UE5 Mesh decals and deferred shader

Hey can someone just clarify if this is a new workflow in UE5:

I have a texture with 10 different marks that I want to be 10 different deferred decals. I know how I can make mesh decals out of them. I know how they could be deferred decals and that, as long as they are on a 10x10 grid I can change the uv coordinates parameters in the material instance to have them as different deferred decals showing the right mark.
I was told though that I in UE5 you can just have mesh decals and apply a deferred shader to them? Is this a thing? If so, is this cheaper than having 10 material instances?
Would I just have 10 mesh decals and then add a deferred shader to them and it works?

Apologies if this is a stupid question I am just trying to wrap my head about the best workflow.

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Oh wow- A VERY BIG bump from me on this - I have found microscopic amounts of information on actual custom static meshes being used as a Deferred Decal in UE5 - plenty for UE4 but not UE5. Yes - what you want to do is completly doable - exactly like you said - but, as opposed to UE4 - the shader complexity view shows red - very expensive. I used to use hundreds of static mesh decals like this in UE4 to wrap around corners, follow uneven terrain, with little impact to performance except the extra draw calls - but in UE5 - it seems very expensive. It works perfectly, but wow, very expensive. Just to be clear - a normal flat basic Dbuffer decal works fine and appears green in shader complexity view - but add it to a plane or mesh… RED. So my question is… is this actually the case? Is the shader complexity view telling me the truth? I know it’s more of a guideline, but still, not all wear can be achieved through masks on the 2nd UV channel, without adding a lot of extra geometry in many cases.

Are static mesh decals in UE5 using the Dbuffer domain just simply this expensive now? 'Cos this is pretty much a show stopper for me from a workflow perspective.

Im so looking forward to hearing I’m being a moron and missing somthing or, the shader complexity view is kinda’ broken.
:wink: