High-Fidelity Volumetric 3D Impostors For Blender

Alex Heskett, known as the developer of the Instant Impostors add-on, shared a comparison between a 126,000 tris tree mesh and 178 tris impostor, using GN-assisted baking and complex shader.

Although impostors are commonly used in real-time game engines, this system is designed for Blender and is "far more intensive than what is usable for any game engine system":

The developer also pointed out that this system is not a one-click fix for all performance issues. Shader complexity and the 3D texture used to store data affect performance. However, as previously mentioned, the objective is not real-time playback, it's to allow scenes to render faster than they would previously while still maintaining the same visual fidelity.

Take a look at the performance test with approximately 8K trees conducted by Alex with impostors on the left and mesh on the right:

According to the developer, this system will be incorporated into an update for Instant Impostors. The extension has just been upgraded for Blender 4.2, now featuring compatibility with Extensions, and, of course, EEVEE next.

Get it by clicking this link and follow Alex "HotdogNugget" Heskett on X/Twitter to not miss any development updates.

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