1 vs multiple static mesh components

Hello, what I am wondering is I have some walls that i made in my 3d modeling program, and I have just arrayed them around to form the structure that I have as my game object.

What I would like to know is, I can see many benefits for only exporting the 1 wall out as my static mesh and building the same structure in via component duplication, so that I can add delay on the various pieces for like a staggered appearance effect or something.

I know you can do this as 1 static mesh with some cleaver use of mats and logic, but just for this specific compare.

Would adding the same wall and positioning it in the blueprint upwards 20-40 times as a duplicate consume a noticeably different amount of overhead that just imported it duplicated from the 3d modeling program?

Thanks

10k poly is 10k poly.
Its way easier to work with in a single mesh, but, that’s up to you and how much time you want to spend with it.

Blueprints has the ability to automatically combine them in gameplay to reduce drawcalls while also allowing you to control them individually in the Blueprints. It’s best to keep the number of drawcalls low for performance. With something very simple like flat walls you should try and make it one mesh unless there’s a functional reason to split up the walls. There’s also lighting to consider, I believe that instanced static mesh Blueprints will still render the lighting for each object separately which can be good but with walls it means each one will have slightly different lighting.

Isn’t many meshes preferred for culling purposes?

Yes and no.
Lets say you have a massive building - do you want half of it loaded or the entire thing?
Its really up to the designer on that respect.

There are issues on both sides of the fence here:

For example, if you build your wall out of individual bricks, then you are going to get too many draw calls. You will have awesome culling, so you will only render exactly what is visible, but that wont matter.

You could layout your level, then group your geometry and combine them into room size pieces in UE using Merge Actors or you could lay them out in your favorite DCC like Modo or Maya and just export them as rooms.

Best approach is to test your scene using tools like: stat scenerendering

There are several options for further optimizing them: http://www.casualdistractiongames.com/single-post/2017/01/07/UE4—Overview-of-Static-Mesh-Optimization-Options