Happy New Year! 🎆
Yes, standard hair cards remain essential for optimization in production. However, when it comes to fades, there's a definite tradeoff with polycounts and keeping things performant. Baking them down to the existing head UVs can involve other external tools, etc.
For my latest character, I utilized a card-based workflow (via Bartosz Styperek’s Hair Tool in Blender) but focused on elevating the implementation.
I developed a "Dynamic Fade" solution where I focus on the quality first, and then use Geo Nodes and Cycles to transfer the pixel-perfect textures to an existing unwrapped head. This essentially keeps the pipeline to Blender > UE5, maintaining the high-fidelity look while remaining performant enough for actual gameplay.
Absolutely enjoy finding these time-savers in production. ✨