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  • In Unity rendering a frame to the screen

  • occurs in a linear sequence of events.

  • The Frame Debugger is a tool which lets

  • you see all the steps involved

  • in rendering a frame step by step.

  • It allows you to the see intermediate render targets,

  • shadow maps and each draw call

  • that contributes to the frame, in order.

  • The frame debugger is accessed from

  • Window - Frame Debugger.

  • The editor will pause and in the frame debug window

  • a sequential list of each step involved

  • in current frame will displayed.

  • Many of these are draw called.

  • But they also involve other render related events

  • like frame buffer clears,

  • which set the initial colours of the screen,

  • or compute shader invocation.

  • A draw call is a command in which the CPU

  • sends content to be rendered, like meshes,

  • to the GPU to be rendered as pixels for display.

  • At the top of the window are two

  • forward and back buttons

  • along with a slider, which will allow you to step through this list in order.

  • Selecting a single step in the process from the main list

  • will cause that draw call or event,

  • along with the steps prior to it,

  • to be drawn in the game view.

  • If that step is drawing a mesh renderer

  • the game object with that mesh renderer attached

  • will be highlighted in the hierarchy.

  • Viewing a step in the main list allows

  • you to see where in the overall

  • process of drawing the frame it occurs.

  • Related steps are grouped together

  • and their views can be expanded or collapsed.

  • Analysing frames in this way is useful

  • to learn precisely how and in what order

  • Unity is rendering your frame.

  • When setting up a new project we

  • can choose between 4 different render paths.

  • Each render path renders content differently.

  • Choosing which to use is highly

  • dependent on the nature of your project.

  • To choose a render path for your project

  • navigate to Edit - Project Settings - Player

  • and select a rendering path from the drop-down

  • under Other Settings.

  • For more information about the available

  • render paths please see the information linked below.

  • Each render path can use a different

  • number of render targets.

  • A render target is a feature of

  • GPUs that allow a scene

  • to be rendered to an intermediate memory buffer.

  • Using the for Forward rendering path

  • 1 render target is used by default.

  • Here shown as RT0,

  • along with a depth buffer.

  • Using customer shaders it's possible

  • to use more render targets in forward rendering

  • but using the standard shader this is

  • the default behaviour.

  • This project is in differed rendering mode.

  • In differed rendering mode multiple render targets are used.

  • When rendering to multiple targets at once

  • you can select which display using the drop down menu.

  • In this example we can see the diffuse,

  • specular,

  • normals,

  • and emission and indirect lighting buffers

  • in in Unity 5 differed shading mode

  • using the standard shader.

  • You can also see the depth buffer by

  • selecting it from the same drop down.

  • When an event is highlighted

  • information will be displayed about that event

  • in the information panel.

  • In the case of draw calls the information

  • panel also includes buttons which will

  • allow you to isolate and visualise information,

  • including the red,

  • green,

  • blue and alpha channels

  • of the selected render target.

  • You can also adjust the brightness of the

  • display using the levels bracketed slider here.

  • This can be useful in HDR rendering

  • to isolate certain luminance ranges

  • of a frame for analysis.

In Unity rendering a frame to the screen

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