I dont really think there’s solution to this problem but I still wanted to ask if you have any ideas
So,Im making map where most of it will be covered with dense forest. However theres a problem with optimization of this. After covering map with desired amount of trees my fps dropped from stable 150 to changing between 40 and 70 and I didnt even added most of objects, items,nav meshes and Im not even gonna talk about what would happen if anyone made the typical 10x10x10 base somewhere, it would obviously be unplayable.
I thought about making my own tree models in a way that they wouldn’t be so resource draining but honestly I dont really know how and if it even possible
Unturned uses speed trees. (edit: Unturned used to use Speed Trees)
I think in this case I suggest changing the LOD’s render distance of the trees and other foliage.
I suggest having two trees, one tree with normal LOD render distance and one with low LOD render distance. Place the normal trees in a ring about 2-3 deep around the outside of the forested area and then place the low render distance trees inside the forest.
Normally things like trees you want to see from a long distance away and they have a high LOD render distance - this is so players can hide behind the trees and not be seen from a long distance away.
As you are planning on having a dense forest (I’m assuming lots of bush and scrub, trees, some(but not much grass) and generally low light levels due to the dense forest canopy) then I think it is safe to say that players will not be able to see very much past all the bushes and trees, maybe only about 60m ahead of them. This might be the only situation where you can probably get away with having a very low LOD render distance on all foliage in the forest without having any major impacts on PvP.
This will result in the outer edges of the forest loading in as normal but as you go into the dense forest the trees will only start to load in when you get within (idk let say) ~60m of them.
To help explain the idea behind the LOD Groups here are some images.
Here is something with a low render distance LOD group: It has a low render distance so it does not load in until the player is very close to the object - this is used to stop things like items from being seen all the way across the map.
Here is something with a high render distance LOD group: It has a high render distance so it is loaded even when the player is all the way on the other side of the map.
How much polygons each LOD have? How much different materials and trees variants you have? Probably you need to combine different materials into single atlas and make sure you have checked GPU Instancing. You can also try to create a group of trees combined into single mesh to reduce draw calls and GameObjects count
