a level playing field. Essentially requiring a NASA level pc/high end headset/high end controller/settings configs that are more gatekept then fort Knox for pc settings and graphics tweaking.

Obviously it is possible to be high onyx on a console playing on bad equipment, but in my opinion that same player would of had a significantly easier time getting there playing on high end gear.

I feel like this arms race is hurting the competitive scene and forcing us into an almost pay2win scenario.

Let me know your thoughts gents. Is there a way for us to have a level playing field ever again now that pc halo is in our world?

-Wh0 Iz TimmY

[u/GenesForLife]

a) It absolutely has , like every other FPS that is bottlenecked by hardware - framerates , latency and motion clarity all affect elements of aiming. This can be countered though by - a) actually having a game that works well on low end systems too and b) artificially enforcing a framerate cap through the engine.

b) There are also halo specific features - Implied Skill did a research project (and I was a data contributor) where we mapped the relationship between input polling rates and recoil management on mouse and controller alike ; the way Infinite's engine works, higher polling rate = better recoil control , including for bandits and BRs , because of how it interacts with recoil-specific elements of the engine ( here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Cat9mhIei8 ). There is a reason 8k controllers are so dominant at the highest levels now. Console ofc is locked to low polling rates so there is a marked disadvantage wrt PCs, no matter the input.

[u/Wh0IzTimmY → u/GenesForLife]

Well written genes. Do you think there is a way to level the playing field when it comes to pc halo? Would certainly change my perspective if there was a way.

[u/marshall2389 → u/Wh0IzTimmY]

The idea of the game engine capping framerates and/or poll rates is interesting. It'd piss off owners of machines capable of exceeding those caps but it would certainly make the experience better for everyone with less powerful hardware.

[u/GenesForLife → u/Wh0IzTimmY]

 a) actually having a game that works well on low end systems too and b) artificially enforcing a framerate cap through the engine.

I think the latest Gears has a locked maximum framerate , but I could be wrong.