Description
Describe the project you are working on
The Godot editor 🙂
Describe the problem or limitation you are having in your project
Parallax mapping is either always enabled or always disabled in a given material. This is problematic for low-end setups as parallax mapping is a demanding feature, especially when "deep parallax" is enabled.
Describe the feature / enhancement and how it helps to overcome the problem or limitation
There should be a way to globally disable parallax mapping to improve performance on low-end devices. For mid-range devices, we can also allow using non-"deep parallax" materials but make "deep parallax" materials fall back to non-"deep parallax".
When falling back from "deep parallax" to non-"deep parallax", we will also need to decrease the parallax mapping intensity as non-deep parallax doesn't handle steep height changes well.
Edit: Fixed in master by godotengine/godot#50383.
This proposal does not impact materials that have parallax mapping disabled.
Describe how your proposal will work, with code, pseudo-code, mock-ups, and/or diagrams
Add a project setting that allows globally controlling the parallax mapping quality with three possible values:
- None: Disables parallax mapping in all materials (default on mobile).
- Simple Parallax Only: Keep parallax mapping settings as-is for materials that use non-"deep parallax". For materials with "deep parallax" enabled, disable it and decrease the parallax scale factor (see below).
- Simple Parallax + Deep Parallax: Keep parallax mapping settings as-is (existing behavior, default on desktop).
If this enhancement will not be used often, can it be worked around with a few lines of script?
This can be implemented by an add-on. However, it's not exactly simple to make it work for all scenes with minimal intervention, especially if materials are created or loaded at run-time.
Is there a reason why this should be core and not an add-on in the asset library?
This is about improving performance on low-end devices such as integrated graphics and mobile/web platforms.