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HDRP, URP or the Built-In Render Pipeline?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by JamesArndt, May 23, 2020.

  1. JamesArndt

    JamesArndt

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    I'm in the early prototyping phase of a new project. For context this is a single-player FPS-style project, taking place in a historical setting. I am currently using 3ds Max, Substance Painter and Unity 2019.3 as my tools for development. I have experience using the built-in pipeline and the HDRP pipeline, so I don't need ramping up on how to do the basics to intermediate things in either pipeline. I do however lack knowledge in some of the lesser known pitfalls or advantages to one over the other. So my question is: What are the advantages of the HDRP rendering pipeline over the built-in. For starters, let's skip the obvious one of higher fidelity rendering with HDRP.
     
  2. MDADigital

    MDADigital

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    HDRP is not even feature complete yet so you can not do evrything that you can in classic. I would probably go with HDRP anyway since I guess it will take you a few years to ship?

    Plus classic will be depricated soon
     
    JamesArndt likes this.
  3. JamesArndt

    JamesArndt

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    I have found I am able to get visual parity pretty close, at least for environment art, between HDRP and the Built-In. I can create scenes with post processing that look very close, with only subtle differences. However it really shines when it comes to characters...especially so with skin and hair shading. So what are some of the Built-In features that are missing from HDRP at the moment?
     
  4. BIGTIMEMASTER

    BIGTIMEMASTER

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    third party tool compatibility is a problem even if they claim compatibility with new SRPs because it's changing with every new update. You really can't consider anything stable. I'd either avoid third party tool use or avoid new SRP's, one or the other.

    I spent a lot of time in my project trying to troubleshoot issues related to plugins that make use of many of the preview packages but ended up wasting too much time so I scrapped most of it.

    of course it depend on what time you got and what your goals are, but for me if it gets to point where i am spending more time troubleshooting/bug fixing than making gameplay, that's no good. I really wouldn't recommend trying to do realistic graphics at all in unity unless scope of game is tiny (like indoor walking sim with very few areas and characters)


    to be clear, i'm talking about graphics/lighting/rendering oriented plugins.
     
  5. MDADigital

    MDADigital

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    Is really the render pipeline that important in the start? You need to prototype your mechanics etc anyway.
    Our game is mechanics driven not graphics driven so might not be similar case, but we waited a long time for starting on the gfx side of things. Our dev logs looked like this for a long time :p

     
  6. JamesArndt

    JamesArndt

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    This is not a project that will consist of large/open worlds. It's far smaller, utilizing more self contained environments that function more like interactive cut scenes. I am hoping to have a decent visual fidelity, but I don't want to hit any gotchas with incompatibilities, memory issues, loss of features if I opt to use HDRP over the Built-In pipeline. i.e. oh Light Probes don't work in HDRP or something like that. The good news is I'm not relying heavily on any 3rd party assets from the asset store for artwork. I already have a robust and optimized FPS system in place, with a few managers/systems that still need to be implemented. Primarily I will need a core game loop manager or rather some sort of game manager. I need to find a decent audio management system. I also need to find or develop a menu management system. And lastly I will need to implement a save and loading system. Now these are all code systems and I don't think I should hit too many gotchas with code. at least in regard to the rendering side of things. I am authoring the majority of the art content, in combination to outsourcing some of the art content creation. I will need to lock down a rendering method soon so I can come up with time estimates and budgeting. I'll need to account for what the requirements will be for art content up front.

    @MDADigital Yes the rendering tech that is to be used, needs to be determined up front. As far as my knowledge goes, you cannot switch rendering pipelines once you've moved forward with one (Built-in can convert to HDRP I believe). I need to do budgets, and estimates right now on both time and money to author the art content and also wrap up documents on how the art content should be authored. Basically I need to know the rendering tech up front. It does not impede my ability to prototype by any means and is sort've unrelated to that aspect of development, but I do need to lock that down at this point.
     
    Last edited: May 23, 2020
  7. BIGTIMEMASTER

    BIGTIMEMASTER

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    you'll probably be fine then, just sharing my experience but yeah it was mostly issues related to open world design