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how to keep FPS up while looking at holograms

SashaFCSashaFC ✭
in Questions And Answers

Hi, I'm noticing that when I look at my game scene with all of the holograms, my FPS goes down to around 30 but when I look away it goes back up to the 59/60 range.

What can I do to keep the FPS at 60 while looking at the holograms? I took out expensive shaders and already optimized the quality settings in Unity.

Thanks,
Sasha

Answers

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    ahillierahillier mod
    edited September 2016

    Hi @SashaFC,
    On the HoloLens, fillrate represents the greatest danger to performance. Since the HoloLens has to render everything twice (once per lens), it's a good practice to keep the number of holograms in view to a minimum. Make sure that you're not trying to render every single pixel on the screen. If the user gets too close to a hologram (where it starts to fill the screen), then fade it out before this can happen. Post-camera effects (a lot of the 'standard assets' in Unity) will also tank the system, so avoid this.

    If you're not filling the screen, then you might need to simplify your 3D models. There are some 3rd party tools available to help, including MeshLab and Simplygon that other people on these forums have used with success.

    Shaders might still be an issue, as not all are optimized for mobile or the HoloLens. Avoid materials with normal maps. Stick to specular/diffuse materials, if possible.

    If you're using Spatial Sound, then try to keep your emitters to eight or less. Humans can't really distinguish between four different sounds simultaneously, so eight emitters should be more than enough. If a sound does not need to be spatialized, then don't do it.

    Here are some good articles that might help you identify performance issues in your application:
    https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/holographic/performance_recommendations_for_unity
    https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/holographic/performance_recommendations

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    SashaFCSashaFC ✭

    Hi,

    Thank you for your response. I'm having trouble connecting into the windows device portal to debug this issue futher. It's asking me to log in, but I never created log in info so I'm locked out of the portal...

    I'm worried that the fill rate- this is how many holograms are in view, correct?- is the biggest issue right now. I've made a tabletop sized 3D game with several moving 3D holograms. How many would you say is too many? Is there any other way I can check my fill rate other than using the device portal? Is there anything else I can do to optimize? I have made all the changes in the first article you sent already (unity settings) and I have been careful to optimize all of my shaders.

    Thanks,

    Sasha

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    SashaFCSashaFC ✭

    also how can I make sure that I'm not trying to render every single pixel on the screen? Is there a setting I can change or is that just a result of having many holograms in view?

    thank you

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    SashaFCSashaFC ✭

    Also how do recommend achieving the fade out when getting close to the holograms? Applying some sort of shader to blend out the alpha? Thanks

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    CurvSurfCurvSurf ✭✭

    @SashaFC

    How many holograms, time, pixel, FPS, field of view, ...
    They are about or have to do with hardware performance being enhanced 10 times every 3~4 years for next 10 years at least.

    Much crucial things to HoloLens and comparable devices are about software and applications.

    businessinsider.com/nadella-hints-hololens-is-5-years-away-2015-9

    https://mspoweruser.com/satya-nadella-hololens-is-the-main-reason-of-minecraft-acquisition/

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    ahillierahillier mod
    edited September 2016

    Hi @SashaFC,
    See here for a basic description of fillrate. As the article mentions, it can be affected by shaders and scene complexity. It can also be impacted by how close the user is to the hologram (if the user has gotten so close to the hologram that it fills the entire FOV, they are too close!).

    The HoloToolkit provides a script called 'Near Plane Fade', when combined with a shader that supports this property (almost all of the HoloToolkit shaders do, or you can add support for this property in your own shaders by using them as examples), the object will begin to fade when the user approaches the 'Fade Distance Start' position and completely black out when the user reaches the 'Fade Distance End' position. By dimming your holograms, you can encourage users to back away from your game board, and not fill the entire FOV.

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    DanglingNeuronDanglingNeuron ✭✭✭

    @SashaFC I have the same issue with my game. What pixel/fill rate means for hololens is that you are rendering (even if its just one object) the whole screen / FOV. I do that in my released game #HoloTankz where I have a Gameboard around 3foot x 3foot - this fills the FOV of the Hololens. So it means when I am at a comfortable distance from my game board, i can see teh whole gameboard but it also fills almost all pixels.

    One way to avoid this would be to not render a game board at all. You might have noticed how Fragments / Young Conker dont fill all pixels.

    Healthcare IT professional by day - Indie GameDev for UWP and mobile platforms by night

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    SashaFCSashaFC ✭

    @DanglingNeuron @ahillier thank you for your suggestions. I am trying a lot of things and still struggling to get the fps up- which I am hoping will stabilize my holograms when I succeed. right now they move and stutter a lot when I move even a few feet while looking at them.

    I was able to connect to the windows device portal and I noticed that the installed memory is at 1.5 out of 2GB even when I don't have any apps running. Then when I start my app it jumps up to 2GB, the limit.

    is this normal? is there anything I can do about this? Thanks

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