Scriptable Render Pipeline Batcher

The Scriptable Render Pipeline (SRP) Batcher is a draw call optimization that significantly improves performance for applications that use an SRP. The SRP Batcher reduces the CPU time Unity requires to prepare and dispatch draw calls for materials that use the same shader variant.

Requirements and compatibility

This section includes information about the render pipeline compatibility of the SRP Batcher.

Render pipeline compatibility

功能	内置渲染管线	通用渲染管线 (URP)	高清渲染管线 (HDRP)	Custom Scriptable Render Pipeline (SRP)
SRP Batcher	否	是	是	是

GameObject compatibility

In any given scene, some GameObjects are compatible with the SRP Batcher, and some aren’t. Compatible GameObjects use the SRP Batcher code path, and non-compatible GameObjects use the standard SRP code path. For more information, see How the SRP Batcher works.

A GameObject must meet the following requirements to be compatible with the SRP Batcher code path:

• The GameObject must contain either a mesh or a skinned mesh. It can’t be a particle.
• The GameObject mustn’t use MaterialPropertyBlocks.
• The shader that the GameObject uses must be compatible with the SRP Batcher. For more information, see Shader compatibility.

Shader compatibility

All lit and unlit shaders in the High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) and the Universal Render Pipeline (URP) fit this requirement (except for the particle versions of these shaders).

For a custom shader to be compatible with the SRP Batcher it must meet the following requirements:

• The shader must declare all built-in engine properties in a single constant buffer named UnityPerDraw. For example, unity_ObjectToWorld, or unity_SHAr.
• The shader must declare all material properties in a single constant buffer named UnityPerMaterial.

You can check the compatibility status of a shader in the Inspector panel.

How to use the SRP Batcher

This section contains information on how to use the SRP Batcher in Unity’s pre-built Scriptable Render Pipelines.

How to use the SRP Batcher in URP

要在 URP 中激活 SRP Batcher，请执行以下操作：

1. 在 Project 窗口中选择 URP 资源。
2. In the Inspector for the URP asset, enable SRP Batcher. If this option is not visible, follow the instructions below.

Note: If assets or shaders in a project are not optimized for use with the SRP Batcher, low performance devices might be more performant when you disable the SRP Batcher.

How to show Additional Properties for the URP Asset

Unity doesn’t show certain advanced properties in the URP Asset by default. To see all available properties:

• In the URP Asset, in any section, click the vertical ellipsis icon (⋮) and select Show Additional Properties.

Unity shows all available properties in the current section.

To show all additional properties in all sections:

1. Click the vertical ellipsis icon and select Show All Additional Properties. Unity opens the Core Render Pipeline section in the Preferences window.
2. In the property Additional Properties > Visibility, select All Visible.

How to use the SRP Batcher in HDRP

When you use HDRP, Unity enables the SRP Batcher by default. Disabling the SRP Batcher isn’t recommended. However, you can temporarily disable the SRP Batcher for debugging purposes.

To enable and disable the SRP Batcher at build time using the Editor:

1. 在 Project 窗口中选择 HDRP 资源。
2. In the Inspector for the asset, enter Debug mode. In Debug mode, you can see the properties of the HDRP Asset, including the SRP Batcher property.
3. Select Enable SRP Batcher to enable or disable the SRP Batcher.

To enable or disable the SRP Batcher at runtime, toggle the following global variable in your C# code:

GraphicsSettings.useScriptableRenderPipelineBatching = true;

SRP Batcher 的工作原理

The traditional way to optimize draw calls is to reduce the number of them. Instead, the SRP Batcher reduces render-state changes between draw calls. To do this, the SRP Batcher combines a sequence of bind and draw GPU commands. Each sequence of commands is called an SRP batch.

To achieve optimal performance for your rendering, each SRP batch should contain as many bind and draw commands as possible. To achieve this, use as few shader variants as possible. You can still use as many different materials with the same shader as you want.

When Unity detects a new material during the render loop, the CPU collects all properties and binds them to the GPU in constant buffers. The number of GPU buffers depends on how the shader declares its constant buffers.

The SRP Batcher is a low-level render loop that makes material data persist in GPU memory. If the material content doesn’t change, theSRP Batcher doesn’t make any render-state changes. Instead, the SRP Batcher uses a dedicated code path to update the Unity Engine properties in a large GPU buffer, like this:

Here, the CPU only handles the Unity Engine properties, labeled Per Object large buffer in the above diagram. All materials have persistent constant buffers located in GPU memory, which are ready to use. This speeds up rendering because:

• All material content now persists in GPU memory.
• Dedicated code manages a large per-object GPU constant buffer for all per-object properties.

Intentionally removing SRP Batcher compatibility for GameObjects

In some rare cases, you might want to intentionally make particular GameObjects incompatible with the SRP Batcher. For example, if you want to use GPU instancing, which isn’t compatible with the SRP Batcher. If you want to render many identical meshes with the exact same material, GPU instancing can be more efficient than the SRP Batcher. To use GPU instancing, you must either:

• Use Graphics.RenderMeshInstanced.
• Manually remove SRP Batcher compatibility and enable GPU instancing for the material.

There are two ways to remove compatibility with the SRP Batcher from a GameObject:

• Make the shader incompatible.
• Make the renderer incompatible.

Tip: If you use GPU instancing instead of the SRP Batcher, use the Profiler to make sure that GPU instancing is more efficient for your application than the SRP Batcher.

Removing shader compatibility

You can make both hand-written and Shader Graph shaders incompatible with the SRP Batcher. However, for Shader Graph shaders, if you change and recompile the Shader Graph often, it’s simpler to make the renderer incompatible instead.

To make a Unity shader incompatible with the SRP Batcher, you need to make changes to the shader source file:

1. For hand-written shaders, open the shader source file. For Shader Graph shaders, copy the Shader Graph’s compiled shader source code into a new shader source file. Use the new shader source file in your application instead of the Shader Graph.
2. Add a new material property declaration into the shader’s Properties block. Don’t declare the new material property in the UnityPerMaterial constant buffer.

The material property doesn’t need to do anything; just having a material property that doesn’t exist in the UnityPerMaterial constant buffer makes the shader incompatible with the SRP Batcher.

Warning: If you use a Shader Graph, be aware that every time you edit and recompile the Shader Graph, you must repeat this process.

Removing renderer compatibility

You can make individual renderers incompatible with the SRP Batcher. To do this, add a MaterialPropertyBlock to the renderer.

Profiling the SRP Batcher in the Unity Frame Debugger

You can check the status of SRP batches in the Frame Debugger window. Each SRP Batch displays how many draw calls Unity used, which keywords Unity attached to the shader, and the reason why Unity didn’t batch that draw call with the previous one.

要检查 SRP Batcher 批次的状态，请执行以下操作：

1. In the Editor, open the Frame Debugger (menu: Window > Analysis > Frame Debugger).
2. In the Frame Debugger, go to Render Camera > Render Opaques.
3. Expand the RenderLoopNewBatcher. Draw list.
4. Select on the SRP Batch you want to inspect.

In the example below, the reason is: Nodes have different shaders. This means that the shader for that SRP batch is different to the one in the previous SRP batch. Because the SRP Batcher used a different shader, the SRP Batcher created a new batch. If several SRP batches have a low number of draw calls, it often means the project uses too many shader variants.

If you write your own Scriptable Render Pipeline, instead of using either the Universal Render Pipeline or the High Definition Render Pipeline, try to write a generic multi-purpose shader with a minimal number of keywords. This is optimal because you can use as many material properties as you want.