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How's VFX graph performance on less powerful GPUs?

Discussion in 'General Graphics' started by dgoyette, Jan 7, 2020.

  1. dgoyette

    dgoyette

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    Jul 1, 2016
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    4,195
    I've been planning on doing some VFX Graph work to replace some of my existing Shuriken particle systems with VFXs. My understanding is that VFX Graph should, overall, be more performant. But given that it's based on the GPU instead of the CPU, does that generally mean I should expect worse performance overall for users who are currently GPU bound?

    I'm trying to make my game more performant for users who lower end graphics cards. My assumption had been that using VFX graph instead of standard particles was a step in the right direction. But now I'm wondering if that's the case at all.

    I understand that a very complex VFX Graph could be much more intense than some arbitrary shuriken particle system, so this might not be a good comparison. But does it seem at all reasonable to expect to improve performance by swapping out shuriken for VFX graph? Or is that only the case when the user is currently CPU bound?
     
  2. hippocoder

    hippocoder

    Digital Ape

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    VFX will usually be faster for big particle counts assuming desktop or console. The key here though is we use the regular Particle System formerly known as Shuriken because it's likely better for simpler jobs or because we really need realtime collisions with Physx colliders.
     
    dgoyette likes this.
  3. dgoyette

    dgoyette

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    Jul 1, 2016
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    Thanks. I'm aware of the collision limitations of VFX Graph, so a couple of effects (bouncing shrapnel) will remain on the regular particle system. I guess it's probably tricky to draw a line and say what "simple jobs" are compared to complex ones, and maybe I'll just need to profile the differences on a per-system basis.
     
    richardkettlewell likes this.