Creating complex simulations with Visual Effect Graph

The particle system we have used so far handles all calculations in the CPU. This has both pros and cons. A pro is that it can run on all possible devices that Unity supports, regardless of their capabilities (all of them have CPUs), but a con is that we can exceed CPU capabilities easily if we are not cautious with the number of particles we emit.

Modern games require more complex particle systems to generate believable effects, and this kind of CPU-based particle system solution has started to reach its limit. This is where Visual Effect Graph comes in:

Figure 11.33: On the left is a massive particle system, and on the right, an example of a Visual Effect Graph

Visual Effect Graph is a GPU-based particle system solution, meaning that the system is executed in the video card instead of the CPU. That’s because video cards are far more efficient at executing lots and lots of little simulations, like the...