ProDrawcallOptimizer, reduce the number of drawcalls drastically on your project

NOTE: NEW ProDrawCall 4.0 has just come out of the oven and its alive!

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/utilities/pro-draw-call-optimizer-54360

Go and get it while its hot! ;-).

Differences between ProDrawCall Optimizer and ProDrawCall optimizer light can be found here:
http://www.pencilsquaregames.com/prodrawcall-optimizer-vs-prodrawcall-optimizer-free-differences/

Hey guys!,

So I've been working on this package that I think the community would love , basically is a draw call optimizer and basically what it does is that it merges all your per-shader textures into a big atlas and remaps all the UV map of the geometry in your games to the created atlas, hence reducing drastically the number of drawcalls. (3 times less in my scene).

I plan to release this package in the asset store soon but wanted first to show it here in case there is any suggestion you guys might have .

Here's a quick intro on what the tool does and how it works:

Still not sure?, try out the free version at:
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/utilities/pro-draw-call-optimizer-light-16888

This package can be found at:
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/utilities/pro-draw-call-optimizer-54360

Curious to know how it works internally? checkout this post:
http://www.pencilsquaregames.com/2015/01/reducing-draw-calls-also-named-setpass-calls-on-unity5/

 

NOTE: Any bug regardless the version either pro or light is fixed on both versions.

Version History:
Version 4
- Multiple atlases supported now!, if your texture atlases are too big the tool will split them automatically for you.
- Performance improvements when generating atlases with combined objects.
- Fixed bug that caused an error when generating hierarchies on combined objects.
- Full code revamp and refactoring.
Version 3.8.1
- Generating hiearchy now uses optimized objects instead of generated
objects. (Basically your generated hierarchies are exactly the same to the
original ones with the optimized objects)
Version 3.8
- Small fix on shader labels where they where not displayed completely
- Added option for generating a hierarchy that mimics the way you have
assembled your objects apart for your generated objects
Version 3.7
- Revamp on UI, added new tab for searching / filtering game objects.
- Added "Object Search" tab.
- Moved Search by tag / layer from the "Advanced" tab to the "Object search" tab.
- Added multi threaded search for malformed UVs.
- renamed "Advanced" tab to "Settings" tab.
- Fixed bug where aprox atlas size wasnt being updated when deleting already added objects
Version 3.6
- Performance improvements when atlasing multiple materials. (not generating the same atlas over and over again)
- Multiple materials now reuse textures!
Version 3.5
- Added option on the Advanced menu to be able to select which UV channels are going to be modified when baking
- Small changes on GUI to display correctly GUI elements depending on window size.
Version 3.4.1
- Added more info on how to fix the "Malformed UVs" warning.
Version 3.4
- Small performance improvements when reusing textures
- Enhanced reusing textures, now is more accurate and fixes some corner cases
that might give errors.
- All uv channels are now supported.
Version 3.3.3
- Fixes correct font coloring when using the pro skin
Version 3.3.2
- Fixed small bug that caused problems with lightmapped combined objects
Version 3.3.1
- Fixed bug that didnt let you work with reuse textures while not clearing
atlasses before baking
Version 3.3
- Added button field for setting default save folder for generated assets.
- Combine meshes is now possible when baking your objects for extra draw call reduce! (Use with care with camera culling)
- Manually collect garbage when creating a new atlas / clearing atlasses
- Slight UI modifications
Version 3.2
- If material has null textures and only uses color, then the generated UV will point to the middle of the material [0.5f, 0.5f] in order to avoid distortions on the combined mesh
- objects displayed on the objects GUI are now by default all closed, now when a new scene is opened the not optimizable objects will be shown. (thanks to Mike for pointing this out)
- Atlas calculation is now cached! (thanks to Mike for pointing this out)
- Objects are sorted only when the GUI is changed now! (thanks to Mike for pointing this out)
Version 3.1.3
- Fixed small bug created when generating prefabs in windows for good!
Version 3.1.2
- Removed small error when opening the tool.
Version 3.1
- Added support for skinned mesh renderers!
- Added sample scene for skinned mesh renderers.
- fixed small bug that created an error when generating prefabs in windows.
Version 3.0.1
- Added small note to README.txt regarding known issues.
Version 3.0
- Unity5 Standard shader support!. (Remember Unity5 is still in beta so there might be problems; please if found any let me know!)
- Added extra step when clearing atlas, now when clearing atlas you have to double click to clear an already baked atlas
Version 2.4
- Removed "Custom shaders" tab; now the tool calculates automagically the shader info of your custom shaders!, no more manual setup for custom shaders!.
- When "Create prefabs" is selected on the advanced tab, a small message in
the Objects GUI reminds the user the bake process will be slow.
- Small modifications for performance and support of Standard shader for Unity 5. (Still standard shader is not supported)
- "Not Optimizable" shaders now show in red, and the rest of recognized shaders are in black.
- Updated README.txt
- small bugs fix
Version 2.3
- Added OptimizableShader.cs. now workflow is more organized and per shader.
- Removed internal code on GUI and moved it to OptimizableShader->OptimizeShader().
- Refactored code to be easier to support Unity 5's data-driven standard shader!. (Still standard shader is not supported)
- Added "Search Status" instead of "Status:" in the console log for the advanced GUI.
Version 2.2
- Changed BuildTarget.iOS to BuildTarget.iPhone as it changed in Unity 4.5.5 in the atlasser
Version 2.1
- Atlas is now transparent by default preventing render errors on the edges for transparent materials when the atlas isnt fully used. Fix by Mike from M2H studios
- Solved bug where multiple materials objects where parented and scaled where not correctly re-scaled and re-parented on the optimized object.
Version 2.0.1
- Added LOD Automatic script link in README.txt from Mike from M2H studios
Version 2.0
- UI Revamp.
- Added new "Advanced" tab that contains Advanced search and Advanced options.
- Selection can now be filtered by tags or by layers
- Removed Reuse textures, Remove atlassed before bake and Generate prefabs options from Objects and placed it into the Advanced UI.
- Added a console status on the advanced UI that shows the last action done when doing an advanced search.
- Small performance improvements when drawing the UI and more cleaner code base.
- Added descriptions for the advanced options.
- Updated Examples with new baked scenes.
Version 1.9.5
- Small performance improvements
- cleanup some code on the GUI side
- separated different GUIs from the main menu class.
Version 1.9.4
- Performance improvements when processing for platforms like iPhone Android.
- Multiple materials objects texture formats are now supported
- Be able to combine 1 GameObject with multiple materials
Version 1.9.31
- invalid characters in generated prefabs are now corrected and saved to a valid folder name
1.9.3
- Added known issues section on README.txt
- added log error saying that multiple materials and a non compatible texture format is not supported yet.
1.9.2
- Solved crash when object has more than 1 material, has different shaders and the shaders are not recognized
1.9.1
- Solved crash problem when an object with more than 1 material had different shaders.
1.9
- Tool now automagically supports any texture format. (it internally converts the texture to RGBA32, process it and then reimports back the texture to its original state)
- Normal textures are automatically marked as normal maps, if the tool cant figure out it will display a warning message.
- Atlasses automatically get set their closest import texture size i.e atlas size is: 3072, it gets set to 4096.
1.8
- Added checkbox for generating prefabs for baked objects. (Unchecked by default), With this checked it takes _more_ time as it generates the meshes and prefabs for the objects.
--> For each gameobject a prefab gets generated regardless if its repeated or not.
- Changed token for optimized objects from =>ODCObj to .ODCObj so prefab generation gets done correctly when saving prefabs to the project.
- Re built all the examples with the new token (.ODCObj)
- Organized README to show better the tutorial and the contact info.
1.7
- Organized link in README for intro video, now it points correctly.
- Packed Examples folder into a .unityPackage file in order to avoid loading times on the tool, now you just can double click the .unitypackage and it will import the examples
- Atlasses bigger than 4096x4096 now displays a warning that resize will be done by Unity when using it.
1.63
- Fixed crash when baking objects on a not-saved scene.
1.62
- Fixed issue regarding build settings
1.61
- Added namespaces in order to avoid conflicts with other packages in the asset store.
1.6
- Support for tiled materials
1.51
- Minor bug fixes and typos.
1.5
- Added support for multiple materials per mesh.
1.0
- Initial development.

 

Here's a quick video on how to prepare objects for optimization.

Another video on Malformed UVs

And another video on how to "kinda" fix the malformed UVs:

 

I want to use UAGK: Action Game Kit for mobile game

this kit link https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/12359

If I use PRODRAWCALLOPTIMIZER.. Can I get any benefits?

and also I want to use map editor https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/11698

is this useful for terrain which is created by the map editor

 

Hey theDreamer,

Depends on how those packages have assembled their textures, basically how the process works is like this



so if those projects use different textures with similar materials, yes, you will be able to decrease the number of drawcalls, now if the textures are atlassed then no.

So you have to check first after getting them if they are optimizable (as in textures are not atlassed)

 

Sounds awesome, let us know when you put it on the store! We may pick it up. When does the re-mapping into atlasses happen? In the editor or at runtime? Basically wondering if there's any performance hit by using this.

By the way, I heard that textures used in particle systems are not able to be put into atlases, so you basically can't save draw calls by combining textures used by several particle systems into an atlas. Is that true?

 

Hey Jerotas, thanks!

Right now the tool is on review byt he unity guys, so soon ...

The atlas remapping happens in the editor so you will not have performance hit by using this.

Regarding the textures on particle systems, I'm not sure about this, In order for ProDrawcall optimizer be able to create atlasses, the game object has to have a MeshRenderer and a MeshFilter component, if the object dont has it, then the mesh is not optimizable.

This is for the time being.

Hope I have answered your questions

 

How will this compare to Mesh Baker 2?

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/5017

 

Hey Vidjo,

I dindt know Mesh Baker existed, just saw the video, it does the same that mine does, the only notable difference I saw is that mine bakes the scene in just a couple of clicks, with mesh baker you have to specify and create prefabs for the scene and select the objects you want to combine.

long story short the workflow on mesh baker is longer and more complicated compared to ProDrawcall. i.e you cant combine 4 different shaders at the same time with just a couple of clicks .

Each tool has its perks and im not going to lie to you. Mine doesnt support several materials per game object nor tiled textures. But is something that I'm working on.
At the end is competition and is nice imo.

[UPDATE]: Mine now supports several materials per game object and tiled materials.

 

Tool has been published on the Unity Asset Store, you can find it at:
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/54360

 

Thanks. I don't suppose you were working on a free trial version so we could see the benefits on our game before purchasing? Some people put in watermarks or hard code a timed expiration in the free DLL version.

I would gladly buy if I knew it would save X draw calls. Would hate to buy it and find out it's not really doing much of anything on my game though. Any ideas?

 

Indeed I havent, it has been hectic these past days with the release and sorting some stuff in here; I've sent you a private message with a copy so you can check it out . I'm open for feedback .

I'll be working on a light version for now but have to decide how to make it light..

 

Kick ass! Thank you, I will try it tomorrow and report back. I think the easiest thing to make it trial would be just make it spam the Console constantly after 1 month or something (hard coded date). Annoying yes, but it's a free trial version. I don't know how to do the watermark thing.

 

Thanks , I'll be working on a light version, good idea btw

 

Guys!, Free version has been released, you can download it from
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/16888

This version works exactly how the full version works, the thing is that it only supports diffuse and bumped diffuse shaders, so if your game only uses that then you are good to go!

Let me know how it works for you guys . any idea / suggestion more than welcome!

 

Multiple materials per game object is now supported on both light and pro versions since 1.5! .

 

hi when you say Doesn't support tiled materials ..(yet) it's want say it's will be work one day ? but cut mesh

 

Hey Kilik.

I dont understand pretty well the cut mesh thing, but yes it will support tiled materials, I'm working on it right now as I'm posting this reply.

[UPDATE]

From version 1.6 now supports tiled materials!

 

that's very interessing yes see this gif for exemple
http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/texture-atlas-generator

 

Saw it, yes, it generates the textures and automagically remaps the UVs of your meshes to a map.

BUT, if UVS are outside of [0,0 - 1,1] it will create problems. right now as I'm typing here I'm working on tiled materials, but thats another thing I plan to work on; on how to "Organize UVs outside of [0,0 - 1,1]."

[UPDATE]
Now from version 1.6 tiled materials are supported!

 

i got this don't understand
NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
MaterialCombiner.CalculateAproxAtlasSizeForMaterials (UnityEngine.GameObject g, System.String shaderUsed)
OptimizableObject.GetMainTexSizeAndArea ()
OptimizableObject..ctor (UnityEngine.GameObject g)
ProDrawCallOptimizerMenu.FillArrayWithSelectedObjects (UnityEngine.GameObject[] arr)
ProDrawCallOptimizerMenu.ObjectsMenuGUI ()
ProDrawCallOptimizerMenu.OnGUI ()
System.Reflection.MonoMethod.Invoke (System.Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, System.Reflection.Binder binder, System.Object[] parameters, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/monoAndRuntimeClassLibs/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/MonoMethod.cs:222)

 

It seems to be an error on your project, it doesn't say the line of the error, Can you provide me the steps to reproduce that error? I'll check it out immediately.

[UPDATE] Solved!, since version 1.9.1 this bug is solved, it happens when you have an object with multiple materials and one of the materials has a different shader.

 

Does this work for sprites/spritesheets in Unity's 2D workflow?

 

Hey Jellybit, should work if the game objects have mesh renderers and mesh filters, but still try it out first with the light version https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/16888

 

Hello,

I purchased Pro Draw Call Optimizer today during the sale.

As a quick test I tried using it with the free "Decorative Plants Pack" asset available here.

I got kind of an odd result. I think I'm probably doing something wrong. Maybe there's a setting I need to make somewhere.

Here's are before and after screenshots from my test:

Before:


After:


Please take a look and let me know what my mistake was.

 

Unfortunately, I don't have time to test it/figure it out before the sale ends, but Unity's 2D doesn't use a mesh renderer/mesh filter. It instead uses a Sprite Renderer. Thanks for the reply.

 

Hey Jellybit, unfortunately if the game object doesn't have a mesh renderer and a mesh filter it will not work.

I'm working on some bugs that where reported by other users right now as I'm writing this.

Still I encourage a lot testing the light version first in order to be 100% sure that it works depending on your case. That's why there is a link on the description to the light version

[UPDATE]: I've been quickly checking the SpriteRenderer Component and there is a tool (Created by Unity Technologies) called SpritePacker which basically does the same that my tool does but for 2D. The idea of this tool is to reduce draw calls on 3D objects by packing textures of each object in atlases, it doesn't make too much sense to charge money for a feature that unity has already .

 

ACTUALLY... I think its a problem of scale on the generated objects!, can you please increase the scale on the generated objects and see if it indeed is the case?. if its the case, could you please send me a small case where this issue happens I work on a fix for it?

Thanks!

 

Hello,

Really like that approach - keep it simple and straightforward - just some questions:

a) Can I choose different texture atlas sizes for different shaders?
b) Are new texture atlases created automatically, if the textures do not fit all into one atlas?
c) Will the original texture size always be kept or is there an option to reduce the source texture size so that all textures fit in less atlases (oh, I would loose quality for sure).
d) Would there be an option to generate the texture atlas at runtime (e.g. in the beginning of the game and then create texture atlas size/quality depend on the target platform/screen size) ?

Thanks!

 

After playing with it some more it seems to be a problem with the generated Atlas material.

For example, I can change it from a Transparent/Cutout/Bumped Specular to just a Bumped Specular and all the plants become visible again. But obviously, they are missing their transparency and cutout.

What's the best way to send you a demo project?

Can I post it to my OneDrive and email you a link?

Edit: I saw that you'd already provided your email address above. Sorry, don't know how I missed it before. I've now sent you a link to download the project from my OneDrive account.

Thanks for your help.

 

got it, will get back to you soon

 

I think it's definitely worth supporting 2D (if it's not hard to implement) since sprite packing is a Pro-only feature. Many people would like to buy your tool over paying $1500 for a relatively small feature such as that. But I understand it can add complications.

 

Hey Multix, thanks for the kind words, my answers:
a) the atlas gets calculated for you, but at the end is just a texture, so you can resize it on the texture properties.
b) For the time being no, if the textures dont fit in an atlas you will get a red message saying: "Atlas is TOO BIG" (chec attached img on the diffuse shader).
The quickest solution for this is just to do this in 2 steps.
c) Nope, you cant reduce automagically the size of the source textures as they may vary in sizes, and its always better to keep them to the nearest pow of 2. With this said you can at the end reduce the size of the generated atlas. (hope this answers the question).
d) Right now I havent thought about that, for the time being no, this is because merging textures into one atlas is a time consuming process (even if you are multithreading the algorithm) and on top of that you need to "re-map" all your vertices of your meshes. Hence if its an extensive time consuming process on the editor, I cant imagine how would it be running on an iPhone 4 .

The img:

 

Hey Scmosef!, Problem solved! woot!,

Its just a matter of moving the slider a little bit to the left, checkout the img I'm attaching . that brings back all the plants automagically.

 

Hey Jellybit, WOW, indeed thats a really good point! :O. I'll be adding support for that then but it wont be on the short term unfortunately . This is because Sprites have a completely different behavior compared to meshes, so a lot of things have to change (me thinks) internally in the code to support both

 

Thanks jmunozar, I should have caught that.

I've submitted a 5 star review.

 

Thanks Schmosef!

 

Anyone else having a problem updating to the latest version of this asset?

The asset store says that version 1.7 is now available, but when I download and import it, it comes in as version 1.63.

I had trouble updating a different asset and was able to resolve it by clearing the folder where Unity caches the asset downloads. That trick did not work for this asset.

Just wondering if anyone else is having this issue.

 

I'll ask in the asset store mailing list for the publishers if this problem happens for the other users. Anyone else is having his kind of problem?.

In the meantime just mail me I'll send you a link to get the latest version.

 

Thanks, I've sent an email.

 

I am seeing the same behavior as schmosef - version 1.7 does not get installed.

 

Will you support PVRTC textures at some point? Currently I get the following error "Unsupported texture format - needs to be ARGB32, RGBA32, BGRA32, RGB24, Alpha8 or DXT". Having to switch platforms is not optimal.

Could you add an option so that the original objects optimized are deleted from the scene?

 

I like this idea.

 

I second this request!

 

i got it's support multimaterial on same mesh ?

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
MaterialCombiner.CalculateAproxAtlasSizeForMaterials (UnityEngine.GameObject g, System.String shaderUsed)
OptimizableObject.GetMainTexSizeAndArea ()
OptimizableObject..ctor (UnityEngine.GameObject g)
ProDrawCallOptimizerMenu.ObjectsMenuGUI ()
ProDrawCallOptimizerMenu.OnGUI ()
System.Reflection.MonoMethod.Invoke (System.Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, System.Reflection.Binder binder, System.Object[] parameters, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono-runtime-and-classlibs/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/MonoMethod.cs:222)

 

Hey Olivierlr, you should be able to download it now, please try again, if not possible let me know (I've got an email that the update went trough)

 

I will look into this, but I remember that wasnt possible for some reason (cant remember why tho) :/.

The option can be added, yes, but I dont want to add it because if you delete the objects and then clear the assets you end up with nothing! .
Still, if you really want it I can modify the version and create a specific version for you 2 (olivierlr and schmosef) that deletes it. and show you where to add the lines each time an update gets released. just mail me

[UPDATE] It supports now PVRTC texture formats now since version 1.9!

 

will check this right now

 

auch, Do you have a specific small case (scene) that reproduces this error?, mail me to support@pencilsquaregames.com with the repro steps and I'll work on it right away.

[UPDATE] This issue has been solved in version 1.9.1, happens when you have a game object that has several materials and one of the shaders is different within the game object.

 

hey Guys, I've been working on the PVRTC textures and the only way to support them is by changing the texture format to ARGB32 or any of the supported formats, do the atlas processing and setting the textures back to the original format (in your case PVRTC), this is because GetPixels() only works for the supported textures ARGB32, RGBA32, BGRA32, RGB24, Alpha8 or DXT.

So I managed to do that but the problem is that when changing the textures to a readable format depending on the platform and then changing them back to the original format the textures dont look right (even tho they look correct on the inspector). Check the image.

I'm still working on this issue, and hopefully will be able to "support" the other formats seamlessly. Will keep you guys updated.