Creating shaders that support GPU instancing

This page contains information on how to add GPU instancing support to a custom Unity shaderA program that runs on the GPU. More info
See in Glossary. It first explains the shader keywords, variables, and functions custom Unity shaders require to support GPU instancing. Then it includes examples of how to add per-instance data to both surface shadersA streamlined way of writing shaders for the Built-in Render Pipeline. More info
See in Glossary and vertex/fragment shaders.

Render pipeline compatibility

Feature	Built-in Render PipelineA series of operations that take the contents of a Scene, and displays them on a screen. Unity lets you choose from pre-built render pipelines, or write your own. More info See in Glossary	Universal Render Pipeline (URP)	High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP)	Custom Scriptable Render Pipeline (SRP)
Custom GPU instanced shaders	Yes	No	No	No

Shader modifications

This section contains information about shader additions that relate to GPU instancing.

Addition	Description
#pragma multi_compile_instancing	Generates instancing variants. This is required for fragment and vertex shadersA program that runs on each vertex of a 3D model when the model is being rendered. More info See in Glossary. It is optional for Surface Shaders.
#pragma instancing_options	Specifies options that Unity uses for instances. For information on the option switches available, see #pragma instancing_options.
UNITY_VERTEX_INPUT_INSTANCE_ID	Defines an instance ID in the vertex shader input/output structure. To use this macro, enable the INSTANCING_ON shader keyword. Otherwise, Unity doesn’t set up the instance ID. To access the instance ID, use vertexInput.instanceID inside an #ifdef INSTANCING_ON block. If you don’t use this block, variants fail to compile.
UNITY_INSTANCING_BUFFER_START(bufferName)	Declares the start of a per-instance constant buffer named bufferName. Use this macro with UNITY_INSTANCING_BUFFER_END to wrap declarations of the properties that you want to be unique to each instance. Declare properties inside the buffer using UNITY_DEFINE_INSTANCED_PROP.
UNITY_INSTANCING_BUFFER_END(bufferName)	Declares the end of a per-instance constant buffer named bufferName. Use this macro with UNITY_INSTANCING_BUFFER_START to wrap declarations of the properties that you want to be unique to each instance. Declare properties inside the buffer using UNITY_DEFINE_INSTANCED_PROP.
UNITY_DEFINE_INSTANCED_PROP(type, propertyName)	Defines a per-instance shader property with the specified type and name. In the examples below, the _Color property is unique.
UNITY_SETUP_INSTANCE_ID(v);	Allows shader functions to access the instance ID. For vertex shaders, this macro is required at the beginning. For fragment shaders, this addition is optional. For an example, see Vertex and fragment shader.
UNITY_TRANSFER_INSTANCE_ID(v, o);	Copies the instance ID from the input structure to the output structure in the vertex shader. Use this macro if you need to access per-instance data in the fragment shader.
UNITY_ACCESS_INSTANCED_PROP(bufferName, propertyName)	Accesses a per-instance shader property in an instancing constant buffer. Unity uses the instance ID to index into the instance data array. bufferName must match the name of the constant buffer that contains the specified property. This macro compiles differently for INSTANCING_ON and non-instancing variants.

When you use multiple per-instance properties, you don’t need to fill all of them in MaterialPropertyBlock objects. Also, if one instance lacks a property, Unity takes the default value from the referenced material. If the material doesn’t have a default value for the property, Unity sets the value to 0. Don’t put non-instanced properties in the MaterialPropertyBlock, because this disables instancing. Instead, create different materials for them.

Instancing_options switches

The [#pragma instancing_options](#pragma-instancing_options) directive can use the following switches:

Switch	Description
forcemaxcount:batchSize and maxcount:batchSize	On most platforms, Unity automatically calculates the instancing data array size. It divides the maximum constant buffer size on the target device with the size of the structure that contains all per-instance properties. Generally, you don’t need to worry about the batch size. However, some platforms require a fixed array size. To specify the batch size for those platforms, use the maxcount option. Other platforms ignore this option. If you want to force a batch size for all platforms, use forcemaxcount. This is useful when, for example, your project uses RenderMeshInstanced to issue draw calls with 256 instanced spritesA 2D graphic objects. If you are used to working in 3D, Sprites are essentially just standard textures but there are special techniques for combining and managing sprite textures for efficiency and convenience during development. More info See in Glossary. The default value for the two options is 500.
assumeuniformscaling	Instructs Unity to assume that all the instances have uniform scalings (the same scale for all X, Y, and Z axes).
nolodfade	Makes Unity not apply GPU instancing to LODThe Level Of Detail (LOD) technique is an optimization that reduces the number of triangles that Unity has to render for a GameObject when its distance from the Camera increases. More info See in Glossary fade values.
nolightprobe	Prevents Unity from applying GPU instancing to Light ProbeLight probes store information about how light passes through space in your scene. A collection of light probes arranged within a given space can improve lighting on moving objects and static LOD scenery within that space. More info See in Glossary values and their occlusion data. Setting this option to ON can improve performance if your project doesn’t contain GameObjectsThe fundamental object in Unity scenes, which can represent characters, props, scenery, cameras, waypoints, and more. A GameObject’s functionality is defined by the Components attached to it. More info See in Glossary that use both GPU instancing and Light Probes.
nolightmap	Prevents Unity from applying GPU instancing to lightmapA pre-rendered texture that contains the effects of light sources on static objects in the scene. Lightmaps are overlaid on top of scene geometry to create the effect of lighting. More info See in Glossary atlas information values. Setting this option to ON can improve performance if your project doesn’t contain GameObjects that use both GPU instancing and lightmaps.
procedural:FunctionName	Generates an additional variant for use with Graphics.RenderMeshIndirect. At the beginning of the vertex shader stage, Unity calls the function specified after the colon. To set up the instance data manually, add per-instance data to this function in the same way you would normally add per-instance data to a shader. Unity also calls this function at the beginning of a fragment shader if any of the fetched instance properties are included in the fragment shader.

Using shader variants with GPU instancing

Unity generates Surface shaders with instancing variants by default, unless you specify noinstancing in the #pragma directive. Unity ignores uses of #pragma multi_compile_instancing in a surface shader.

Unity’s Standard and StandardSpecular shaders have instancing support by default, but with no per-instance properties other than the transform.

If your sceneA Scene contains the environments and menus of your game. Think of each unique Scene file as a unique level. In each Scene, you place your environments, obstacles, and decorations, essentially designing and building your game in pieces. More info
See in Glossary contains no GameObjects with GPU instancing enabled, then Unity strips instancing shader variants. To override the stripping behaviour:

1. Open Project Settings (menu: Edit > Project Settings).
2. Go to Graphics.
3. In the Shader Stripping section, set Instancing Variants to Keep All.

Adding per-instance properties to GPU instancing shaders

By default, Unity GPU instances GameObjects with different Transforms in each instanced draw call. To add more variation to the instances, modify the shader to add per-instance properties such as color. You can do this both in surface shaders and in vertex/fragment shaders.

Custom shaders don’t need per-instance data, but they do require an instance ID because world matrices need one to function correctly. Surface shaders automatically set up an instance ID, but custom vertex and fragment shaders don’t. To set up the ID for custom vertex and fragment shaders, use UNITY_SETUP_INSTANCE_ID at the beginning of the shader. For an example of how to do this, see Vertex and fragment shader.

When you declare an instanced property, Unity gathers all the property values from the MaterialPropertyBlock objects set on GameObjects into a single draw call. For an example of how to use MaterialPropertyBlock objects to set per-instance data at runtime, see Changing per-instance data at runtime.

When adding per-instance data to multi-pass shaders, keep the following in mind:

• If a multi-pass shader has more than two passes, Unity only instances the first pass. This is because Unity renders later passes together for each object, which forces material changes.
• If you use the Forward rendering pathThe technique that a render pipeline uses to render graphics. Choosing a different rendering path affects how lighting and shading are calculated. Some rendering paths are more suited to different platforms and hardware than others. More info
  See in Glossary in the Built-in Render Pipeline, Unity can’t efficiently instance objects that are affected by multiple lights. Unity can only use instancing effectively for the base pass, not for additional passes. For more information about lighting passes, see documentation on Forward Rendering and Pass Tags.

Surface shader example

The following example demonstrates how to create an instanced Surface Shader with different color values for each instance.

Shader "Custom/InstancedColorSurfaceShader"
{
    Properties
    {
        _Color ("Color", Color) = (1,1,1,1)
        _MainTex ("Albedo (RGB)", 2D) = "white" {}
        _Glossiness ("Smoothness", Range(0,1)) = 0.5
        _Metallic ("Metallic", Range(0,1)) = 0.0
    }

    SubShader
    {
        Tags { "RenderType"="Opaque" }
        LOD 200
        CGPROGRAM
        // Uses the physically based standard lighting model with shadows enabled for all light types.
        #pragma surface surf Standard fullforwardshadows
        // Use Shader model 3.0 target
        #pragma target 3.0
        sampler2D _MainTex;
        struct Input
        {
            float2 uv_MainTex;
        };
        half _Glossiness;
        half _Metallic;
        UNITY_INSTANCING_BUFFER_START(Props)
           UNITY_DEFINE_INSTANCED_PROP(fixed4, _Color)
        UNITY_INSTANCING_BUFFER_END(Props)
        void surf (Input IN, inout SurfaceOutputStandard o) {
            fixed4 c = tex2D (_MainTex, IN.uv_MainTex) * UNITY_ACCESS_INSTANCED_PROP(Props, _Color);
            o.Albedo = c.rgb;
            o.Metallic = _Metallic;
            o.Smoothness = _Glossiness;
            o.Alpha = c.a;
        }
        ENDCG
    }
    FallBack "Diffuse"
}

Vertex and fragment shader example

The following example demonstrates how to create an instanced vertex and fragment shader with different color values for each instance. Unlike the surface shader, when you create the vertex and fragment shader you must use UNITY_SETUP_INSTANCE_ID to manually set up an instance ID.

Shader "Custom/SimplestInstancedShader"
{
    Properties
    {
        _Color ("Color", Color) = (1, 1, 1, 1)
    }

    SubShader
    {
        Tags { "RenderType"="Opaque" }
        LOD 100

        Pass
        {
            CGPROGRAM
            #pragma vertex vert
            #pragma fragment frag
            #pragma multi_compile_instancing
            #include "UnityCG.cginc"

            struct appdata
            {
                float4 vertex : POSITION;
                UNITY_VERTEX_INPUT_INSTANCE_ID
            };

            struct v2f
            {
                float4 vertex : SV_POSITION;
                UNITY_VERTEX_INPUT_INSTANCE_ID // use this to access instanced properties in the fragment shader.
            };

            UNITY_INSTANCING_BUFFER_START(Props)
                UNITY_DEFINE_INSTANCED_PROP(float4, _Color)
            UNITY_INSTANCING_BUFFER_END(Props)

            v2f vert(appdata v)
            {
                v2f o;

                UNITY_SETUP_INSTANCE_ID(v);
                UNITY_TRANSFER_INSTANCE_ID(v, o);
                o.vertex = UnityObjectToClipPos(v.vertex);
                return o;
            }

            fixed4 frag(v2f i) : SV_Target
            {
                UNITY_SETUP_INSTANCE_ID(i);
                return UNITY_ACCESS_INSTANCED_PROP(Props, _Color);
            }
            ENDCG
        }
    }
}

Changing per-instance data at runtime example

The following example demonstrates how to use MaterialPropertyBlock objects to set per-instance data for a group of GameObjects at runtime. It sets the _Color property from the above shader examples to a random color.

Important: MaterialPropertyBlocks break SRP Batcher compatibility. For more information, see GPU instancing: Requirements and Compatibility.

using UnityEngine;

public class MaterialPropertyBlockExample : MonoBehaviour
{
    public GameObject[] objects;

    void Start()
    {
        MaterialPropertyBlock props = new MaterialPropertyBlock();
        MeshRenderer renderer;

        foreach (GameObject obj in objects)
        {
            float r = Random.Range(0.0f, 1.0f);
            float g = Random.Range(0.0f, 1.0f);
            float b = Random.Range(0.0f, 1.0f);
            props.SetColor("_Color", new Color(r, g, b));

            renderer = obj.GetComponent<MeshRenderer>();
            renderer.SetPropertyBlock(props);
        }
    }
}