How to Cherrypick Performance Gains in AAA Game Development: Lessons from the 1937 Washington Quarter DDO (FS-101)

AAA game development is a high-stakes race for performance. Every millisecond counts, every frame matters. I’ve spent years chasing those tiny, hidden wins—the ones that don’t make headlines but make all the difference in a smooth, responsive game. This is how to find them, inspired by something as unexpectedly revealing as the 1937 Washington Quarter DDO (FS-101): a coin most collectors miss at first glance.

Finding Hidden Value in Plain Sight

Coin collectors know the thrill of spotting a rare variant in a pile of common currency. The 1937 Washington Quarter DDO (FS-101) isn’t flashy. It looks almost identical to its siblings. But a closer look? That double die obverse tells a story—and doubles the value.

Same with game dev.

We obsess over the big features: next-gen graphics, sprawling worlds, AI-driven NPCs. But the real performance wins? They’re hiding in plain sight. A physics check that runs too often. A Blueprint node chain that’s long past its prototype phase. A memory layout that penalizes your cache every frame.

Look beyond the obvious. The best optimizations are subtle, not splashy.

The Art of the Second Pass

Everyone does a first pass. “Hey, let’s optimize the renderer.” Great. But the first pass is just the start.

Top-tier studios—and expert collectors—do the second, third, even fourth pass. They revisit, re-examine, and re-refine. That’s where the real value lives.

You walk a convention floor once? You’ll see coins. You walk it again with a loupe? You’ll see rare variants.

Actionable Takeaway: Block time for optimization sprints—not just once, but quarterly. Use profilers to spotlight hotspots, but also dive in manually. You’d be surprised what a quick audit of your asset pipeline or tick functions reveals. That one particle system ticking at 60Hz? Maybe it only needs 10. That’s a win.

Optimizing Game Engines: Unreal Engine and Unity

Unreal and Unity are powerful, but power doesn’t equal performance. It’s how you use them. The best engine settings for *your* game aren’t the same as the defaults. They’re the ones you tune—just like a collector learns which mint marks matter most.

Unreal Engine Optimization

Blueprints are great for speed. But speed in development isn’t the same as speed in runtime.

• Minimize Blueprint Usage: Keep Blueprints for gameplay logic, UI, and rapid iteration. For core systems (movement, AI, rendering), go C++. It’s not about dumping Blueprints—it’s about using them where they shine.
• Use Blueprint Nativization: Turn complex, performance-critical Blueprints into native code. It’s like upgrading from a hand-drawn map to GPS—same route, faster travel.
• Optimize Tick Frequencies: Not every actor needs to update every frame. Set tick intervals on static objects, ambient effects, or distant NPCs. One less tick per frame? Multiply that by thousands of actors.

Unity Optimization

Unity’s ECS (Entity Component System) isn’t just a new tool. It’s a shift in how you think about data.

• Embrace ECS: Move data into components, not monolithic GameObjects. Use Burst-compiled jobs to run physics, animation, or AI in parallel. It’s not harder—it’s different. And it’s worth it.
• Optimize Physics: Swap legacy physics for the new Unity Physics package. It’s built for speed, with better determinism and lower overhead.
• Reduce Garbage Collection: Pool objects. Reuse instead of re-allocate. Less GC means fewer hitches—critical for 60+ FPS games.

C++: The Backbone of Game Performance

C++ still rules high-end game code. It’s not trendy. It’s not flashy. But it’s fast. And in AAA, speed is survival.

Key C++ Optimizations

Forget hype. Focus on fundamentals.

• Memory Management: Write custom allocators. Avoid fragmentation. Keep data close—cache locality matters more than you think.
• Data-Oriented Design: Don’t organize code by feature. Organize data by access patterns. Use arrays of structs (AoS) when you need to iterate many fields. Use structs of arrays (SoA) when you’re processing one field across many entities. It’s not OOP. It’s OPP—Optimization Per Perf.
• SIMD Instructions: Use AVX or SSE to process 4, 8, or even 16 floats at once. Physics, animation, particle systems—anything with math—benefits.

Here’s a quick example. This adds two float vectors, 8 at a time:


#include

void add_vectors(float* a, float* b, float* result, int n) {
for (int i = 0; i < n; i += 8) { __m256 va = _mm256_load_ps(&a[i]); __m256 vb = _mm256_load_ps(&b[i]); __m256 vr = _mm256_add_ps(va, vb); _mm256_store_ps(&result[i], vr); } }

That’s not magic. It’s math. And it’s 8x faster than a naive loop.

Game Physics: The Hidden Performance Killer

Physics is sneaky. It doesn’t crash. It just slows everything down—frame by frame, until your game feels heavy.

Reducing Physics Calculations

• Use Simplified Collision Meshes: A complex mesh for visuals? Fine. But use a low-poly box or sphere for collision. Save the detail for rendering, not physics.
• Optimize Physics Layers: Don’t simulate interactions between distant objects. Disable physics on off-screen items. Less work = more frames.
• Use Fixed Timesteps: Physics runs smoother when it updates at a steady rate. No spikes. No jitter.

Implementing Soft Body Physics Efficiently

Soft bodies? Expensive. But you don’t need full simulation all the time.


void update_soft_body(SoftBody& body, float dt) {
// Update every 3rd frame to save CPU
static int frame_counter = 0;
if (++frame_counter % 3 != 0) return;

// Fewer iterations for distant objects
int iterations = (distance_to_camera(body) < 10.0f) ? 5 : 2; for (int i = 0; i < iterations; i++) { // Physics calculations here } }

That’s not cheating. That’s smart. The player won’t notice the difference—until they’re playing at 120 FPS.

Reducing Latency in Games

Latency kills responsiveness. In competitive games, it’s the invisible enemy. One extra frame of delay? Game over.

Network Latency

• Client-Side Prediction: Let the player move immediately. Don’t wait for the server. It feels instant.
• Server Reconciliation: When the server replies, adjust if needed. Smooth, not jarring.
• Interpolation: Fill the gaps between server updates. No teleportation. No stutter.

Input Latency

• Reduce Input Polling: Read inputs as late as possible in the frame. The fresher the input, the lower the lag.
• Use Input Buffering: Hold inputs for a few frames. If the network stutters, you still get the button press.
• Optimize Render Pipeline: Cut render queue time. Faster frames = faster response.

Optimizing for VR and AR

VR and AR don’t forgive latency. High frame rates and low delay aren’t optional. They’re required.

• Reduce Frame Time: 72-90 FPS for VR. 60-72 for AR. Nothing less.
• Use Asynchronous Time Warp (ATW): If a frame is late, reproject the last one. It’s not perfect—but it’s better than dropping frames.
• Optimize for Single-Pass Stereo: Render both eyes in one pass. Half the draw calls, same visual quality.

Conclusion: The Cherrypick Philosophy in Game Development

The 1937 Washington Quarter DDO (FS-101) taught me something: the best finds aren’t the loud ones. They’re the quiet ones—the details others miss.

Game development is the same. The biggest performance gains? They’re not in the headlines. They’re in the second pass, the third look, the quiet corner of the codebase where no one is watching.

• Be thorough: Optimization isn’t a phase. It’s a habit. Revisit your systems often.
• Be curious: Ask “why” and “what if.” That’s how you find the rare variants.
• Be practical: Optimize what matters. Not what’s easy. Not what’s trendy. What *actually* affects your game.
• Be systematic: Use tools. Use data. But also trust your gut. Sometimes the profiler misses what your eyes catch.

When you start thinking like a cherrypicker—like a collector hunting for the subtle, the rare, the overlooked—you stop chasing big, empty wins. You start finding real performance. The kind that makes your game feel alive.

And that’s the real gem.

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