Hey y’all, recently I’ve been working on this small project to refine my scripting and building skills, while also learning the basics to advanced bits of performance. When I started creating the map, I wanted to use Terrain as it’s quite easy to use. However, I ran into a problem recently when overviewing the “Draw Counts” list in the “Render” menu.
The issue? Large amounts of Tris coming from terrain ALONE, even when the map isn’t close to finished. Here are a few images of the amounts I’ve seen:
Of course I’m experimenting with StreamingEnabled and other systems. But I’m mainly wondering a few things:
Should I continue to use Roblox terrain?
If I continue to use Roblox terrain, should I also use Roblox terrain WATER despite it’s impact on Rendering?
If I use both Terrain and terrain water, what optimizations can I implement to reduce the performance load?
Side Note: I only have roughly 40 parts in the whole map and just a few NPC models with Humanoid instances in them.
Another thing I want to bring up is how plenty of other popular games such as: The Wild West, Jailbreak, War Tycoon, and even Bloxburg use Terrain a lot, but don’t generally have performance problems. Is there something the builders of these games do that may lower the tri count of the terrain and water?
I would love to hear everyone’s input as this is most likely an issue other novice developers like myself are experiencing, as well as any tips involving terrain that you believe may help!
It works fine for me I think. I personally use a custom water system, but that’s due to artistic intent/direction, not optimization. With making your own system comes time also, so factor that. I say visual intent is paramount for my game, the visuals, but it’s up to you. I also use streaming enabled.
I know Roblox has that culling system for things. It doesn’t yet work with Terrain, but they’re working on it. so, I’d say Terrain is going to get better for performance. With game using already though en mass, and my own game, I think it’s fine enough. Like it’s not horrible, but again, I’m not big on optimization knowledge.
I caution spending so much time thinking or actually optimizing that you forget to make a game. That said, it’s a balance, and you don’t want to never optimize. It sounds like you don’t have too much in the game (“40 parts” & “just a few NPC models”), which is why I say this.
I can throw this out there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDO_amtWfDw and can recommend general researching the topic of Terrain optimization. Maybe something from @MrChickenRocket (known for his knowledge on optimizing), other stuff on this forum, other youtube videos, etc.
Thank you for the tips! I’m going to wait and see if this thread gets more replies until I focus back on optimization. Also, Roblox does cull terrain, you could see it with WireFrame rendering in the View tab. I will also go back to getting out ChickenRocket as I’ve only seen one of his posts lol
