Asset creation pipeline for nanite static meshes

Development Rendering
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1

Hello,

I am looking for general guidance for the Nanite asset creation pipeline for environments (excluding vegetation).

We will be using Lumen, so the environment will be assembled using modular assets.

Questions are:

1) Is it better to have welded geometry or plaster details on top? I understand that plastering might create an overdraw, but if it is a few details on the wall or columns connecting the walls, then what is better?

2) Based on the advice given here [Content removed] the topology should be even and consistent. Does it mean that if I have a complex mesh, then all the parts of the mesh should have an even wireframe, even at the places where it is just a simple plane? In the case of adding the additional detail geo on top, those also need to have an even cluster pattern with the base?

3) Is having a giant triangle/quar bad in a Nanite scene? Will it affect raterisation costs?

4) Is combination of soft and hard edges a bad idea?

5) Is it fine to have non-Nanite characters in a fully Nanite environment, or is it better to have characters all Nanite too?

Thank you!!

2

Hello,

Thank you for reaching out.

I’ve been assigned this issue, and we will be looking into it for you.

3

Hello,

Thank you for reaching out.

In general, low amounts of vertex sharing in the Nanite mesh can become significantly more expensive both in rendering performance and data size.

Ideally, the number of vertices for a mesh should be less than the number of triangles it has. If the ratio is 2:1 or higher, then there is likely a problem, especially if this results in a high triangle count. Having a ratio of 3:1 means the mesh is completely faceted where every triangle has its own three vertices, none of which are shared with another triangle.

1. Kitbashing work flows for content creation is acceptable due to the fine-grained nature of occlusion culling with Nanite. Kitbashing in the editor (at the asset level) is fine, but it’s better to have a continuous surface for geometry. However, please use overdraw visualization when stacking surfaces.

Please look at the Aggregate Geometry and Closely Stacked Surfaces sections of the Nanite Documentation for additional information.

2. Triangles should cover the surface as efficiently as possible, without impacting the vertex-to-triangle ratio. While some exceptions are acceptable, guidelines from the ticket you linked are still relevant.

3. While there are no limitations on the maximum size of a triangle, long thin triangles can cause inefficient clustering, particularly when the nearby triangles are smaller, and can force more high-detail clusters to be loaded. You should be profiling on the target platform(s) to determine the ideal rasterization costs for these scenarios.

4. You can have a combination of soft and hard edges in a mesh as long as the vertex to triangle ratio is low (reasonable vertex sharing as mentioned earlier). Keep in mind that hard edges create more vertices.

5. Nanite Skeletal Mesh feature is still experimental and is not recommended for production use.

Let us know if this helps.

4

Hello,

I will close this ticket for now. Please feel free to re-open the case if you have additional questions.

5

Hi, thank you so much for the detailed answer!

I think this is it for now!