Yes, you are right, in case of large levels it could result easily in bad performance. I tested e.g. this cool 2-sided foliage rendering with subsurface scattering, very nice how leaves react to turning towards or away from Sun, but in a large level (what I also need for my strategy game), it becomes slow on my PC (I'm just over UE4 lower end). Fortunately it is possible to use lod models and to apply different material for each lod models, and to use billboards for far models. And if you design the level to effectively use occlusion culling of the engine (avoiding seeing huge landscapes), it also can boost performance.

But the pre-made lighting and shadows do not allow rotation, so the level could be a bit repetitive, and too many assets would increase memory usage a lot (by the way, in case of an RPG level streaming is a good solution). Of course, not impossible, just seems to be a bit harder for me. Good luck, and keep us updated laugh


Free world editor for 3D Gamestudio: MapBuilder Editor