What are the best ways to test rendering techniques in Unity?

[Pendo826]

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Hey guys, im doing a final year project and its a research project. My topic is forward rendering vs deferred rendering in Unity. I know which one is better in my opinion but i have to have factual tests done to show my work. Does anyone know of ways to test these techniques against each other.

Thanks for the help in advance guys.

[carking1996]

Lighting

[thxfoo]

@Pendo826

I know which one is better in my opinion but i have to have factual tests done to show my work.

If you want to say deferred wins, then you are wrong. The next generations of renderers will be Forward+ ( != Forward you have in Unity). If you don’t get that then you have some homework to do (hint: 4k).

And if this is a programming class you should probably look at something like Ogre3D, where you have full access to the source code and can play with everything.

[Pendo826]

How did you come to this conclusion? Its actually for a research paper and im looking into testing the two techniques against each other. Like for example using CPU Usage to differentiate the differences using both techniques…

[thxfoo]

@Pendo826

How did you come to this conclusion? Its actually for a research paper and im looking into testing the two techniques against each other. Like for example using CPU Usage to differentiate the differences using both techniques…

Note: this is not far future. There are already renderers that do Forward+. Or assume a later Oculus has 4k, that means 90fps times 2 in 4k. Calculate GPU bandwidth that would require in DS vs Forward+. You will see why DS has no future.
Is it a programming class? Then I would expect that you can differentiate what is caused by the implementation and what is inherent to the method. If this is the case you should look at a renderer where you have source code access (e.g. Ogre3d, easy to understand if you have a graphics programmer background).

To repost 2 other posts of myself:

@Wacky Moose

I really have to ask why deferred rendring is dead with 4k ?? wouldnt it be forward rendering that is dead ? just curious

To quote dark_sylinc, one of the geniuses behind Ogre3D:

Deferred Shading is a dead end by now, but it’s still very much alive because you’re seeing the culmination of many engines’ work. DS is a dead end because of its extreme bandwidth requirement (no GPU in the market can push a 4k resolution using DS)
I’m working on Forward+ 2.5 solutions that eliminate the need of a Z-prepass. Although it has a few tradeoffs compared to DS (i.e. probably slightly slower at regular resolutions), it solves the bandwidth problem, the antialising problem, and the transparency problem.

http://www.ogre3d.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&p=505215#p505090
The future is Forward+.
http://www.ogre3d.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&p=505215#p505215

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@Wacky Moose

Ahh so its a performance issue i see thanks

Yes and No. As I understand it (so grain of salt applies), DS is basically an ugly hack to have depth, normals and everything in the pixel shader to evaluate lighting there to support unlimited number of lights.

But why do it backwards in a hacky manner? With modern graphics cards you can do the same thing in forward rendering too (called Forward+). With much better bandwidth costs and other advantages. So Forward+ would be the future even if the graphics cards could handle the DS 4k bandwidth requirements.

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[JohnnyA]

I like that you go in to a research project with an already clearly formed opinion of the result

As to your question like any research project you need to have a framework for measuring your results. You will need to do some research in the field to determine what the standard/accepted metrics are, I expect there are both qualitative and quantitative measures. Reviewing the literature is a major piece of any research project and although it can’t hurt to ask here its unlikely you will get the depth of answer that you will need.

[Arowx]

So will or does Unity 5 have a Forward+ rendering pipeline for these 4k+ displays?

More info on the topic here Antialiasing in Unity 5 - Unity Engine - Unity Discussions