Caching components

Unity Engine
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1

I’ve been trying to optimize my iOS game as much as possible.

I’ve gotten into the habit of always caching transforms so that I’m never calling “.transform” or “transform.[whatever]” in an Update function. Instead, I assign the transform to a variable in the script’s Awake or Start functions and just call that variable in the Update functions.

Should I be doing the same for other components? Like…rigidbody, or animation? Or is transform the only one that can slow things down?

And what kind of speed increase should I even expect while doing this? I haven’t been able to really quantify how fast caching the transform component is. Does it really make a big difference?

2

Yes, the issue is GetComponent, not Transform.

Depends on how often you’re accessing the component. If it’s several times per frame, then it makes a difference, otherwise not so much.

–Eric

3

GetComponent can be cached as well so you shouldn’t have much of a problem caching what you need - anything where you’d normally use getcomponent or transform (which is a component I suppose).

4

transform.whatever is short for GetComponent(Transform).whatever.

–Eric