Hello there,
I was wondering if it might be possible for Nanite to have a save setup similar to ZBrush ZTL files? (My apologies in advance if this has been already asked, or if the feature has been recently added!)
Now - In ZBrush, when you have a mesh with a large polycount, you can duplicate the mesh subtool and then reduce the polycount of one of them using decimation master. Then you subdivide and project the high detail to the lower detail at every level all the way up to a roughly equivalent polycount to the original mesh. Then if all looks good, you can delete the original HP mesh.
If you save the ZTL file out at the lowest subdivision level, the file footprint is drastically lower than, say, saving the file out at its HIGHEST subdivision level. Literally MBs in file size vs. GBs.
I was thinking that if the Unreal devs could do something similar for Nanite, people could download nanite geometry files that aren’t quite so large. As long as key topological data was retained at the lower resolution, “subdividing” back up to the original mesh could – theoretically at least – retain the original Nanite information.
Just seems like even though Nanite is a fantastic addition to the engine, the high disk space cost might make it a tough thing to use in practice. But if there were a way to “compress” down the Nanite data to a smaller file that could then be decompressed when used at runtime, it could make Nanite’s adoption nearly ubiquitous. Maybe even eliminate traditional LOD meshing altogether?
Thanks for the consideration! 