GPU Resident Drawer

Details on how Flora works with Unity's GPU Resident Drawer.

Flora and Unity GPU Resident Drawer solve similar rendering problems with different content ownership models.

Guidance

• Use Flora when you need terrain foliage support, container workflows, or runtime-created instance populations.

• Use GPU Resident Drawer for MeshRenderer-driven workflows where its defaults fit your project.

What This Affects

• Memory footprint at high instance counts.

• Authoring workflow (GameObject-centric vs data-driven instancing).

• Occlusion workload if both systems run.

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Content Model Differences

• GPU Resident Drawer: active GameObject + MeshRenderer driven.

• Flora: supports terrain, containers, and runtime instance data without requiring one render GameObject path per instance.

Related Flora workflows:

• Terrain Provider

• Instance Container

• Runtime Samples

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Occlusion Interaction

Both systems maintain separate occlusion resources. Running both over overlapping content can duplicate GPU work.

Practical Recommendation

For the same content path, prefer one primary instancing/occlusion strategy and profile scene cost.