2 posts tagged with "Optimization"

As I brought graphics, scripts, collision, animation, and audio together in Polygon Engine, I needed to look at the work they perform as a whole. Counting a scene's polygons helps explain part of that workload, but leaves out many operations needed to run the game.

Even a small room can contain scripts running continuously, animated objects, lights, and several active sounds. Some surfaces may also overlap and cover much of the screen. To decide what to optimize, I needed to understand the cost of each system and how those costs add up.

While studying PlayStation 1 memory for asset importing, I had to separate three things: game data, graphics, and sound. Each uses a different memory region, so calculating the total size of a scene was not enough.

A scene can leave space in main RAM and still exceed VRAM capacity with its textures. Resident sounds have a separate limit as well. Understanding that separation helped me decide what the engine needed to show when reviewing assets before export.