Quick Start

1. Project requirements

• Unity 2022.3 LTS or newer
• URP 14+ installed and assigned (one-shot helper provided)
• Optional: com.unity.formats.alembic if you want to bake Alembic exports
• com.unity.visualeffectgraph for VFX Graph Sprite VAT capture

2. Install the URP pipeline asset

The first time you open the project:

Tools → EQLabs → EQ VAT Lab → Setup → Create + Assign URP Pipeline Asset

This creates a UniversalRenderPipelineAsset at Assets/EQLabs/EQVAT_Output/Pipeline/EQVATLab_URPAsset.asset, assigns it to Edit -> Project Settings -> Graphics -> Scriptable Render Pipeline Settings, and sets it on every QualitySettings quality level. (Skip this if your project already has URP set up; the helper is non-destructive but redundant.)

3. Bake your first VAT

Tools → EQLabs → EQ VAT Lab → Open Editor

Switch to the Baker tab. Pick a mode:

Mode	Source	Best for
Bone	SkinnedMeshRenderer + AnimationClip	Crowd characters; small textures (one column per bone)
Vertex	SkinnedMeshRenderer + AnimationClip	Heavy non-LBS deformation (cloth, muscle ripple)
Alembic	GameObject with AlembicStreamPlayer	Houdini / Marvelous Designer cache playback
Sprite	ParticleSystem (Shuriken)	Smoke / debris / FX with stable particle identity
VFX Graph Sprite	EQVATVFXGraphCaptureSource	VFX Graph particles exposed through EQVAT output-event capture

Drag in the source asset, set output folder + base name, click Bake. The default output folder is Assets/EQLabs/EQVAT_Output/, outside the package source. The progress bar walks you through sample -> encode -> save.

The Baker: pick a quality profile, and the texture cost is shown before you bake.

4. Place the result

After a successful bake, the <base>_VATMeta.asset is selected in the Project view. Its Inspector shows everything that was created:

• Output mesh — SK_<base>_VAT.asset (Bone / Vertex) or SM_<base>_VAT.asset (Alembic / Sprite / VFX Graph Sprite)
• Textures — <base>_BonePos, <base>_BoneRot, etc.
• Materials — one MI_<orig>_VAT.mat per submesh

Drop the mesh into a scene with a MeshFilter + MeshRenderer, assign the materials, and enable Animated Materials in the Scene view’s Effects toolbar. The VAT mesh animates without an Animator, on the GPU.

The source character beside its baked copy, which plays the same walk from two textures with no Animator.

5. Optional: attach a child to a baked socket

If your source rig had child Transforms named *_Socket / *_Sock, the Bone baker captured their per-frame transforms into <base>_VATSockets.asset.

To attach a weapon / FX / collider to a socket:

1. Add a child GameObject under the baked VAT renderer
2. Add Component → EQ VAT Lab → EQ VAT Socket Tracker
3. Set Data = the <base>_VATSockets.asset, Socket Name = the source socket name, VAT Renderer = the parent’s MeshRenderer
4. The child Transform now follows the GPU-skinned animation