Unity Game Optimization - Third Edition

Deferred Shading

Deferred Rendering, or Deferred Shading as it is sometimes known, is a technique that has been available on GPUs for about a decade or so, but it has not resulted in a complete replacement of the Forward Rendering method due to the caveats involved and somewhat limited support on mobile devices.

Deferred Shading is named as such because actual shading does not occur until much later in the process, that is, it is deferred until later. It works by creating a geometry buffer (called a G-Buffer), where our scene is initially rendered without any lighting applied. With this information, the Deferred Shading system can generate a lighting profile within a single pass.

From a performance perspective, the results are quite impressive ...