Take a deep dive into Nanite GPU-driven materials

Dana Cowley

April 25, 2024
Last month at the annual Game Developers Conference, Epic Games Engineering Fellow Graham Wihlidal presented “Nanite GPU-Driven Materials,” an advanced technical talk that takes a deep dive into Nanite's novel GPU-driven material pipeline and you can download the slides here.

This presentation details the GPU-driven material pipeline’s core components and explains how they fit into Nanite’s overall design while also addressing low-level technical details, including how artist-authored materials drive the rasterizer and how final shading is evaluated. 

The talk also covers an innovative variable rate shading technique, challenges of GPU-driven rendering, and learnings and optimizations that were discovered during the development of these new Nanite components.
Although several advanced technical talks have been given on Nanite to date, the GPU-driven material pipeline has only been briefly mentioned. This talk will help you acquire a deep, low-level understanding of how Nanite evaluates its fully GPU-driven materials for both programmable rasterization and final shading.

The recorded version of this talk is available on the GDC Vault (subscription required).

Want to see more?

To check out a few of our other talks on Nanite,
visit the Unreal Engine YouTube channel.

Similar blogs


Games

Unreal Fest Orlando 2025

Unreal Fest Orlando 2025 is coming! Get your tickets and buckle up for over 190 inspiring sessions across ten industry tracks. This year, for the first time ever, the State of Unreal will take place from Unreal Fest too—don’t miss it.

Games

Watch the Unreal Engine Beyond Games Sizzle

Check out some of the projects talented creators are using Unreal Engine for outside of games in this video, covering industries as diverse as film & TV, animation, broadcast & live events, automotive, architecture, and fashion.

unreal engine

In Absence - Love When It No Longer Speaks

After weeks of sculpting silence and shadows, I’m proud to share my new short film: “In Absence.” A 3D animated piece that began as a simple monologue but evolved into something more abstract and intimate. …