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Memory Management in Fortnite Creative: Tips to Optimize Your Islands
MEMORY MANAGEMENT IN FORTNITE CREATIVE
One key aspect of creating engaging and playable experiences in Fortnite Creative is managing the memory usage of your islands effectively! Join me as I offer some vital tips on how you can optimize memory usage to ensure your islands run smoothly across all supported platforms.
UNDERSTANDING MEMORY LIMITS IN FORTNITE
In the past, your Fortnite Creative experiences were restricted to a 100,000 memory units limit on a regular-sized island. Choosing an XL island offered some leeway, provided no single area surpassed this threshold.
Now, thanks to the Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN), you can leverage expanded memory capabilities to develop larger, more diverse experiences. But to take full advantage of this, you need to grasp how memory usage is calculated in UEFN.
WORLD PARTITION: BUILDING LARGE EXPERIENCES
At the heart of this large island building capability is the feature called World Partition. It divides the world into a grid, streaming only the necessary cells. World Partition utilizes Streaming and Hierarchical Level of Detail (HLOD), which reduces detail on assets as the player camera moves further away.
THE NEW SESSION LAYOUT
As long as Streaming is enabled in your project, the limit on memory units on your island no longer exists. When you load into your session, you will see a Current Memory Usage bar on your HUD, showing a maximum of 100,000 memory units to reflect local memory usage on your island.
Note that memory is now calculated based on player positions on the island rather than the total memory used by all the assets on the island. However, some assets will stay in memory regardless of the player's position, and will add to the memory usage anywhere in the map. These assets include but are not limited to Devices, Custom landscapes, and Custom assets.
THE IMPORTANCE OF MEMORY CALCULATION
To successfully publish your island across all hardware platforms, it's crucial to ensure your project does not exceed memory limits. You can calculate the memory used in every cell by selecting "Launch Memory Calculation" from the Project dropdown.
If any area in your level exceeds the 100,000 mark, you will not be able to publish your island. And while UEFN users can exceed this limit without publishing, be aware that console collaborators might hit a hardware limit of available memory, leading to them being ejected from the session.
SOLUTIONS FOR OVER-BUDGE ISLANDS
If your island is over budget, don't fret! There are several strategies to save on memory:
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Identify Critical Sreas: After the memory calculation, fly through your island and spot areas where the thermometer reaches critical memory limits. Consider deleting actors in these areas.
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Enable Streaming: Streaming should be ON in the World Partition panel. This is necessary for large islands, but even smaller islands may require streaming if the content becomes too dense.
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Reduce Devices: The number of devices used can impact memory. Creative devices arenโt streamed out; they add to the memory of the cell where the character is located.
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Check Your Project Size: If memory-heavy objects exist on disk, they will likely also be heavy on memory at runtime. Review your project size by selecting "Project Size" from the Project dropdown.
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Reduce LOD Quality: Lower the quality level on custom asset LODs, especially for assets visible only from a distance.
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Reuse Assets: Duplicating the same mesh multiple times can save memory. For instance, in a forest of 100 trees, use 5 variations and duplicate them instead of using 100 unique trees.
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Use HLODs Wisely: Generate HLODs throughout the project process, ensuring that you're only generating them for objects visible from afar.
Mastering these strategies will help you to create engaging, efficient experiences for players across all platforms. And to double check this, try to engage in frequent playtesting of your games.
The FCHQ Discord opens up playtesting submissions every Friday!
Memory Management takes time to master and implement! So take it one project at a time! I hope these tips helps you on your future projects to come!
Stay inspired, and let's keep building great things!
Need help or have questions about building in UEFN?
Visit the FCHQ Discord!