Datasmith material instances.. how to convert?

Development Asset Creation
1

I’m attempting to understand the Datasmith export process regarding materials.
A scene that contains a hundred materials in my 3D max scene becomes material instances in Unreal, with about 10 parent materials.

I know that the export process approximates the final look when creating instances,
But now I have metal and concrete objects sharing the same parent material.

How can I edit the instance?
lets say i want to add additional masks and value changes to the instance material only.
The only editable node is the parent material, but making changes there would propagate everywhere.
Is there a way to convert the instance to a master material?

Whats the most efficient way of making these changes, or do i need to make a completely new material and re assign each property texture map?

2

Instance materials should be editable, i.e., you are able to modify their inputs. Those inputs are the inputs of the parent material graph and are scalar values, colors, vectors and textures.

If your materials are different enough that it involves a change in the Material Graph, then you will need different parents.

Here some more details on what Datasmith tries to do while converting from 3ds Max How Datasmith Translates 3ds Max Content for Unreal Engine | Unreal Engine 5.2 Documentation