VATMachine - GPU Animator & VAT Baker

Documentation | Support

VATMachine is a complete Vertex Animation Texture baker and runtime animation system for Unity.

Bake skeletal and mesh-based animations into textures, then play them through ordinary MeshRenderers using the included GPU playback shader. The generated VAT prefabs no longer require Unity Animators or SkinnedMeshRenderers at runtime, making VATMachine ideal for crowds, NPCs, creatures, RTS units, background characters, and repeated animated props.

Unlike a basic VAT exporter that stops after generating textures, VATMachine provides the animation tools needed to use those assets in real gameplay.

Key Features

• Animator-style visual graph with Entry, Any State, and Exit nodes
• Smooth transitions and scripted crossfades
• Bool, Float, and Trigger parameters
• Transition conditions, exit times, priorities, offsets, and interruption settings
• 1D blend trees for smooth locomotion and parameter-driven animation
• Per-state looping, playback speed, and speed multipliers
• Frame-based animation events with string parameters and object references
• Events supported by regular states and blend-tree motions
• Baked animation sockets for weapons, hats, backpacks, VFX, and other attachments
• Socket poses remain blended during animation transitions and blend trees
• Bake and play multiple LOD meshes using a shared animation clock
• GPU instancing support for compatible repeated characters
• Smooth interpolation between baked animation frames
• Optional animated normals and tangents for correct dynamic lighting
• Packed normal/tangent storage for lower memory usage and fewer texture samples
• Target profiles and GPU-memory estimates before baking
• Preview animation states and blend trees in the Editor
• Bake single-mesh or multi-part animated characters
• Comprehensive documentation with complete runtime scripting API
• Supports both URP and HDRP

Included examples demonstrate crowds, LOD playback, animation events, socket switching, and third-person character control.

Note: Some scenes, environments, and third-party assets shown in the screenshots and demonstration videos are for presentation purposes only and may not be included in this package.

Asset uses "First Person + Third Person | Character Controllers" by Unity Technologies under the Unity Companion License; see Third-Party Notices.txt file in package for details.