UNREAL ENGINE TOOL: LEVEL OPTIMISE!
This week, I launched my Level Optimise Tool on the FAB marketplace!
It’s an Unreal Engine 5 tool that can help you quickly find potential bugs and optimisation opportunities in your UE5 levels. In the GIF below, you can see me running a static mesh health check to help find potential static mesh optimisations and bugs in my level:
CHECK IT OUT HERE!
A LEVEL-FOCUSED TOOL - Use it to search for:
47 Different Types Of Optimisations
46 Different Types Of Bugs
Here is a short overview video about the tool:
Over my years of making games, I realised how easy it is for small bugs and little mis-optimisations to make their way into your levels. Building up over time, they accumulate into something much bigger, negatively impacting a player's perception of your game almost as much as a single, larger bug could. I like to think of the analogy of:
Death by a 1000 cuts, or in our case, preventing Death by a 1000 bugs
Manually checking every actor in your level for issues is time-consuming, tedious and so unrealistic. It becomes like searching for needles in a haystack. This Level Optimise tool is:
Designed to help you quickly find those needles (issues) in the haystack (level)
Here are a few of the key performance issues this tool can help you identify, allowing you to claw back FPS:
Lights with no Max Draw Distance set
Lights with Cast Shadows enabled
Static meshes with Nanite disabled
Skeletal meshes with no LODs
... and many more!
In the GIF below you can see me searching for Lights that have no max draw distance set:
The tool doesn’t make any edits to your level or project; it only reads your assets to generate logs about potential issues that you could look into.
I thought this was important because every project is unique and highly contextual. What's correct for one level may not apply to another. For instance, deciding which lights should have cast shadows enabled / disabled to help balance visual fidelity and performance.
It currently works with the following unreal engine versions and I will update it as newer engine versions are released:
If you want to find out more about the tool then check out the following:
Guides:
Video Guides:
In the GIF below you can see how I am using the tool to find any skeletal mesh actors in my level which have missing materials:
Here is a full breakdown of all the functionality available in the tool:
Functionality Breakdown
Helpers:
Quick access to frequently used view modes, tools and commands
Health Checks:
Run health check overviews on your level by actor type e.g. static mesh, lights etc
Optimisation Searches:
Static Meshes:
No LODs
Nanite Disabled, No LODs
Edited Lighting Channels
Mobility Mode
Nanite Enabled / Disabled
Simulate Physics Enabled / Disabled
Custom Depth Pass Enabled / Disabled
Overridden Light Map Resolution
Using Shadow 2-sided
Same Material In Multiple Slots
Vertex Colours Added In Level
Skeletal Meshes:
No LODs
No Max Draw Distance Set
Edited Lighting Channels
Cast Shadows Enabled / Disabled
Custom Depth Pass Enabled / Disabled
Same Material In Multiple Slots
Audio:
Auto Activate Enabled
Audio Volume Priority Of X
VFX:
Auto Activate Enabled
No Max Draw Distance
Cast Shadow Enabled / Disabled
Foliage:
Missing LODs
No Max Cull Distance
Edited Lighting Channels
Mobility Mode
Cast Shadows Enabled / Disabled
Nanite Enabled / Disabled
Two-Sided Shadows Enabled / Disabled
Same Material In Multiple Slots
Overridden Light Map Resolution
Decal:
Low Fade ‘Screen Size’ Value
Text Render:
Cast Shadow Enabled
Lights:
No Max Draw Distance
Edited Lighting Channels
Cast Shadows Enabled / Disabled
Mobility Mode
Has Lighting Function Material
Has IES Texture Applied
Volumes:
Mobility Mode
Volume Priority
Blueprints:
List All Blueprints
Replicates Enabled / Disabled
Default Net Update Frequency
Default Net Cull Distance Squared
Misc:
Actors with Tags Applied
Has Specific Tag
Bug Searches:
Static Meshes:
Missing Meshes
Missing Materials
Overridden Materials
Not Default Scale
Collision Disabled / Enabled
Cast Shadow Disabled / Enabled
Hidden In-Game Enabled / Disabled
Receives Decals Disabled / Enabled
Affects Nav Disabled / Enabled
Skeletal Meshes:
Missing Skeletal Mesh
Missing Materials
Overridden Materials
No Anims Applied
Not Default Scale
Collision Disabled / Enabled
Hidden In-Game Enabled / Disabled
Receives Decals Disabled / Enabled
Affects Nav Enabled / Disabled
Audio:
Missing Audio Asset
Has Sound Class Override
Has Volume Override
Attenuation Override
Disabled / Missing Reverb Asset
VFX:
Missing Assets
Not Default Scale
Foliage:
Missing Meshes
Missing Materials
Collision Enabled / Disabled
Decals:
Missing Materials
Not Scaled By ‘Decal Size’
Is Hidden In-Game
Decals That Are Temporary / Permanent
Text Render:
Using Default / Empty Text
Using Scale Not World Size
Is Hidden In-Game
Lights:
Affects World Disabled
Visibility Set To False
Volumes:
Collision Is Disabled
Generate Overlap Events Disabled
Set To Block Pawn
Set To Overlap With Pawn
Set To Block Camera
Not Scaled By ‘Brush Size’
Post Process Blend Radius Less Than X
Blueprints:
Is Hidden In-Game
Misc:
Actor Set To Is Editor Only
I hope you find the tool useful, let me know if you have any suggestions to make it better!
UNREAL ENGINE TOOL: PROJECT OPTIMISE!
Also, if you liked this tool, you might be interested in my other: Project Optimise Tool - Which is content-focused, taking a more holistic view of your project, allowing you to search for possible bugs and potential optimisation across your project as a whole!
