• Combine Mode

  • SkinnedMesh Combiner offers 4 different combination behaviours. They are:

    • Combine and Replace

      • Takes the target GameObject, combines it and replaces the original object

    • Combine to New

      • Creates a combined clone of the target GameObject, leaving the original alone

    • Combine to Prefab

      • Creates a prefab asset of the combined object

    • Combine on Start

      • Only available in the skinned mesh combiner component

      • Triggers a default combination on start

      • This is not recommended for production, as mesh combination is computationally expensive

• Draw Call

  • A draw instruction sent to the GPU. A packet of data describing the object the GPU has to draw, where it is, and the material used to render it.

  • In the most common circumstances, each mesh and material are a single draw call. 

  • By combining meshes together and combining their materials, the entire drawing of an object can be sent in a single draw call!

• Root SkinnedMeshRenderer

  • The user-defined root of the mesh combination operation

  • The root Skinned Mesh Renderer will define the following things about the combined result:

    • Texture Resolution

    • Armature (discounting any virtual bones)

    • Material instance (will be assigned a combined texture if applicable)

• Virtual Bones

  • When combining meshes onto an armature, the "create virtual bones" option will create new bone transforms as needed to map meshes without any bone weights onto

  • For example, a sword being combined onto a character mesh will use its transform as a bone for skinning. This allows you to move the bone around as you wish and even disconnect it from the armature

  • This allows you to add new meshes onto existing armatures and be involved in their animation, dynamically

Combining Meshes

1.     Attach a SkinnedMeshCombinerComponent to the parent of the SkinnedMeshRenderers / MeshRenders you wish to combine

2.   Tweak and assign desired settings

   1. •  Generally the auto-detect feature can find and assign the appropriate meshes and settings

      • Otherwise, you can manually assign / change any settings and reorder the collection of meshes as needed

3.     Choose which 

4.     Click generate!

Create Virtual Bone for a Single Mesh

1. Turn off "Create Virtual Bones"

2. Keep the meshes that you don't need to move dynamically as children of the armature

3. Take the thing you want to operate as a virtual bone out from under the armature entirely

4. Combine the meshes

5. Move that GameObject back under the bone parent you want it to follow