# Packed Level Actor BP is Instancing Meshes Wrong

**URL:** <https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/packed-level-actor-bp-is-instancing-meshes-wrong/1827536>\
**Category:** World Creation\
**Tags:** unreal-engine, instancing, Blueprint, question\
**Created:** [April 29, 2024, 5:58am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/packed-level-actor-bp-is-instancing-meshes-wrong/1827536 "2024-04-29T05:58:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 10\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![LillithMoonX](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@LillithMoonX](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/LillithMoonX)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2024, 5:58am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/packed-level-actor-bp-is-instancing-meshes-wrong/1827536/1 "2024-04-29T05:58:12Z")

</div>

I’m having some issues with a packed level actor. There are multiple doors on a building I am putting together, and when I build it in the empty level, it looks fine. But once I have it packed into the BP, when it instances all the meshes, it instances the wrong doors together, so some are showing the inside of the door on the outside, instead of instancing ones together that face the same direction. Is there any way to manually adjust the instancing? Or any other suggestions?  
One picture of how it looks in level, and how its supposed too, and one image of how its showing in BP with one of the doors being darker (that’s the inside side) than the other. There are 6 of these doors on the building on different sides (12 meshes total, all the same Static Mesh)

 ![image](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/5/d/e/5dee48911b801bc3e7fcb4b169d764ec128ee2f0.jpeg)

 ![image2](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/0/b/2/0b22a7c37afbee4aa210eda9096628bbe5809ddf.jpeg)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![RecourseDesign](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/recoursedesign/32/1194503_2.png) [@RecourseDesign](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/RecourseDesign)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2024, 6:37am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/packed-level-actor-bp-is-instancing-meshes-wrong/1827536/2 "2024-04-29T06:37:18Z")

</div>

Hi,

Are the left side doors scaled negatively? That can break instances.  
If they are negatively scaled, you can fix it by duplicating the mesh, mirroring it and resetting the scale to positive - I’ve just submitted an update to rdMeshTools that can do that automatically for all selected actors.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![LillithMoonX](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@LillithMoonX](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/LillithMoonX)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2024, 3:24pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/packed-level-actor-bp-is-instancing-meshes-wrong/1827536/4 "2024-04-30T15:24:48Z")

</div>

They are not scaled at all, they are rotated and that’s it. Do you think the rotation would also cause this breaking of the instancing? Many other meshes on the building are rotated as well and they arent giving me the same effect, only the doors.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![RecourseDesign](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/recoursedesign/32/1194503_2.png) [@RecourseDesign](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/RecourseDesign)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2024, 6:15pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/packed-level-actor-bp-is-instancing-meshes-wrong/1827536/5 "2024-04-30T18:15:32Z")

</div>

Rotation should be fine -maybe as a test can you replace that mesh with something else and try creating a PLA using that?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![LillithMoonX](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@LillithMoonX](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/LillithMoonX)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2024, 5:14pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/packed-level-actor-bp-is-instancing-meshes-wrong/1827536/6 "2024-05-02T17:14:53Z")

</div>

Ya if i replace the doors with another mesh in the same location, they work fine. The door is 1 Static mesh, should I make a variant of it that is just the rotated position and call it a day? I was hoping there would be some way of telling the instancing which meshes specifically to instance together, but maybe that just isn’t a thing?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![RecourseDesign](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/recoursedesign/32/1194503_2.png) [@RecourseDesign](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/RecourseDesign)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2024, 5:33pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/packed-level-actor-bp-is-instancing-meshes-wrong/1827536/7 "2024-05-02T17:33:03Z")

</div>

yes - sometimes meshes just do that - not often though.

In a PLA the same meshes get instanced in the same component - but each instance of the PLA in the level has it’s own ISM components, so you still end up with quite a few drawcalls when there are many in the level.

A more optimal way of creating instances is to use a singleton instance manager (all instances are handled in one place). That groups all instances of the same mesh together.

I have a couple of tools on the marketplace that can do that - rdInst is the c++ instance manager for the fastest instances, and rdBPtools which can be used to create prefabs using rdInst.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![LillithMoonX](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@LillithMoonX](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/LillithMoonX)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2024, 6:22pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/packed-level-actor-bp-is-instancing-meshes-wrong/1827536/8 "2024-05-02T18:22:08Z")

</div>

hmm well essentially, I just want to find the most optimal way of handling a lot of static meshes in one scene, but without nanite (working for VR quest 2 so options are limited). Like this cathedral is well over 100 meshes as it’s a modular kit. And I don’t want to just merge it, since any modifications after the merge are annoying to do. What do you suggest?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![RecourseDesign](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/recoursedesign/32/1194503_2.png) [@RecourseDesign](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/RecourseDesign)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2024, 6:36pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/packed-level-actor-bp-is-instancing-meshes-wrong/1827536/9 "2024-05-02T18:36:25Z")

</div>

I’d recommend using a singleton instance manager - you could make one yourself (just one actor that you call to create instances etc) or use rdInst from the marketplace.

With rdInst, the next release makes it very easy - all you have to do is add one tag to your blueprints “rdConvertToISMs” and it automatically harvests everything it can at beginplay - I’m hoping to submit the update with that this weekend.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![LillithMoonX](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@LillithMoonX](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/LillithMoonX)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2024, 7:00pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/packed-level-actor-bp-is-instancing-meshes-wrong/1827536/10 "2024-05-02T19:00:23Z")

</div>

> [@RecourseDesign](#):
>
> rdInst

hmm unfortunately I’m on a project that won’t allow external plugins from the marketplace. Trying to find a solution native in UE5.3. And I’m not knowledgable enough to write my own. What would be the next best solution?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![RecourseDesign](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/recoursedesign/32/1194503_2.png) [@RecourseDesign](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/RecourseDesign)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2024, 7:26pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/packed-level-actor-bp-is-instancing-meshes-wrong/1827536/11 "2024-05-02T19:26:31Z")

</div>

OK, the next most optimal thing you can do is to merge them into single meshes, but otherwise the PLAs are probably going to be as optimal as you can get.

I’ve got some benchmarks covering things like simple actors, prefabs, PLAs and rdInst instancing here:

> **[rdBPtools - BenchMarks - Recourse Design ltd.](https://recourse.nz/index.php/rdbptools-benchmarks/)**
>
> rdBPtools – BenchMarks Last Updated: 2nd August 2023 rdBPtools creates highly optimized assets – fully instanced and with the minimum of components. Actors, child actors, and their components are assimilated into a single blueprint with only things...
