@Nate hi there, 1st time user here. I watched your videos but I have a bit of a problem. I converted all my floor planes into a single instance using your tool, but the draw calls seem unchanged. I also had a bit of a lag on the 1st time I played the level after converting the said planes.
Any tips?
Hi @Jujaswe, the drawcalls reported in level editor viewport is not always accurate, you can check more accurate mesh drawcall numbers by click “Play - Standalone Game”, then press “`” key to invoke console window, type in “stat scenerendering” to view rendering stats.
Here’s a test scene with 82 cylinders:
When placing cylinders as normal static mesh actors: http://i.imgur.com/DoG4pSc.jpg
When placing cylinders as HISM instances: http://i.imgur.com/JP5u7AU.jpg
Hi @Nate, I just started using this. My mobile scene went from 20fps to 50fps, pretty big difference! It’s a really essential tool.
Just four points/questions:
I came across the mirrored asset bug which is mentioned earlier, I assume this is not fixed yet in UE? The shadows etc were still being cast, but the asset appeared invisible/glitched for some reason.
The names/labels/tagging of the assets is a little confusing at first, so I wasn’t sure what I was working with after a while - as far as I can tell, by default (most use cases), when you instance an actor, the original actor’s rendering is turned off and it’s then moved into the source actors folder. And then when you convert the instance back into an actor, it doesn’t use the original actor but creates a new copy that is placed in converted and that one can also be manipulated directly with your plugin tool. Something like that…?
Is there a way to easily ungroup instances into new groups or something? When I first used the tool, I just selected a bunch of stuff in the outliner to convert into instances, but then later realized I didn’t like how they were grouped/was difficult to work with/move around. And then I kind of made a mess with converting stuff (as in point 2), but no worries I’ll get used to it…
A lot of walls/assets have a dashed seam inbetween instances… any idea how to fix these? The attached screenshot shows HISMA instances at the top (with the seam) and the bottom parts are actors which appear fine. I’d be really happy to know what is causing this.
Edit: Seems you need to right click that image and click open in new tab to see it fully. Not sure why you can’t just left click it… but whatever.
As far as i know that the bug hasn’t been fixed yet. The workaround is that either avoid using mirrored asset with instancing or create an new HISMA for all mirrored assets (with mirror apply on HISMA but not instanced meshes).
It seems that part of the confusion comes from the fact the naming of converted actor is generated and hard to find in the scene outliner. I’ll add option to let user specific the naming of converted actors in future update.
It’s a renderer issue, log within UE-17458: Unreal Engine Issues and Bug Tracker (UE-17458). It’s current status is “Backlogged” so probably won’t be fixed in official release anytime soon. I fixed that in my own repository and will submit it to Epic as a pull request soon.
That’s great news, thanks. It happened again on completely different assets so I was really confused!
But anyway, can’t state how essential this tool is. My mobile games are now much faster, thanks! And I haven’t even tested the good stuff yet 
Hey there @Nate !
i have question! if i convert all my static mesh actors into a single instanced static mesh actor in a engine with the plugin, and later I move the project to other engine version without the plugin, I will lose the stuff? or the generated instanced static mesh actor will keep working without the plugin? if it keeps working I will buy this!
Thanks!
Hi @WhitmanAndOlbert, the converted instanced static mesh actor will works without the plugin. Actually you can just disable the plugin after the conversion if you only need the convert function.
Heya ! I have a question, I never worked with instances before. and I was wondering if instances could be used for objects that spawn, for example collectable objects. Or are they only good for static mesh ?
Hi @Tuxmask75, you can use instanced static mesh for both static or dynamic objects.
Here’s a video showcase how to use instances within blueprint.
Instance Tool 1.2.4 for 4.18 update is now live on itch.io. Marketplace version submitted.
Thanks Nate - The Marketplace version has shown up, but when I click install “Slot to add plugin to: 4.18” it does nothing. I think it may be launcher bug. I tried re-launching the launcher.
Can you test and see if yours works?
@OptimisticMonkey , yes, the 4.18 version shown up but currently can’t be downloaded, it seems the actual file not been staged in the server correctly. I have sent mail to marketplace support, will post update when I got reply. Thanks for bring it to my attention!
I cant get the Mesh Tool plugin to install into 4.18, I click on the install to engine button and click on 4.18 but nothing happens 
same here and same problem with all plugins… it seems that launcher can’t simply install plugin in 4.18 folder…
Sorry folks, I tried to update all my plugins to 4.18 the same day 4.18 released, but so far only 2 of them (Prefab Tool and Instance Tool) been updated successfully. Both Pivot Tool and Mesh Tool have their status been updated to 4.18 but can’t be downloaded from launcher yet.
I’ve been contacting Unreal Marketplace support and trying to re-update the plugins at the same time. I wish those issues could be addressed soon and sorry again for the downloading problems. I’ll update the status here when I got reply from marketplace support.
Instace Tool 1.2.5 update is now live on both Unreal Marketplace and itch.io.
1.2.5
------------------
* Add option to frame viewport to indicate actor or instance selection
* Fix potential editor crash when convert/add instances in 4.17.2
There’s a 4.17.2 specific bug fix for potential editor crash when converting/adding instances. The cause of the bug is that in 4.17.2 render data of instances static mesh component might not be initialized properly (it’s fixed in 4.18).
You might also noticed that in this update, there’s a red/green frame over viewport to indicate whether you’ve selected an actor or an instance.
Actor selected.
Instance selected
The option can be turn on or off in Options panel. Also the frame color can be customized there.
Loving the tool but I am having difficulties getting my LODs to work. Does anyone have a few simple steps or know a tutorial for HISM and LODs? So far I’ve found scale needs to remain at 1 (in level and in blueprint) and the material needs the “Dither LOD Transition” checked.
My draw calls are way down but my triangles are now 4x because LODs are not working.
Hi, I’m setting up discord server for all my tools:
Please feel free to post discussion / feature request / bug report in either place.
( I’m travelling from 14.Nov 2017 to 1 Dec.2017, and will be more active on discord when I’m back.)
Could you explain how to use it with a spline?