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Optimizing GPU-driven particle system to run 4x faster

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Jan Mróz

Proposed by Jan Mróz

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Description

Optimizing GPU-driven particle system to run 4x faster is Jan Mróz's follow-up profiling a burning-object effect that already simulates and draws on the GPU with compute shaders, append buffers, indirect dispatch, and indirect instanced rendering. He profiles each pass with Nsight and tightens simulation, append, and draw costs.

The piece explains how deterministic frozen captures compare passes, which counters move when append pressure drops, and how indirect args buffers change after optimizations. Readers see how GPU-driven VFX can still be fragment- or bandwidth-bound after simulation moves off the CPU.

Intermediate graphics programmers implementing compute-driven particles in Unity or similar engines should understand append/consume buffers and indirect drawing before diving in.

It is a free intermediate article on proceduralpixels.com with capture screenshots tied to the same tooling used in other Procedural Pixels VFX posts.

The GPU particle optimization loop complements the CPU particle instancing article for teams choosing where simulation should live.