Newbie here with a simple question..

Community Community & Industry Discussion
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First off, I’d like to greet everyone here and introduce myself. Name is Brandon. I’m 26 and only a week into UE4. The closest experience I have to this is the Hammer Editor from Valve’s HL2. This was a very long time ago, when I only dreamed of making games. I have recently committed to my dreams of making it a reality. My imagination/creativity is, in my opinion, off the charts. I can no longer keep it at bay due to a difficult life. It’s time to quit being a ***** and do what I know I’m more than capable of.

Now for my question… I have been learning so much by going through the demos and seeing exactly how everything is done, watching the Youtube tutorial videos, etc… I’m currently trying to understand optimization and cannot figure out why my project is much more graphically demanding than the shooter, particle effects, basically all the demos. The GPU temps for the demos hover @ approx. 60C, compared to my pathetic excuse of a project @ 70C - 72C… I’m using very simple stuff in my project (only starter content, basic shapes, and geometry). I have no landscape, just a simple building with applied materials and basic lighting actors and so forth. I have tweaked the settings on PPV and enabled the auto exposure, messed with the sky light, light source, etc., but not outside of the normal (of course to my newbie understanding levels lol). Sorry if this question isn’t viable without more info, images, and videos. I’ll provide whatever is necessary.

Thanks in advance for your time and I’m glad to now be a part of this awesome community!

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I’ve done quite a bit of troubleshooting since I posted this thread, and it seems to be leaning towards the starter content’s ceiling light and wall sconce. Could someone clarify why these lights are so demanding? Maybe due to the fact these are “movable” blueprint lights, unlike most lights used in the demos which are simple static lights?

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Yes; static lights are “baked” at time of level build, and then no computation is needed at runtime.
Movable lights have to be re-computed every frame that’s rendered.
The good news about movable lights is that, well, you can move them, which you can use for cool effects :slight_smile:

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Thanks for clearing up the confusion :slight_smile:

So basically, if I don’t add collision and physics to the ceiling light (stays stationary at all times), there’s no reason to use the blueprinted version and just use the ceiling light prop itself and add a simple static point light?

EDIT: Nevermind, I completely understand now. Thanks again!