A class that allows creating or modifying meshes from scripts.
Meshes contain vertex data (Positions, Normals, TexCoords etc.) and "face" data,
with faces most often being triangles.
Conceptually, all vertex data is stored in separate arrays of the same size. For example, if you have
a mesh of 100 Vertices, and want to have a position, normal and two texture coordinates
for each vertex, then the mesh should have vertices, normals, uv and uv2
arrays, each being 100 in size. Data for i-th vertex is at index "i" in each array.
For every vertex there can be a vertex position, normal, tangent, color and up to 8 texture coordinates.
Texture coordinates most often are 2D data (Vector2), but it is possible to make them
Vector3 or Vector4 if needed. This is most often used for holding arbitrary data in mesh
vertices, for special effects used in shaders. For skinned meshes, the vertex data can also
contain boneWeights.
The mesh face data, i.e. the triangles it is made of, is simply three vertex indices for each triangle.
For example, if the mesh has 10 triangles, then the triangles array should be 30 numbers,
with each number indicating which vertex to use. The first three elements in the triangles array are
the indices for the vertices that make up that triange; the second three elements make up
another triangle and so on.
Note that while triangle meshes are the most common use case, Unity also supports other
mesh topology types, for example Line or Point meshes. For line meshes, each line
is composed of two vertex indices and so on. See SetIndices and MeshTopology.
Simple vs Advanced Mesh API
The Mesh class has two sets of methods for assigning data to a Mesh from script. The "simple" set of methods provide a basis for setting the indices, triangle, normals, tangents, etc. These methods include validation checks, for example to ensure that you are not passing in data that would include out-of-bounds indices. They represent the standard way to assign Mesh data from script in Unity.
The "simple" methods are: SetColors, SetIndices, SetNormals, SetTangents, SetTriangles, SetUVs, SetVertices, SetBoneWeights
There is also an "advanced" set of methods, which allow you to directly write to the mesh data with control over whether any checks or validation should be performed. These methods are intended for advanced use cases which require maximum performance. They are faster, but allow you to skip the checks on the data you supply. If you use these methods you must make sure that you are not supplying invalid data, because Unity will not check for you.
The "advanced" methods are: SetVertexBufferParams, SetVertexBufferData, SetIndexBufferParams, SetIndexBufferData, SetSubMesh, and you can use the Rendering.MeshUpdateFlags to control which checks or validation are performed or omitted.
Manipulating meshes from a script
There are three common tasks that might want to use the Mesh API for:
1. Building a mesh from scratch:
should always be done in the following order:
a) Assign vertices
b) Assign triangles.
using UnityEngine;
public class Example : MonoBehaviour { Vector3[] newVertices; Vector2[] newUV; int[] newTriangles;
void Start() { Mesh mesh = new Mesh(); GetComponent<MeshFilter>().mesh = mesh; mesh.vertices = newVertices; mesh.uv = newUV; mesh.triangles = newTriangles; } }
2. Modifying vertex attributes every frame:
a) Get vertices
b) Modify them
c) Assign them back to the mesh.
using UnityEngine;
public class Example : MonoBehaviour { void Update() { Mesh mesh = GetComponent<MeshFilter>().mesh; Vector3[] vertices = mesh.vertices; Vector3[] normals = mesh.normals;
for (var i = 0; i < vertices.Length; i++) { vertices[i] += normals[i] * Mathf.Sin(Time.time); }
mesh.vertices = vertices; } }
3. Continously changing the mesh triangles and vertices:
a) Call Clear to start fresh
b) Assign vertices and other attributes
c) Assign triangle indices.
It is important to call Clear before assigning new vertices or triangles.
Unity always checks the supplied triangle indices whether they don't reference out of bounds vertices.
Calling Clear then assigning vertices then triangles makes sure you never have out of bounds data.
using UnityEngine;
public class ExampleClass : MonoBehaviour { Vector3[] newVertices; Vector2[] newUV; int[] newTriangles;
void Start() { Mesh mesh = GetComponent<MeshFilter>().mesh;
mesh.Clear();
// Do some calculations... mesh.vertices = newVertices; mesh.uv = newUV; mesh.triangles = newTriangles; } }
bindposes | The bind poses. The bind pose at each index refers to the bone with the same index. |
blendShapeCount | Returns BlendShape count on this mesh. |
boneWeights | The bone weights of each vertex. |
bounds | The bounding volume of the Mesh. |
colors | Vertex colors of the Mesh. |
colors32 | Vertex colors of the Mesh. |
indexFormat | Format of the mesh index buffer data. |
isReadable | Returns true if the Mesh is read/write enabled, or false if it is not. |
normals | The normals of the Mesh. |
subMeshCount | The number of sub-meshes inside the Mesh object. |
tangents | The tangents of the Mesh. |
triangles | An array containing all triangles in the Mesh. |
uv | The base texture coordinates of the Mesh. |
uv2 | The second texture coordinate set of the mesh, if present. |
uv3 | The third texture coordinate set of the mesh, if present. |
uv4 | The fourth texture coordinate set of the mesh, if present. |
uv5 | The fifth texture coordinate set of the mesh, if present. |
uv6 | The sixth texture coordinate set of the mesh, if present. |
uv7 | The seventh texture coordinate set of the mesh, if present. |
uv8 | The eighth texture coordinate set of the mesh, if present. |
vertexBufferCount | Gets the number of vertex buffers present in the Mesh. (Read Only) |
vertexCount | Returns the number of vertices in the Mesh (Read Only). |
vertices | Returns a copy of the vertex positions or assigns a new vertex positions array. |
Mesh | Creates an empty Mesh. |
AddBlendShapeFrame | Adds a new blend shape frame. |
Clear | Clears all vertex data and all triangle indices. |
ClearBlendShapes | Clears all blend shapes from Mesh. |
CombineMeshes | Combines several Meshes into this Mesh. |
GetBaseVertex | Gets the base vertex index of the given sub-mesh. |
GetBindposes | Gets the bind poses of the Mesh. |
GetBlendShapeFrameCount | Returns the frame count for a blend shape. |
GetBlendShapeFrameVertices | Retreives deltaVertices, deltaNormals and deltaTangents of a blend shape frame. |
GetBlendShapeFrameWeight | Returns the weight of a blend shape frame. |
GetBlendShapeIndex | Returns index of BlendShape by given name. |
GetBlendShapeName | Returns name of BlendShape by given index. |
GetBoneWeights | Gets the bone weights of the Mesh. |
GetColors | Gets the vertex colors of the Mesh. |
GetIndexCount | Gets the index count of the given sub-mesh. |
GetIndexStart | Gets the starting index location within the Mesh's index buffer, for the given sub-mesh. |
GetIndices | Fetches the index list for the specified sub-mesh. |
GetNativeIndexBufferPtr | Retrieves a native (underlying graphics API) pointer to the index buffer. |
GetNativeVertexBufferPtr | Retrieves a native (underlying graphics API) pointer to the vertex buffer. |
GetNormals | Gets the vertex normals of the Mesh. |
GetTangents | Gets the tangents of the Mesh. |
GetTopology | Gets the topology of a sub-mesh. |
GetTriangles | Fetches the triangle list for the specified sub-mesh on this object. |
GetUVDistributionMetric | The UV distribution metric can be used to calculate the desired mipmap level based on the position of the camera. |
GetUVs | Gets the UVs of the Mesh. |
GetVertices | Gets the vertex positions of the Mesh. |
MarkDynamic | Optimize mesh for frequent updates. |
RecalculateBounds | Recalculate the bounding volume of the Mesh from the vertices. |
RecalculateNormals | Recalculates the normals of the Mesh from the triangles and vertices. |
RecalculateTangents | Recalculates the tangents of the Mesh from the normals and texture coordinates. |
SetColors | Set the per-vertex colors of the Mesh. |
SetIndices | Sets the index buffer for the sub-mesh. |
SetNormals | Set the normals of the Mesh. |
SetTangents | Set the tangents of the Mesh. |
SetTriangles | Sets the triangle list for the sub-mesh. |
SetUVs | Sets the UVs of the Mesh. |
SetVertices | Assigns a new vertex positions array. |
UploadMeshData | Upload previously done Mesh modifications to the graphics API. |
hideFlags | Should the object be hidden, saved with the Scene or modifiable by the user? |
name | The name of the object. |
GetInstanceID | Returns the instance id of the object. |
ToString | Returns the name of the object. |
Destroy | Removes a GameObject, component or asset. |
DestroyImmediate | Destroys the object obj immediately. You are strongly recommended to use Destroy instead. |
DontDestroyOnLoad | Do not destroy the target Object when loading a new Scene. |
FindObjectOfType | Returns the first active loaded object of Type type. |
FindObjectsOfType | Returns a list of all active loaded objects of Type type. |
Instantiate | Clones the object original and returns the clone. |
bool | Does the object exist? |
operator != | Compares if two objects refer to a different object. |
operator == | Compares two object references to see if they refer to the same object. |