Question Implementing Dual Camera Rendering for a Scope Effect with HDRP - Seeking Performance Advice

Hello !

I am currently working on a project where I need to implement a realistic scope effect for a weapon. My initial approach was to use two separate cameras, one for the general game view and another dedicated one for the scope view.

Although this method technically works, it results in a significant performance impact, likely due to the overhead of rendering two separate cameras. Given that performance is crucial for my project, I am seeking advice on how to optimize this setup or if there's a better alternative approach that I could take.

Is there a more performance-efficient way to implement this dual camera setup with Unity's HDRP? Or perhaps a different approach entirely that could achieve a similar scope effect without the need for two separate cameras? Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your help and insights!

 

Cameras are probably the most expensive option. Removing rendered layers, post processing, etc can help however.
More performant way is to get some sort of texture in a shader where you zoom in

Here are some methods:

 

That’s not really the best way

Because using shader to play with fov will give you bad look because of the resolution

Lets wait for unity staff to answer

 

Not sure what FoV has to do with this, but enjoy waiting

 

Its not about fov, what i meant is if you zoom in a lot then you will get pixelated look because of the resolution

 

Yes, I didn't know how far you needed to zoom.
For 2 cameras it's about reducing as much as possible. Disable layers which are not needed, disable volumetric effects where possible, etc

 

I don't think dual camera will work well with current HDRP versions. It could work for a one-off project where you control the target hardware but not for a wide audience.

Look at what the new Modern Warfare COD games do. They lower the FOV and also zoom in a little more using shaders. It does look silly especially on high/variable magnification scopes but millions play it every day and I haven't seen a single complaint.

Escape From Tarkov uses dual camera, not even on HDRP (built in I think) and it's still a big hit on framerate on most machines.

 

Thank you so much, Its funny that all this time i haven't noticed that cod does lower the camera fov a lot
When you told me now and i checked again I've noticed that they do lower the camera fov

Thanks again! actually this is way better than rendering dual camera