Where is the "Tessellation" options in Ue5 Materials

Being able to affect the look of a 3D model through shaders alone makes it easier to blend different types of surfaces with different properties together on the same geometrical surface. Of course this can not only applied to diffuse maps but also to specular, roughness, normal and also displacement maps - all “textures”.

So now when you are working with more simple and primitive meshes that do not have a very dense topology, displacing vertices is not a viable solution. This is were formerly tessellation could be used.

Relying on Nanite as a replacement would mean having to work with meshes with an increased topology just to make it possible to work with vertex offset, even if the base geometry does not benefit at all. Imagine having a square plane which would normally need 2 triangles to model it, but now you have to up it by a lot more just so you can use it with Nanine WPO.

“Jacking up” tessellation in the source-mesh just takes a lot of freedom and simplicity away from what tessellation and displacement provided in previous versions. You could basically apply a height map to your geometry.

I am of course sure of what I want to achieve but not sure how I would get there with the new tools. Formerly, tessellation and displacement would work very well for this. I just asked how the new tools are intended to be used in order to have similar effects.

Maybe POM is a good alternative for a lot of use cases, but it’s not the same as it does not modify geometry. A mix of POM and vertex displacement sounds even closer, but would still require a somewhat dense vertex topology to allow for a decent level of detail, which would in turn again mean manual tessellation.

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