Performance & optimization
Frame rate, memory and load times decide whether a game ships. These guides cover profiling, garbage collection, batching, draw calls, LODs, object pooling and mobile limits. The first lesson is always the same: measure before you optimise. 106 hand-picked Unity guides, tutorials, videos and repos, kept current.
- How Moonlight Kids built time-loop metroidbrainia Echo Weaver in Unity 6
Chunk streaming, loop-reset architecture and 2D optimization tips from a time-loop Unity 6 game.
unity.com · Oct 2026 - High Performance Unity Game Development: using data-oriented design (Manning)
The book behind the data-oriented design approach: structure a Unity game around arrays of data and pure logic for high frame rates on limited hardware.
manning.com · ~Oct 2026 - Scaling Scritchy Scratchy Across Platforms
Porting a game across PC, mobile and Switch while keeping performance and tactile gameplay.
unity.com · Sep 2026 - Optimizing Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor for Mobile
Mobile port techniques: flow field navigation, KD-tree queries, GPU-driven rendering, Burst jobs and Addressables.
unity.com · Sep 2026 - The One Line That Keeps Assets Out of Your Build
Resources.Load = in build. Using Unity's new Content Directories you can lower build size, improve load speed, and lower memory usage!
youtube.com · Sep 2026 - Stop Using Resources.Load()... Do THIS Instead
Unity Content Directories (new in Unity 6.6) are a MUCH MORE optimized way to approach loading dynamic content at runtime!
youtube.com · Sep 2026 - Using the NEW Unity Content Directory | Unity Tutorial
Unity Content Directory is a powerful new tool in Unity 6.6 to help us optimize how we load assets at runtime. This is a first look at using it to replace using Resources.Load to optimize build size a
youtube.com · Sep 2026 - Unity CoreCLR is here, BUT there is an issue...
⌚ Time stamps for key topics ⌚
youtube.com · Sep 2026 - Deploying and Optimizing UG for Meta Quest
Scalable networking, rapid deployment workflows and VR performance tuning for Meta Quest.
unity.com · Jul 2026 - Data-oriented design: a Claude skill based on Nitzan Wilnai's book
A language-agnostic skill that applies the book's data/logic/memory rules to your own game code.
github.com · Jul 2026 - Fix Physics Performance In Large Unity Scenes
Fixes physics performance problems in large Unity scenes.
youtube.com · Jun 2026 - How to Build Realistic AI Perception and Memory in Unity
Building a clean implementation of the Target Tracks Perception System from Game AI Pro. Instead of giving AI agents perfect information, we create a system where they can only perceive what they see
youtube.com · Jun 2026 - Building Westeros For Mobile in Game of Thrones: Dragonfire
Optimizing a mobile RPG with scalable multiplayer, faster load times and Unity tools.
unity.com · Jun 2026 - Optimizing Battery Life in Monster Walk
Techniques for optimizing battery life in a step-counting mobile game.
unity.com · Jun 2026 - Your PSO cache is only as good as your playthrough
Explains how Unity 6.5's GraphicsStateCollection cache-miss collection reduces shader compile stutter on DX12, Vulkan and Metal.
thegamedev.guru · Jun 2026 - Optimizing Godforge: 200+ heroes, million-polygon worlds
Cutting memory from 4 GB to 1.3 GB and raising frame rate 57 percent.
unity.com · May 2026 - How Wishfully Shipped Planet of Lana II Simultaneously Across Platforms
Shipping a game across all platforms simultaneously via unified pipeline, early optimization and scalable tooling.
unity.com · May 2026 - How Rockstar fit an entire city into PlayStation 2 memory
How GTA on PS2 streamed a whole city through tiny memory using chunking and asset tricks.
youtube.com · May 2026 - Unity shader preloading: good move, wrong timing
Argues that preloading shaders at the wrong time hurts performance, from a performance consulting case.
thegamedev.guru · Apr 2026 - Rendering at 500 km/h in Gear.Club Unlimited 3
Rendering tech behind a racing game: GPU-driven architecture, ray tracing and 60 fps at high speed.
unity.com · Mar 2026 - How Toca Boca Built a High-performance Scalable Rendering Backend
Custom Batch Renderer used to render many avatars efficiently and at scale.
unity.com · Mar 2026 - Unity Launch Performance Risk Scorecard
Scorecard to check how exposed a Unity build is to performance spikes before a milestone.
thegamedev.guru · Mar 2026 - Ghost Textures: The Hidden Cause of Unexplained Memory
Stale texture references inside .mat files silently drag unintended asset bundles into memory at runtime. Learn how to detect and eliminate ghost textures with a simple editor tool.
bartouv.github.io · Mar 2026 - Unity 6.2 -> 6.3 Upgrade: 5 Reasons Your Frame Time (and Build Times) Might Finally Chill
Lists reasons upgrading from Unity 6.2 to 6.3 may improve frame time and build times.
thegamedev.guru · Feb 2026 - Unity 6.2 vs 6.1: Worth the Upgrade?
Reviews Unity 6.2's performance improvements against 6.1 to decide if upgrading is worthwhile.
thegamedev.guru · Feb 2026 - Unity Performance Expertise
Performance-focused Unity site with guides and tutorials by The Gamedev Guru.
thegamedev.guru · Feb 2026 - Unity Draw Call Batching: The Ultimate Guide (2026 Update)
Guide to cutting Unity draw calls and SetPass calls with batching, material sharing and static batching.
thegamedev.guru · Feb 2026 - Unity Performance Testing Framework: Code Benchmarking
Uses the Unity Performance Testing Framework to benchmark code and measure performance changes.
youtube.com · Nov 2025 - Bringing My Talking Tom Friends 2 to Life with Animation and Physics
Optimizing across devices, building a scalable animation system and managing content complexity in a mobile pet game.
unity.com · Nov 2025 - Everyone's Wrong About For vs Foreach - I Ran The Benchmarks
Benchmarks for versus foreach loops in C# and Unity to see which is actually faster.
youtube.com · Nov 2025 - Benchmark Any C# Code Like a Pro
Shows how to benchmark C# code reliably, avoiding common measurement mistakes.
youtube.com · Nov 2025 - Unity Game Optimization: Profile, Find Bottlenecks & Fix Performance
Teaches profiling a Unity game, finding bottlenecks and applying optimization fixes.
youtube.com · Oct 2025 - GPU Reality Check - Radeon GPU Profiler for Unity Pipelines
Uses Radeon GPU Profiler to tell CPU-bound from GPU-bound work and inspect pipeline state changes in Unity.
thegamedev.guru · Oct 2025 - Player‑Side Smoothness in Unity: CapFrameX + PresentMon Percentiles & Overlays
Measures player-side smoothness in Unity using CapFrameX and PresentMon percentiles and overlays.
thegamedev.guru · Oct 2025 - Superluminal for Unity , Fast Hot‑Path Hunting with Filters & Histograms
Uses Superluminal's filters and histograms to find hot paths in Unity scripts.
thegamedev.guru · Oct 2025 - Sampling vs Instrumentation in Unity , Field Ops with Very Sleepy
Compares sampling and instrumentation profilers and uses Very Sleepy to find hot paths in builds.
thegamedev.guru · Oct 2025 - Refining & Adapting Train Valley 2 for Mobile Gaming
Reducing build size and adapting controls when bringing a PC game to mobile.
unity.com · Oct 2025 - Solving Technical and Performance issues in Laser Matrix
Technical and performance challenges of building a VR game for Meta Quest and Android XR.
unity.com · Sep 2025 - The Hidden Performance Killer: RectMask2D
RectMask2D can silently destroy your UI performance. Discover why this seemingly innocent component causes massive overhead and what to do about it.
bartouv.github.io · Sep 2025 - Graphics and rendering tips from Survival Kids
Stylized paint-style shadows, Adaptive Probe Volumes and ambient occlusion tips from Survival Kids' graphics work.
unity.com · Aug 2025 - Optimizing Controls, Memory, and Build Size for Greak: Memories of Azur’s Android Port
Android port lessons: reworking controls, memory use and build size.
unity.com · Jul 2025 - How to Use Profiling Tools in Unity 6 Efficiently
Step-by-step guidance for profiling a Unity 6 game, managing memory and trimming power consumption.
unity.com · Jul 2025 - Ultimate Guide to Profiling Unity 6 Games
Unity 6 profiling toolset guide: Profiler, memory analysis and finding bottlenecks across platforms.
unity.com · Jul 2025 - Unity 6.2 Beta Release Announcement & Features
Unity 6.2 beta features focused on stability and performance, plus the new data framework.
unity.com · Jun 2025 - Optimizing Performance for Thrive: Heavy Lies the Crown
Custom vegetation system built to optimize performance in a lush open game.
unity.com · Jun 2025 - Mobile Recap: New Tools for Performance in Unity 6.1
New Unity 6.1 tools for improving mobile performance, with what each one helps you fix.
unity.com · May 2025 - Intro to the DOTS Features & Samples in Unity 6
Introduction to Unity 6 DOTS features, performance benefits, samples and learning resources.
unity.com · May 2025 - Comparing 3 Runtime Asset Loading Options
Comparison of AssetBundles, glTF and 3DDS for loading assets at runtime, with trade-offs.
unity.com · May 2025 - Create Scalable & Performant UI for Games in Unity 6
Building scalable, performant multiplatform UI with UI Toolkit in Unity 6, for programmers and artists.
unity.com · Apr 2025 - DirectX 12 Improvements in Unity 6
Functionality and performance improvements to the DirectX 12 graphics backend in Unity 6.
unity.com · Apr 2025 - 5 key learnings from the V Rising Playstation®5 port
Porting a game to PlayStation 5 by reoptimizing code and assets and adopting console features.
unity.com · Feb 2025 - Profiling the Unity Beast: Sampling vs Instrumentation
Compares sampling and instrumentation profiling to diagnose lag in Unity games.
thegamedev.guru · Jan 2025 - Can you spare some cache? Live data-oriented design benchmarks
Self-contained HTML benchmark pages from his talk, showing how memory layout changes performance.
nitzanwilnai.github.io · ~Jan 2025 - Hierarchical AI state system from Bad North (thread)
Thread on Bad North's nested state hierarchy AI, its cache-miss costs and a source-generated alternative.
bsky.app · Nov 2024 - Optimize performance for mobile, XR & web games (Unity 6 edition)
Unity 6 performance tips for mobile, XR and web games.
unity.com · Oct 2024 - Optimize your game performance for consoles and PCs in Unity (Unity 6 edition)
Unity 6 performance optimization tips for console and PC games.
unity.com · Oct 2024 - Budget-Friendly Serialization & Deserialization
Compares serialization and deserialization options in Unity and their performance costs.
thegamedev.guru · Oct 2024 - Achieve Faster CPU Rendering with Render Modes & Graphics Jobs
Explains render modes and graphics jobs for faster CPU rendering in Unity.
thegamedev.guru · Jul 2024 - Introduction to the Data-Oriented Technology Stack
Evaluating whether DOTS suits your project: concepts of Unity's Data-Oriented Technology Stack.
unity.com · May 2024 - Unity Shader Variants Optimization & Troubleshooting Tips
Why shader variants explode, and practical ways to cut them for faster builds and lower memory.
unity.com · May 2024 - Unity Asset Bundles tips and pitfalls
Lesser-known Asset Bundle behavior affecting runtime performance, memory use and compatibility, with pitfalls to avoid.
unity.com · Apr 2024 - Hex Map 3.4: Cell Struct
Hex Map 3.4 update replacing the cell class with a struct.
catlikecoding.com · Apr 2024 - Top Tools We Certainly Do Not Want to Live Without
Lists the tools a performance consulting practice uses daily for Unity games.
thegamedev.guru · Mar 2024 - Hex Map 3.2: Separating Search Data
Hex Map 3.2 update separating search data.
catlikecoding.com · Feb 2024 - Data-oriented design roundtable: Your questions, answered
Unity engineers and studios answer practical questions and share hard-won tips on data-oriented design in production.
unity.com · Feb 2024 - Learn How to Enhance Your Unity App's Performance With Memory Profiler
Presentation from Unity on using the Memory Profiler to find and fix memory-related performance problems.
80.lv · Feb 2024 - SRP Batcher: Does it "Truly Suck"?
Examines whether the SRP Batcher really helps performance in Unity.
thegamedev.guru · Dec 2023 - Prewarming Your Lazy Shaders to Avoid Store-Rejecting Hiccups
Explains shader prewarming to avoid hiccups at first use that can cause store rejections.
thegamedev.guru · Dec 2023 - Hex Map 3.0: No More Cell GOs
Hex Map 3.0 update removing cell game objects.
catlikecoding.com · Nov 2023 - High Performance Collections in Unity C#
Shows how to use Unity's official object pool API in Unity 2021 for high-performance collections.
thegamedev.guru · Jul 2023 - Static Batching May Not Reduce Your Draw Calls
Explains that static batching may not reduce draw call count but still has benefits.
thegamedev.guru · May 2023 - Basic Quad/Octree Culling 2
Patreon post on basic quadtree and octree culling, part 2.
patreon.com · Mar 2023 - Optimizing Draw Calls
Understanding batching, static meshes, and SRP batcher. Practical techniques to reduce draw calls and improve rendering performance in production.
bartouv.github.io · Feb 2023 - Static Batching in Unity Like You Never Saw
Explains how static batching actually works in Unity and its hidden costs.
thegamedev.guru · Jan 2023 - Early vs. Late Z-Kill (+ Hiring AI Dev)
Explains why late Z-kill is costly for the GPU compared to early Z-kill.
thegamedev.guru · Dec 2022 - Is GPU Overdraw Worse in 2D Games?
Discusses whether GPU overdraw is worse in 2D games, from a reader question.
thegamedev.guru · Aug 2022 - Unity UI performance optimization tips
Unity guide with tips for optimizing UI performance.
unity.com · ~Aug 2021 - Smooth Scene Streaming with Unity3D
Interview on designing smooth scene streaming in Unity for a large game.
80.lv · ~Aug 2021 - Introduction to The P3 Optimization Framework
Introduces a structured framework for finding and fixing Unity performance problems to raise frame rate.
thegamedev.guru · May 2021 - Game Programming: Time Slicing | Ming-Lun "Allen" Chou | 周明倫
Game programming tutorial on time slicing to spread work across frames.
allenchou.net · May 2021 - Game Programming: Delayed Result Gathering | Ming-Lun "Allen" Chou | 周明倫
Game programming tutorial on gathering delayed results of asynchronous work.
allenchou.net · May 2021 - Optimize performance of 2D games with Unity Tilemap
Unity guide to optimizing 2D game performance with Tilemap.
unity.com · ~Aug 2020 - The Game Performance Pillars: The Start of a Journey
Introduces a blog's game performance pillars and upcoming content on Unity optimization.
thegamedev.guru · Apr 2020 - Unity Overdraw: Improving the GPU Performance of Your Game
Explains overdraw as a major mobile GPU bottleneck in Unity and how to reduce it.
thegamedev.guru · Mar 2020 - Unity Performance: CPU Slicing Secrets
Explains CPU time slicing techniques to spread expensive work across frames in Unity.
thegamedev.guru · Feb 2020 - Zero allocation code in C# and Unity - Seba's Lab
Article on writing zero-allocation C# code in Unity to avoid garbage collection.
sebaslab.com · Dec 2019 - Memory Management in Unity - Unity Learn
Unity Learn guide to memory management in Unity.
learn.unity.com · ~Jul 2019 - Shader Showcase Saturday #7: Billboard Impostors
Uses billboard impostors to reduce polygon counts in Unity.
alanzucconi.com · Aug 2018 - Object Management: Reusing Objects
Object management tutorial on reusing objects via pooling.
catlikecoding.com · Jun 2018 - Timeslicing Batched Algorithms in Games
Spreads batched algorithms across multiple frames with timeslicing.
allenchou.net · Mar 2017 - Safe Scope-Based Instrumented Profiler
Builds a safe, scope-based instrumented profiler.
allenchou.net · Oct 2014 - Grid pathfinding optimizations
Faster pathfinding on grids: jump points, hierarchical maps and other speed-ups, with their trade-offs.
redblobgames.com · Mar 2014 - Game Math: Faster Re-Normalization of Unit Vectors.
Faster re-normalization of unit vectors.
allenchou.net · Feb 2014 - Game Math: Faster Sine & Cosine with Polynomial Curves
Faster sine and cosine using polynomial curves.
allenchou.net · Feb 2014 - Game Math: Approximation with Polynomial Curves
Approximating functions with polynomial curves.
allenchou.net · Feb 2014 - 0 to 60 FPS in 14 Days: Optimizing a Unity3D Game
Lessons learned from optimizing a game with Unity3D to reach 60 fps.
gamasutra.com · Aug 2013 - Intrusively Linked Lists with Safe Link Destruction
Intrusive linked lists with safe link destruction.
allenchou.net · Jul 2013 - Lego – Studs
Explains how Lego games render the studs on bricks efficiently and convincingly.
simonschreibt.de · Jun 2013 - Memory Management part 3 of 3: STL-Compatible Allocators
Memory management part three: STL-compatible allocators.
allenchou.net · May 2013 - Memory Management part 2 of 3: C-Style Interface
Memory management part two: a C-style interface for the allocator.
allenchou.net · May 2013 - Memory Management part 1 of 3: The Allocator
Memory management part one: building an allocator.
allenchou.net · May 2013 - Battlefield Bad Company 2 – Smoke Column
Explains how Battlefield Bad Company 2 renders huge distant smoke columns cheaply.
simonschreibt.de · Feb 2013 - Assassins Creed 3 – LoD Blending
Shows how Assassin's Creed 3 blends between level-of-detail models to hide pops.
simonschreibt.de · Jan 2013 - Diagnosing Performance Issues in Unity
Walks through diagnosing performance problems in Unity projects.
medium.com - Performance Best Practices in C#
Performance best practices for writing C# code.
medium.com - Arm & Unity Presents: 3D Art Optimization for Mobile Applications
Arm and Unity course on optimizing 3D art for mobile applications.
learn.unity.com