Great video! Just one thing I'd like to point out is that by breaking an instance, you are making it a unique collection of assets, and it will have its own draw call and rendering time. There's a rendering benefit of instances where they are all collectively rendered in a single draw-call, so it's helpful if you make them less obviously identical, and then just re-mix them by adding a mesh on top of the instance, rather than breaking the instance and then subtracting a mesh from the collection. Think of it like tiling textures; you want to strive to hide the really obvious repetitions to begin with and you'll get more benefit from them.
@@naufaldihilmi8507 Both of them have less draw calls than non-instanced meshes. It says the Packed LA is more optimized one, and that one only allows static meshes, though it's the one that contains a BP. I'm not an optimization expert, but been looking up information on them today.
problem is packed level actors work with hlod, but they dont have functionality or lights.. or decals. The other problem is regular level instances cannot be baked into hlod or combined into other hlods. Unless you make the hlod in the level instance itself... (which i am not sure it even works correctly for me.. it keeps saying its unbuilt when placed in my scene and causes lag spikes every 20 seconds(my hope because of that.)... So basically these are worthless unless your only combining static meshes in the packed level actor.
Something I don't understand here is why do this level instancing method over creating blueprint actors with your set pieces in? Doesn't creating a child blueprint actor mean that everything is instanced for the child when it's in the level?
Well, to be frank I am not entirely sure 😅 You do get blueprints with instanced meshes by using a Packed Level Actor like in the video which is pretty handy in case you need to add functionality to those instanced meshes, I mostly use level instances to speed up level creation processes rather than adding extra functionality to them, although I do see that there is some potential with packed level actor BPs where you can customize them a lot and have nice amount of functionality with them but I havent really explored them that in depth yet Hope this was at least a little helpful 😃
@@populusart Would you be willing to try and do a benchmark video for this? Haha, spawn 10,000 assets using blueprint actor groups, in a different level spawn 10,000 with level instances, and another with packed level instances? Then compare the frame rates and memory footprints for each level. If there's no FPS difference maybe scale up until you see a difference? I would like to know the performance difference as well. I think packed level actors have some issues with packing blueprints, whenever I try packing an ALS blueprint actor into a packed instance for an item that I can pick up I get some warnings.
As far as I have found out, since the documentation is pretty sparse on this matter, packed level actors are more optimized since they are calling from instanced static meshes, apart from that I dont really know much the effects on optimization. Hope I was at least a little bit useful :)
I havent done this while packaging so I have no clue maybe someone else will come around to answer the question, I also looked up in the docs but didnt find anything that would suggest you should include them, but again I havent tried it so I am clueless
do you create assets in blender? Been looking into learning game development but i think i just wanna learn 3d design i am so fascinated by anything related to making games.
Well blender is an essential program in my asset making workflow BUT, I definitely use more than 1 program for my 3D models, I usually sculpt my assets so the workflow goes something like: Modelling In Blender > Sculpting in ZBrush > Texturing in Substance Painter Of course you can skip ZBrush and sculpt in blender and you can even texture in blender but these 2 programs just make the whole process so much easier I hope I clarified a few things at least 😁
@@populusart I really appreciate the response. I feel like after years I have found something that could be a nice hobby or more. 3d design has been grabbing my attention lately after building a village on the game Valheim lol
I had this problem with packed level actor that I add a box collider to the blueprint and when I edit the packed level actor like moving a mesh or something the box collider just get destroy. I also try to add it into the level map but I get the same error. Do you have the same problem?
Hmm, I have never had a similar problems with packed level instances or blueprints for that matter. I am not really sure how I could help you to resolve the issue sorry 😅
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Great video! Just one thing I'd like to point out is that by breaking an instance, you are making it a unique collection of assets, and it will have its own draw call and rendering time. There's a rendering benefit of instances where they are all collectively rendered in a single draw-call, so it's helpful if you make them less obviously identical, and then just re-mix them by adding a mesh on top of the instance, rather than breaking the instance and then subtracting a mesh from the collection. Think of it like tiling textures; you want to strive to hide the really obvious repetitions to begin with and you'll get more benefit from them.
I see. how about packed level actor? in terms of optimization performance, which one have less draw call ?
Also if you simply "group" them, it won't act the same as applying level instance correct?
@@naufaldihilmi8507 Both of them have less draw calls than non-instanced meshes. It says the Packed LA is more optimized one, and that one only allows static meshes, though it's the one that contains a BP. I'm not an optimization expert, but been looking up information on them today.
problem is packed level actors work with hlod, but they dont have functionality or lights.. or decals. The other problem is regular level instances cannot be baked into hlod or combined into other hlods. Unless you make the hlod in the level instance itself... (which i am not sure it even works correctly for me.. it keeps saying its unbuilt when placed in my scene and causes lag spikes every 20 seconds(my hope because of that.)...
So basically these are worthless unless your only combining static meshes in the packed level actor.
Something I don't understand here is why do this level instancing method over creating blueprint actors with your set pieces in? Doesn't creating a child blueprint actor mean that everything is instanced for the child when it's in the level?
Well, to be frank I am not entirely sure 😅
You do get blueprints with instanced meshes by using a Packed Level Actor like in the video which is pretty handy in case you need to add functionality to those instanced meshes, I mostly use level instances to speed up level creation processes rather than adding extra functionality to them, although I do see that there is some potential with packed level actor BPs where you can customize them a lot and have nice amount of functionality with them but I havent really explored them that in depth yet
Hope this was at least a little helpful 😃
@@populusart Would you be willing to try and do a benchmark video for this? Haha, spawn 10,000 assets using blueprint actor groups, in a different level spawn 10,000 with level instances, and another with packed level instances? Then compare the frame rates and memory footprints for each level. If there's no FPS difference maybe scale up until you see a difference?
I would like to know the performance difference as well. I think packed level actors have some issues with packing blueprints, whenever I try packing an ALS blueprint actor into a packed instance for an item that I can pick up I get some warnings.
Is this cheaper than building it out of actors?
i don't see create lvl instance, what should i do ?
Are level instance calling, for example 1 cpu call, instead of 10 calls(10 random static barrels)?
I mean, do they optimise draw calls
As far as I have found out, since the documentation is pretty sparse on this matter, packed level actors are more optimized since they are calling from instanced static meshes, apart from that I dont really know much the effects on optimization.
Hope I was at least a little bit useful :)
No, at cook time all level instances are flattened.
Nice!
When you package your game for distribution, do you have to include each level instance in the "levels to include"?
I havent done this while packaging so I have no clue maybe someone else will come around to answer the question, I also looked up in the docs but didnt find anything that would suggest you should include them, but again I havent tried it so I am clueless
do you create assets in blender? Been looking into learning game development but i think i just wanna learn 3d design i am so fascinated by anything related to making games.
Well blender is an essential program in my asset making workflow BUT, I definitely use more than 1 program for my 3D models, I usually sculpt my assets so the workflow goes something like:
Modelling In Blender > Sculpting in ZBrush > Texturing in Substance Painter
Of course you can skip ZBrush and sculpt in blender and you can even texture in blender but these 2 programs just make the whole process so much easier
I hope I clarified a few things at least 😁
@@populusart I really appreciate the response. I feel like after years I have found something that could be a nice hobby or more. 3d design has been grabbing my attention lately after building a village on the game Valheim lol
@@populusart Can UE5.4 now replace Blender with its built-in modeling tools such as UV unfolding?
I had this problem with packed level actor that I add a box collider to the blueprint and when I edit the packed level actor like moving a mesh or something the box collider just get destroy. I also try to add it into the level map but I get the same error. Do you have the same problem?
Hmm, I have never had a similar problems with packed level instances or blueprints for that matter. I am not really sure how I could help you to resolve the issue sorry 😅
@@populusart yeah no problem at! also great video, and thanks for posting
Very helpful video. Thank you mate
Why is gojo randomly in your latest thumbnails?
Idk, just seemed like a cool thumbnail, its more of an experiment
Great job, thanks for this tutorial
Thanks so much :)
Why not creating an Actor instead of a packedLevel?
how do you create actor?
Nice tip！