Union materials optimiaztion

[BlazeLin]

I dont know which one is better for performance, to have multiple parts like this grouped together

or make them into union

The reason im asking is becase the game has to load the slate material for each block and there are close to 500 of these blocks so 500x6 is 3000 “decals” of that material. I want to know if turning them into union will just make each side just 1 big merged material so the game has to load just one “block” with 6 “decals” of the material

Another example would be stairs where the game would have to load the plank material for all 6 sides of the 40 planks

[Gu0c]

Grouping together parts is like placing pictures in a folder on your computer. It makes it easier to organize, re-size, move and duplicate models. But the same amount of parts still need to be loaded by the game.

Having unions are definatley better for the game than having several iduvidual parts. A union basically becomes one single block, like a mesh. So this does help the game performance as roblox has to load less stuff when starting the game. Having loads of induvidual parts with textures and decals on does also have a negative effect on the game performance.

The one negative side with unioning parts that have a simular texture or decal is that the texure or decal reacts to the union like a block, so it might not look like several blocks anymore.

I hope this helped and good luck!

[ZacBytes (Zachary)]

This is not true, unions are more performance-intensive than regular parts because you’re creating complex shapes with roblox csg.

you can read more here

Which is better for support: Lots of parts, or lots of unions?

Unions are okay to use but in moderation. Like part count or meshes, if it gets out of control then you will start to experience performance issues. Here are a few things to try out: Unions have a Level of Detail system. Try adjusting any of the items you don’t need to be detailed from a far range (i.e - building details on tall buildings or similar) and it should cut some of the memory taken up by rendering. You seem to already be using box collisions but you could go even further and di…

If you want better performance, use meshes.

[Gu0c]

Alright, I have missunderstood that point, but then you should just be able to export the union as a object and then import as a mesh.

[BlazeLin]

So should I just export the parts into blender and then import them as a mesh? They will be with disabled collision so i can also set the collision fidelity to box

[Gu0c]

That is one way, but if you don’t have like 7000 blocks or more exporting and inserting isnt really needed. But if you want to reduce lag in a section with many blocks or unions exporting and inserting can be usefull.