User Manual: Runtime Behavior

This page explains what artists usually observe while navigating a splat scene, and which controls are safest to touch first.

Most runtime sessions follow a short warmup, stabilize, then show expected streaming or sorting changes before any tuning is needed.

What You Should Expect Visually

• First load can take longer while data streams and GPU resources warm up.
• Camera movement should feel stable after load settles.
• Some distant detail popping can happen as streaming updates visible chunks.
• Transparent splat content can shift slightly as sort order updates.

Common Confusion Points

• "It looked better in one scene than another": light setup and exposure strongly change perceived splat quality.
• "Parts are missing": often Render Distance or max splat budget is too low.
• "It stutters only at scene start": this is often startup/streaming work, not a permanent runtime state.
• "Editor view and play mode differ": post-processing and camera setup can differ between scenes.

Which Setting Knobs Are Safe to Tweak First

1. Preset (Balanced, then move toward performance or quality)
2. Max splat count (raise/lower visible density)
3. Render distance (trade distant detail for stability)
4. Only then advanced streaming/sorting options

Quick references: - Performance presets - Workflow details

When to Use Troubleshooting Docs

Use troubleshooting pages when behavior is persistent, not a one-time warmup:

• repeated heavy flicker or mis-ordered transparency
• splats consistently fail to appear
• shader/pipeline errors, or runtime starts with no visible result

Start here: - Recurring issues

Deeper Architecture (Engineers)

For internals and stage-level details: - Render pipeline architecture - Architecture overview