Frame rate and stutter
Drops, hitches and inconsistent frame pacing. We profile CPU and GPU on device to find whether it is scripts, physics, rendering or garbage collection, the automatic memory clean-up that can pause a frame.
See the methodology
Game Performance Optimisation
Fix Unity frame rate, memory, loading and stability problems with targeted profiling. We measure the build on your target hardware, address the bottlenecks and show the results.
Summary
- Who it's for
- Teams whose Unity game struggles with frame rate, memory, crashes, loading times, heat or battery drain on its target devices.
- What you get
- Baseline measurements on real devices, a diagnosis of the bottleneck, targeted fixes and a before and after comparison for every change.
- How it starts
- A profiling pass on a real build, with a written list of fixes ranked by impact and effort. It shows whether the problem is a few days of work or a structural one.
- Next step
- Tell us the platforms you are targeting and what you are seeing. We reply within 1 to 2 business days.
Experience adapting RuneScape for mobile hardware
Delivered during David's Technical Developer role at Jagex, 2017 to 2019.
Bringing an established desktop massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) to phones introduced constraints around memory, rendering, input and screen space. David built the mobile heads-up display (HUD), converted more than 40 legacy interfaces and delivered UI-level performance work as part of the mobile team.
That experience informs our performance work today: investigate the real build, understand the device constraints and check that changes preserve the intended player experience.
An unfinished brief is fine. The first conversation helps establish scope.
What are you starting with?
If your game struggles with frame rate, loading times, memory or thermals, we start with a real build on real hardware. Tell us what you are seeing.
Memory and crashes
Out-of-memory crashes on low-end devices, garbage collection spikes and leaks that make the game stutter every few seconds.
Explore mobile developmentThermals and battery
Devices getting hot and throttling during longer sessions, and batteries draining faster than players will accept.
Read our open-source toolkitMeasurement, not guesswork
We establish a baseline, identify the bottleneck and measure the effect of each change. Any trade-offs in visual quality or gameplay are discussed before implementation.
1. Profile
Baseline frames per second (fps), thermal behaviour and memory footprint, captured on real devices rather than the editor.
2. Analyse
Diagnose whether the bottleneck is CPU, GPU, physics, rendering or garbage collection.
3. Fix and validate
Targeted fixes to the hot path, the code that runs most often, checked against a before and after comparison.
The optimisation methodology in full
The same discipline applied to running a full MMORPG on mobile hardware, brought to your project.
1. Deep profiling on real hardware
Editor profiling helps investigation, but target-device measurements determine player-facing performance. We benchmark current average fps, thermal throttle rate and memory footprint on device, use hardware tools like Xcode Instruments and Snapdragon Profiler, and stress test to trigger crashes and out-of-memory errors deliberately.
2. Root cause analysis
With the data in hand we isolate the bottleneck: whether the lag is physics, rendering or script execution, where garbage collection spikes and memory leaks are, and whether the GPU is choked by too many materials or unbatched geometry.
3. Surgical optimisation
Targeted fixes to the code and assets causing most of the slowdown: rewriting expensive loops, caching component lookups, object pooling, texture compression, baked lighting, simplified shaders, and architecture changes where a project has outgrown its original design.
4. Validation and regression
Every change is verified. Before and after builds are compared to quantify the fps gain, visual regression checks confirm texture and level-of-detail (LOD) changes have not hurt the art, and long-play testing checks sustained performance, heat and battery use.
Where this discipline comes from
Performance work delivered by Ocean View Games and its team.
RuneScape Mobile
Delivered at Jagex
The Challenge: Fit an MMORPG with almost two decades of desktop interface onto mobile hardware.
The Result: David built the mobile HUD and delivered UI-level performance work as a Technical Developer at Jagex. A minimap toggle alone gained around 5fps on a Samsung Galaxy S9.
Domi Online
MMORPG on a lean budget
The Challenge: Keep a server-authoritative Unity MMORPG, where the server decides every outcome, inside an independent studio's infrastructure budget.
The Result: Invitation-only closed alpha stress tests with up to 500 players on a single Amazon Web Services (AWS) EC2 cloud server, and an in-place upgrade to Unity 6.3.
What we profile and tune
The passes a performance engagement can cover. Which ones matter is decided from the profiling data, not assumed up front.
CPU and GPU profiling
Systematic identification of rendering bottlenecks, excessive draw calls, overdraw and CPU-heavy scripts using Unity's deep profiling tools.
Memory and garbage collection
Eliminating garbage collection spikes, reducing allocations and adding object pooling to stop stutter and crashes on constrained devices.
Shaders and render pipeline
Tuning Unity's Universal (URP) or High Definition (HDRP) render pipeline, simplifying shaders, cutting overdraw and adding LOD systems for the most visual quality at the least GPU cost.
Battery and thermals
Profiling thermal footprint, adding adaptive frame rates and reducing expensive per-frame work to keep devices cool during long sessions.
Crash and out-of-memory resolution
Reproducing and fixing the out-of-memory crashes and native exceptions that hit hardest on low-end devices.
Ongoing monitoring
Performance dashboards and automated regression tests so the gains hold as development continues.
Working together
Start with a free conversation about the platforms you are targeting and what you are seeing: frame rate, memory, crashes, thermals or loading.
Most engagements begin with a profiling pass on a real build. That alone often tells you whether the problem is a few days of work or a structural one, and the findings are yours either way.
David and Adam stay close to the engineering. David applied this discipline on RuneScape Mobile at Jagex, and we bring the same rigour regardless of project size.
From there the work runs in agreed milestones, with before and after measurements on every change so the gains are visible and provable.
Meet the teamRelated tools and reading
Free resources on Unity performance.
Unity Migration Checker
Whether a Unity upgrade is part of what your project needs.
Technical Debt Calculator
A rough sense of how much accumulated debt is slowing delivery.
Mobile Performance Architecture
Our open-sourced Unity performance monitoring toolkit on GitHub.
Mobile game development
When the performance problems are specifically mobile: thermals, battery, Android fragmentation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. We reproduce the issue on an agreed device range and inspect memory use, logs and profiling data. Out-of-memory errors, resource leaks and other faults need different fixes, so we establish the cause before changing the build.
We start with the symptoms, affected devices and a representative build. A profiling pass can identify the main bottlenecks and produce a prioritised plan. Implementation is then estimated from the findings; see our Unity technical audit for an independent review.
We agree a target and measure performance on specified hardware and gameplay scenarios. The achievable result depends on the game and device limits. We discuss any changes to visual quality or gameplay before implementing them.
Yes, subject to availability and scope. We prioritise the issues with the greatest effect on release readiness, then compare builds and run regression checks. A late optimisation pass still needs time for testing.
We can investigate sustained CPU and GPU load, rendering, physics and other expensive work on real devices. Changes may include reducing repeated work or adjusting frame-rate and quality settings, with longer sessions used to assess the effect.
You receive the agreed code and asset changes, before-and-after measurements for the tested scenarios and notes on remaining risks. We can also help establish benchmarks for future releases so new regressions are easier to spot.
Is performance holding your game back?
Tell us the platforms you are targeting and what you are seeing: frame rate, memory, crashes, thermals, loading or another performance problem.
Discuss your performance issue