I’m developing a mobile app that is designed to be heavily used outdoors, where access to charging is clearly limited. As such I am bending over backwards to optimize everything as much as possible to ensure maximum possible battery life. I started my project as a new Unity developer, and started with the basic 3D template.
As I learned more and more, I saw videos about how the LWRP is great for mobile devices, as it is much more efficient in rendering/its shaders are less heavy/etc. So giving it a shot I switched over. Had some texture and shader issues, but I got those sorted out.
Now as I’m adding more and more to the app, I’m finding that using the LWRP is becoming a nightmare. Assets I purchased (but could live without) no longer work. A replacement asset I bought works, but by jumping through hoops. I recently purchased a mesh reduction and material combining asset and used it today to build a complex object from multiple smaller objects, intending on reducing the meshes, and combining them and their materials into a much more simple object. Material combining does not work with URP/LWRP and the author has no plans to add that until URP becomes more stable.
There are other features I’d like to add that are becoming more and more difficult to use with the URP restrictions.
Is using the LWRP/URP really worth it on a mobile device as compared to the standard renderer? I know it depends a lot on the actual application. This is not 3D or mesh heavy. Mostly UI menus, with some pokemon-go like GPS mapping with mostly simple polygons, with a few complex objects here and there. Will be a small AR component as well.
If it’s really a night and day difference, I’ll tough it out and make do. The power savings are worth it. But if the difference is minimal, especially in my less-than-graphics-heavy app… URP doesn’t seem to be worth the effort.
Thoughts?