OpenVAT · Blender extension
Vertex Animation for Real-Time Use
View/Download On Blender Extensions
OR use Preferences > Get Extensions
and search "OpenVAT"
Animate ‧ Encode ‧ Deploy
OpenVAT is a Blender-native toolkit for baking Vertex Animation Textures (VATs) — enabling engines and DCCs to semalessly play back complex animated deformation as vertex offsets on GPU via low-cost vertex shaders. OpenVAT takes VATs a step further by leveraging animated modifier stacks, dynamic simulations and geometry-node-based animation workfows for real-time use.
Why OpenVAT?
I’m always looking for ways to enable artists and animators while helping real-time projects stay within performance budgets. OpenVAT exists because Vertex Animation Textures (VATs) offer a rare blend of flexibility and performance — letting you bake mesh deformation into textures that play back efficiently on the GPU, bypassing the need for complex rigs, runtime simulations, or heavy caches.
What sets OpenVAT apart from other VAT tools is that it’s fully Blender-native and captures deformation from Blender’s evaluated dependency graph. That means it supports any vertex-level animation — including Geometry Nodes, modifiers, shapekeys, simulations, or even third-party plugins like AnimAll. If it visually deforms in Blender, OpenVAT can record it.
OpenVAT enables animation workflows that are otherwise impossible to export — bringing procedural and simulated effects into game engines that would normally require complex in-engine setups or be outright unsupported by formats like FBX or Alembic.
VATs aren’t meant to replace traditional rigging or animation systems outright, but they shine in specific scenarios: when you need baked simulations running on low-spec hardware, massive instancing of animated assets, or stylized deformation that would be too expensive or fragile to run live.
OpenVAT makes that workflow visible, customizable, and optimized — no black boxes, no guesswork.
Licensing
OpenVAT (the Blender extension) is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPL-3.0).
A large part of my mission with this tool is education and accessibility. You are free to use, modify, and distribute OpenVAT — including in commercial projects — as long as your project is also open source and licensed under a GPL-compatible license.
❌ You cannot integrate OpenVAT into proprietary or closed-source software without a separate commercial license.
Like any Blender render, OpenVAT output is free of license restriction and may be used commercially.
Provided shader templates for Engines are licensed under a more flexible MIT license, as to not unintentionally carry GPL requirements into production.
If you need to include OpenVAT in a closed-source toolchain, middleware, or product, please contact me to discuss alternative licensing options.