Work In Progress Demo Version:
This is an very early demo version that runs quite slow, the first release version will be much faster and the LOD popping will not be visible. You can control the LOD clusters via a slider and also shoot spheres with the spacebar. It already runs faster than the normal Unity rendering setup, to compare, you can toggle NanoTech ON and OFF.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1u4addNd6schPRQZ4ry_BU-ZuuN3e9Byq/view?usp=sharing(Windows 64bit version)
You can find more infos about this demo here: https://youtu.be/TKs_NeyjQFE
Minimum Goal ➜ Full-Time Work
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If the minimum goal of 50k is reached, I can work on this fulltime for a year, if not I have to get a freelancer job and the development will be slower! In that case, I can't fulfill the promised timeline. It will take four times longer than I planned. So if you want to have this tech this year, you should not hesitate supporting it.
I chose a higher main goal, because I want to make a team project out of it!
I think, there are still people that don't know that I'm working alone on this and need a budget to make this a team project. (See more infos below.)
Please tell every Unity developer you know about this project to make it happen soon! Thanks!
Short Summary
Hi, my name is Christian Kahler, I'm a software developer for many years. I worked on many challanging projects and always got great feedback from my clients e.g. Infinite-Realities, NEXT-Munich, BMW, Usaneers, SDP-Games and others. I'm an expert in shader programming and I have been working with Unity for over ten years.
Unity needs to keep up with next-gen technologies, that is why I'm helping with this project to make Unity a better game engine. I also worked with Unreal for some years but I still prefer Unity because I think Unity's core system is better designed than any other engine.
That is why I created "Nano Tech" a new powerful system, that can render any kind of high poly object with good performance. The system is still a prototype but it can already render high res scenes 10 times faster. This is not limited to high quality games also low poly games will run better with this system!
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With this system you can stop caring about the performance and focus on your project ideas only!
To make this system even better, contribute to this crowdfunding and I can deliver you a high quality product and more tools that will come in the near future e.g. Ray-Lights.
What You Get
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You can find more infos about the other assets here.
More details:
- If this crowdfunding does not succeed you will still get the perk you selected!
- The first release date is planned for the last quarter of this year. The first production ready version should be finished early next year depending on how well the crowdfunding performs.
- By contributing to this campaign you will recieve a much cheaper price compared to the later github sponsorware prices.
- As a backer you will also get access to Ray-Lights and other helpful tools when you contribute now. (You must select at least "The Bronze Supporter" to get them!)
- Once you become a backer you will be the first to get access to the source code and you will be the first to try out new demos and example projects.
- If we exceed the goal I will also hire some artists who will help me to create high quality demo scene(s) with many assets that will be free to use in any of your commerical projects, only accessible for backers.
- I will finish this project, even if we don't reach the entire goal. But with more funding I can increase productivity by hiring expert freelancers, who will help to finish this project earlier.
- If I would hire 12 freelancers for 1 year the goal budget would already be consumed. So the goal is reasonable for this kind of project. I'm already in contact with some great freelancers who are willing to help if they get paid.
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- Also I want to continue developing other helpful tools for Unity and the funding would contribute to these projects too.
- If we reach the main goal I will make Nano Tech and Ray Lights free for every backer!
The other tools will be available via github sponsorware.
- Find out more on https://github.com/Christian-Kahler/TheUnityImprover
The Impact
This project (and the other connected projects) will have a big impact on your development process:
- Your Unity project will run faster, because it now only uses one draw call for all meshes.
- Virtual texturing and virtual geometry will keep the memory consumption constant.
- You will be able to focus more on your main goals and won't waste time trying to optimize your 3D assets.
In the release version you can choose, which meshes should get imported as "Nano Mesh" and they will be automatically rendered with the Nano Tech system, that's it!
Extremely easy!
If this funding is successful I can continue to make great tools like Ray-Lights, which is similar to Lumen and will also increase the visual quality of your products. As said before also your mobile-, VR- or AR-projects will profit from these tools, so please help me to make a better production pipeline for everyone!
I already made some great tools in the past e.g. Cloth Dynamics but I never had the budget to really improve the quality of these assets so now is the time to make it right!
Challenges & Improvements
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I wouldn't be here running this campaign if I didn't already have a proof of concept. Therefore, the important pieces, like streaming, virtual texturing, mesh management and render-performance have been tested already and are performing well as we can see in the video.
But this is just the start: I will improve the streaming and data compression system and also rewrite the mesh creation tool. Currently I'm using a Fast-Quadric-Mesh-Simplification method, which takes a few minutes to create a "Nano Mesh". I want to optimize this process so it only takes a few seconds for any mesh to get imported. This can be achieved with parallel computing.
I'm also working on improving the quality of the generated "Nano Meshes". I'm currently testing a seam-aware-decimation algorithm on the GPU and other promising algorithms that will improve the system.
There are still some challenges to optimize the overall performance and quality of this system but the good news is that the main features are already working!
Other Ways You Can Help
- If you just can't contribute, please get the word out and make some noise about this campaign.
- Please use the Indiegogo share tools!
Refund Policy
- Indiegogo offers it's own refund policy!
- Additionally, I offer you a refund for 14 days (without questions), after you get access to Nano Tech. You can always rebuy for a higher price later! (This refund offer can not be applied to perks with "Early access" permission.)
You Don't Have A Credit Card
The Roadmap (TODO List)
The roadmap should show the best possible timeline, however if other tasks will come up the dates will be postponed. I also added some TODOs for the freelancers, if I get enough money, they could help me with the tasks after the campaign is over.
(I don't need the 1M for this, it would just be an ideal situation.)
The freelance developers I'm currently in contact with are Jason Booth, Manuel Kugelmann, Lior Canetti, Joshua Heindoerfer and Tom Schuller. You can find them on LinkedIn or Xing if you not already know them.
- Faster PartitionGraphSystem for DAG based on MultiagentAlgorithm. Code exists but needs optimization and conversion to JobSystem (and later GPU → freelancer Jason)
(est. 1-2 weeks)
- StreamingSystem needs optimization to run faster (current bottleneck, still causes some lags), plan is to better organize cluster-streaming, at the moment all clusters get loaded at once per layer, needs to be more granular. (Help from Tom or Lior would be great later)
(est. 1-3 weeks)
- CompressionSystem needs improvement and a better algorithm, plan is to use a zipped archive and open it during runtime, this needs testing if performant enough, alternative would be to write every cluster together in one file. At the moment they are separate and get combined later. (later → freelancer Manuel)
(est. 1-2 weeks)
- Workflow improvements, setup asset managment and trying to make the import process mostly automatic. Code cleanup and testing. (later → freelancer Josh)
(est. 1 week)
- Loading NanoMeshes in Scene Editor (currently only at runtime).
(est. 1 week)
→At this point the first EA users can join and test the system.
- Improve DAG / octree system, also testing if new DAG system works better without octree support. At the moment the octree approach is still too slow, could be much faster (20-30 fps more). (later → freelancer Jason (GPU part) and Manuel (CPU part))
(est. 2-4 weeks)
- Improve virtual texturing, some parts are still running slow on the CPU and could work much faster on GPU (no CPU readback needed). (later → any GPU freelancer)
(est. 1-2 weeks)
- Replacing Mesh simplifing algorithm with seam-aware-decimation algorithm and optimize performance, testing JobSystem and GPU approach. (later → freelancer Lior )
(est. 1-2 month)
Improving mesh compression and moving simple decoding functions to the GPU. (later → freelancer Tom )
(est. 1-2 month)
→At this point the first alpha version could be released.
- Testing system with VR (Should work out of the box, but still needs testing).
- (est. 1 week)
- Testing and optimizing system for mobile. Mainly adjusting shaders for mobile devices.
(est. 1-2 month)
- Writing support for skinned characters and other vertex animated objects.
(est. 1-3 month)
In the ideal situation (enough budget):
- If one task is done, it would be tested by a QA person who will find bugs, creates backlog items for later and also tests different code approaches.
- If I would have some helping artists, they could create a nice 3D-scanned demo level where the power of NanoTech could be tested and presented for all backers.
Nano Tech + Unity: This is the way!