How do you reduce Vegetation Draw Calls?

Question

I am using the vegetation painter and using the same vegetation pieces over and over again, about 16 pieces in total.

What I do not understand is, how come the engine uses multiple draw calls to keep drawing the same vegetation object as well as shadow objects? Aren't the objects instanced? The more vegetation I put down, even though it is the same 16 objects which should be instanced, the more draw calls the engine makes.

How do I reduce draw calls on instanced objects? Anyone know? There's obviously something here in terms of optimization I am overlooking.

Thanks.

Accepted Answer

Good morning!

I am one of the Technical Artists on the Lumberyard Support team. I was just looking through your post and wanted to try and assist!

When using vegetation they are all considered separate objects, unless you actually merge them! To get that draw call count down try using the "AutoMerged" parameter in the Vegetation menu. This will take all of the objects you painted in each stroke and merge them in to one object. I included some examples below:

Without "AutoMerged" On:

REMOVEDUPLOAD

With "AutoMerged" On:

REMOVEDUPLOAD

I hope this helps!

-MajorBliss

Answer

No problem, glad to help!

Answer

Thank you! I did not know what auto-merge did so I did not use it. This helps out a lot.

How do you reduce Vegetation Draw Calls?

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