Texture Streaming issues on large map

Development Asset Creation
1

Hey, guys.

Obviously I am a beginner here so please have mercy on me.
I’ve been working on a game for a long time now. I have the majority of the game functionality programmed and a handful of smaller, complex levels already done.
My issue is with a specific, larger level (a city). I’m using a cull distance volume to avoid rendering things that are far away. It looks like I’m over my texture streaming limit which I have set to 3000. However, I really have not designed a ton of this particular level and I don’t feel like I’m using that many textures or materials. At least it doesn’t seem like it to me but then again… beginner. My textures and materials are now rendering in the least detailed way and the level suddenly looks like absolute garbage. With games like GTA V I know the possibility is there to make what I have in mind, which is considerably smaller and less populated with assets.

I’m certain that I have overlooked some major optimization principal that I’m hoping you guys might be able to enlighten me on. So, when it comes to large levels, how do you go about keeping the load under control while maintaining the beauty that the player can see right in front of them?

2

You can do any or all of the following in some combination:

  1. Use lower resolution textures
  2. Make more efficient use of textures such as by using tiling materials that all pull their textures from the same few texture maps
  3. Use virtual textures
3

Thank you so much! It turns out it was very poor level design and optimization on my part. By taking your advice and going through and changing the way the entire level was set up, I was able to minimize my texture my load and rid my level of almost half of the assets being used while still maintaining the same layout. This was a huge learning experience on level design and I’m very grateful for it!