In 3D graphics and games, batching is a very general term describing the process of grouping a large number of wayward pieces of data and processing them together as a single, large block of data. The goal of this process is to reduce computation time, often by exploiting parallel processing or reducing overhead costs, if the entire batch is treated as individual elements. In some cases, the act of batching centers around meshes, large sets of vertices, edges, UV coordinates, and so on, which are used to represent a 3D object. However, the term could just as easily refer to the act of batching audio files, sprites, and texture files (also known as Atlasing), and other large datasets.
So, just to clear up any confusion, when the topic of batching is mentioned in Unity, it is usually referring to the two primary mechanisms it offers for batching mesh files: Static and Dynamic Batching. These methods are essentially a form of geometry instancing, where we...