OVERVIEW

During the shutdown period of Forza Motorsport, we observed that environment render times were higher than expected. I collaborated closely with both the rendering and environment teams to ensure that every track achieved optimal performance targets—running at 4K 60fps on Xbox Series X and 1080p 60fps on Xbox Series S. Aligning all the teams on necessary optimizations was a challenging process, but we worked through it together—with the environment artists only joking that they cried a few times along the way.

RENDER TIME

Process for Addressing High Render Time Issues:

Review performance reports to locate the general area of concern.
Use in-game debugging tools and Microsoft PIX captures to analyze the problem.
Determine which discipline (e.g., environment, lighting, VFX) is contributing to the performance bottleneck.
Consult with the Art Director to ensure that any potential optimizations do not compromise critical visual elements.
Collaborate with the art team to adjust or reduce content as needed.
Focus on achieving performance improvements without sacrificing visual quality.

MEMORY BUDGET

As Forza Motorsport is a flagship title for the new console generation, all content teams were pushing to maximize the available memory budget. One of the main challenges was managing texture memory effectively. Texture Memory Management in Forza Motorsport:

Collaborated with the Art Director to identify areas with below-average texture quality.
The Tech Art team collaborated closely with the Systems team to identify texture memory bottlenecks.
Implemented a priority-based system to rebalance and optimize texture usage.
Ensured that the most critical assets maintained visual fidelity while staying within memory constraints.

RAY TRACING GI

Shipping Ray Traced Global Illumination (GI) Feature:

Primary target was high-end PC platforms, but performance remained a key consideration to broaden the feature’s accessibility.
Worked closely with Josh Marvel (CG Supervisor) and Carmelo J. Fernández (Principal Graphics Engineer) throughout the process.
Used NVIDIA Nsight to analyze shader performance bottlenecks.
Implemented targeted shader optimizations to improve efficiency.
Improved performance without compromising visual quality, helping more players experience the feature.