Weekly progress 2/16
This week I started testing different rendering pipelines in Unity. I installed two versions of Unity, the 2018 version commonly used in schools and the latest 2019 version. This is because the URP (Universal render pipeline) is the new name of the LWRP (LightWeight render pipeline) and is only available in the new version of Unity. By the way, I also tested the old and new versions of HDRP (High definition render pipeline).
URP VS LWRP
Through comparison, we can see that the picture quality has been greatly improved from LWRP to URP. LWRP has obvious light leakage problems like the shadows of the white bucket. That is incorrect shadows. This may be caused by the use of an inaccurate shadow algorithm. Compared with HDRP, LWRP has no significant performance improvement. The frame rate and rendering speed are similar to HDRP, but the picture quality is poor, so this rendering pipeline should not be used. URP’s picture quality and rendering efficiency have been greatly improved. The frame rate has reached nearly 600 FPS, which has lower requirements on the performance of the device. URP is indeed an adaptive rendering process, suitable for the AR part of our project. At this point, Joe and I came to the same conclusion.
Latest HDRP VS 2018 HDRP
We can see that the new version of HDRP is more clear, and the glow effect of the old version of HDRP blurs the picture. The new version of HDRP shadows is softer and more natural: the shadow of the white bucket on the wall is better integrated into the overall shadow. The direct and indirect lighting of the new version of HDRP is more realistic. The old version of HDRP has a lot of overexposed areas, and the indirect lighting effect is also poor, which seriously affects the degree of realism.
HDRP VS URP
HDRP pays more attention to the picture effect. Compared with URP, which uses a simple lighting algorithm, HDRP uses a more complex algorithm, with more parameters that can be adjusted by the user.
After my testing, we can use HDRP to provide more realistic and controllable lighting and shadow. HDRP contains reflection balls, volume lighting buffers and other functions similar to UE4, and can provide good indirect lighting which is an important factor affecting the realism of the picture.
From a picture quality perspective, I tend to use the new version of HDRP. URP should only be considered when the performance of existing equipment is insufficient or when the project cycle and project management are considered because if we use a different render pipeline, more model transformation work may need to be completed.
