From what i have seen, using “stats scenerendering” and watching the draw calls, I have seen no change, except when there are multiple materials. Most static meshes that I have seen make use of only one material. I actually had to do some searching to find meshes that came with multiple materials applied to them for my testing. But let’s say, I create a set of stairs, and each mesh has one material applied, and let’s say, there are 500 stairs that are generated (yeah, it’s long way up to the goose that lays the golden egg), and makes all the steps Instance static meshs, there will still only be around 50 to 80 drawcalls. depending on how your looking, the angle of the steps, etc.
From my understanding, either the mesh is painted with the “static” way, or it’s painted with a dynamic material instance, it’s going to take the same number of draw calls, now if you have two distinct materials,that can generate more calls, but the number of parameters doesn’t play into this at all.
Guess I could have generate 1000 static meshes, with 7 materials on em, and see what we get, versus the same 1000 meshes as ISMs, and see how the 7 materials still impact it, versus 1000 static meshes that only is set up for one material. Then watch scenerendering, to see what it says.