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Negative scaling a skinned mesh renderer

Discussion in 'General Graphics' started by adslitw, Oct 19, 2021.

  1. adslitw

    adslitw

    Joined:
    Aug 23, 2012
    Posts:
    275
    Hi,

    I've got a situation involving loads of animations that would be made A LOT easier by just negative scaling (i.e. flipping) the skinned mesh renderer (so the gameobject scale would be -1,1,1).

    However I'm fairly sure I read a long time ago that negative scaling is a bad idea... for some reason! Can anyone shed any light on whether this is still the case, and if so, why?

    There are no child colliders of anything like that to worry about.
     
  2. bgolus

    bgolus

    Joined:
    Dec 7, 2012
    Posts:
    12,329
    Nope, there aren't any issues with negative scaling on skinned meshes.

    Physics & Collision, yes. Particle Systems, sometimes. Skinned Meshes, no.
     
  3. adslitw

    adslitw

    Joined:
    Aug 23, 2012
    Posts:
    275
  4. bgolus

    bgolus

    Joined:
    Dec 7, 2012
    Posts:
    12,329
    It might be more expensive if you're using some of Mecanim's more advanced retargeting features. But for the general case we've certainly never had any issues.
     
  5. adslitw

    adslitw

    Joined:
    Aug 23, 2012
    Posts:
    275
    OK that's great, thank you! I think I'll push on with that approach (unless @Mecanim-Dev appears with dire warnings!).

    Just for context, I'm using a generic rig, and the animation rigging package for IK.