I’m currently working on a sound design project in Unreal Engine where I need to add a physical material to a material instance on a quite large map. However, I’m running into performance issues and I’m wondering if my PC’s specs might be the bottleneck. My current setup includes an NVIDIA GTX 1060, Intel i5-7400, and 8 GB of RAM.
The main challenge I’m facing is that when I attempt to add these materials, (asphalt to a significant amount of roads) my PC seems to struggle significantly, leading to slow performance and rendering issues (I get stuck on a loading screen titled “Updating Texture Streaming Data”). Given the scale of the map and the complexity of the materials, I’m concerned that my hardware might not be up to the task.
I’m looking for advice or tips on how to manage this situation. Here are some specific questions I have:
Are there any optimizations or settings within Unreal Engine that I could tweak to improve performance on a lower-end PC?
Are there any best practices for working with large maps and complex materials in Unreal Engine that could help reduce the load on my system?
If hardware upgrades are necessary, which components should I prioritize to get the best performance boost for my needs?
(I am very new to unreal engine, having a background in music production, so all advice is appreciated.)
GTX 1060 is, I’m afraid, behind. A 1080 Ti is the absolute MINIMUM to operate Unreal, and even then, it’ll be limited.
Intel i5-7400 is Generation 7, which, again, is behind. You’ll AT LEAST a Generation 9 (so iY-9XXXX) to assist in the MASSIVE texture caching that Unreal performs. (What this means is that Unreal does not only load what is in your scene, it loads just about every other item in your project! This is to allow you to edit quickly without having to wait for items to load every time you insert them into your project.)
8GB of RAM meets the “official” Epic base requirement, but that is not NEARLY enough. 32 GB of RAM is the REALLY minimum if you want to do any form of 3D production. (2D, not sure… 16 is probably enough, but, I haven’t done 2D… yet.)
Once you have done these things, then the issues WILL go away.
Later you can worry about OPTIMIZATION, which, ironically, makes things worse at first before they get better. So, I wouldn’t even try to optimize at this point. All you can do is use low resolution settings and CULL Volumes until you upgrade your hardware.
You should check out XIDAX (I strongly recommend them. There are other companies, but my experience has been stellar.)
They’ll build you a computer modularly. They have a step-by-step system that allows you to choose which components you want in your gaming rig.
Because you’re looking to be a developer, I would recommend customizing your PC, because prebuilt rigs may have hardware you don’t need (or, at the very least, hardware that is more expensive than necessary).
(My rig was $2200/E2000, so you’re already mostly there.)
EDIT: I just realized you’re outside of the US. So, this is outside of the jurisdiction of my experience. Do some research to find which companies near you custom-build computers.