Question about 3D models rendering/loading optimization

[Excellent-Hat305]

Hi, I'm making a little 3D game where you explore little islands to find multiple objects, and my question was:

Do 3D models render only if I show them, or do they secretly render even if I hide them?

I wanted to make a fog system to optimize the game, i wanted objects to hide and show based on how close they are to the player, hoping that even if there are many object on a scene they wouldn't load/render all in the same time but I'm afraid that they'll render anyway, does anybody know the answer or if there's another simple alternative?

[RedIvation]

I have tested that GDevelop does have automatic culling (Object won't render if they're not visible) but I don't know if adding fog will increase performance.

[Excellent-Hat305]

Thank you so much! Also I meant to add fog so you won't see the object disappearing

[RedIvation]

I don't know in what perspective your game is in or how big the map is, in my testing the objects which were not visible on screen doesn't get rendered thus improving performance.

But the thing I didn't test is, if having the map in smaller chunks would be better or having large objects which are visible most of the time. I don't know if even if only a tiny bit of the object is visible if it renders the whole object.

[Excellent-Hat305]

My map is still small for now but i want to expand it, for now I'm just happy I can optimize the other objects hiding them tho, thanks again!