Material Instance Manager

Module: Tech · Category: Workflow · Tool ID: MaterialInstanceManager

Two-tab merged suite for material instance management. Hierarchy shows MI parent chains as a tree (parent → child → grandchild). Tracker lists parameter overrides per instance — which parameters are actually overridden vs inheriting from the parent.

Manager open on Hierarchy tab with a deep MI tree visible, parent + 2 levels of children expanded.

When to use it

• Understanding deep MI hierarchy chains
• Finding which parameters are actually overridden vs inherited
• Refactoring a material library: seeing the parent → child relationships at a glance

What it isn’t for

• Don’t use this for editing. Open the MI in UE’s Material Instance editor.

Opening the tool

1. Open the EQLabs Hub and search for Material Instance (or browse to Tech → Workflow).
2. Use the tab bar: Hierarchy or Tracker.

Tab 1: Hierarchy Viewer

Tree view of MI parent chains — shows every master material with its children, grandchildren, etc.

Tab 2: Override Tracker

Per-MI list of parameter overrides — which scalar / vector / texture / static switch parameters are actually overridden vs inheriting from parent.

Output

• In-panel hierarchy and override list.
• No edits. Read-only.

Tips and gotchas

• Single-click pings; double-click opens the appropriate Material Instance editor
• Override tracking is parameter-level. Useful for finding “phantom” overrides where a value was set but matches the parent default.

Related tools

• Material Layer Studio — broader layer / function library analysis
• Material Property Diff — diff two MIs side-by-side
• Material Preset Manager — capture parameter sets