GPU ECS Animation Baker
About GPU ECS Animation Baker – Unity Editor Tool & Plugin
Unity GPU ECS Animation Baker
GPU ECS Animation Baker converts existing Animators and Skinned Mesh Renderers into GPU ECS animators, with animations running entirely on the GPU. By combining DOTS ECS with GPU animation baking and instancing, it can support individually animated crowds containing tens of thousands of characters.
GPU Animation and ECS Workflow
During baking, the tool stores vertex bone weights in the mesh UV channels (uv1, uv2, and uv3) and records bone transforms for each frame in animation textures. At runtime, the Skinned Mesh Renderer is not used; a custom vertex shader processes the animation data while an ECS animation system updates the shader values each frame.
The vertex shader is implemented as a ShaderGraph Subgraph, allowing the animation functionality to be integrated into existing ShaderGraph shaders. The baker also supports LODs, blending, and transitions. Features supported by the Skinned Mesh Renderer can in principle be used during the baking process, although they do not mean the Skinned Mesh Renderer is used at runtime.
URP and HDRP Support
The package fully supports both URP and HDRP. The sample scenes are built in URP, and the Samples/Shaders folder contains both URP and HDRP variations of the sample shaders. The sample scenes can also be converted to HDRP for projects using that pipeline. Built-in Render Pipeline projects are not compatible.
Use Cases
- Real-time strategy projects featuring large armies of individually animated characters.
- Unity crowd scenes where many characters need individual animation while using an ECS and GPU-based animation workflow.
- Projects that need to incorporate GPU animation into existing ShaderGraph shaders.
Asset Details & Specifications
| Category | Tools / Animation |
|---|---|
| Latest Version | v1.3.6 (2 tracked releases) |
| File Size | 271.60 MB |
| Added to Platform | February 6, 2026 |
| Views | 6 views |
| Downloads | 2 downloads |
| Favourites | 0 favourites |
| Official Store | Buy Original License on Unity Asset Store → |
| Issue with Package? | Report Broken Link → |
Real Import Test Result (Unity Editor Verified)
| Tested on | 2022.3.62f3 (LTS) |
|---|---|
| Test Project | Universal Render Pipeline (URP) |
| Test Date | 2026-10-09 |
| Import Result | Imported cleanly |
| Import Duration | 33 s |
| Files Imported | 903 |
| Size on Disk | 301 MB |
| Console Errors | 0 |
| Console Warnings | 0 |
| Required Packages | [email protected], [email protected] |
| Missing Scripts | 0 |
