Understanding Mesh Technologies: The Future of Connectivity

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Description

This class enables you to create or modify meshes.

Meshes are composed of vertices and multiple arrays defining triangles.

Conceptually, all vertex attributes are stored in separate arrays of equal length. For instance, if a mesh contains 100 vertices and each vertex has a position, normal, and two sets of texture coordinates, then the mesh will have four arrays—vertices, normals, uv, and uv2—each with 100 elements. The data for the i-th vertex is located at index i in each corresponding array.

Each vertex can have attributes such as position, normal, tangent, color, and up to eight texture coordinate sets. Texture coordinates are typically 2D vectors (Vector2), but can also be Vector3 or Vector4 when needed, often to store custom data for shader effects. In the case of skinned meshes, vertex data may also include bone weights.

The mesh’s faces—its triangles—are defined by groups of three vertex indices. For example, a mesh with 10 triangles will have a triangles array containing 30 integers, where each consecutive group of three numbers specifies the vertices forming one triangle.

While triangle meshes are the most common, Unity also supports other mesh topologies such as lines or points. In line meshes, each line consists of two vertex indices, and so forth. Refer to SetIndices and MeshTopology for more details.

Simple vs. Advanced Mesh API

The Mesh class offers two categories of methods for assigning data via scripts. The "simple" methods provide a straightforward way to set indices, triangles, normals, tangents, and more. These methods include built-in validation to prevent issues like out-of-range indices, making them the standard and safest approach for modifying Mesh data in Unity.

Examples of these "simple" methods are: SetColors, SetIndices, SetNormals, SetTangents, SetTriangles, SetUVs, SetVertices, and SetBoneWeights.

On the other hand, the "advanced" methods allow direct manipulation of mesh data, giving you control over whether validation checks are performed. Designed for advanced scenarios where maximum performance is crucial, these methods skip safety checks—so it’s the developer’s responsibility to ensure data correctness. They offer faster execution but come with increased risk if used improperly.

The "advanced" methods include: SetVertexBufferParams, SetVertexBufferData, SetIndexBufferParams, SetIndexBufferData, and SetSubMesh. Additionally, MeshUpdateFlags let you specify which validations to apply or bypass. For high-performance workflows, you can use AcquireReadOnlyMeshData to get a read-only snapshot of mesh data compatible with C# Jobs and Burst. To create or modify meshes within these systems, use AllocateWritableMeshData combined with ApplyAndDisposeWritableMeshData.