Huge performance hit when spawning prefab with AI

Question

Hey guys, I'm working on a simple top-down shooting game, and I just started having some trouble when I began working on spawning zombies into the world. Basically I have an array of spawn points, and when I press a button a random point is picked and a zombie is spawned. The zombie prefab has a basic AI script attached to it (it just chases the player at this point). The problem I have is that as soon as the first zombie spawns, my game takes a huge performance hit (140 fps down to 11-13 when the zombie spawns). I can't for the life of me figure out what's happening with it, so any help is appreciated. The zombie AI script is as follows:

 #pragma strict
 
 private var target : Transform;
 private var moveSpeed : float = 3.0;
 private var turnSpeed : float = 3.0;
 
 private var myTransform : Transform;
 
 private var health : float = 100;
 
 function Awake()
 {
     myTransform = transform;
 }
 
 function Start()
 {
     target = GameObject.FindWithTag("Player").transform;
 }
 
 function Update()
 {
     myTransform.rotation = Quaternion.Slerp(myTransform.rotation, Quaternion.LookRotation(target.position - myTransform.position), turnSpeed * Time.deltaTime);
     myTransform.position += myTransform.forward * moveSpeed * Time.deltaTime;
 }

I also have a GameController script attached to an empty GameObject in the world, and it controls the spawning of zombies:

 #pragma strict
 
 public var zomPrefab : GameObject;
 
 private var roundNumber : int = 1;
 private var Zombies : ArrayList;
 private var spawnPoints : GameObject[];
 
 
 function Start () 
 {
     spawnPoints = GameObject.FindGameObjectsWithTag("SpawnPoint");
 
     Zombies = new ArrayList();
     // var newZom : GameObject = GameObject.Instantiate(zomPrefab, spawnPoints[0].transform.position, Quaternion.identity);
     // Zombies.Add(newZom.gameObject);
 
     // RenderSettings.ambientLight = new Color(.2, .2, .2, 1);
 }
 
 function OnGUI()
 {
     GUI.Label(Rect(0, 0, 50, 100), "Round " + roundNumber);
     GUI.Label(Rect(0, 50, 100, 100), "Zombies: " + Zombies.Count);
     // GUI.Box(Rect(0, 0, 50, 100), roundNumber);
 }
 
 function Update () 
 {
     if(Input.GetKeyDown("tab"))
     {
         NewRound();
     }
 }
 
 function NewRound()
 {
     roundNumber++;
     SpawnZombie();
 }
 
 function SpawnZombie()
 {
     var spawnPoint : int = Random.Range(0, spawnPoints.length);
 
     Debug.Log("Spawning zombie at point " + spawnPoint);
 
     var newZom : GameObject = GameObject.Instantiate(zomPrefab, spawnPoints[spawnPoint].transform.position, Quaternion.identity);
     Zombies.Add(newZom.gameObject);
 }

I know that Instantiate() calls are expensive, but I figured that since I'm not using many that shouldn't be a huge problem. Any thoughts?

Thanks!!

Answer 1

Answer by Jeff-Kesselman · May 27, 2014 at 08:36 PM

If you have Pro then your first step in diagnosing any performance problem should be to run the Profiler.

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Huge performance hit when spawning prefab with AI

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