u/AgainstAllBugs

Trying to make a crowd but it's killing performance?

Smart VAT's the answer. Bake Skeletal and Alembic animations straight to a texture, getting rid of all bones.

Works with multi-object and multi material characters such as Mixamo characters.

Features:

Optimized output textures by discarding static vertices and normals.
Further optimization by matching vertices and normals that have the same movement.
Preview optimization on a mesh before exporting.
Blend multiple animations together by using the Timeline as the animation source.
Can merge multiple meshes together when baking.
Texture Array creation or multiple Material IDs for merged meshes.
Fully customizable options like Naming Convention and Texture Settings.
Create your own export presets to speed up the process.
Preset that exports straight to a Particle System that spawns your animated mesh.
Several assets and shaders included to showcase the tool.