Overdraw Best Practices
Overdraw is a silent performance killer in VR development. In this workshop, Meta Horizon Start Mentor Sidney breaks down what overdraw is, why it drains GPU resources, and how to fix it in Unity. Learn why relying on Unity’s default settings (like a 1KM draw distance) or the SRP batcher isn’t enough to prevent overdraw. Sidney walks through practical, simple solutions including smart level design, utilizing occlusion culling (especially for indoor scenes), and leveraging the Unity Frame Debugger to catch pixel fill issues early in the greybox phase. The session also covers the specific challenges of overdraw in procedurally generated levels. This session was recorded in March 2026 as part of the Meta Horizon Start program. 🎬 CHAPTERS 00:00 - Welcome & Introduction to Overdraw 00:15 - Speaker Intro: Sidney (Angelsin) 01:14 - Defining Overdraw and the Rendering Pipeline 02:08 - The Performance Impact of Overdraw 02:50 - Unity's Role and Limitations in Handling Overdraw 03:19 - Risks of Mesh Combining and Dynamic Objects 04:03 - Demonstrating Overdraw with Scene and Debug Tools 06:15 - Reducing Overdraw: Adjusting Draw Distance 07:55 - Reducing Overdraw: Occlusion Culling 08:21 - Overdraw Challenges in Procedural Generation 09:10 - Using the Frame Debugger for Optimization 10:10 - Conclusion and Summary of Best Practices 🎮 FEATURED IN THIS SESSION ➡️ Unity Frame Debugger: https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/FrameDebugger.html ➡️ Unity Occlusion Culling: https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/OcclusionCulling.html 📚 RESOURCES ➡️ Meta Horizon Developer Forum: https://communityforums.atmeta.com/category/horizon-developer-forum ➡️ Developers Blog: https://developers.meta.com/resources/blog/ ➡️ Meta Quest Developer Hub: https://developers.meta.com/horizon/documentation/unity/ts-mqdh/ 🔗 CONNECT WITH US Sign up to get the latest news from Meta Horizon: https://developers.meta.com/horizon/newsletter 💡 LEARN ABOUT THE META HORIZON START PROGRAM The Meta Horizon Start program provides intermediate and advanced developers with hands-on support and expert guidance to accelerate app development. Join a thriving community to access the tools and go-to-market resources you need to successfully deploy and grow your app on Meta Horizon OS. Apply to Start today: https://developers.meta.com/horizon/discover/programs/start
Runtime Optimizer Part 2 - GPU Textures and Mixed Reality | Performance Series
In Part 2 of our technical deep dive, Meta software engineers Jay Hsia and Nico Lopez move from high-level profiling into real GPU problem solving for mixed reality on Meta Quest. You’ll see how they use the Runtime Optimizer to study Passthrough projects and large texture collections, then turn that data into shader changes and day-to-day profiling routines that keep performance predictable. 💡After viewing this session, you’ll understand how to: Configure Runtime Optimizer experiments for Passthrough and mixed reality projects. Choose between Texture 2D Array and atlases for large texture sets. Stream high resolution textures in smaller chunks. Move UV work into the vertex shader and add profiler markers. 🎬 CHAPTERS 👋 INTRODUCTION 🕒 00:00 - Welcome & Agenda Overview 🛠️ DEBUGGING & MIXED REALITY 🕒 03:19 - Profiling Passthrough & Mixed Reality 🕒 06:24 - Texture Arrays vs. Texture Atlases 🎨 Shader & Code Optimization 🕒 12:52 - Fixing Texture Fetch Stalls (Vertex Shaders) 🕒 16:52 - Best Practices for Profiler Markers ✅ FINAL THOUGHTS 🕒 20:20 - Recap & Next Steps 📖 OPTIMIZATION EXAMPLES REFERENCED IN THIS VIDEO 🔖 Meta Quest Runtime Optimizer Docs: https://developers.meta.com/horizon/documentation/unity/unity-quest-runtime-optimizer/ 🔖 Unity Profiler Documentation: https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/Profiler.html 📚 RESOURCES ➡️ Developers Blog: https://developers.meta.com/resources/blog/ ➡️ Meta Quest Developer Hub: https://developers.meta.com/horizon/documentation/unity/ts-mqdh/ 🔗 CONNECT WITH US ➡️ Sign up to get the latest news from Meta Horizon: https://developers.meta.com/horizon/newsletter 💡 LEARN ABOUT THE META HORIZON START PROGRAM The Meta Horizon Start program provides intermediate and advanced developers with the resources, hands-on support, and expert guidance needed to accelerate their app development. Join a thriving community to get the tools and go-to-market guidance you need to successfully deploy and grow your app on Meta Horizon OS. Apply to Start today: https://developers.meta.com/horizon/discover/programs/start
