Game Performance Budget

Overview

Compare reproducible performance measurements with explicit budgets instead of treating a fast developer machine or average frame rate as proof.

When to use

Use for milestone gates, optimization reviews, target-hardware qualification, regression checks, memory reviews, loading tests, and network performance budgets.

When NOT to use

Do not use to guess performance without captures, to optimize before a measured bottleneck, or to certify hardware that was not tested.

Required inputs and context discovery

Collect build ID, scene or scenario, target hardware tier, quality settings, warm-up method, capture duration, measurement tool, percentile metrics, memory categories, loading phases, network conditions, and thresholds.

Safety and risk level

Read-only analysis. Profiling unavailable hardware or builds is BLOCKED; estimates may be Unverified but never PASS.

Workflow

1. Define budgets per target hardware tier and gameplay scenario. Completion criterion: units, thresholds, and allowed variance are explicit.
2. Validate capture identity and measurement method. Completion criterion: build, settings, warm-up, duration, and profiler source are recorded.
3. Compare observed percentiles and peaks with each budget. Completion criterion: every metric reports target, observed value, delta, and verdict.
4. Attribute exceeded budgets to measured subsystems or mark attribution unresolved. Completion criterion: bottleneck claims cite profiler evidence rather than intuition.
5. Define optimization experiments and regression gates. Completion criterion: each action includes a metric, target, owner, and retest scenario.

Evidence and output contract

Produce performance-budget-report.json with build and hardware identity, scenarios, targets, observations, deltas, verdicts, profiler artifacts, limitations, and retest actions.

Handoff contract

Record failing tiers, worst scenarios, capture paths, suspected subsystems, known measurement noise, owners, and exact retest commands or steps.

Pitfalls and anti-rationalization

• Average FPS hides spikes; use percentiles and peaks.
• Editor measurements do not certify player builds.
• One hardware tier cannot stand in for another.
• Missing captures remain BLOCKED, not estimated PASS.

Verification checklist

• Build, hardware, settings, and scenarios are exact.
• Budgets include units and thresholds.
• Observations cite profiler artifacts.
• Percentiles and peaks are reported where relevant.
• Retest actions preserve the same measurement method.

References and scripts

Use the bundled scripts/performance_budget.py for normalized budget comparisons and project profilers for captures. The helper does not launch or profile a live build.