Material vs Material Instance: My Beginner Realization

Source: Dev.to

I thought material instances were just duplicates. Then I tried changing values without recompiling anything. That’s when it finally clicked.

This post is part of my daily learning journey in game development. I’m sharing what I learn each day — the basics, the confusion, and the real progress — from the perspective of a beginner.

On Day 22 of my game development journey, I learned about materials, material instances, and emissive materials in Unreal Engine.

What I tried / learned today

I started by creating a normal material, and then made a material instance from it. I learned that a material instance is like a child of the main material. It lets me change values without recompiling the shader.

In the parent material, I added:

• Scalar Parameters for strength or intensity values
• Vector Parameters for colors

I also connected an Emissive Color input to make the material glow. When I applied it to a cube, I could immediately see the glow in the viewport.

One important thing I learned is that emissive does not need a light source. It emits its own color and stays visible even in darkness.

I also learned that for landscapes, a single material can control multiple layers, and material instances help reuse and manage it more efficiently.

What confused me

At first, I was confused why I couldn’t edit nodes directly inside a material instance. I didn’t understand:

• Why parameters are needed instead of normal values
• The difference between Base Color and Emissive Color
• Why emissive doesn’t light the whole scene like a real light

Landscape materials also looked much more complex compared to normal materials.

What worked or finally clicked

I finally understood that:

• Material instances are only for tweaking values, not building logic
• Parameters are the bridge between the material and its instance
• Emissive is a visual glow, not real scene lighting

Once that clicked, everything felt more logical.

One lesson for beginners

• Always build logic in the parent material
• Use parameters if you plan to create material instances
• Emissive is for glow, not lighting
• Good parameter names save a lot of confusion

Slow progress — but I’m building a strong foundation.

If you’re also learning game development, what was the first thing that confused you when you started?

See you in the next post 🎮🚀