GameObject GPU Instantiating and Particle GPU Instantiating

Hi,

I have a question about GPU instantiating. I've tested 10k Sphere Mesh GameObjects with Standart material with GPU instantiating enabled and 10k Sphere Mesh Particles With Particles/Standart Surface material and GPU instantiating (you need to turn it on in a Particle System instead of a material) enabled. And the difference in FPS was dramatic. GPU Particles was a lot faster than GPU GameObjects. I've checked frame Debugger and Profiler, but I still don't understand why the difference is so big.

I've turned off shadows and Light Probes for GameObjects but this didn't affect the FPS much. So my questions are - what exactly the reason for this big FPS difference? Is it possible to get close to GPU Particle performance using GameObjects?

PS: I want to create custom Grass and paint it on Meshes, I could use custom shaders with modification for Particle GPU Instantiating (https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/PartSysInstancing.html), but you can't really paint with particles in the editor and use it for level design. So I need to somehow makes GPU GameObjects be cheaper on performance.

 

Don't use game objects, use DrawMeshInstanced()

 

I'm a bit confused by your reply. Are you saying if he could figure out a way to paint grass in his level design workflow, using the particle system would be faster than using DrawMeshInstanced?

 

Technically, I don't see a reason why it should be slower. Maybe less robust and flexible as a solution.

 

It seems unusual to use the particle system to "emit grass" which stays in a set of specific locations (and in the case of grass, they would be "snapped to the terrain geometry") without disappearing/appearing as I am used to particle systems being used for.

But, I don't personally have a lot of experience using the particle systems past or present.