In this lesson, you will learn how to optimize your animation performance by storing complex pose calculations and reusing them throughout your AnimGraph.
The Problem: Redundant Calculations
When you build complex characters in Unreal Engine, your AnimGraph might perform the same heavy mathematical operations multiple times. For example, if you have a sophisticated "Full Body IK" setup or a procedural "Look At" head-tracking system, calculating these transforms once for your main locomotion state and again for a secondary overlay state is a waste of CPU cycles. If you calculate the exact same pose twice in a single frame, you are essentially asking your processor to do double the work for no visual gain.
The Solution: Cache Pose
The Cache Pose node acts like a "save point" for your animation data. By using a New Save Cached Pose node, you can perform your heavy calculations once, store the result, and then reference that result anywhere else in your AnimGraph using the Use Cached Pose node.
To implement this:
- Right-click in your AnimGraph and search for New Save Cached Pose.
- Connect your complex animation logic (like your Blend Spaces or IK nodes) into this node.
- Give your cache a descriptive name (e.g., "LocomotionCache").
- Wherever you need that specific pose again later in the graph, simply right-click and search for Use Cached Pose: [Your Name].
This ensures that the expensive math is only executed once per frame, regardless of how many times you reference that pose downstream. It is especially useful when blending multiple states that share the same underlying base movement, such as layering an additive hit reaction on top of a base run cycle without recalculating the run cycle transforms twice.
By adopting this workflow, you keep your animation blueprint lightweight, organized, and performant—essential for keeping high frame rates when managing multiple characters in your game world.
Key Takeaway: Use the Cache Pose feature to perform complex animation math exactly once per frame and reuse the result to maximize your game's performance.