AkilarLiao

AkilarLiao

Building a Cross-Platform GPU Procedural Grass System in Unity URP (Optimized for Mobile)

Hello Devtalk Community,

I’m sharing a GPU-Driven Procedural Grass System for Unity URP, heavily optimized for mobile. Key Features & Challenge: This system handles Procedural Generation and implements precise ViewFrustum, Distance, and FilterMap Culling entirely on the GPU. However, I faced the common mobile hurdle: SSBOs being unstable in the Vertex Shader on low-end hardware. My Solution: To ensure robust cross-platform stability, I bypassed the unstable SSBO path. The Compute Shader now writes instance data (including culling results) to a RenderTexture (UAV), which is then sampled by the final shader. Seeking Expert Opinion: This RenderTexture method guarantees stability, but introduces potential texture cache overhead. Is this the most practical performance/stability trade-off for commercial URP Mobile development today?

I’m keen to hear your critical thoughts. — Full Technical Breakdown (Including implementation details on Culling):

Source Code (GitHub):

First Post!

AkilarLiao

AkilarLiao

Just to close the loop on this thread:

The discussion influenced how the system evolved,
especially regarding cross-platform stability and GPU-only workflows.
I later summarized the technical reasoning and lessons learned in this write-up:

The same approach has since been packaged into a Unity tool for practical use:

Where Next?

Popular Game Dev topics Top

AstonJ
I’m beginning to think the Series S is going to be game-changer for Microsoft and figures for the gen ending up with a lot of people buyi...
New
New
New
First poster: bot
Behind the beautiful imagery of the latest animated movie and the realistic environments of popular videogames lie some mysterious algori...
New
First poster: bot
To run this emulator, we recommend that your PC have at least 8GB of RAM; less than this amount can result in unpredictable behavior and ...
New
First poster: bot
It’s been confirmed that E3, the biggest video game event in the world, is set to go ahead this year. Instead of its usual Los Angeles l...
New
CommunityNews
Nintendo Is Removing Switch Emulation Videos On Steam Deck. Recently, a video showcasing how well the Steam Deck can emulate the Nintend...
New
First poster: bot
Xbox 360 Architecture | A Practical Analysis. An in-depth analysis that explains how this console works internally
New
First poster: bot
Friday Facts #370 - The journey to Nintendo Switch | Factorio. We have a long history of trying to bring Factorio to other platforms, in...
New
Norpoleon
Team JethKo - Knee Deep is a detective adventure with role-playing elements & turn-based combat. What started as a small project tur...
New

Other popular topics Top

AstonJ
If it’s a mechanical keyboard, which switches do you have? Would you recommend it? Why? What will your next keyboard be? Pics always w...
New
PragmaticBookshelf
Machine learning can be intimidating, with its reliance on math and algorithms that most programmers don't encounter in their regular wor...
New
AstonJ
poll poll Be sure to check out @Dusty’s article posted here: An Introduction to Alternative Keyboard Layouts It’s one of the best write-...
New
AstonJ
We have a thread about the keyboards we have, but what about nice keyboards we come across that we want? If you have seen any that look n...
New
AstonJ
There’s a whole world of custom keycaps out there that I didn’t know existed! Check out all of our Keycaps threads here: https://forum....
New
rustkas
Intensively researching Erlang books and additional resources on it, I have found that the topic of using Regular Expressions is either c...
New
AstonJ
Biggest jackpot ever apparently! :upside_down_face: I don’t (usually) gamble/play the lottery, but working on a program to predict the...
New
AstonJ
If you want a quick and easy way to block any website on your Mac using Little Snitch simply… File > New Rule: And select Deny, O...
New
hilfordjames
There appears to have been an update that has changed the terminology for what has previously been known as the Taskbar Overflow - this h...
New
First poster: AstonJ
Jan | Rethink the Computer. Jan turns your computer into an AI machine by running LLMs locally on your computer. It’s a privacy-focus, l...
New