Whenever I upload something to Unreal Engine 4 using Datasmith it turns my materials into instances; This extra layer of complexity is really annoying and I want to just avoid it completely but when I looked on the forums the epic people gave some speech about how it’s more efficient and the “right way” to do it. Is there a way to get around these control freaks?
You could use python or dataprep to re apply masters but that will cost you performance wise
This may be a very old post, but is being referenced as false evidence that instances are somehow magically cheaper than materials, whereas, in fact they cost just the same by design.
An instance being a copy.
I would love to see an official response about instance performance with some significant stats or something other than hearsay on this.
Everyone should use instances, but that’s because of ease of use and the ability to change the base material to have changes occur across all of the instances.
Not because performance is somehow magically better.
I was almost entirely sure instances were lighter, not in performance, but in vram/storage space
I can see that, being they are a linked copy…
I would consider them akin to deriving a class.
The file you use to derive the class is essentially empty until you make changes.
Still, this doesn’t mean that just using a material without an instance costs you performance - particularly not a one off.