Research Project - Unreal Engine 5 Nanite

Unreal Engine 5 Nanite

What is Nanite?

Nanite is a new mesh rendering technology in Unreal Engine 5. It allows the creation of film quality assets for real-time games. 

It's no different than how anyone currently works in Unreal Engine. All you have to do is enable Nanite when importing any static meshes that do not deform. Anything else, such as skeletal meshes or anything with world position offset cannot be Nanite.

How does it Work?

When imported into Unreal Engine 5, the mesh is analyzed and its tris are put into groups called clusters. The maximum threshold is 128 tris per cluster. But those clusters can swap depending on what is being rendered. 

The method used is called culling. So wherever the camera is placed and what its looking at, will change the cluster groups. 

For example:

When it is CLOSER to the Nanite mesh, there will be SMALLER clusters (High LODS).

When it is FURTHER from the Nanite mesh, there will be LARGER clusters (Low LODS)

*Think of each cluster as its own LOD

So the camera renders what it needs to and culls everything else. Clusters give more controls on what exactly gets rendered. 

Anything NOT in the camera view is culled. Even if part of it is in view, it won't be culled but most likely use a lower LOD.

UVs and Texturing

When UVing and Texturing Nanite Meshes, there will be a change in the usual pipeline to get it in game. 

Resources:

How to Texture props for Nanite - https://youtu.be/lrvPduSC4c8

UE5 Tutorial – Nanite - https://youtu.be/ADIldob0Sxg

Nanite in UE5: The End of Polycounts? - https://youtu.be/xUUSsXswyZM

Absolute Beginners guide to UE5 | Nanite - https://youtu.be/9NgDle3J9lo

How to make Nanite Meshes for Unreal Engine 5 in ZBrush and Substance Painter! - https://youtu.be/uxTteEHDhtA  

Summer Semester Research

 This semester, I will be researching the Ue5 Nanite specific workflow. When I think of Nanite, I think of high-poly meshes that can directly import right into the engine with no loss of detail. So it can be directly from ZBrush, without having to bake onto a separate mesh. I can also use photogrammetry scans in my project. I am still unsure about which type of high poly mesh I will include. Most likely a statue of some kind. Since I have never used it and the engine is fairly new, I have to admit, it is a bit worrying about using such a high poly mesh in Unreal. But given that it plays a big part in this newer version, it should work out just fine.

Here is an example from the Unreal Engine 5 Demo. In the first, the mesh is extremely detailed, looking like something out of a film. The second one, you can see that these meshes consist of LOTS of tris. Yes, these are the wireframes for the rocks. It's mindblowing.

Practice based on goals from Artist Inspirations

 For industry review, I decided to make a small environment so I can practice with my composition and lighting skills while also using assets from common art that I made. Not only that but I wanted to try some extra things as well such as video textures and creating a custom skysphere. 

Artist Inspirations

 ArtStation Artist Inspirations

ArtStation - DEATHLOOP / Labs, Michael INTILLA

ArtStation - "DEATHLOOP" - Manor Cliffs - Berezin's Manor, Jeremy Cerisy

ArtStation - Detective's Attic, Silke Van Der Smissen

ArtStation - NOVA III SpacePort Station, Maxime LARIVIERE

ArtStation - Viscera [UE4], Alec Tucker

ArtStation - Kashmir Restaurant, Daniel Hinckley

ArtStation - Spaceship corridor, Alvaro Elorduy

ArtStation - Dead by Daylight - Gideon Meat Plant, Adriano Grasso

ArtStation - Alien:Isolation, Ben Matthews

ArtStation - Inspired by Resident Evil 3 Unreal Engine 5 Lumen, Pasquale Scionti

ArtStation - Titanfall 2 - Ship to Ship, Kristen C. (Wong) Altamirano

I chose these specific pieces of art because:

• I love the way that the atmosphere immerses the audience in different ways with the lighting and the post process.
• The composition is something I need to work on when laying out my environments and I think these references do a great job doing just that.
•  I like to experiment in different styles that are semi realistic to realistic.
• Each piece is either focused on the model or the texture but I wonder if I can combine both to make something better.
• Although it is a bit on the technical side, I would like to learn Substance Designer because I feel like I am a better texturer artist (in substance Painter at least) than a modeler in most situations.

Initial Goals

 Looking to get into the themed attractions industry. 

• Universal Creative, Walt Disney Imagineering, Falcon's Creative

 I would like to be an environment artist or a real-time generalist, specializing in hard surface and semi-realism.

• Virtual Production:
• ILM, Netflix

• Game Studios: 
• Medium to AAA
• ILM x Lab, Xbox Game Studios, Epic Games, Valve