Enable GPU instancing

Unity uses GPU instancing for GameObjectsThe fundamental object in Unity scenes, which can represent characters, props, scenery, cameras, waypoints, and more. A GameObject’s functionality is defined by the Components attached to it. More info
See in Glossary that share the same meshThe main graphics primitive of Unity. Meshes make up a large part of your 3D worlds. Unity supports triangulated or Quadrangulated polygon meshes. Nurbs, Nurms, Subdiv surfaces must be converted to polygons. More info
See in Glossary and material. To instance a mesh and material:

• The material’s shaderA program that runs on the GPU. More info
  See in Glossary must support GPU instancing. Unity’s Standard Shader supports GPU instancing, as do all surface shadersA streamlined way of writing shaders for the Built-in Render Pipeline. More info
  See in Glossary. To add GPU instancing support to any other shader, see Creating shaders that support GPU instancing.
• The mesh must come from one of the following sources, grouped by behavior:
  • A MeshRenderer component or a Graphics.RenderMesh call.
    Behavior: Unity adds these meshes to a list and then checks to see which meshes it can instance.
    Unity does not support GPU instancing for SkinnedMeshRenderers or MeshRenderer components attached to GameObjects that are SRP Batcher compatible. For more information, see SRP Batcher compatibility.
  • A Graphics.RenderMeshInstanced or Graphics.RenderMeshIndirect call. These methods render the same mesh multiple times using the same shader. Each call to these methods issues a separate draw call. Unity does not merge these draw calls.

To use GPU instancing for a material, select the Enable GPU Instancing option in the InspectorA Unity window that displays information about the currently selected GameObject, asset or project settings, allowing you to inspect and edit the values. More info
See in Glossary.

To enable Light ProbeLight probes store information about how light passes through space in your scene. A collection of light probes arranged within a given space can improve lighting on moving objects and static LOD scenery within that space. More info
See in Glossary rendering for Graphics.RenderMeshInstanced, provide a MaterialPropertyBlock that includes the Probe data. For more information and code examples, see LightProbes.CalculateInterpolatedLightAndOcclusionProbes.

Alternatively, if your project uses the Built-In Render PipelineA series of operations that take the contents of a Scene, and displays them on a screen. Unity lets you choose from pre-built render pipelines, or write your own. More info
See in Glossary, you can pass an LPPV component reference and LightProbeUsage.UseProxyVolume to Graphics.RenderMeshInstanced. When you do this, all instances sample the volume for the L0 and L1 bands of the Light Probe data. If you want to supplement L2 data and occlusion data, use a MaterialPropertyBlock. For more information, see Light Probes: Technical Information.

Additional resources

• Make materials incompatible with the SRP Batcher in URP
• Creating custom shaders that support GPU instancing in the Built-In Render Pipeline