Gaia pro performance isues

[ReptilesD]

Hello,

 I’m hoping to use Gaia pro for streaming a large world as advertised on the tin. I’m performing some tests in a new project and I’m not getting usable results. After following the tutorials I’ve created a large world to stream in tiles of 1024 (20x20), I’m using all the stock settings and the built in coniferous forest biome on the default desktop setting.
 

Firstly it’s not applied the biome to all the streaming scenes so some are only textured, what’s the deal with that?

 

Secondly, I’m getting 17 fps and 55.1ms average on the cpu. I’m using a 6 core i7 and a gpu  rtx 2080 at 1080p. I’ve not added anything extra just using the stock settings. The world is loading and streaming and I’m using Gaia runtime to test. That cpu usage seems very high and is totally unusable.

 

Am I doing something wrong or is Gaia pro not up to the task?

 

thanks in advance 

[ReptilesD]

Alternatively, are there any recommended settings or an approach recommend for optimum world streaming?

[ReptilesD]

Trying smaller single maps to test. With the biome spawner, when vegetation is spawned cpu is bottlenecking, unless detail setttings are very low then it’s still not usable. Can someone please respond?

[Bryan]

This just depends of your world setup. 
How large is your world? Are you using "Create Terrain Scenes" in the Gaia Manager if you are creating a multi-terrain setup? 
If you are using Gaia Pro 2021 are you using Flora and have flora setup? 
Did you adjust the terrain loading manager for your needs? 
How much ram does your pc have? 

Which platform target did you go with? 
Etc. 

I would also take a look at the optimization guide as well: 
https://canopy.procedural-worlds.com/library/deep-dives/performance/

[ReptilesD]

Thanks Bryan,

 I’ve tried multiple set ups, medium, large, single and multiple terrains all set to desktop performance target. I’ve tried adjusting the flora settings but it isn’t making much difference. Performance is bad in all instances.

I’m using 16gb of ram, unless attempting to load all terrains this usage is not a problem.

 

From what I can tell it’s the number of batches. Using gpui significantly improves the performance, but this isn’t reflected in a lot of the tutorial videos, they show decent performance but when running a similar or same set up it’s not very good. 
 

Anytime I apply the biome to multiple terrains there is always some that do not populate, usually the middle one at least where the runtime setup default spawn position is.

[Bryan]

On 12/24/2022 at 1:06 AM, ReptilesD said:

Thanks Bryan,

 I’ve tried multiple set ups, medium, large, single and multiple terrains all set to desktop performance target. I’ve tried adjusting the flora settings but it isn’t making much difference. Performance is bad in all instances.

I’m using 16gb of ram, unless attempting to load all terrains this usage is not a problem.

 

From what I can tell it’s the number of batches. Using gpui significantly improves the performance, but this isn’t reflected in a lot of the tutorial videos, they show decent performance but when running a similar or same set up it’s not very good. 
 

Anytime I apply the biome to multiple terrains there is always some that do not populate, usually the middle one at least where the runtime setup default spawn position is.

I would turn on the visualization and then move the spawner that way and see if it should be spawning there. 
You also may need to adjust the rules and masks to the spawn if you are changing any textures etc. 

 

[ReptilesD]

The textures spawn but the objects don’t. Never the less, I had to moved to an alternative solution for the objects and vegetation as performance is not good enough using the spawners. Can you direct me to any of your Gaia pro tutorials that show the frame rates and specs of the pc you are using?

[Bryan]

I recommend taking a look at these: 
https://canopy.procedural-worlds.com/library/deep-dives/performance/

[ReptilesD]

Thanks for the recommendation and I am familiar with standard optimisation and profiling, but I’d really like to see some of your videos demonstrating Gaia pro with the frame rates and pc specs on display, can you direct me to one of those please?

 

[Bryan]

I dont believe that we have that in particular. 
You are more than welcome to look at our YouTube though. 
I would recommend clearing your Unity Cache as well. 
This can cause some build up on the memory. 

I would also close anything using the gpu in between tests (this is because unity stores this information) regardless. 

Adjusting the terrain loader as well should help. 
In a 20x20 world scenario I would also say that you may need to use imposters as well. 
Remember to use Mountains and Fog to cover very long distances so you can unload more terrains. 

Creating terrain scenes and Unloading the terrain scenes should help as well. 

Hopefully this helps. 

 

[ReptilesD]

Hmmmmm, not displaying your specs and frame rates is suspicious. Gaia pro is an expensive asset and although the limitations are with unity itself, you’re demonstrating an asset with doesn’t entirely perform as advertised suggesting some possible dishonesty. Although Gaia pro is very good, you’re are misleading your customers with it’s out of the box performance.

 

 

[Peter]

Hi @ReptilesD, as Bryan pointed out we simply do not have the videos you requested. Whether a publisher decides to display FPS counts / specs in their videos is up to the publisher. If you browse the asset store you will find that many publishers choose to not display such values. This does not mean they are suspicious or dishonest.

Regarding the problem at hand:  You mentioned that you already found out that you are bottlenecked on the CPU with 55 ms - So the key question is: What are the top entries in the profiler that contribute to this value?

For comparison, this is a scene with 5x5 terrains @ 512 with Desktop settings:



My hardware isn't exactly a beast:

Gaia Version: 3.3.5 PRO

Unity Info:
Unity Version: 2020.3.0f1
Operating System: Windows 10  (10.0.19044) 64bit
Graphics Card Name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070
Graphics Card Version: Direct3D 11.0 [level 11.1]
Graphics Driver Version: Direct3D11
Graphics Card Memory: 8088 MB

Processor Info:
Processor Name: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-Core Processor 
Processor Core Count: 16
Processor Speed: 3593 GHz

Memory Info:
Memory (RAM): 32688 MB
 

You might see higher CPU load on a larger world with many objects, but I do not think this should scale all the way up to 55 ms. With single terrains you should even see better values since every terrain active in the scene adds a bit of overhead as well. So I think there is some other underlying issue that we need to find.

 

[ReptilesD]

I’ve tried multiple solutions, unity versions and even fresh install of windows. Yes the issue is with the cpu bottleneck, mainly regarding the drawcalls / batches. This can be fixed using gpu instancing or simply switching to better vegetation package. In all instances when using your included spawners on multiple tiles, in fresh projects, it doesn’t populate all tiles only some of them, but it does texture them, it misses one or several in the middle. Secondly, following your tutorials exactly results in unusable cpu bottlenecks. 
 

The point I’m making is that I’m using a relatively decent rig and following your videos doesn’t yield the same results. Not posting your specs or frame rates in the videos seems a little odd when I’m getting these poor frame rates.

 

it may be up to the developer to choose what they post, but why wouldn’t you show that information if the performance is good?

[Peter]

19 hours ago, ReptilesD said:

The point I’m making is that I’m using a relatively decent rig and following your videos doesn’t yield the same results.

Please note that we acknowledge your issue with the product, but please also note that your experience is not the default behavior of Gaia.
If you are getting those CPU bottlenecks on any given terrain , then this sounds more like a bug / issue, not the default performance of Gaia / Unity. You should NOT be seeing 55 ms on the CPU on a single terrain with the Gaia default settings. I do not doubt that you do, but there are a lot of variables involved that could cause this in your project / configuration, while other users will not see the same issue.
If you are still interested in investigating this, please provide us with the

Unity Version
Render Pipeline
World Size / Quality  Settings from the Gaia Manager / World Designer 
and a screenshot of the Profiler showing the "worst offenders" on the CPU

With this information we would try to replicate your issue. Alternatively you can also link us one of the tutorials you followed. I know you tried a lot of different configurations already, but we would need to define one setup as basis for comparison, otherwise it will be difficult to compare the results.
If we can replicate the issue, we can confirm it and have a basis for troubleshooting it then and can potentially solve it for you and other users to come. If we cannot replicate it, we can compare the profiler results to see what is causing the additional overhead on your side and potentially solve it from there.

Regarding the vegetation not spawning on some of the tiles: 
Do you see any error messages in the console when this happens? When you visualize the affected area with one of the spawn rules ("Eyeball" icon on the spawn rules), does the visualizer show this as a valid area for a spawn? When you re-run the spawner across the entire world with the "Spawn World" button, does it populate those terrains then, or are they still skipped?