Nanite Displacement Bounds Mismatch Causes Floating Terrain Artifacts on Landscape

Summary

When Nanite Tessellation (Nanite Displacement) is enabled on a Landscape in UE 5.7.3, scaling the Displacement value via Multiply nodes in the material graph causes floating terrain ghost artifacts appearing above the tessellated surface. Clearly observable in Unlit view mode and Nanite Overview.

Details

Nanite Displacement's internal Bounds/Culling calculation appears to not reflect the material graph's actual Displacement output range, always assuming the maximum range ([0, 1]). This causes clusters to be allocated in space where no actual displacement exists, which manifests as artifacts when the camera moves. Narrowing the output range via Multiply in the material graph increases the gap between the assumed and actual range, making the artifact more sever

Temporary workaround

Remove Multiply from the Displacement pin and control intensity exclusively via DisplacementScaling Magnitude. However, this limits per-layer balance control when using multiple Landscape layers.

Steps to Reproduce (video attached)

1. Create a new project (UE 5.7.3 vanilla).

2. Create a Landscape and enable Nanite Tessellation.

3. In the Landscape material, generate a value using a Noise node or similar source and connect it to

the Displacement pin.

4. Apply a Multiply node to scale the Displacement value (e.g., x0.1).

5. Remove all visual elements from the scene except the tessellation surface.

6. Switch to Unlit view mode.

7. Position the viewport camera close to the tessellation surface and rotate it toward the sky.

8. Move the camera and observe floating terrain ghost artifacts appearing separately from the

tessellation surface.

Results

When moving the camera, floating terrain ghost/artifacts with incorrect offset appear above the Landscape tessellation surface.

• Particularly visible in dark environments.

• Observable in both Unlit view mode and Nanite Visualization.

• The smaller the Multiply scale value, the more severe the artifact.

Expected

Regardless of how the Displacement output is configured in the material graph, the actual surface position and Nanite's internal Bounds calculation should match, preventing unnecessary artifacts from appearing in the air