# What is better for performance? Parallax mapping or nanite mesh with a lot of polys?

**URL:** <https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/what-is-better-for-performance-parallax-mapping-or-nanite-mesh-with-a-lot-of-polys/789211>\
**Category:** Rendering\
**Tags:** unreal-engine, question\
**Created:** [March 12, 2023, 6:48pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/what-is-better-for-performance-parallax-mapping-or-nanite-mesh-with-a-lot-of-polys/789211 "2023-03-12T18:48:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 27

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**Author:** ![TheKJ](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@TheKJ](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/TheKJ)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2023, 8:44am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/what-is-better-for-performance-parallax-mapping-or-nanite-mesh-with-a-lot-of-polys/789211/27 "2023-08-18T08:44:14Z")

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Well, first off, look at [this](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/nanite-performance-is-not-better-with-vsm-test-results-fix-your-documentation-epic-youre-ruining-games/1263218). \<— Nanite is a horrible perf wise for dynamic scenes.  
(scenes with Lumen and VSMs).

Nanite might render a bigger scene faster than optimized LODs. But literally everything else like VSMs, and Lumen will spike your scene by **1.5ms just by enabling Nanite in your scene.**

- Nanite renders meshes faster–One step foward.

- VSM’s and Lumen (the most important features for photorealism) spike 6x times the the poly render savings Nanite provided you.-**Two (really Four or Five)**  **step backwards.**

If you want a **photorealistic scene** , with Lumen, and VSMs **that will be performant via 60fps on all current gen gpu venders(below 40 series):**  
Then look no further for **detail** my friend.

Use this [bump offset node](https://blueprintue.com/blueprint/7m0wbuga/) with optimized poly meshes with LODs.  
Far cheaper than Nanite. (BP link has video explaining the origins)

It’s not real parallax occlusion (which raises the actual texture, causing the GPU to work harder, It may even spike VSM’s and Lumen like Nanite).

According to the [UE documentation. It’s very cheap.](https://docs.unrealengine.com/4.27/en-US/RenderingAndGraphics/Materials/HowTo/BumpOffset/) And I think for most games, Its a perfect middle ground for peft and **wow factor** detail wise.  
Epic should have used this (with realistic, sensible LODs) over Nanite for their Lumen mode.

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