Enable the GPU Resident Drawer in URP

The GPU Resident Drawer automatically uses the BatchRendererGroup API to draw 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 with GPU instancing, which reduces the number of draw calls and frees CPU processing time. For more information, refer to How BatchRendererGroup works.

The GPU Resident Drawer works only with the following:

• A 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 Asset containing only Renderers using the Forward+ or Deferred+ rendering pathsThe 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.
• Graphics APIs and platforms that support compute shadersA program that runs on the GPU. More info
  See in Glossary, except OpenGL ES and VisionOS.
• Realtime Global Illumination with Enlighten disabled.
• GameObjects that have a Mesh Renderer component which:
• Does not use the Use Proxy Volume nor set the Anchor Override property in their Light ProbesLight 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 setting.
• Does not have MaterialPropertyBlocks set on them.
• Has default values for their sortingLayerID or sortingOrder properties.
• Uses materials which support BatchRendererGroup.
• Uses no more than 128 materials.
• GameObjects that do not have a Text Mesh component.
• GameObjects that do not have MonoBehaviour components which implement either the OnWillRenderObject, OnBecameVisible or OnBecameInvisible event callbacks.
• GameObjects that are in the hierarchy of Animation or Animator components.

Otherwise, Unity falls back to drawing the GameObject without GPU Resident Drawer.

If you enable the GPU Resident Drawer, the following applies:

• Build times are longer because Unity compiles all the BatchRendererGroup shader variants into your build.
• The Probe Atlas Blending is used by default when both the Forward+ or Deferred+ rendering paths and the GPU Resident Drawer are used.

Enable the GPU Resident Drawer

Follow these steps:

1. Go to Project Settings > Graphics, then in the Shader Stripping section set BatchRendererGroup Variants to Keep All.
2. Go to the active URP Asset and enable SRP Batcher.
3. Set GPU Resident Drawer to Instanced Drawing.
4. Double-click the renderer in the Renderer List to open the Universal Renderer, then set Rendering Path to Forward+.

If you change or create GameObjects each frame, the GPU Resident Drawer updates with the changes.

To include or exclude GameObjects from the GPU Resident Drawer, refer to Make a GameObject compatible with the GPU Resident Drawer.

Unsupported features with GPU Resident Drawer

The following features are not supported when using GPU Resident Drawer:

• 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 Group animated cross-fading: Animated cross-fading transitions are not supported. LOD transitions fall back to static, distance-based cross-fading.
• Light shadow matrix override: Using Light.shadowMatrixOverride in scriptsA piece of code that allows you to create your own Components, trigger game events, modify Component properties over time and respond to user input in any way you like. More info
  See in Glossary doesn’t affect shadow caster culling.

Additional resources

• Reduce rendering work on the CPU
• Graphics performance fundamentals
• GPU Resident Drawer performance considerations
• GPU occlusion culling