FREE Performance Optimization / Draw Call Reducer (HLOD) | Unity Tutorial

Learn how to optimize the performance of your game by automatically combining meshes, significantly reducing draw calls using the free HLOD tool from Unity. Hierarchical Level of Detail is a great tool to boost the FPS of your game, especially when you have large view distances with complex geometry!

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Chapters:
00:00 Topic Introduction & The Problem
00:45 What is HLOD?
01:56 Demo Scene
02:30 Get HLOD
02:50 Applying HLOD to the Scene & Configuration Overview
06:40 Demo 1 - Performance, Debug Visualizer, and What HLOD is doing
08:31 HLOD Subtrees
09:15 Reducing Chunk Size - More Granular LOD Swapping
10:00 Default LOD Controller - Runtime HLOD Controller
10:30 Side by Side Demo, a Weird Issue, Closing Thoughts, & Support LlamAcademy

[andrewallbright]

Performance topics are fun topics to consume content on. I enjoyed the intro especially the before and after observations of performance metrics. Getting those numbers in range is what performance tuning is all about.

It would be tight to see a performance test using Unity's Performance Testing API. I've read the docs but have been busy with learning/implementing cloud based multiplayer stuff. My thinking for performance testing is that they're just asserting that the viewing a prefab or scene matches some anticipated number (aka the test expectation). Soon I'll write my first scene/prefab test that ensures they meet some performance expectation I've yet to define.

... At that point you can let the artists run wild (who may be oneself if working solo) -- just tell them to expect a conversation if they break the performance tests.

I repeat: performance topics are fun topics to consume content on. Thanks for creating this vid! You do amazing work putting your content together. Cheers :D

[MatrixRex]

This is a hidden gem. Thanks for covering. Unity has some hidden gems like these. Could you also cover Unity toon shading too? I think most people doesn't even know about it.

[gamemaker_]

Thank you for taking the time and going farther than what is documented.

[TheBlopster]

Thank you for help making my gamedev dreams become reality! Love your new hair color btw

[NorthstriderGaming]

Thank you for this detailed guide. This is making generating and using LoD so much more pleasant to use. Though I'm still hoping for a nanite-like solution eventually.

[beardordie]

Yeah I want a Unity version of nanite. And lumen for that matter. Need to compete on those, Unity is a hard sell right now for high fidelity high poly projects.

[ashb]

This is a good channel, shame youtube doesn't suggest you more often.

[fmproductions]

Thanks, I was looking forward to this topic. What a great tool!

[Rahulsingh-theraha]

Btw i guess u should make a optimisation playlist, u already have many videos on it!I didn’t even knew that u had optimisation techniques tut for mobile

[unityUser]

Could you make a setup tutorial on it, cause when I clone the files in my project I get errors in unity :(

[splashmaker]

This looks like it could be useful. It does mention generating texture atlases, but I wonder if you’d be better off with texture arrays instead to avoid uv issues. I also think hlod can benefit a lot from hand created lods when you get really far away (think a huge box mesh or flat imposter billboard), or some kind of generation of these.

[Project-NSX]

Wish I saw this video before hacking the LOD system by using a script to manually set lod groups on objects and making it grab all their renderers etc.
This should 100% be a part of Unity IMO, the LOD system on its own feels a bit lacking.
Thanks for the video!

[anussqadeer]

Nice tutorial
Will this increase size of my android unity game?

[duchiepcao]

can I pre-bake mesh or mesh group then do HLOD?

[mehmedcavas]

why did i discover your channel so late :(

[Chewy]

Has this HLOD code been tested on 2022.3 LTS URP ?

By the way, thank you for all your tutorial videos @LlamAcademy! 💪

[MichaelWatsonProgrammer]

Looks like just what I need, will this work with the LOD system from your other video as I've already set that up and don't want them to conflict?

[StarkTech]

Very good video! I have a question about moving part of the scene. How does it work for the doors for exemple of any object with animations? Are they ignore by the script, do I have not to implement these objects in the HLOD or it works perfectly and I do not need to take care?

[mrestonian]

I don't understand how to install it 😢 I drag and drop it into my project and then I can't use hlod script and it says meshoptimizer is missing. I install meshoptimizer and it still says the same. Idk if it's cause mesh optimizer is not inside the hlod folder or what (also I can't put it inside the hlod folder, it doesn't allow me to do that) pls help me, I have a HUGE openworld game and my optimization sucks😢

[alicivrilify]

Thanks for this great video. A quick question: Can I use this HLOD on prefabs? Because, the environment in my game is set at runtime. I don't have a fixed scene. And one more: Does AutoLOD would be enough in that case?