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Vulkan API poor performance.

Discussion in 'Android' started by SeriouSerg, Oct 23, 2017.

?

What do you think about Android Vulkan API in Unity?

  1. It is unusable and must be reworked.

  2. Cool stuff, everything works well.

  3. Dont know what is.

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  1. SeriouSerg

    SeriouSerg

    Joined:
    Jan 27, 2013
    Posts:
    49
    Some experiments with Vulkan API:

    Screenshot_2017-10-23-12-55-36-067_com.realdynamics.cre.jpg
    Screenshot_2017-10-23-12-53-55-236_com.realdynamics.cre.jpg

    And it should be the opposite, isn't it?

    Go on:
    QIP Shot - Screen 054.png
    80 Mb difference! Vulkan build is significally larger, works slower and unstable. After 1 minute game crashes.
     
    SeriouSerg, Oct 23, 2017
    #1

  2. florianpenzkofer

    florianpenzkofer

    Unity Technologies

    Joined:
    Sep 2, 2014
    Posts:
    479
    which version of Unity did you try and on what device?
    The initial implementation we released in Unity 5.6 surely isn't perfect. We made various improvements (stability, performance, features) in more recent versions.
    Also some of the earlier Vulkan drivers have issues (stability and performance).

    Regarding size, Vulkan SPIR-V shaders tend to be quite a bit larger than GLSL shaders. Also in some earlier versions we accidentally always included GLSL shaders. I'll have to check if the fix for that was back-ported.
     
    florianpenzkofer, Oct 24, 2017
    #2

  3. SeriouSerg

    SeriouSerg

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    Hi!
    Thank you for reply.

    I using most recent version 2017.2.
    Device - Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (Snapdragon 625).
    Please note, that device's Vulkan API implementation is fine. I tried UE4 SunTemple demo (GL ES3.0 and Vulkan) and Vulkan build works better. I can share video if it is necessary.
     
    SeriouSerg, Oct 24, 2017
    #3

  4. mgeorgedeveloper

    mgeorgedeveloper

    Joined:
    Jul 10, 2012
    Posts:
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    Whoops - just tried a Vulkan build with Unity 2017.3, and the frame rate drops from 60+ to 20... switching back to DirectX 11 for now.
     
    mgeorgedeveloper, Mar 12, 2018
    #4

  5. Emile97

    Emile97

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    May 28, 2017
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    Still on that project? I recently discovered vulkan so I don't know that much about it, I'm using unity 2017.4, please tell me something : did you test on this version as well? If yes how did it do?
    Secondly, what will you recommend me to use as of today (considering that I be upgrading to unity 2018)
    Thank you
     
    Emile97, Jul 8, 2018
    #5

  6. mgeorgedeveloper

    mgeorgedeveloper

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    Jul 10, 2012
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    Sorry, but I haven't looked at it again since my 2017.3 test. I was just experimenting with it at that time. I honestly don't know too much about it either.
     
    mgeorgedeveloper, Jul 8, 2018
    #6
    Emile97 likes this.

  7. Emile97

    Emile97

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    OK ok thank you. I'l ttry it and see if I can get it to work properly or else I'll just use open Gl
     
    Emile97, Jul 8, 2018
    #7

  8. atomicjoe

    atomicjoe

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    Let's keep up with the necro:
    On Unity 2018.2.17, still the same poor performance on Android Vulkan.
    Switching from GL ES 3.1 to Vulkan cuts the fps to less than half! (from 60+ to 22!)
     
    atomicjoe, Nov 28, 2018
    #8

  9. Prodigga

    Prodigga

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    Apr 13, 2011
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    My friends OnePlus 5 has better performance on Vulkan vs OpenGL3, and my Pixel XL has worse performance on Vulkan vs OpenGL3... Soo, Vulkan isn't even consistently worse...which is a bummer because we can't just omit Vulkan from our Android builds...but it'll also be impossible to test every possible device to see whether it runs better with Vulkan or OpenGL3. Not to mention that even if we did have a master list of all Android devices and which performs better with what, it's not like we have scripting API access to decide which graphics API will be used, right? (ie I can't write if(Pixel XL) use(OpenGL3) else use(Vulkan)).
     
    Prodigga, Nov 29, 2018
    #9

  10. Emile97

    Emile97

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    You can use app bundles to distribute the right apk to anyphone...
     
    Emile97, Nov 29, 2018
    #10

  11. Prodigga

    Prodigga

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    True, I forgot about that! But it is still not practical.
    I can't test every single device in existence.
     
    Prodigga, Nov 29, 2018
    #11