Complex 3D scenes can push your device's memory to its limits, but with the right optimization strategies, you can create multi-capture scenes while maintaining smooth performance.
Understanding the Root Cause
The Scenes tool combines multiple 3D captures into unified environments, which can create substantial memory demands on your system. When you load several high-polygon captures simultaneously, your browser or device may struggle to keep up, leading to:
- Sluggish navigation and interaction
- Freezing during scene manipulation
- Unexpected crashes or browser exits
- Delayed response to user inputs
This happens because each capture in your scene consumes system memory, and the cumulative effect can overwhelm available resources, especially on mobile devices or older computers.
Strategic Performance Solutions
Optimize Your Captures Before Adding Them
Remesh for Efficiency
The most effective way to improve scene performance is to reduce polygon counts before building your scene. Polycam's Remesh tool creates optimized versions of your captures that maintain visual quality while dramatically reducing the Polycount.
Why this works: A single high-resolution photogrammetry capture might contain millions of polygons, but a remeshed version with 50,000-100,000 polygons often looks nearly identical in a scene context while using a fraction of the memory.
Learn how to use the Remesh tool →
Crop Unnecessary Content
Remove geometry that doesn't contribute to your scene's purpose. Background clutter, unwanted objects, or excess environmental data all consume memory without adding value.
Manage System Resources
Close Memory-Heavy Applications
Since Scenes run entirely within your browser or mobile app memory, competing applications can push your system beyond its limits. Before working on complex scenes:
- Close unnecessary browser tabs (especially video streaming or other 3D applications)
- Exit memory-intensive desktop applications
- Restart your browser if it's been running for extended periods
Strategic Scene Management
Leverage Selective Visibility
Rather than removing captures entirely, select the eye next to the capture's name in the layers tool to temporarily hide objects you're not actively working with. This approach offers several advantages:
- Hidden objects don't actively render, reducing visual processing load
- You maintain your scene composition without losing progress
- You can quickly toggle visibility as needed during your workflow
Progressive Scene Building
Start Small, Build Gradually
Instead of loading all your captures at once, build your scene incrementally:
- Begin with your most important captures (2-3 objects)
- Gradually add additional captures one at a time
- Use the Eye tool to hide non-essential elements during editing