[RELEASED] Impostors - Runtime Optimization

Same
pls add HDRP, best asset.

 

What was the fix? I am having the same exact issue. Thanks!

 

Hi, I hope everything is going alright and much support for the people of Ukraine.

I am having a similar issue to Kamil1064 where I have lots of objects in my scene and am getting an "Index {0} is out of range of '{1}' Length." Please help. Thank you!

 

The author send me on private message newest version of asset. It should be in asset store already, that was just small update.

 

Hi
As Kamil1064 mentioned the update is live on the Asset Store. Let me know if it fixes the issue for you.

 

This seems to have fixed my issues. Thank you so much!

 

I imported Imposters into my project and I have the following errors can someone help me out?

 

Hi
Most likely Unity didn't automatically import essential packages that are required by Impostors.
Please, import Jobs and Burst packages using the Unity Package Manager window.

Just in case I should mention that the Impostors package doesn't depend on Entities.

 

Hi,
I see burst and jobs in dependencies list, so its probably not for webgl solutions, and what about android, ios apps ? Also can you recommend alternative for webgl incase imposters is not supported on webgl

 

Hi
Yes, you are right, Impostors package doesn't work for webgl because the Jobs package is not supported there.
On Android it works fine, even on Oculus Quest. That's what I'm able to personally test.
From customers' words on iOS it also works

 

Hi I am getting the error.

Assets\Impostors\Runtime\URP\UpdateImpostorsTexturesFeature.cs(38,17): error CS0012: The type 'RTHandle' is defined in an assembly that is not referenced. You must add a reference to assembly 'Unity.RenderPipelines.Core.Runtime, Version=0.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null'.

And in the IDE if I hover over it I get the message.

Method 'UnityEngine.Rendering.Universal.ScriptableRenderPass.ConfigureTarget' is obsolete: Use RTHandle for colorAttribute

Not sure how to switch them out, and seems like they changed something on the newer URPs.

 

What Unity and URP versions are you using?

 

Hi.
Quick beginner to imostors question.
And forgive if this is insanely obvious.
Just making sure.

Can the imposters be used for static objects, (buildings, etc,) -from a distance, then as the player draws closer. (this would be in VR) Swap to a lod'ed version of the mesh, and so get more detailed until close up.

As billboard trees do. Just instead of the billboard, it is an impostor?

Also if the above question is a yes, is it "couple of clicks doable, for each object.

Thanks for any help.

 

Hi
If your objects already have the LODGroup component then yes it's a couple of clicks to set up impostors on these objects.

The core component of Impostors package is ImpostorLODGroup, which works in conjuction with Unity's LODGroup component. Think of this as extending LODGroup functionality to draw impostors as the last LOD - instead of culling object just drawing its impostor.

 

Thank you MUGIK.

Yes the objects would already be lodded,
Or I would add the LODs, before attaching the impostor as the last LOD.
So I believe this is what you meant, which is great news.

I appreciate the rapid and very helpful feedback.

 

Hello. When I run in play mode inside Unity, impostors are working great. When I build and deploy to Quest 2, they simply don't render. I am logging to ensure the scene/camera manager are active/enabled, and even tried adding via

SetupImpostorLODGroupToObject

at runtime, but no change, and no other errors logged. Am I missing something simple? Thank you!

 

Hi
Please, try this temporary fix:
https://forum.unity.com/threads/released-impostors-runtime-optimization.759110/page-3#post-7500839

 

That did the trick for now! Thanks!!

 

Great. A new version is currently on review and soon will be available on the Asset Store. The update fixes a bunch of issues and also adds a setting to control impostor rendering for URP projects

 

Do you have any plan for HDRP support Unity 2021 PLS

 

Will it fix also the problem with Quest 2 so we don't have to use workaround any more?

 

For now, there are no plans for HDRP support.
Maybe only as a separate package because of the differences in the render pipelines.

 

Yes, now there is a setting to choose how to render impostors instead of the workaround

 

Hi! I just bought your asset and it looks very promising! Although I encountered and issue with my custom shader that has a Dither LOD Fade function for Cross Fade between levels. When it reaches the Impostor level it looks like this:

Spoiler

I suspect Impostor captures the object just when it does the dither fade? Is there a workaround for this?

 

Hi
Looks like that's a new issue so there is no quick workaround. Could I get your custom shader?

 

Here you go. Would be awesome if you found a solution for it.

 

Whan Unity and URP version are you using?

 

Using Unity 2021.2 and URP 12.1.3

 

You will need to change code a bit.
In the ImpostorLODGroup.cs at line ~385 make this change:

Code (CSharp):

1. SetupLightmaps(builder, renderer, lightmaps);
2.  
3. builder.PropertyBlock.SetVector("unity_LODFade", new Vector4(1,1)); // added line
4.  
5. DrawRenderer(renderer, builder, sharedMaterials);

Let me know if this helps

 

I added the line but it's still the same behavior, unfortunately.

Did it work for you?

 

Looks like something is wrong with Unity's Dither node. When '1' is provided as input Dither node still produces some noise.


And this noise is fully gone only when input is bigger than 2



However, LODGroup provides unity_LODFade in range 0..1 and it somehow works correctly.
I don't know what exactly is happening.

But to fix your issue instead of setting

new Vector4(1,1)

use something like

new Vector4(10,10)

 

Ah yes, that did it! Strange indeed.

Thanks for the fast response!

 

But it doesn't change how it works underneath... It adds only checkbox which turns on/off that "workaround" in code. And in this post: https://forum.unity.com/threads/released-impostors-runtime-optimization.759110/page-3#post-7500839 you mentioned something like that: "Please note, that these changes will negatively impact overall Impostors performance, because now rendering will block the main thread". Is there any better fix planned?

 

I would love to fix this issue in a proper way, but...

1. I don't have access to my Quest device and don't think I will get it soon. And without device I cannot debug
2. Quite possible that there is no fix just because of how unity handles VR rendering

Btw, I can't say that this is a "workaround". It's just another way to render impostors that has some pros and cons.
Pros - it is stable, works in most cases, and doesn't affect the rendering pipeline in any way.
Cons - it is slightly worse in performance. Maybe 25-50% slower.

So, for example, the whole impostor system update loop (with rendering impostor textures on GPU) will take:
Scheduled - 1ms
Immediate - 1.25-1.5ms
You may say that's a lot, but it's only a 2-5% increase within the frame budget of 10ms. I believe, compared to no impostors at all this increase is negligible. Please, correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Definitely without impostors my small project would be completely different Hope one day you have a time/opportunity to dig a little deeper in the VR subject to push a little further performance on thes small, funny devices.

 

Does this asset support impostors with an orthographic camera?

 

Not really. It needs some adjustments to work properly with the orthographic camera.
I didn't implement them yet because there were no requests for that. Let's discuss this in PM because I need some additional information about your project

 

So does this system not support deferred rendering through URP? With that setup, none of the impostors are visible at all. If I switch it to forward rendering in URP, it looks like everything works properly.

 

Hello

I missed the news about deferred rendering finally being added to URP.

I need more time to investigate everything related, but there is a simple workaround to make impostors work with deferred URP.
Go to Impostors/Runtime/Resources/Shaders/impostorsShader.shader and change line ~24 from
"LightMode" = "UniversalForward"
to
"LightMode" = "UniversalForwardOnly"

This will force impostors to draw using forward rendering even if deferred rendering is set in the project settings. Let me know if this works for you

 

Hi my game is multiplayer and player is spanwed runtime, how do I assign MainCamera at runtime?

 

You can assign CameraImpostorsManager directly to camera game object. Make sure that this component is active only for the player.

Alternatively, you need to follow these steps:
1. disable CameraImpostorsManager script
2. set reference to CameraImpostorsManager.mainCamera field
3. enable CameraImpostorsManager script

Let me know if this works for you.

 

I just purchased your asset because of the slogan "Next generation of Imposter System asset with DOTS in mind." but it seems that it's not working with ECS... or does it?

 

DOTS and ECS are not the same things

ECS stands for Entity Component System - a specific way of structuring your code by separating data and logic.
As a side feature, it makes possible efficient use of RAM and encourages CPU cache usage(the DOTS thing). But that's not the main idea. There are tons of ECS implementations that are not using such optimizations. For example LeoECS.

DOTS stands for Data-Oriented Technology Stack. In Unity ecosystem it refers to three main packages: Jobs, Burst, and Entities. While Entities is still in preview(pre-release), the Jobs and Burst packages are quite stable and ready for production development.

Impostors package is based on ideas of DOTS (efficient RAM and CPU cache usage) using Burst and Jobs packages.

 

Hi! Again a funny question from me. Do you see any possibility to make the Impostors work with World Streamer 2 ?? Any advice on what I should start? Do you think adding Impostors Handler on every dynamically loaded scene makes any sense?

 

Hi
I don't know how exactly World Streamer 2 is working, but in general, Impostors system supports dynamically adding and removing objects (whether it's enabling/disabling or spawning/destroying).

No, ImpostorLODGroupsManager (previously called ImpostorsHandler) has to be a single instance, it's basically a singleton. Its lifetime is in your full control. You can make it DontDestroyOnLoad or whatever best fits you project

 

But will it handle object on multiple scenes? What if I'am adding another scene in a runtime? Will it recognieze objects from that added scene?

 

Yes, a single instance of ImpostorLODGroupsManager will handle all loaded scenes. Loading scene is basically an instantiating process so it should be fine

 

Thank you so much for fast response.

 

Thank you for your answer. I am aware of the differences between DOTS and ECS.

So, rephrasing my question: do you have any plans to support ECS so that we can use impostors with entities directly?

And, if not, are you aware of any other work around for using impostors within an ECS project besides using game objects instead of entities?

 

You were right - loading scenes at runtime is not a problem - Impostors can handle it without issues.

Unfortunately I have another issue with Impostors... and honestly I don't know how to resolve it.
Large scale worlds (which I am trying to use in my project) are affected in Unity by issue called "Floating Point Error for Large Scale Worlds" caused by losing precision of calculation on float point numbers when these numbers starting to be a bigger and bigger (decimal part starting to be shorter and shorter and the calculations are less precise causing variety of artefacts and physics issues). Solution is to periodically move coordinates of the player to (0, 0, 0) point and all objects in the loaded scene hve to be also moved accordingly.

To resolve the issue with Floating Point Error I use a solution delivered with World Streamer 2 (already prepared script). Unfortunately when the script is turned on then Impostors seem to be not working. I assume the issue is caused by the updated/changed position of objects with the attached ImpostorLODGroup script. Any idea how to resolve something like that? I assume positions of objects in some Impostors collections have to be updated... but how and where?