Mecanim performance question

We are seeing some performance degradation using Mecanim instead of legacy animation for our core bipeds. A test scene with 500 characters (972 verts, 49 bones each) implied a performance loss of approximately 40% which was of course unexpected.

The test environment had a character model rigged as "Humaniod" with the Avatar definition automatically created from the model (as shown in the video here: http://blogs.unity3d.com/2012/06/20/more-mecanim/). For the test, we just had one state with a run animation with no blending, and no environment geometry. For a varied number of characters in the scene, Mecanim's Humanoid performance was consistently lower than the Legacy animation system, as shown below:

(All tests run in Unity 4.0.0f7 pro on Win 7 x64)

Count - 200 300 400 500
Legacy FPS - 60 47 35 28
Mecanim FPS - 45 29 21 17

I don't think the animation system in 3.5 performed as well as the "legacy" option in 4.0 does, so there may already be some improvement over the older system. But in any case, are we missing any key steps that might improve the new animation system's performance?

Any input would be appreciated. Thank you!
-abm

P.S. In terms of specific nomenclature, is "Mecanim" the new animation system in 4.0 regardless of whether you choose the Humanoid or Legacy animation type? In other words, is "Legacy" the 3.5 animation system, or legacy support within the new animation system?

 

Hate to bump, could really use some insight on this issue however. Thanks.

 

Would love to hear something about this too. Are you using IK in mecanim? Make sure it's off.

 

Then, Mecanin performance for a massive game(RTS) is a bad choice?

 

I'de like unity to comment on this as well. Mecanim for "crowds" seems like a bad idea.

 

Same. Formal comparable performance test results would be greatly appreciated. We're considering migrating to Mecanim once 4.3 launches, but not if it means taking a performance hit. Currently running 4.2.1 legacy.

 

i have a high poly 3dsMax rigged character that when used with mechanim just degraded in performance compared to custom animation, blending control done with scripts. is it because i have scripts that control the animation running along with mechanim or mechanim is just a heavyweight system.

 

can you please post link to sample project that we can all download and see how you've done it.. thanks in advance!

 

i did some simple testing where i put n characters just walking straight and i was able to place just over 2x the number of legacy characters vs mecanim characters...

so if you want hundreds of bots i cant see how that would be done with mecanim and get a reasonable framerate. i mean the testing i did were extremely basic just walking no real logic beyond simple controller hardwired to loop on walk...

 

Ya show us the code, otherwise we have no idea what kinds of tricks you guys played to get that to work, or what limitations it has, or god knows what.

 

Another bump for this code. I am running around 200 low poly characters with a looping idle animation and getting around 20 FPS in the editor and 25 on stand alone. Over 50% of the CPU is taken up by Animator.

 

Necrobump from here too, I can't possibly imagine Mecanim handling thousands of characters and I'd be very interested in knowing how to make that happen, if someone from Unity has some insight. Seems to me you're still better off using legacy animations if you have a huge amount of animated objects.

 

did legacy still better in 5.3 ?? i'm trying to make game for android so if deference is big between legacy and humans i think i will use legacy

 

The Mecanim animator introduces some overhead, so if you don't need the blend trees and statemachines, legacy is faster. You should probably try both and profile though.

 

oooooh thanks i thought i can use legacy with animator but now i understand animator system is the problem thanks a lot

 

i just tested with one animation and looping and there is no deference
207 legacy with animation get 12-13
207 generic with animator get 12-15
207 human with animator get 12-15

 

hi, i'm very interested in your 2000 character on screen with Mecanim example. Could you share in detail, how this was achieved? thanks

 

any updates on this ? (can mecanim handle 2000 characters on screen without additional optimization ?)

 

So trying to optimize my game I just discovered this mecanim issue, unfortunately replacing humanoid to gereric rigs is out of the question at this stage, would also like to know how to put "2000 character on screen with Mecanim"...

 

so, years after this was posted OllyNicholson nor anyone at unity had the respect towards the community to clarify this, to put it simple: Mecanim is a great blending tool and a piece of junk when it comes to performance and mobile. thanks for clarifying that oly...

 

I never got the code either and never could pull it off in 2018 or 2019. I haven't tried large scale stuff like this in a couple of years because DOTS has been a train wreck for us so we unfortunately had to move to Unreal.