Mesh optimization

At this point, we've focused quite a bit on CPU usage, but we haven't covered optimizations for rendering, which is crucial for high-detail scenes that contain a lot of complex objects. In this section, we'll look at how to analyze the cost of rendering 3D models, and the tools that can help us render as efficiently as possible.

Optimizing a mesh using Simplygon

Meshes use vertices and faces to define the shape of an object. The more complex and detailed the object is, the more vertices and faces are needed to describe it, and as you probably guessed, more vertices and faces lead to high render costs.

Fortunately, there are tools available that allow for simple algorithmic optimization with the click of a button. These algorithms generate new meshes that sacrifice a small level of aesthetic accuracy to drastically reduce the number of vertices and faces in the model. One such tool is called Simplygon, which we'll use in this section to optimize a dense high-poly model.

The...