Unreal Engine 5 Nanite Virtualized Geometry
Nanite lets you use much higher-polycount assets than what was previously possible with real-time art. It does this by rendering pixel-scale detail -- only detail that can be perceived -- and culling the rest of the geometry.
Using Nanite
Any static mesh can be converted to nanite by just checking a box on import: the "Build Nanite" option under the Mesh panel.
Depending on the size of the mesh, it'll probably take a minute to import. During import, UE5 is sorting the triangles into clusters, and these clusters, depending on where they are in relation to the camera, will have their level of detail changed on the fly, essentially automating LODs.
UE5 has a Nanite Visualization mode that lets you see both the triangles and clusters of your model.
Just about any mesh is a good candidate for Nanite. If it's a high-poly model, if it's going to be occluding a lot of other Nanite, or if there are going to be a larger number of instances of that model, using Nanite will streamline things.
UVs and Texturing
Nanite meshes can be textured, but they use a slightly different workflow than typical game-res meshes. Both Quixel Mixer and Substance Painter can handle the high-poly meshes that you'd be using, the limit is based on your GPU and what your computer can deal with.
If you don't use zRemesher, you'll have to be proactive about your UVs and plan them ahead, UVing your base mesh in Maya before converting the Smooth Mesh Preview to Polygons and bringing it into Zbrush. Once it's brought into Zbrush, you won't be able to decimate or dynamesh, or you'll lose your UVs.
Overall, Nanite opens a lot of doors for real-time art, and has just a slightly different workflow for most game art.
No comments:
Post a Comment