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Package details
- Latest version
- 1.1.0
- Last updated
- First released
- Unity version
- 6000.3.9 or later
- Package size
- 11.5 MB
- Files
- 56
- Favorites
- 8
- Views in the past week
- 19
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- Lowest recorded
- $4.99 on
Keywords
- Search for DOTS Animation
- Search for entity component system
- Search for Vertex Animation Texture
- Search for ECS
- Search for GPU Animation
- Search for Skinned Mesh
- Search for vat baker
- Search for crownd simulation
- Search for bake animation to texture
- Search for Crowd Rendering
- Search for burst
- Search for dots
VAT Baker
- Price drop
Vertex Animation Textures for everyone: bake once, play everywhere. ECS/Burst for massive crowds, or a drag-and-drop MonoBehaviour for standard scenes
Lowest recorded price
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VAT Baker screenshot 1
About this asset
VAT Baker is a Vertex Animation Texture system for Unity that converts standard SkinnedMeshRenderer animations into GPU textures. Play back animations without the CPU cost of bone skinning — with full DOTS/ECS support, or in standard scenes with a simple MonoBehaviour, no DOTS required.
TWO WORKFLOWS, ONE ASSET
• ECS / DOTS workflow: bake a prefab with VATAnimationAuthoring for SubScenes. Burst-compiled systems with GPU instancing — highly performant for thousands of animated entities.
• MonoBehaviour workflow (NEW): bake a prefab with VATAnimationController for regular scenes. No ECS, no SubScenes — just drag the prefab in, pick a clip, and play.
WHAT IT DOES
• Bakes standard mesh animations into GPU textures for GPU-driven playback
• Runtime playback via ECS systems or a MonoBehaviour with MaterialPropertyBlock — zero per-frame allocations
• Multiple animation clips per model with real vertex-shader crossfade blending (Mono path) and configurable crossfade duration
• Playback control: play by name or index, pause, resume, seek, speed multiplier, and live clip switching from the Inspector at runtime
• Animation finished events (OnAnimationFinished) for triggering gameplay logic
• Configurable frame rates: 12, 24, 30, or 60 fps
• Automatic clip detection from FBX sub-assets, Animator Controllers, and legacy Animation components
• Correct bake for scaled models and multi-level hierarchies (multiple SkinnedMeshRenderers supported)
SHADERS INCLUDED
• URP: Lit and unlit variants for ECS/DOTS, plus a dedicated Lit Mono shader with ShadowCaster, DepthOnly and DepthNormals passes
• Built-in Render Pipeline: Standard surface shader for the Mono workflow
• The baker auto-selects the correct shader for your active render pipeline
CUSTOMIZABLE ASPECTS
Frame rate, clip selection, crossfade duration, playback speed, material properties (via ECS components or the VATAnimationController), and the shader system itself.
SUITABLE FOR
Games requiring high entity counts with animations — strategy games, MMO/RPGs, simulations, mobile games — or any project needing GPU-accelerated character playback at scale where traditional skinned meshes would bottleneck performance. Works in Unity 2022.3+ on URP and the Built-in Render Pipeline; Entities/Burst only required for the ECS workflow.
INCLUDED
• 2 playable sample scenes with camera controls
• Baked sample characters and an ECS random spawner demo
• Full documentation (PDF + Markdown) and quick-start guide
• Source code included (MIT license)
From the publisher's Asset Store listing.
Technical details
• Two bake pipelines in one editor window (Tools > VAT Baker):
- ECS Baker: generates a DOTS prefab with VATAnimationAuthoring (converts to entities in SubScenes)
- Mono Baker: generates a standard prefab with VATAnimationController (no DOTS required)
• Position data baked into compact RGBAHalf textures (texture width = vertex count, multi-row support for large meshes)
• Configurable bake frame rates: 12, 24, 30, or 60 fps, with vertex precision options
• Per-clip frame data stored in a ScriptableObject (VATAnimationData): frame count, start frame, length, and name per clip
• Automatic animation clip detection from FBX sub-assets, Animator Controllers, and legacy Animation components
• Supports multiple SkinnedMeshRenderers per model and correctly bakes scaled/non-uniform model hierarchies
• ECS runtime: Burst-compiled ISystem (VATAnimationSystem) with crossfade via VATCrossfade components, and an animation event dispatch system (VATAnimationEventDispatchSystem) for gameplay events
• Mono runtime: VATAnimationController MonoBehaviour drives playback through MaterialPropertyBlock (zero per-frame allocations), with Play(name/index), pause, resume, seek, speed multiplier, and OnAnimationFinished events
• Real vertex-shader crossfade blending in the Mono shaders via _AnimTime, _AnimIndex, and _AnimBlend material properties
• Shader library:
- VAT_AAA/URP/VAT_Character_AAA (unlit, DOTS instancing)
- VAT_AAA/URP/VAT_Character_AAA_Lit (lit, DOTS instancing)
- VAT_AAA/URP/VAT_Character_AAA_Lit_Mono (lit, per-renderer properties, ShadowCaster + DepthOnly + DepthNormals passes)
- VAT_AAA/Standard/VAT_Character_Standard (Built-in Render Pipeline surface shader)
• Automatic shader/material selection based on the active render pipeline (URP or Built-in)
• Sample content: 2 playable scenes, baked sample characters, ECS random spawner demo, and full PDF + Markdown documentation
• Requirements: Unity 2022.3 LTS or newer; URP 14+ for URP shaders; Entities 1.4+ and Burst 1.8+ only for the ECS workflow
Compatibility
| Unity version | Built-in | URP | HDRP |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6000.3.9f1 | Compatible | Compatible | Not listed |
As listed on the Asset Store.