Game Update: Bunny Optimization + Mesh Merge

No need to open if you're an old player — no gameplay changes. I've refactored part of the bunny code and merged their meshes to improve performance.

------------------------------ I reduced the number of skinned meshes, and the game runs faster now. It was a painful and tedious process, but I did learn some new things. Maybe the next game will be better because of it. I’m honestly afraid all three of my games will get the same kind of comments — that would make it seem like I haven’t improved at all over the years.

------------------------------

Performance Stats Before (initial version): • Visible skinned meshes: 298 • Animator components playing: 250

After converting flower animation from bone-based to shader vertex animation: • Visible skinned meshes: 152 • Animator components playing: 208

After today's bunny mesh merge: • Visible skinned meshes: 91 • Animator components playing: 43

------------------------------

I finally merged the bunny meshes. And then I remembered why I didn’t do it before.

Having a bunch of scattered small mesh parts is terrible for runtime efficiency, but it’s great for development — quick to iterate. Once the mesh is merged, every small adjustment (weighting issues, modeling errors, export problems, adding a new accessory, etc.) requires re-assigning all 25+ materials from scratch. After doing that a few times, I nearly lost my mind — groundhog screaming noises included. But screaming doesn’t help, so I kept dragging materials.

Eventually, I thought of numbering the materials to make reassigning them in order easier.

Also, exporting directly from Blender to Unity sometimes just... fails. Now I export the FBX manually, then drag it into Unity. Even with numbered materials, doing this over and over is frustrating. Then I discovered something: if I delete the old FBX but keep its `.meta` file, and reimport a new FBX with the same filename, Unity keeps the material assignments.

No idea why I hadn’t thought of that earlier. It reminded me of how, as a kid, Chinese homework, when I had to copy homework twice, I’d hold two pens and write both at the same time. Turns out lots of classmates did that too — or used carbon paper. Experienced devs are just better at skipping unnecessary steps.

------------------------------

Development is Pain

Some bugs are systemic — they only stop biting you once you’ve been bitten a few times. Even if I switched engines or 3D software, I’d just run into different bugs. You just get better at dodging them with time.

------------------------------

I still remember waiting forever for my game’s first ever review. The player was nice and gave it a positive rating, but also mentioned the game was poorly optimized. (Later they deleted the review — maybe they were worried it would hurt my feelings?)

Back then, I had no idea what "optimization" meant. None of the “anyone can make a game” tutorials talked about it.

3 years later, I think I finally understand what that comment meant.

------------------------------

For example:

• I modeled the bunny and exported it as-is. If it worked, great. • I didn’t think ahead — now that there are tons of bunny outfits, I can’t even tell which file was the original. • I threw materials into the scene however I liked. Now there are hundreds of them scattered around. Trying to optimize textures and reduce draw calls now is a huge task.

I hope I can avoid all this next time.

---

What’s Next I want to rewrite the bunny system with a more efficient architecture… but I don’t know how yet. I’ve started watching some video tutorials — hopefully I’ll get there.

------------------------------ That'all for chatting. Thanks for being my playper.