Hello,
I am very new to UE4. I started just building a level in the first person shooter template just to get started and to learn. My level has multiple buildings trees, rocks, grass etc. It was running fine however as I added more buildings and objects it just slowed down. So now when I’m in the editor its slow, and even more slow when I push play to test. All the motion is slow and delayed. Please help me figure this out. Its driving me nuts.
Are you using the assets from the “Kite Demo” ?
If so, they are quite heavy, and even a high-end system can get pretty slow if you add too much.
It also depends on your system, UE4 is quite demanding as it is, so adding high-poly objects can quickly reach the cap that your system can handle.
You can view your frame rate and memory in the editor by going to Edit->Editor Preferences and under General->Miscellaneous check “show Frame Rate and Memory”, this helps keeping track whether you’re pushing your hardware too hard, and what’s mostly slowing the editor down.
Thanks. Yea I am using rocks and trees from the kite demo, however it was slowing a bit before I started using them. Almost all of my other objects are from the BSP section. also using default props like doors, windows, benches, tables, and lights. Could these be an issue as well? I did what you said. Whats weird is when I scroll across the bulk of my level I’m only getting between 4.5-5.0 FPS when I turn away or out of the bulk of the level It jumps to 12 or higher and moves much smoother. It also says Mem: 1,319.86 mb, and Objs: 45,209. Not too sure if I have just built things extremely wrong or what? However my level seems pretty small compared to games that I have seen with huge levels. Anymore advice would be appreciated.
Thanks. Yea I am using rocks and trees from the kite demo, however it was slowing a bit before I started using them. Almost all of my other objects are from the BSP section. also using default props like doors, windows, benches, tables, and lights. Could these be an issue as well? I did what you said. Whats weird is when I scroll across the bulk of my level I’m only getting between 4.5-5.0 FPS when I turn away or out of the bulk of the level It jumps to 12 or higher and moves much smoother. It also says Mem: 1,319.86 mb, and Objs: 45,209. Not too sure if I have just built things extremely wrong or what? However my level seems pretty small compared to games that I have seen with huge levels. Anymore advice would be appreciated.
So I took out all the Kite demo stuff, and its working perfect again. Do you have any recommendations for trees and foliage that wont bog down the performance as much?
The reason your fps raises when you look away is that the engine only renders what’s visible to your screen, this greatly improves performance, but it also disables some effects, like off-screen reflections.
So it’s most probably a hardware issue (your PC simply can’t handle that much detail, but to be fair, neither can most PCs right now).
You have two options, either lower the polycount of the meshes you’d like to use, using either simplygon, or basic, less effective functions in most 3d modeling software (blender is free, not sure if it has a simplifier, though).
Or, you can make your own assets and/or download assets from the marketplace.
I’d suggest using speedtree for trees if you can afford it, there’s a ue4 version that can get great results very quickly and easily.
If I’m not mistaken, the trees in the kite demo are what’s taking the majority of your fps away, mostly because they have individual leaves rather than the less-expensive branch textures (you can look all this up, there’s loads of documentation on it).
So either use speedtree or a 3d modeler to make low-poly trees, or download them from the marketplace.
Here’s a link with loads of free assets you can download and use in your scenes: