Hey,
I’m messing with a mahjong game in attempts to learn Away3D while having fun and possibly using for a future promotion. So far I have a working* game concept you can play with here:
http://www.christopherstevens.cc/away3d/mahjong1

It seems to perform much better than what I would expect from Flash in the past (AWESOME!), but from a pessimistic perspective it’s still a bit chuggy.

With 4000ish polys which seems small compared to some demos out there, I do have 148+ meshes flying around with a skybox background. I thought I read somewhere in the forums that performance is based more on number of objects than polys?

Is that the case? If so, should I merge non-active game tile meshes? I noticed that merge allows copying or destroying of merged meshes. If I keep the original meshes and set visible=false, will I still get the performance benefits?

I’ve tried removing lighting and shadows without much difference (and what fun is not having lighting and shadows?).

I’ll give this a shot soon. I look forward to any general advise.

Thanks in advance! :D

* Batteries not included. Some assembly required. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment.

Before:
http://www.christopherstevens.cc/away3d/mahjong1

After:
http://www.christopherstevens.cc/away3d/mahjong2

Lessons of the newbie:
Merging game tile meshes made a big difference! The poly count is the same in the second merged example. Playable tiles are not merged, and a new merged set is created after every match made.

There’s still much to be done, but it’s all fun. :D