Optimizing Performance: Efficient Way to Incorporate Models

Hi all,

I’m working on my first “larger” sized airport and naturally I’m seeking how to best optimize my scenery. Although I’ve had a read through the SDK’s recommendations for optimization, I must admit, I don’t know how to put it a few things into actions. I use Blender with the Asobo exporter and below are a few questions I have regards to the topic. Before diving into it, I want to be sure I’m doing it right.

  1. If I have a smaller object, say a low poly ground service vehicle; is it best to have it contained within is own Blender file with all it’s LOD’s, then export the single object into the sim and then duplicate them tens of times within the SDK -OR- would it better to create a “master” airport file with a “collection” of the vehicle duplicated and placed where they belong and then export the cluster of vehicles as one object?

  2. As I understand, using vertex color has no performance “penalty” - which is great, but wondering, if I have a texture sheet (material “A”) and I then make a duplicate of that exact texture sheet but name it material “B” and change the in Blender material values (under MSFS material properties) such as roughness/metallic, how does that affect performance?

  3. I’ve recently learned about the “Statistics Profiler”, but wondering what do you look for in it? So far, anything in red usually has a recommendation like … the last LOD has too many texture or the texture is too large, consider using a smaller one … is this the main function of the tool or are there other things I should be looking for besides red = bad?

  4. When it comes to making LOD’s, I’ve found that MCX appears to be of great value. I used to use decimate in Blender, but not only did it lack a lot of data (like draw calls, etc), it lacked fine control. Is anyone currently using this method? If so, would you mind sharing your workflow overview? When is enough, enough in terms of number of LOD’s?

Any/all productive insight and thoughts would be much appreciated! Thank you for your time!

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Hey Bibster, I’m in the same boat. For some reason the sceneries I’m working on seem to be for big airports or big events. I’m very interesting in learning how to optimize the models, instances, etc. What’s the link to the SDK doc?

https://docs.flightsimulator.com/html/Asset_Creation/3D_Models/General_Principles.htm?rhhlterm=optimization%20optimal&rhsearch=optimization

I don’t know what a non-skinned vs a skinned mesh is. I do understand instancing… what I don’t know how to do is create an instance in the sim. Does it happen when I click “Assign Instance ID” to a scenery object and I copy and paste it all over the place? I hope it does.