¶ What is InstaLOD for Unity?
InstaLOD for Unity enables you to optimize 3D meshes and scenes from within Unity. Full support for both static and skeletal meshes optimizations as well as complex mesh operations make InstaLOD the ultimate solution for 3D optimization in Unity.
¶ Compatibility
InstaLOD for Unity runs on both macOS and Windows.
The following versions of Unity are supported: 2021 LTS, 2022 LTS, and 2023.2.
Please note that non-LTS (Long-Term Support) versions, such as Unity 2023, may have limited support due to frequent updates that can introduce breaking changes.
Our development team strives to implement support for the most recent software release at the earliest possible opportunity.
¶ Prerequisites
InstaLOD has been built on Windows using Visual Studio 2019 and requires the installation of the Visual C++ Redistributables for Visual Studio 2019. If you have already installed Visual Studio 2019 or later on your workstation, the installation of the Visual Studio 2019 redistributables is not necessary.
¶ Where to Download InstaLOD for Unity
The latest version of InstaLOD for Unity can be found in the InstaLOD License Management Web App under the Your Files section of the home page.
¶ Installing InstaLOD for Unity
To install InstaLOD for Unity you need to manually copy files from the InstaLOD for Unity.zip archive into your Unity project's assets directory.
- Download and extract the
InstaLOD for Unity.ziparchive. - Inside the extracted
InstaLOD for Unityfolder, copy theInstaLODfolder into your project'sAssetsdirectory.
The next time you will open your Unity project, InstaLOD for Unity will be available and ready to be configured.
¶ Updating from a previous version of InstaLOD for Unity
Before installing the latest version of InstaLOD for Unity, delete the InstaLOD folder from your project's Assets folder. Install the latest version of InstaLOD for Unity as described in the previous chapter.
¶ Machine Authorization
Your workstation needs to be authorized before InstaLOD for Unity can be used. If your machine has already been authorized for InstaLOD you can start using InstaLOD for Unity without further actions.
To authorize your machine, spawn either the InstaLOD or the InstaLOD Toolkit window by selecting it from the Window menu. Enter your license information and press Authorize to request a license for your workstation.
Once a license has been installed, InstaLOD for Unity is fully operational. Your workstation is now authorized for use with InstaLOD. Make sure to deauthorize your workstation before uninstalling InstaLOD, or you will not be able to authorize another workstation.
¶ Machine Deauthorization
It is important to deauthorize your machine before uninstalling InstaLOD for Unity or your seat/node will remain locked.
To deauthorize your workstation, spawn either the InstaLOD or the InstaLOD Toolkit window by selecting it from the Window menu.
Click the ? tab and select the Deauthorize to display the deauthorization UI elements.
Enter your license information and press Deauthorize Workstation to deauthorize your workstation.
Deauthorization takes 24 hours to complete. Until the deauthorization cycle is fully complete, the seat/node will remain locked and cannot be used to activate another machine.
¶ Using InstaLOD for Unity
InstaLOD is fully integrated into Unity and all features are now available to you.
All operations run offline and asynchronously inside Unity, so you can keep on working on your scene while your data is being processed.
¶ Create a game object LOD chain
InstaLOD supports automatic LOD generation for both static and skinned meshes. To create a LOD chain for your game object, select the game object in the viewport or hierarchy and spawn the InstaLOD window by selecting it from the Window menu.
If the selected game object has either a Mesh Renderer or a Skinned Mesh Renderer assigned, the InstaLOD window will update to prompt you to create a LOD Group component for the selected game object. Once the selected game object has a LOD Group component assigned, the InstaLOD window will update to display the LOD setup of the game object. By default, a Unity LOD group contains three entries and only the first entry is properly set up with the base mesh.
Press Create missing LODGroup entry and InstaLOD will automatically create the missing mesh for the selected LOD group entry. By default, newly created LOD group entries are set up to use 50% triangles of the previous LOD group entry.
Therefore, pressing the Create missing LODGroup entry again to create LOD2 will create another optimization at 25% triangles in relation to the base mesh.
To create additional LOD group entries or modify when individual LOD group entry transitions occur, simply modify the LOD Group assigned to the game object.
Right-clicking the LOD Group component UI allows you to insert or delete entries, dragging the separator allows you to change when the transition occurs.
All per-game-object InstaLOD settings will be persisted in the InstaLODSettingsComponent that is automatically assigned to your game object.
By default, InstaLOD will perform a polygon optimization when creating new LOD chain entries. However, InstaLOD for Unity also supports the creation of imposters and remeshed geometry as LOD chain entry by changing the
Mesh Operationvalue.
¶ Using the InstaLOD Toolkit
The InstaLOD Toolkit enables Unity developers to perform complex mesh operations inside Unity that are normally only available in DCC tools.
Easily remesh large scenes or 3d scanned data, create high-quality imposters, merge all your scene materials onto a single texture, or remove hidden faces from your geometry. Nearly the entire suite of InstaLOD's powerful mesh operations is available, right inside Unity.
To get started, spawn the InstaLOD Toolkit window by selecting it from the Window menu.
Select the mesh operation you want to perform and select all meshes that you want to process in the viewport or the hierarchy.
All selected materials and the number of meshes will be displayed in the toolbox.
Configure the settings for the mesh operation and press the confirmation button at the bottom of the window to start the mesh operation.
Please refer to the InstaLOD Pipeline documentation for an overview of all features.
¶ Vertex-based optimization weights
InstaLOD supports vertex color-based optimization weights when performing polygon optimizations.
This is a great way to give artists full control over the optimization.
- Vertex Pinning, use the blue vertex color channel to mark vertices as important. Values between [0...1] will increase the weight of the vertex. A value of 1 marks the vertex as pinned and therefore not as collapsible.
- Vertex Cullable Detail, use the red vertex color channel to mark vertices as cullable detail. Values between [0...1] will decrease the weight of the vertex. A value of 0 means the vertex will be culled as early as possible.
InstaLOD will only accept vertex color channels that have an empty green channel.
Avoid using both RED and BLUE for a single vertex. If both RED and BLUE colors are used on the same vertex the high color value will determine the weighting type. It is recommended to use pinning instead of culling, to avoid interfering with the optimization strategy of the optimizer.
To enable vertex-based optimization weights, check the Vertex Colors As Weights checkbox under the Advanced settings of the Optimize operation.
¶ Importing Settings from an InstaLOD Profile
To import mesh operation settings from a saved InstaLOD profile, navigate to the Setup tab and select Load Profile.
The integration will apply the settings from the profile to the dedicated tab for the loaded mesh operation.
To successfully load a profile into the integration, the profile must contain a single mesh operation entry. Profiles containing multiple mesh operations are currently not supported.
¶ Website
Please visit http://www.InstaLOD.com to stay up to date!
Thank you for using InstaLOD.