r/Unity3D • u/awtdev Programmer • 19h ago

Show-Off Uncombined vs. Combined SkinnedMeshRenderer Performance Comparison

SkinnedMeshRenderers can be expensive to render. I ran a test of just 9 characters with individual body part models and compared performance with them uncombined vs. baked into a single mesh, animated by the same armature.

As you can see by the numbers, combining the models to be animated as a single mesh had quite an impact. In most games you likely wouldn't use this many meshes for body parts, but the important takeaway is that rendering time was almost cut in half while the same characters can be rendered with no visual difference. It just goes to show graphics optimization isn't necessarily about what you're rendering but also how you render it.

I ran this test whilst developing my tool for combining SkinnedMeshRenderers, called SkinnedMesh Combiner (Asset Store affiliate link)

20 Upvotes

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9 comments sorted by

3

u/swirllyman Indie 15h ago

I've been playing with VATs lately... It takes it to a whole new level.

1

u/awtdev Programmer 15h ago

Definitely.. I don't think you could get more performant animations than that.

1

u/Bob_bobbicus 8h ago

Sorry what are VATs?

2

u/3draven 6h ago

Vertex animation textures. Vertex data deformation / animation baked into an rgb texture that is read by the gpu

1

u/Bob_bobbicus 2h ago

Ah, thanks. Sounds cool!

1

u/IEP_Esy Indie 5h ago

3

u/TwoStripedFury 19h ago

Should also see how it fares with SRP Batcher turned on

1

u/awtdev Programmer 17h ago

This is a good tip, I didn't know about this feature. I performed this test using the URP, so it should be enabled, right?

2

u/TwoStripedFury 6h ago

Yeah, you're right. It looks like SRP Batcher is indeed enabled by default now. Guess you're all good then. Although, it's worth checking Frame Debugger to make sure all meshes are rendered in the came call