Blender for Game Developers: Tips for Optimizing Your 3D Models for Game Development

How to Optimize Your 3D Models

Blender is a powerful tool used by many 3D artists to create stunning visual art. Blender offers an array of tools, including modeling, shading, sculpting, and much, much more. These same tools can then be used in game development. Blender has been used by many indie game developers for its great balance of creativity and performance. In this blog we will take a deep dive into the advantages of using Blender and its role in optimizing game development.

Why Blender?

What is Blender?

Blender is a free open source software used primarily to create 3D art. Blender offers tools for modeling, sculpting, texturing, rigging, and much more, all of which are useful to create game assets.

What are the Advantages of Blender

There are multiple reasons for using Blender over other software such as Maya.

1. Blender is free
2. Blender has a big active community
3. Blender can do everything needed in asset creation(Jack of all trades)
4. Blender is compatible with third-party plugins

Firstly, the Blender holds a massive advantage in cost. Maya and other 3D software cost money while Blender is a free software, allowing even hobbyists to create 3D assets for their games. Secondly, Blender has a big active community giving developers a wide library of resources, whether add-ons or tutorials. Thirdly, Blender is able to do everything in asset creation. Blender is an all in one package for animation, modeling, and texturing. Last of all, Blender is able compatible with many third-party plugins, opening the door to countless possibilities.

Optimization

Why does optimization matter

There is always a careful balance in game development that must be kept: art and performance. Players of the game will expect game to look good, while having smooth gameplay. The key to this delicate balance lies with optimized models. When the models of a game are properly optimized, the game will load faster, use less memory, and have improved frame rates.

How can you optimize your models

There are multiple ways for developers to optimize models.

1. Manage polygon count
2. LOD (Level of Detail)
3. Balance texture resolution

Artists will need to manage the polygon count. A lower polygon count allows the game to run smoother, but the game’s visuals will be impacted. However, some game developers decide to run with this challenge by embracing a low poly art style. Blender offers modifiers such as “decimate” to lower the polygon count. The second method is with LOD, which stands for level of detail. This is the idea of keeping a high poly count for objects close to the camera, while objects further away have a lower poly count. Objects that are hidden to the camera may not be rendered at all. Unreal Engine is the best example of level of detail, as it is integrated into the system(link). Unity also implements LOD, but to lesser degree(link). The final way to optimize models is with a balance of texture resolutions. With the right resolution for textures, the game can achieve a good visual and smooth performance. The common standards for most textures are 512×512 or 256×256. For large terrain textures, the standards may reach up to 4096×0496. In the end, resolutions can be adjusted based on budget and targeted device capabilities.

Unlocking Blender in Game Development

Blender is a powerful tool that caters to a wide range of needs, spanning from cinematic production to game development. Blender provides developers with a powerful set of tools to help bring their games to life. With the of Blender’s modeling, texturing, and animation, developers can carefully optimize their models. Resulting in the ability to create immersive games that will resonate with players.