This project is a simple example of how Unity's new Entity Component System (ECS) in 2018.1.0b12 can be used to create a performant instanced sprite renderer. Find out about the new ECS in Unity here.

The assets used in the example are from Kenney's Animal Pack

1. Make sure you have this version of Unity 2018.1.0b12 installed
2. Make sure the manifest.json file located at .../[PROJECT FOLDER]/Packages/manifest.json looks like this:

{ "dependencies": { "com.unity.entities": "0.0.11" }, "testables": [ "com.unity.collections", "com.unity.entities", "com.unity.jobs" ], "registry": "https://staging-packages.unity.com" } 

3. Download this .unitypackage file and import it.
4. Open Example Scene and press play.

By adding SpriteInstanceRenderer to an entity it is rendered using its Position2D and Heading2D as a quad with a texture on it. The SpriteInstanceRender inherits ISharedComponentData meaning any entity using same instance of will be drawn in one draw call. This is possible because of Graphics.DrawMeshInstanced method. In the Example Scene included, 10,000 sprites are drawn. However the before mentioned method only draws a maximum of 1023 instances at once, so it splits up into as many groups necessary to draw all the instances.

This is a very naive implementation that I threw together, however it does provide fairly good results even with 10,000 entities.