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A playable Steam demo is not achieved by lowering every Unreal Engine setting. The reliable approach is to benchmark the packaged demo on the minimum hardware you intend to support, capture a repeatable drive, identify whether the game thread, rendering thread, GPU, memory, loading system, or vehicle simulation is limiting performance, and then change only the systems connected to that evidence. Re-run the same scenario after each change and judge frame-time stability, image quality, handling, memory use, and startup together.
The project details that determine the correct settings—Unreal Engine minor version, target PC, resolution, vehicle count, render pipeline, baseline capture, and intended demo scope—must be established by the development team. The guidance below therefore gives a measurement-led workflow rather than claiming a guaranteed gain from any individual setting.
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Define what “playable” means for this demo
Start with a written target before opening a console command. Record the minimum PC specification, operating-system version, display resolution, graphics preset, input devices you will support, and the frame-time behavior you want players to experience. Epic’s Unreal Engine profiling guidance uses 30, 60, and 120 frames per second as examples of performance targets. Those are general reference points, not a measured recommendation for this simulator. A cockpit-focused simulator may prioritize a stable 60 fps, while a lower-spec accessibility preset may use a different target. Choose one target for each supported hardware tier and test against it.
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- Minimum hardware: the oldest CPU, GPU, memory configuration, and storage device that the demo will officially support.
- Target resolution: test at the resolution players will actually select, rather than assuming an editor viewport represents a shipping display.
- Frame-time rule: decide whether brief spikes are acceptable and how you will treat shader compilation, level transitions, and first-run loading.
- Visual priorities: identify features that define the simulator, such as road readability, vehicle visibility, cockpit detail, weather, or night lighting. These should not be sacrificed before less important effects.
Do not claim that the simulator meets a frame-rate target until the packaged build has been exercised on the selected hardware. Development-build statistics are useful during diagnosis, but editor performance is not a substitute for a packaged experience.
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Build a repeatable driving scenario
A comparison is meaningful only when the workload is held constant. Create a route that exposes the heaviest conditions a demo player can reach, then use that route for every capture.
- Choose the route. Include the fastest camera movement through the environment, the densest scenery, long sight lines, traffic or opponent vehicles, collisions, particle effects, and every streaming transition that the demo permits.
- Fix the initial state. Use the same spawn point, weather, time of day, traffic seed, vehicle setup, camera mode, and input sequence. If the simulation is nondeterministic, record the scenario and repeat it enough times to distinguish a trend from noise.
- Fix the display workload. Keep resolution, scalability settings, screen percentage, window mode, and frame-rate cap constant while comparing captures.
- Warm up the run. Drive far enough to include the normal steady state, not only the first seconds after launch. Mark shader compilation, asset streaming, and level-loading events separately.
- Save the evidence. Record the build identifier, engine version, hardware, driver, settings, vehicle count, route, and capture time with every profile.
The route is a recommended production test method, not a universal requirement. Its value comes from being repeatable and representative of the actual demo, especially the section most likely to expose frame-time spikes.
Use a packaged development build for the first measurement loop
Package a development build early enough that profiling reflects cooked assets, runtime loading, and the executable players will receive. Run it on the intended target hardware, not only in the Unreal Editor. Epic recommends benchmarking target platforms and testing the project regularly as development proceeds.
Use the following loop for each proposed change:
- Package the same development configuration and note its build identifier.
- Run the fixed route with the same resolution, quality settings, camera, and vehicle count.
- Capture live counters and, when needed, an Unreal Insights trace.
- Classify the limiting resource before changing a setting.
- Change one related control or system.
- Repeat the route and compare frame-time consistency, image quality, handling, memory, and loading behavior.
Profiling itself consumes CPU, memory, and disk bandwidth. Epic notes that captures can modestly affect measured performance, so compare captures made with the same profiling method and treat small differences cautiously.
Identify the bottleneck before changing settings
Start with stat unit
In a non-debug runtime, enable stat unit to compare overall frame time with Game, Draw, and GPU timing. The counter tells you which broad pipeline is taking the most time at the moment you inspect it. It does not, by itself, identify the expensive function or asset; use it to choose the next diagnostic step.
- Game-thread-led frame: investigate gameplay code, actor and component ticks, AI or traffic, physics work, asset operations, and other CPU tasks that execute on the game thread.
- Draw-thread-led frame: investigate scene submission, component counts, visibility work, and rendering commands prepared by the CPU.
- GPU-led frame: investigate screen percentage, materials, shadows, lighting, post-processing, anti-aliasing, and other pixel or compute work.
- Spiky frame time: inspect the exact frames rather than relying on an average. A demo can feel poor when the average looks acceptable but streaming, effects, or simulation produce repeated stalls.
stat unitgraph provides a live graph that makes spikes easier to see. Use it during the fixed route, then move to a trace when you need event-level detail.
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Inspect timelines in Unreal Insights
Unreal Insights records frame-by-frame performance data. In Timing Insights, select a frame or time range and inspect the per-thread CPU and GPU tracks, timer events, and counters. Look for events that coincide with the spikes identified by stat unitgraph, then follow those events to the responsible subsystem.
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Insights is useful for separating a sustained limit from a periodic stall. For example, a consistently high game-thread track points toward ongoing simulation or gameplay work, while isolated long events may indicate loading, garbage collection, or an expensive one-off operation. Keep the route and capture settings identical so the selected time range represents the same part of the drive.
Use RenderDoc for a single graphics frame
When the evidence points to a particular graphics frame, RenderDoc can provide a more detailed inspection than a general Unreal rendering overview. Use it to examine draw events, textures, shaders, and pipeline state. This is a specialist investigation: first establish that the GPU or rendering path is the limiting resource, then capture the representative frame and inspect the costly passes rather than changing unrelated gameplay settings.
Tune visual workload as controlled trade-offs
Unreal scalability groups expose several independent quality controls. Test the control that corresponds to the measured cost, at the target resolution and camera distance, and keep a screenshot or video record of the result. A faster frame that makes road markings unreadable or hides traffic is not a successful simulator setting.
| Scalability control | What to compare during the route | Driving-specific quality check |
|---|---|---|
| Screen percentage | GPU frame time and image sharpness | Road edges, signs, lane markings, and distant vehicles remain legible |
| View distance | GPU and draw-thread cost in long sight lines | Braking references, track boundaries, and traffic do not pop in distractingly |
| Anti-aliasing | GPU cost and edge stability during camera motion | Thin barriers, wires, mirrors, and cockpit geometry remain readable |
| Post-processing | GPU cost during effects-heavy sections | Motion clarity and visibility are preserved in rain, glare, or night scenes |
| Shadows | GPU cost and draw work around dense scenery | Road contact, elevation changes, and nearby obstacles remain understandable |
| Material quality | GPU time and texture/material appearance | Road surface, tire contact, and cockpit controls retain their intended visual cues |
| Foliage density | GPU, draw-thread, and memory behavior near vegetation | Vegetation does not obscure apexes, signs, or collision boundaries |
These controls are not guaranteed performance fixes. Their cost depends on the project’s content, lighting, materials, camera, and hardware. Change one group at a time, verify both the measured frame time and the visual result, and keep a profile of the original settings so the change can be reverted.
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A stable frame rate can still hide a demo that stutters during streaming or fails to load on a lower-memory PC. Investigate asset footprint independently from frame timing.
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- Size Map: use the editor’s Size Map to see which assets and packages contribute to the project footprint. It is an editor view and does not exactly represent cooked packaged memory.
- Statistics tools: inspect asset and level statistics while tracking which content is loaded for the route.
- Cooker data: use cooker reports to understand what is included in the packaged build and which assets are pulled into a demo level.
Memreport -full: run this in a packaged development build on target hardware to inspect loaded levels, render resources, and texture footprint.
Compare memory reports at the same point in the route. If a problem appears only after a streaming transition, capture before and after that transition rather than relying on launch memory alone. Do not treat an editor Size Map number as the packaged runtime total.
Profile Chaos Vehicle simulation explicitly
If the simulator uses Chaos Vehicles, vehicle simulation deserves its own timing pass. A typical Chaos vehicle setup includes a skeletal mesh, physics asset, animation blueprint, vehicle blueprint, wheel blueprints, and a torque-curve asset. A performance diagnosis should verify that these components are configured correctly before attempting to optimize them.
Measure vehicle work
stat ChaosVehiclereports timing for individual vehicle-simulation parts.stat ChaosVehicleManagerreports total vehicle simulation timing and includes vehicle count plus awake and sleeping counters.
Run these commands during the heaviest traffic and collision portions of the fixed route. A rising awake-vehicle count can explain a change in simulation cost, but the counter is diagnostic information, not proof that reducing vehicles is acceptable for the demo’s design.
Test batching and parallel updates one at a time
Use p.Vehicle.BatchQueries to investigate suspension query batching and p.Vehicle.EnableMultithreading to investigate parallel vehicle updates. Treat both as experiments: capture the baseline, enable one option, repeat the same route, and check for changes in timing, determinism, collisions, suspension response, and handling. Neither command is a guaranteed win for every project, vehicle count, or engine version.
Protect handling fidelity while optimizing
Performance work can accidentally change how the car feels. The vehicle’s center of mass affects handling; use p.Vehicle.ShowCOM to visualize it while checking a changed configuration. Re-test braking, cornering, suspension travel, wheel contact, collision response, and controller input after any change that affects physics or update scheduling. A lower simulation cost is not an improvement if the demo’s defining driving behavior has changed.
Control package size and startup behavior
Packaging introduces a trade-off between compressed size and loading time. Epic documents that ZLib compression can reduce on-disk package size but requires more CPU time during loading. Measure both the download footprint and the time from launch to a drivable state on the minimum supported storage and CPU configuration.
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- Use Size Map, Statistics, cooker data, and packaged-build memory reports to locate large content.
- Test the first launch separately from a repeat launch, because shader and asset caches can change the experience.
- Include every level-streaming transition that a demo player can trigger in the route.
- Do not copy sample
.inirecommendations blindly. Confirm that a setting applies to the project’s Unreal Engine minor version and target platform, then validate it in the packaged build.
The project should record its exact Unreal Engine version and re-check profiling, scalability, vehicle, and packaging settings against that version. Documentation for Unreal Engine 5.8 does not establish that an identical setting behaves the same way in another minor release.
Set up the Steam demo as its own application
Steamworks treats a demo as a separate App ID associated with the base game’s App ID. The demo has its own depots, builds, and configuration. Plan the Steam setup alongside packaging so the build you validate is the build players will download.
- Create the demo App ID and associate it with the base game’s App ID.
- Configure the demo app type and confirm the base-game association in Steamworks.
- Create depots for the demo content and upload the tested build.
- Install and launch the demo through Steam, not only from a local executable, to verify ownership, installation, launch arguments, cloud or overlay interactions, and first-run behavior.
- Check that the demo exposes only the content intended for the free playable slice and that every route, menu, vehicle, and level included in the build works after installation.
Steamworks describes the intended scope this way: “Demos can range in size and scope, but generally are a small playable portion of your game that show some of the core mechanics and leave the player excited for more.” Use that principle to decide what belongs in the demo rather than shipping an unbounded sample of unfinished systems.
Make the store presentation match the build
If the demo has its own store page, its description, feature list, trailer, and screenshots should describe the demo specifically. Steamworks documentation calls for a trailer and at least five screenshots specific to the demo content. Do not advertise vehicles, tracks, modes, visual features, or performance characteristics that the installed demo does not provide.
Use a decision matrix after every change
Keep a simple comparison record for each build. The decision is not “did the average frame rate rise?”; it is whether the change improves the limiting resource without creating a worse player-facing trade-off.
| Axis | Evidence to record | Decision question |
|---|---|---|
| Frame-time bottleneck and consistency | stat unit, stat unitgraph, and Insights timing |
Did the relevant thread or GPU workload improve, and did spikes become less frequent? |
| Image quality | Matched screenshots or video at target resolution | Are road, vehicle, and motion cues still clear? |
| Vehicle behavior | Chaos statistics plus handling checks | Did suspension, collisions, and control response remain faithful? |
| Memory and package footprint | Memreport -full, cooker data, package size |
Did the change reduce pressure without moving the problem to loading or streaming? |
| Startup and level loading | Timed launch and route transitions through Steam | Can a player reach a drivable state and cross transitions reliably? |
Keep the baseline build available. If a later optimization makes a new symptom appear, reverting to the last known-good build is faster than trying to reconstruct the original state.
Troubleshoot by symptom
The frame rate is low everywhere
Run stat unit and determine whether Game, Draw, or GPU time is dominant. A GPU-led result justifies testing screen percentage, shadows, post-processing, anti-aliasing, materials, or foliage. A Game-led result points toward gameplay, physics, traffic, or asset work. Do not lower every scalability group before identifying that direction.
Only dense scenes or traffic sections stutter
Capture the route segment in Unreal Insights and inspect streaming, rendering, and vehicle tracks. Use stat ChaosVehicleManager to check vehicle count and awake/sleeping behavior. If the spike coincides with a level transition, compare packaged memory reports before and after the transition rather than treating it as a simple GPU problem.
The average looks acceptable but driving feels uneven
Use stat unitgraph and a frame-selected Insights trace to find spikes. Test the same camera movement and effects sequence repeatedly. Frame-time consistency is a separate acceptance criterion from the average rate.
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Recheck Chaos vehicle timing, center-of-mass visualization with p.Vehicle.ShowCOM, suspension response, collisions, and input latency. Disable the change if the handling behavior no longer matches the intended simulator.
The packaged demo is larger or slower to start than expected
Use Size Map and cooker data to locate content, then confirm runtime behavior with Memreport -full on target hardware. Test the compression choice as a size-versus-CPU loading trade-off, and verify the result through Steam installation rather than only from an editor launch.
Release gate for a playable build
- The minimum target PC, resolution, visual priorities, and frame-time target are documented.
- A fixed route covers the demo’s heaviest scenery, vehicles, effects, and streaming transitions.
- All comparisons use the same packaged build type, route, camera, resolution, quality settings, and vehicle count.
- The limiting resource is identified with live stats or Unreal Insights before a tuning change is accepted.
- Visual changes are checked for road readability, vehicle visibility, and motion clarity.
- Vehicle changes are checked for simulation timing, center of mass, suspension, collisions, and handling fidelity.
- Memory, package size, startup, and level-loading behavior are measured separately from frame rate.
- The demo App ID, depots, build, and Steam installation have been tested end to end.
- The store page, trailer, screenshots, and feature list describe only content available in the demo.
That process produces a defensible optimization result: each change is tied to a measured bottleneck and accepted only when the packaged Steam build remains visually clear, physically credible, and reliable on its intended hardware.
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