GeNa Pro - How to reduce your build size

GeNa is designed to work equally well at design time and runtime.

One the the challenges associated with runtime usage however is that Unity active references to the object in your scene, or to include that object in the Resources folder in order to ensure that it is compiled into your project when you make a build.

This means if we want to support e.g. creating a road at runtime, we need to put the road texture either in the resources folder, or create some other reference to it so that it gets added to the build automatically, otherwise this will not work.

Some of our demo content may not be needed at runtime, so this means that redundant files will be included in the build, and this can be a problem on platforms where build size is a concern.

Ref: https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/BestPracticeUnderstandingPerformanceInUnity6.html

Using the 'TreeSize' utility for showing the file size of each folder, we can see that in our project containing GeNa Pro, the Resources folder makes up a significant percentage of the storage space. 

In future versions of GeNa, we will remove the Resources folder dependency. However, for now the following guide will assist users in determining what assets can be safely removed:

Removing the 'Road' Textures Folder

Note: Only remove this folder if you are not using GeNa Road networks in your project.

This folder contains all of the files necessary for using the Road network system in GeNa. Removing this folder will save you 327MB in your overall build size. Alternatively, remove only the assets you need, and reduce the texture sizes and increase texture compressions.

Removing the 'Water' Folder

Note: Only remove this folder if you are not using any GeNa Rivers in your project.

This folder contains all of the necessary files for using GeNa's River system. Removing this folder will save you a 21MB in your overall build size.

Reducing the size of used Textures

If you are using roads or rivers in your project, you can still reduce the size of you build by reducing the quality level of the textures. 

Simply select the texutres that you want to reduce the size of and modify the Texture Import Settings. You can change the max size or the compression type to drastically reduce the output of the build.

All other folders

The other remaining folders are required to maintain the capabilities of GeNa. If the file size still is a concern and you do not need to use GeNa during runtime, you can consider removing GeNa entirely for the final build of your project. You would need to be done with spawning of course, and have the roads and rivers baked so that they become regular "independent" meshes.

Alternatively you can rename the Resources folder for the final build, this will prevent the files from being included in the build.  Afterwards you can then name it back to continue working with GeNa.