Tore Lervik - MeshBlend

Distribution Product Discussion
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Documentation & Demo

MeshBlend brings next generation blending to Unreal. Blend any mesh with any mesh. Landscape, static meshes or even skeletal meshes can be blended.

MeshBlend enables controllable blending of meshes. It's been battle tested and is used in real projects with different art styles and requirements ranging from Indie to AAA titles. MeshBlend supports a wide range of scenarios and delivers a visually pleasing result at great performance!

Games, offline rendering cinematics and virtual production in Unreal are all supported. At its core MeshBlend balances performance, visual quality and artist workflow.

If it's a mesh, we can blend it

Features:

Latest information is available in the documentation

  • 4 preset blend sizes to choose from and use. Each can be adjusted individually

  • Easy editor workflow for small projects and up to AAA

  • Blend a few meshes, or every single mesh in the project. You decide

  • Great performance! Different quality settings for different hardware (Low, Medium & High)

  • Battle tested in multiple real projects from AAA to indie

  • Runs as a global Post Process shader just after the scene rendering. Before Upscale, DoF, Translucency and any other PP effects.

  • More examples here

Works with:

  • Opaque materials (Surface, SubSurfaceScattering, Two-Sided, etc)

  • Nanite & Nanite displacement

  • Decals & Mesh Decals - Decals blend as if they are part of the mesh

  • Static Meshes, Landscapes, Skeletal meshes and even particle - As long as they are opaque and write depth

  • TAA, TSR, DLSS, FSR - Works great with any temporal AA solution, upsampling and frame generation

  • Sequencer - Use overscan for best results

  • Other effects that run after translucency (Glass, Post Process effects, Fog, DoF, etc)

Questions? Check out the docs and join our Discord!

Limitations:

Please read the description about limitations before purchasing. It is important!

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10/10 Tool for any environment artist, video maker or Unreal Engine user tbh!

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Seems nice, but the price for us, a small company, is just not possible :confused:

[Edit]
(we pass the 100k threshold which 10x increases the price to legally use this)

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Edit: I dove into the documentation, and shame on me for not doing this first. I’m leaving my post below for reference, and historical proof that I am in fact, a nitwit. With what I’ve seen in the documentation, the price point seems less shocking, even if obtaining a less prohibitive integration will require the sort of knowledge and legwork where someone would be able to develop the solution offered by the plugin themselves… So it’s a convenience fee at that point, I guess?

This is neat, but… Without an alternative method that doesn’t chew up the AO channel in order to work, that price point is a bit much, in my humble opinion.

You have many passes to work with, and call me crazy, but isn’t it possible to add stuff to the g-buffer? Since this is tinkering with geometry, the decision to use the lighting pass and AO channel seems odd at first glance (though I’m a naive idiot, so factor that in). But hey - most of rendering magick tricks are hacks anyhow…

Can you give us a peek into your design choices here? The plugin has gained some media coverage, but from where I sit, this seems a bit prohibitive and reduces our options in our pipeline. AO gets used for some nifty techniques and other rendering black magick, and this effectively removes the potential for those tricks.

If your plugin was a lot cheaper, that compromise would be acceptable. At $119.99 though, you’re hitting a niche demographic where projects won’t be utilizing the AO channel or classical AO itself. I know there are people who would pay, but my 2 cents is that you’re potentially limiting your potential returns, both with the limited scope of usage, and cost.

I’m just spitballing here, but if you utilized a non-limiting integration method, and lowered the price a bit, you’d make a whole lot more profit from this neat trick.

I have no intention of being rude with my statements above, you’re a legend in my book - I’m just being a straight shooter and giving genuine feedback. I really am curious about your decision with the AO channel approach; As it stands, my gut tells me it’s because it was the easier route…

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Hey,

The use of the Material AO channel is the only approach that works with the launcher version of the Unreal Engine. Source built engines have more ways of dealing with this, and some customers are already checking out using other channels or adding a new one.
It’s been an important goal that the plugin should work with the default launcher version.

Messing with the gbuffers can be a bit of a task, but I’ve worked on making sure updating the plugin for it is easy. Engine Setup | MeshBlend

Hopefully in the long term I can provide some guides in the docs for using other GBuffer channels!

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I did not realize the launcher version (what I lovingly call the “OTS”, or off-the-shelf version) had the limitation. That sure is a good reason to take the approach you did! Concerning providing guidance on using other g-buffer channels: that would be awesome of you to do, while also creeping into education on the rendering pipeline in general.

Thanks for addressing my question(s), and keep up the great work!

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The prices on store assets have been getting absolutely crazy, especially when you add them up at 1k+ each. Don’t get me wrong, I was super excited for this plugin since I saw the Subnautica 2 Dev vblog.

I think that Epic needs to revisit that generic “past 100k revenue” option because it’s very nuanced for very small teams and especially solo developers without publishing. I worked in a Triple A studio and for these companies 1.6k is a fart in the water, nothing like the former.

I think I will pass unless there’s a revision for studio size in the future.

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Thanks for the kind words :blush:

I don’t disagree with you when it comes to the standard/pro split. Having it be 300k, or and option for a 30k and 300k split could open for a bit better pricing overall. I’ve tried to work within the current options, and the reception has been really great. And I fully understand that those a bit over the 100k limit feel it’s pricy.

Fab seems to be improving with every iteration. Who knows, maybe they revise this in the future.

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Maybe more pushback from asset/plugin creators will make Epic listen :crossed_fingers:

A one or two man company passing 100K before taxes and not even always making profits can’t be remotely compared to a fully fledged agency. I wouldn’t mind a medium tier between 100k and 500K or something, after all I want the creators to make a living of their great work.

But as it is now, we are actually using less money on assets and plugins on Fab, as we are now passing on a lot of great content because so many prices just doesn’t make sense anymore for us - and we are dedicated to stay legal.

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Great plugin, but only for near view → midview / far view have no effect / no difference

Great plugin, works on all distances!. Thanks for the tip @hallatore

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How far view are we talking?

It works pretty well on objects far away, and it can be tweaked with the MinSize value.

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Do you think this will ever go on sale?

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Hey Man, Your product is unique and I think your price is fair and good for such a useful product .
Just want to remind you that .
Don’t let others make you undervalue your product. You’ve solved a great problem with your product and you deserve to be paid much more than this. :clap:t2:

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