By name: performance-budgeting description: Set and manage frame, load, memory, streaming, or bandwidth budgets before performance debt becomes structural. origin: everything-game-dev-code category: engineering-common
Performance Budgeting
Purpose
Set and manage frame, load, memory, streaming, or bandwidth budgets before performance debt becomes structural.
Use When
- target hardware is defined
- performance problems are emerging
- content scale is increasing
Inputs
- target platforms
- feature set
- technical architecture
- content assumptions
Process
- set budgets by platform and major runtime mode
- allocate budget ownership by system or content class
- choose representative benchmark scenarios
- review regressions at milestone checkpoints
- link descopes or optimization work to measured overages
Outputs
- budget sheet
- owner-by-budget map
- benchmark scenarios
- regression review cadence
Quality Bar
- budgets are set per system (frame time, memory, draw calls, asset sizes) against the weakest target device
- every budget has an owner and a repeatable measurement method
- regressions are caught by measurement at integration time, not discovered in QA
- budget exceptions are negotiated and recorded, not silently absorbed
Common Failure Modes
- budgets defined as totals with no per-system allocation, so no one owns overruns
- profiling only on developer hardware, missing the real target floor
- performance treated as a polish-phase task instead of a standing budget
- one-off optimizations that decay because no measurement guards them
Related Agents
- performance-reviewer
- producer
- technical-artist
Related Commands
- perf-budget
- verify
- release-check
Notes
- Keep this skill aligned with the relevant rules layer and current project documentation.
- If engine-specific constraints materially change the workflow, hand off to the matching engine skill or engine-specific reviewer.