How to make POM not so heavy?

rohMizuno

I am trying to implement  parallax occlusion mapping on a game inside UE4, but that thing seems to have a pretty strong hit on performance, what makes me wonder, how games like Paragon have been using it?

I already have so its steps are controlled bases on the camera distance, but I would appreciate if anyone have any tips and tricks on how to be able to use it in a game and still keep performance good.

Obscura

You could try using an LOD material, that has POM disabled.
Also, how many steps are you using, when its viewed from close?

rohMizuno

In this case its been used as decals on the terrain, so for being on that angle that make the POM so obvious I am reaching 100 steps. Would you be able to say how much is too much?

Obscura

Thats insane. Also, I'm assuming, you use it with world coordinates, because its a decal.
Would you mind showing some screenshots? I can't really imagine what would require 100 steps. Maybe you should do some adjustments to the shapes in your texture, make them less steep, so you dont need that many steps. An ideal step count would be like 16-32, maybe double for very high quality...But thats expensive.

rohMizuno

I think you actually just solved my problem, I am not using it with world coordinates, and since they are being applied to a bit a slope he thinks I am looking from and angle in which  I am not, that is probably why I am having to add some many steps in order to make it smooth. Thanks man!

Obscura

Cool! And thanks, because you made me try the parallax with decal again. I tried it earlier, and it didn't work. 

Edit - On mesh decals, it still doesn't work.