UpdateEnvironment readback buffer overflow, please schedule fewer updates.

Hi,

I am currently getting the above warning repeatedly in the console.

I am using unity 2021.2, and I don't recall seeing this in earlier versions of unity (With the same code) although it is possible that I just didn't notice it.

The code causing the error is here, and these lines are running inside update:

surfacematerial.SetColor("_Color1", c2a);
surfacematerial.SetFloat("_Intensity", scale);

The weird thing is that I have used setcolor/setfloat inside update in other places, and it is working, so why not here?

I could look at using invokerepeating to reduce the frequency of the calls, but is there something else I can try first? I would like this code to run as fast as possible, and it seems to work later in the update loop, so I can't see why it causes issues here.

Thanks for any advice!

 

Just an Update:

These warnings to NOT appear in 2021.1, only in 2021.2, so something must have changed here?

 

Any update on this?
How did you find the code responsible for this?

 

Hey, yeah, I actually fixed this!

It wasn't coming from the code I posted above at all, it was coming from the enlighten system.

I turned off Realtime GI in the lighting settings, and the errors went away.

I'm not sure exactly why, but I wasn't really using Realtime GI anyway, so it didn't make a difference in my case.

 

Thank you soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much for the reply. This really solved my problem and for some reason i no longer need my created light settings either.
I remember last time i made it because Unity called it None.
But once again so many thnaks

 

Haha, no problem! It took me a while to find, I'm glad I could help!

 

This mostly helped me, too; with Realtime GI turned off in Lighting Settings I no longer get that warning multiple times per second. However, I have a "fast forward" mechanic where the day / night cycle goes faster, and when that happens I DO see the warning again.

I tried setting

DynamicGI.updateThreshold = 10;

, but that didn't help. Any other suggestions?

 

How are you implementing the Day/night cycle? Do you have code examples?

 

Fixed it! Even though I'd turned off Realtime GI, Realtime Environment lighting was still true, even though it's grayed out in the Lighting Settings and appears to change there along with Realtime GI. I opened the lighting settings in a text editor and set

m_RealtimeEnvironmentLighting: 0

, and now I'm not seeing the warning anymore!

 

I can even turn realtime GI back on and as long as realtime environment lighting is false I don't see the warning! Hooray!

 

oh wait, with Realtime GI on I DO still get the warning when I fast-forward time, but not when time is going at normal speed (24 minute days).

 

That's great, I'm glad you fixed it!

 

This happens when the light you're using for baked materials is moved during runtime, or when it is a child object of a parent that is moving. If it's moving during runtime, you'll get this warning and the only way to stop seeing it is to remove realtime global illumination, as suggested. If you want Realtime Global Illumination, your light cannot move.

 

Ah! That makes sense! That is what I was doing! Thanks for clearing that up!

 

Disabling GI entirely isn't what I'd call a fix, per se. It's more of an "out of sight out of mind" kinda thing.

I'm getting that warning when moving a light but not during runtime.

 

This error message only appears if you change a variable too quickly (overflow) if you reduce the frequency it no longer appears.
If you change a value with your mouse too quickly on a slider in editor windows this also happens, if you move the cursor more slowly it no longer appears.