Performance optimization is the art of making your games run smoothly while maintaining visual quality and gameplay experience. It's about finding the right balance between impressive visuals and smooth frame rates, ensuring your game can reach the widest possible audience across different hardware capabilities.

Key Takeaway

Performance optimization isn't about making your game look worse—it's about making it run better. Good optimization often improves both performance and visual quality by eliminating wasteful processes and focusing resources where they matter most.

Understanding Performance Optimization

Performance optimization involves identifying and eliminating bottlenecks that slow down your game. These bottlenecks typically fall into three categories: rendering (GPU), processing (CPU), and memory usage. The goal is to ensure your game maintains a consistent frame rate while delivering the intended visual and gameplay experience.

The Performance Triangle

Rendering (GPU)

Graphics processing, shaders, textures

Processing (CPU)

Game logic, physics, AI calculations

Memory

RAM usage, asset loading, caching

All three areas must be optimized for smooth performance

Why This Matters for Indie Developers

As an indie developer, performance optimization is crucial for several reasons:

  • Broader Market Reach: Optimized games can run on lower-end hardware, expanding your potential audience
  • Better User Experience: Smooth performance keeps players engaged and reduces negative reviews
  • Competitive Advantage: Well-optimized games stand out in crowded marketplaces
  • Development Efficiency: Good optimization practices save time during development and testing
  • Platform Compatibility: Optimized games are more likely to work across different devices and platforms

Core Principles

  • Profile First: Always measure performance before and after optimization attempts
  • Optimize the Bottleneck: Focus on the area causing the most performance issues
  • Maintain Quality: Don't sacrifice gameplay or visual quality unnecessarily
  • Test on Target Hardware: Optimize for the minimum specifications you want to support
  • Iterate Incrementally: Make small changes and test frequently

The Three Optimization Areas

Performance optimization focuses on three main areas, each requiring different techniques and considerations:

Rendering Optimization (GPU)

Performance Presets: Use "Low" preset for best performance or "Custom" for fine-tuned control

Occlusion Culling: Enable to hide objects behind other objects, reducing draw calls

Object Culling: Automatically hides objects too far from the player to be seen

Animation Culling: Disables animations for distant objects to improve performance

Post-Processing: Disable effects like Bloom, SSR, and SSAO for better performance

Processing Optimization (CPU)

LUA & Animation Speed: Lower to 30 FPS when using many animations

Delayed Shadows: Reduces cascading shadow updates to increase FPS

Laptop Mode: Makes even fewer shadow updates (not available in Highest preset)

Script Performance: Optimize your Lua scripts and avoid expensive operations

Shadow & Lighting Optimization

Shadow Resolution: Lower Sun, Spot Light, and Point Light shadow quality

Shadow Quality: Reduce the number of lights that can cast shadows (max 16 each)

Point/Spot Shadow Culling: Automatically culls shadows that wouldn't be visible

Transparent Shadows: Disable for transparent objects to improve performance

Common Performance Bottlenecks

Rendering: Too many post-processing effects, high shadow resolution, disabled culling, excessive lighting

Processing: High LUA & Animation speed with many animations, too many shadow-casting lights, inefficient scripts

Shadows: High shadow resolution, too many lights casting shadows, transparent shadows enabled

Use the Performance tab settings to control these bottlenecks: enable culling, lower shadow quality, disable post-processing effects.

Practical Applications

Action Games

Fast-Paced Optimization: Enable occlusion culling, disable post-processing, lower shadow resolution

Examples: Doom, Devil May Cry, God of War

Implementation: Lower LUA & Animation speed, enable delayed shadows, optimize weapon scripts

Open World Games

Large-Scale Optimization: Enable object and animation culling, disable bloom and SSR

Examples: Skyrim, The Witcher 3, Red Dead Redemption 2

Implementation: Use laptop mode for shadows, lower LUA speed, optimize AI scripts

Strategy Games

Unit-Heavy Optimization: Enable occlusion culling, disable post-processing, optimize UI

Examples: Civilization VI, XCOM 2, Total War

Implementation: Lower LUA speed for unit animations, enable delayed shadows

Puzzle Games

Minimal Resource Usage: Disable all post-processing effects, enable culling, minimal lighting

Examples: Portal, The Witness, Baba Is You

Implementation: Lower LUA speed, enable delayed shadows, optimize puzzle scripts

RPGs

Character-Heavy Optimization: Enable animation culling, disable post-processing

Examples: Final Fantasy, Dragon Age, Mass Effect

Implementation: Lower LUA speed for character animations, enable delayed shadows

Common Mistakes to Avoid

  • Premature Optimization: Optimizing before identifying actual bottlenecks
  • Ignoring Target Hardware: Not testing on the minimum specifications you want to support
  • Over-Optimization: Sacrificing too much quality for minimal performance gains
  • Not Profiling: Making optimization decisions without measuring performance
  • Platform Assumptions: Assuming optimization techniques work the same across all platforms

Implementation Tips

  1. Start with Performance Presets: Use "Low" preset for best performance, then customize as needed
  2. Enable Culling Systems: Turn on occlusion culling, object culling, and animation culling
  3. Optimize Shadows: Lower shadow resolution and limit the number of shadow-casting lights
  4. Disable Post-Processing: Turn off effects like Bloom, SSR, and SSAO for better performance
  5. Lower LUA Speed: Reduce LUA & Animation speed to 30 FPS when using many animations
  6. Use Laptop Mode: Enable for even better performance (not available in Highest preset)
GameGuru MAX Performance Considerations

Built-in Optimization: GameGuru MAX includes some automatic optimization features like LOD systems and occlusion culling. Use these features effectively.

Asset Management: Be mindful of texture sizes and model complexity. Use appropriate asset formats and compression.

Scripting Efficiency: Optimize your Lua scripts by reducing unnecessary calculations and using efficient data structures.

Testing: Test your game on different hardware configurations to ensure it runs smoothly across your target audience.

Pro Tip

Remember that performance optimization is an iterative process. Start by profiling your game to identify the biggest bottlenecks, then focus your efforts there. Often, a few key optimizations can have a dramatic impact on performance. Don't optimize everything—optimize what matters most for your specific game and target hardware.