Assets [WIP] ILOptimizer (makes every Unity game faster without any changes, in seconds!)

I marked the thread as [WIP], but it actually is or was more of a proof-of-concept where I would like to share the results with you.

I recently came across the following feedback item:
https://feedback.unity3d.com/suggestions/vector3-and-other-structs-optimization-of-operators

It says if Unity would not use custom constructors in their code, such as the Vector3 math implementation, the program execution could be a lot faster. He made a test by implementing an own set of Vector math and improved performance a lot.

I thought it would be interesting to find out how it affects performance, if these changes would actually exist in Unity's own dll files. In other words, like if Unity Technologies would make these changes to Unity.

In this case, nobody would have to change any code in their project and simply every Unity game might run automagically faster. Too good to be true? Let's find out!

I wrote a tool which I call "IL Optimizer", that replaces code in Unity's DLL. For example, ILOptimizer replaces many Vector3 method implementations to avoid calling custom constructors and even inline's some method calls as well.

The performance improvement is actually impressive. My game runs about 4% faster. That's a lot for simply not doing any changes in user code and just replacing some trivial code in the UnityEngine.Vector3 class.

I did another Vector3 non-sense test, where I process 128*1024 Vector3's and do some math on them. While I believe only a few project have such heavy Vector processing, it also improved performance a lot. The performance improved from 34ms down to 25ms. It runs 11ms faster, that's like 30%?!, simply by replacing a few Vector3 methods!

Here is a video where I explain what the tool is doing.

A message to Unity Technologies:
You can make every project on this planet that uses Unity run significantly faster with a few trivial changes in your Vector classes. Also, why is Vector3Int using properties rather than fields for its members?

 

Have a look there : https://github.com/Unity-Technologies/Unity.Mathematics/tree/master/src/Unity.Mathematics

 

Very interesting approach - well presented. Nice work.

But I believe the difference there is that you have to specifically add that into your project. What Peter has done is a sort of 'for free' performance improvement - no changes to client projects or source code.

 

Wow, looks super interesting! Any drawbacks you've found or is it really just free performance?

 

I can't think of any drawbacks, nor did I observe any yet, but I also didn't test much. It was pretty much just an experiment for me.

Perhaps it's even an ignition spark for someone to come up with a great tool that optimizes IL. If you pause the video at the right moment, you can spot many TODO's what such program could do to make the optimizer much more powerful than what I did

 

Looks really awesome, does it work with ILCPP?

 

If IL2CPP processes the modified assemblies, then yes it does.

You would need to hook in the IL optimization before the IL2CPP step. I haven't bothered doing that, because I believe (and I could be completely wrong depending on whether Unity has such hook in their build-pipeline) that shouldn't be much of a problem and it wasn't very interesting for me

 

That's what I thought, would be much better if you know, Unity actually made these changes

 

Hi,
I am the guy who made the Unity's feedback item linked in this threads first post. I implemented the optimizations in a free asset. Here is its link https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/utilities/frame-rate-booster-120660?aid=1101l3N9P
It is easy to use, just import it and rebuild your game.
To be completely aware of its limitations, please read the asset description.

 

It should, but it is not. IL2CPP destroys the optimization. I am trying to contact the IL2CPP team to tell them about that. You can find full details about this subject, and updates about potential answers and fixes from the IL2CPP team, here:
https://forum.unity.com/threads/vec...ptimization-of-operators.477338/#post-5959373