URP post processing = fps drop (low and mid-end mobile devices)

Hi, I'm working on a mobile game project in which we'd like to use post processing (URP).
The problem is, once we activate post processing on Camera the FPS drop immediately (even when no post processing is active) on 10-15. This happens on low and mid-end mobile devices.
We wanted to use "mobile-friendly" effects but everything turned out to be very heavy.
Does anyone have any advice how to solve this performance issue?
Thank you in advance.

 

Sadly the only solution is to not activate post processing in URP and use a pack from the asset store.

 

thank you! Just to be clear, you mean this pack: https://assetstore.unity.com/packag...a-effects/urp-post-processing-profiles-162770 ?
Do you think it will work on mobiles (low + mid-end) without fps dropping?

 

I don't know (yet). I only yesterday discovered, that post processing with URP is so slow, that no one should use it.

 

I tried https://assetstore.unity.com/packag...g-color-correction-lut-blur-bloom-urp--129638 today and with LUT + bloom + vignette my FPS stayed at 60. If it costs performance it's A LOT LESS than the default URP stuff. With the default effects I got like 35-38 FPS (even when no effects were used und PP was enabled).
Looks like it's good enough.

Edit: Did some deeper testing with that asset. LUT is quite heavy, but the other effects are almost free.

 

Perfect! Thank you a lot! We tried to overcome URP post processing with the using of shaders (combination of plane + shader + glossiness map). That's what we're testing right now.
But we'll try your advice too.
Thanks again for a big help!

 

New devices have no problem with post processing wven low-end devices with OpenGL ES3.2+
What are the names of your test devices?
It is still impossible to use real-time light on mobile phones, even for the best devices

 

That is not how you design mobile games.

 

Please explain more I didn't understand what you mean

 

You can't just assume everyone has a modern strong phone. The visual quality has to be somewhat consistent across devices and more or less match the store screenshots. Otherwise you'll get bombarded with bad reviews and your game review score tanks. URP PP is notoriously bad (even if it looks good). If I can get a similar visual quality by using something else and therefore making my game more successful then yes please.
Also I'm using several realtime (vertex without shadows) lights on mobile and they eat less performance than URP PP.

 

Unfortunately, Unity has seemingly designed URP's post-processing in a bubble where they could 'never imagine' that people would want to run 100% custom post-processing.

When you tick "Use Post-Processing" on the camera, Unity will always run its own final 'uber-pass', even if you're running your own custom post-processing and want to handle it yourself. Unfortunately, this comes with a fixed performance cost and can be felt on mobile, since it's still a fullscreen pass with samples (that do nothing).

There is also known issues, ie: https://forum.unity.com/threads/cus...effect-causes-black-screen-on-android.861835/ - meaning that in essence, unless you're willing to roll the dice when you ship, you pretty much need to stick to Unity's (slow, but more importantly, poorly documented performance-wise) inbuilt post-pro.

As for the broader question of what PostFX mobile can run - they can do a lot. Even something like an FXAA can still work on modern phones if it's designed with them in mind, here's one I develop + vignette running rock solid:

But the thing you've got to be very careful of is base resolution. Try and render simple, optimised effects on some crazy DPI screen without properly accounting for it, and you'll run into trouble.

 

If I don't tick it, Unity won't use it?

 

If you don't tick it, no post-processing will work So you're always forced to pay the performance penalty, even if you don't use a single Unity PostPro effect.

 

How to decide on the base resolution ? or even set it ? I apologise if it is a stupid question.

 

Did they improve it by now? Or is there something in the works for a more mobile friendly performance pipeline?

 

I hope for a mobile optimization too. Using the URP Post Processing causes me to lose about 30 fps on my smartphone. With only bloom & vignette enabled. That's insane.

 

I tried reducing every quality property I could find, and I think lowering the render resolution to 0.5 helped me reach decent performance and FPS. The question is, can your game settle on this quality impact

 

URP is definitely years away from matching the standard pipeline in performance, i see it every day in all my asset work.

I would also say that HDRP is not for making games at all, unless target some super computer.

There is absolutely zero point to either URP or HDRP when can do the same or more with Standard and vastly more efficiently.

 

For me setting Fixed DPI (Project settings - Player) from max 480 to 360 was the solution, greatly improves performance and I read somewhere it is an ancient approach that still holds true, there is difference in quality but it is worth it.

Recommend this post :

https://forum.unity.com/threads/tar...ng-fixed-dpi-factor-vs-setresolution.1076789/

or

https://canopy.procedural-worlds.co...ncrease-your-games-framerate-in-unity-3d-r28/

https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/q...is-not-equal-to-the-screens-height-in-real-li

 

This is all getting a bit ridiculous and Unity seem to have nothing to say on it.

 

Honestly, I feel like URP is designed just to make artists' life easier, but there's obviously a massive impact on performance. If you don't trust me, just ask any URP graph to show you the compiled code. Hell, just place a new "multiply" node in the graph and right click on it - see generated code and judge for yourself. It's a nice concept, but far from optimal.

 

Has any one figured out alternative ways to use glow effect in URP cause Post Processing with bloom alone tanks the performance a whole lot which feels weird

 

I ended up not using Unity's URP Post Processing and bought - Beautify.

Highly rated Post Processing product. And I now have a stable mobile performance with effects.

https://assetstore.unity.com/packag...ts/beautify-3-advanced-post-processing-233073