Price history
Recorded standalone sale prices and the latest available store price, in USD. Historical dots use the sale start date and its recorded offer price. Prices can change during a sale; this is not a daily price log. Bundle prices and upcoming offers are excluded. History covers up to the 100 most recent recorded offers.
Lowest recorded standalone price in this history: FREE. The latest store price is FREE, matching the lowest recorded price shown here.
View 2 recorded prices
| Sale start / price check | Price | Observation |
|---|---|---|
| FREE | Latest store price | |
| FREE | Unity First Price 2026-06-20 2026-06-27 |
Sale and bundle history
The 1 most recent recorded offers including this asset. Past offers may no longer be available. Bundle prices cover a package, not this asset alone.
About BoneFuser
- Tools, Systems & Learning > Development Tools & Automation
BoneFuser: Skinned Mesh Weight Optimizer
BoneFuser is a free, Editor-only utility that optimizes Skinned Mesh Renderers by mathematically merging vertex skin weights and shrinking the active bone array.
The Skinning Overhead
While deep transform hierarchies carry a CPU cost, the primary performance bottleneck for rigged characters is the Skinned Mesh Renderer (SMR) skinning evaluation. Every frame, an SMR must send an array of bone matrices (the matrix palette) to the GPU. The shader then looks up these matrices, applies the bone weights (up to 4 per vertex), and calculates the final vertex position.
When a mesh is imported with dense extremity bones—such as individual finger joints, toes, or facial nodes—the SMR is forced to iterate through a massive bone array. If a character is an RTS unit, a distant NPC, or wearing heavy rigid gloves, evaluating these complex vertex deformations for barely visible bones creates a compounding, unnecessary drain on performance.
How the Optimization Works
Simply disabling child GameObjects in your scene hierarchy does not solve this skinning overhead; the SMR still retains the bone references in its array and allocates memory for them. To actually optimize the pass, the mesh data itself must be modified.
BoneFuser automates this process without destroying your original source assets. When you assign a deletion root (e.g., the base of a finger), the tool:
Steps through the mesh's vertex data.
Identifies all vertices weighted to the targeted bone and its children.
Merges and re-normalizes those weights backward up the hierarchy into the nearest surviving parent bone (e.g., the hand).
Generates a new, optimized .asset mesh with a reduced SkinnedMeshRenderer.bones array.
By shrinking the active bone array, the matrix palette sent to the GPU is reduced, resulting in a cheaper skinning pass. Once the mesh dependency is permanently severed, the targeted transforms become true dead weight and can be safely deleted or disabled from the hierarchy.
The Dual-Mode Workflow
Because rig optimization is highly contextual, BoneFuser operates in two distinct modes to protect your existing project data:
Mode 1: Targeted Mesh Mode (Sibling Workflow): Designed for modular clothing or isolated asset extraction. Instead of modifying an entire character, you target specific Skinned Mesh Renderers (e.g., a pair of heavy boots). The tool clones the SMR as a sibling in the hierarchy, assigns the newly optimized mesh data, and deactivates the original. This provides a safe A/B testing environment and leaves the underlying character rig completely untouched, ensuring that un-targeted meshes (like the base body) remain intact.
Mode 2: Global Character Mode: Designed for down-resing entire background NPCs or crowds. You assign a character root, and the tool processes every Skinned Mesh Renderer in that hierarchy simultaneously. Because all meshes are stripped of their reliance on the targeted bones, it becomes safe to manipulate the hierarchy. BoneFuser can then automatically disable or destroy those orphaned bone GameObjects (processing bottom-up to prevent standard Unity null reference errors).
Limitations & Scope
To ensure this tool fits your specific use case, please note its practical limitations:
It does not reduce polycount: The vertex and triangle counts of your mesh remain exactly the same. Only the underlying transform dependency and matrix palette are optimized.
It is not an auto-rigger or retargeter: It will not add bones, generate new weights from scratch, or resize clothing to fit different character proportions.
Do not fuse what you need to animate: If your game requires fully articulated, animated fingers, do not fuse them. This tool is strictly for removing articulation from extremities where it is no longer visually necessary.
Zero-Bloat Footprint
BoneFuser is an Editor-only utility housed within its own Assembly Definition. It contains no demo scenes, textures, or unnecessary tutorial assets. It weighs only a few kilobytes and leaves absolutely zero footprint on your compiled runtime build. Furthermore, because it only manipulates mesh data and bindposes, it is inherently compatible with any render pipeline (Built-In, URP, or HDRP).
BoneFuser is a free, Editor-only utility that optimizes Skinned Mesh Renderers by mathematically merging vertex skin weights and shrinking the active bone array.
The Skinning Overhead
While deep transform hierarchies carry a CPU cost, the primary performance bottleneck for rigged characters is the Skinned Mesh Renderer (SMR) skinning evaluation. Every frame, an SMR must send an array of bone matrices (the matrix palette) to the GPU. The shader then looks up these matrices, applies the bone weights (up to 4 per vertex), and calculates the final vertex position.
When a mesh is imported with dense extremity bones—such as individual finger joints, toes, or facial nodes—the SMR is forced to iterate through a massive bone array. If a character is an RTS unit, a distant NPC, or wearing heavy rigid gloves, evaluating these complex vertex deformations for barely visible bones creates a compounding, unnecessary drain on performance.
How the Optimization Works
Simply disabling child GameObjects in your scene hierarchy does not solve this skinning overhead; the SMR still retains the bone references in its array and allocates memory for them. To actually optimize the pass, the mesh data itself must be modified.
BoneFuser automates this process without destroying your original source assets. When you assign a deletion root (e.g., the base of a finger), the tool:
Steps through the mesh's vertex data.
Identifies all vertices weighted to the targeted bone and its children.
Merges and re-normalizes those weights backward up the hierarchy into the nearest surviving parent bone (e.g., the hand).
Generates a new, optimized .asset mesh with a reduced SkinnedMeshRenderer.bones array.
By shrinking the active bone array, the matrix palette sent to the GPU is reduced, resulting in a cheaper skinning pass. Once the mesh dependency is permanently severed, the targeted transforms become true dead weight and can be safely deleted or disabled from the hierarchy.
The Dual-Mode Workflow
Because rig optimization is highly contextual, BoneFuser operates in two distinct modes to protect your existing project data:
Mode 1: Targeted Mesh Mode (Sibling Workflow): Designed for modular clothing or isolated asset extraction. Instead of modifying an entire character, you target specific Skinned Mesh Renderers (e.g., a pair of heavy boots). The tool clones the SMR as a sibling in the hierarchy, assigns the newly optimized mesh data, and deactivates the original. This provides a safe A/B testing environment and leaves the underlying character rig completely untouched, ensuring that un-targeted meshes (like the base body) remain intact.
Mode 2: Global Character Mode: Designed for down-resing entire background NPCs or crowds. You assign a character root, and the tool processes every Skinned Mesh Renderer in that hierarchy simultaneously. Because all meshes are stripped of their reliance on the targeted bones, it becomes safe to manipulate the hierarchy. BoneFuser can then automatically disable or destroy those orphaned bone GameObjects (processing bottom-up to prevent standard Unity null reference errors).
Limitations & Scope
To ensure this tool fits your specific use case, please note its practical limitations:
It does not reduce polycount: The vertex and triangle counts of your mesh remain exactly the same. Only the underlying transform dependency and matrix palette are optimized.
It is not an auto-rigger or retargeter: It will not add bones, generate new weights from scratch, or resize clothing to fit different character proportions.
Do not fuse what you need to animate: If your game requires fully articulated, animated fingers, do not fuse them. This tool is strictly for removing articulation from extremities where it is no longer visually necessary.
Zero-Bloat Footprint
BoneFuser is an Editor-only utility housed within its own Assembly Definition. It contains no demo scenes, textures, or unnecessary tutorial assets. It weighs only a few kilobytes and leaves absolutely zero footprint on your compiled runtime build. Furthermore, because it only manipulates mesh data and bindposes, it is inherently compatible with any render pipeline (Built-In, URP, or HDRP).