GIPRobe destroys performance in VR (Oculus Quest 2)

AleksNik

Hello!

I was experimenting a bit with the GIProbe node in Godot. Specifically, in the VR environment. Below is the picture of my hierarchy and the space I am currently testing (I am using the OQ toolkit, but I don't think that is relevant).

Once I export this project as an APK to the Quest 2, the performance is miserable. Once I remove the GIProbe, it is completely fine. If I limit the GIProbe to extremely small proportions, the performance is fine again, but the proportions have to be REALLY small.

I guess my question is if I am missing some sort of setting with the GIProbe to make it perform better in VR? I tried to reduce Subdiv and play around with other settings and nothing worked. If I am not missing anything and the GIProbe is that intensive to the Oculus Quest, I would also be satisfied with that answer, but I would like some confirmation.

Cheers!

cybereality

On desktop GIProbe doesn't have a huge impact on performance. I mean, it certainly takes a hit, but there is room to spare. Maybe not so on mobile, and I haven't tested in VR yet. However, you might be better off with BakedLightmap, as this performs about twice as fast.

Your screenshot also looks strange. The green grid should be encompassing the room, but it appears to be behind it. So I'm not sure why that is. GIProbe also has some settings. You can try clicking Interior, also lowering the quality or the grid size.

Megalomaniak

I do believe majority of VR games still go for baked lighting for this very reason.

Calinou

GIProbe is indeed too demanding to be used for standalone VR. You probably want to use the GLES2 renderer (instead of GLES3) to squeeze more performance from a mobile VR device too.

You can still have fast baked indirect lighting using baked lightmaps, both in GLES3 and GLES2.

cybereality

Honestly, the BakedLightmap node looks much better anyhow. And yes, GLES2 is the way to go for mobile.

AleksNik

Thank you everyone for your answers! From my brief research, it would seem that Baked LightMaps don't work well with CSGMeshes and the map itself can't be modified when baked, which doesn't fit my project :(

Nonetheless, thanks for the feedback, this really helped!