We are using Nanite Foliage in UE5.7 for a large-scale environment, and it performs very well in terms of visual quality and rendering performance.
In UE5.7, Nanite Foliage is implemented using skeletal meshes, which enables basic animation and wind-driven motion. We would like to clarify how this system is intended to support character interaction in gameplay scenarios.
In many gameplay-driven projects, near-field foliage interaction is important (for example, foliage reacting to character movement, collision, or proximity). At the moment, it is unclear whether Nanite Foliage is expected to support this type of interaction directly, or if interaction should still rely on hybrid solutions such as non-Nanite meshes, proxy components, or visual-only effects.
We would like to ask:
Does Nanite Foliage in UE5.7 officially support character interaction?
If not, is character interaction planned to be supported in future versions?
Does Nanite Foliage in UE5.7 officially support character interaction?
Not yet.
If not, is character interaction planned to be supported in future versions?
We plan to support this in the future, but nothing is in the works at the moment. In the short term, we recommend implementing your own “hero tree” system.
Please let me know if you have additional questions.
Unfortunately, we don’t have guidance or best practices yet for how to implement a “hero tree” system with or without PCG or whether using Nanite or non-Nanite meshes for character-interactive vegetation is best at this early stage.
The initial implementation for character-vegetation interaction will likely involve a CPU side simulation with simple collision that will feed bone transforms to the GPU skinning for the vegetation.
Does Nanite Foliage currently support simple collision (primitives or capsules) for gameplay queries?
Nanite foliage has simple collision (capsules) that should work as normal. However, the capsules are not updated with motion e.g. the DynamicWind system doesn’t readback the bone position and update the capsules.
Is complex collision (per-poly or mesh-based) supported or planned, or is collision intentionally limited for Nanite Foliage at this stage?
This is uncertain at this point. Hit detection with Nanite-level geometric complexity is unlikely, so fallback triangles will likely be the highest fidelity for cases where you want complex collision.
In our project, Nanite Foliage is mainly placed via PCG and performs well in large-scale environments. Following your suggestion to implement a custom “hero tree” system, we’d like to clarify the recommended workflow and best practices:
Should near-field, character-interactive vegetation use non-Nanite meshes (static or skeletal), while PCG-driven Nanite Foliage handles mid- and far-field coverage?
From Epic’s perspective, is this typically handled via PCG layering, runtime swapping, or proxy approaches (e.g., replacing Nanite instances with hero assets near the player)?
Are there any internal guidelines or reference setups for combining PCG, Nanite Foliage, and interactive hero vegetation at scale?
Additionally, regarding collision support in UE5.7:
Does Nanite Foliage currently support simple collision (primitives or capsules) for gameplay queries?
Is complex collision (per-poly or mesh-based) supported or planned, or is collision intentionally limited for Nanite Foliage at this stage?
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