Optimizing SkeletonRenderer Awake

Marc477

Trying to get my game to run at 120 fps in Unity. Spine 4.2

Problem is that I get a lot of "Spikes" when instantiating new skeleton objects. It all mostly all from SkeletonRenderer.Awake function, even if I just spawn 1 to 3 skeleton within a frame it can take easily 8ms which is the entire frame budget. It also creates around 1MB of alloc per object.

My skeletons are relatively simples (less than 20 bones), and i dont think anims are overly complicated either. I don't create the bones hierarchy as gameobject, but i do use a few bone followers. And I use SkeletonMecanim.

I'm really not that much interested into going into gameobject pooling if possible, because of the risk for more bugs and complications it brings.

So I was wondering if there's any ways I can optimize that Awake function.
Maybe there's some settings on the Skeleton objects or when exporting the spine file, or something that could help. Thank you.

Harald

@Marc477 I would assume that the majority of the time and allocation is spent for loading the shared SkeletonData which has to be loaded once for each skeleton type (SkeletonDataAsset). The mentioned 1MB shall never be needed for just a single skeleton instance.

You could avoid pooling (if you really have to) and just ensure that one instance of each SkeletonDataAsset is pre-loaded before your actual gameplay starts.

Marc477 It also creates around 1MB of alloc per object.

Does this include textures? Or just data? If it's just skeleton data that's loaded, 1MB sounds like far more than might be necessary. The Raptor skeleton for example even in json format itself is only 300kb in size, the loaded SkeletonData structure should be less than that. Note that removing unnecessary keys and the like will also speed up loading.

Obviously, be sure to not export as .json but as binary .skel.bytes format.

Starting with spine-unity 4.3-beta, you can also utilize threading which should in general very much improve overall performance.

Apart from that, also be sure to give the Performance FAQ section a read:
https://esotericsoftware.com/spine-unity-faq#Performance

Marc477

Thank you very much for the help. And yes i dig deeper and its all time spent loading the skeletondata. Is there a function i can call to preload all the skeletons data during loading?

And I'm currently exporting as .json, since i have a lot of skeleton, do you know if there will be a significant difference if i spend the time reexporting everything in binary? Like is it going to be just 10-15% difference or it will be more like x2 x3 faster? Would that also impact the Update speed ? Or just loading?

And the 1MB is on GetSkeletonData function in the profiler. So i guess thats without the texture? My json files are only around 100kb, so im not sure why the alloc is higher.

Harald

Marc477 Thank you very much for the help. And yes i dig deeper and its all time spent loading the skeletondata.

Good to hear.

For preloading, if I make an array of
public SkeletonDataAsset[] all_skeletons;
[..] skeleton.GetSkeletonData(false);
Is that the proper way to do this?

Yes, anything that leads to calling SkeletonDataAsset.GetSkeletonData() is a valid approach.

Marc477 And I'm currently exporting as .json, since i have a lot of skeleton, do you know if there will be a significant difference if i spend the time reexporting everything in binary? Like is it going to be just 10-15% difference or it will be more like x2 x3 faster?

You can try it yourself, it depends on your skeletons and on the hardware, but it's usually quite a lot faster. But if you want to release a game at the end, .json is not a good option, so re-export as .skel.bytes. In general it's highly recommended to automate your skeleton exports via the Spine command line interface, then you can re-export all skeletons at the run of a single script at no effort.

Would that also impact the Update speed ? Or just loading?

It affects loading times and the executable size, so wastes memory. At runtime once loaded it won't affect skeleton updates.

Harald

Marc477 And the 1MB is on GetSkeletonData function in the profiler. So i guess thats without the texture? My json files are only around 100kb, so im not sure why the alloc is higher.

My fault, sorry, I just checked with the Raptor skeleton and there it also displays allocation of 1.4 MB in SkeletonJson.ReadSkeletonData() at 300 KB file size. I should have measured and not just assumed in the first place.

The displayed size in the profiler should not include loading atlas Textures, no.

Marc477

For preloading, if I make an array of
public SkeletonDataAsset[] all_skeletons;

fill it in the Unity inspector, and the loop on it
foreach(SkeletonDataAsset skeleton in all_skeletons)
{
skeleton.GetSkeletonData(false);
}

Is that the proper way to do this?

Marc477

Thank you, this is super useful.

Just preloading has completely resolved the issue.

When i have some more time to reexport and relink the skeletons in unity, I'll consider switching the binary export.

Harald

Marc477 Very glad to hear it helped, thanks for letting us know!