Material Profiler

Module: Tech · Category: QA · Tool ID: MaterialProfiler

Three-tab material analysis suite. Heatmap classifies every material visually by complexity. QA Linter runs project-wide quality checks (BPP usage, sampler count, instruction limits, naming). Substrate reports Substrate-shading-model compatibility for projects using UE5’s Substrate path.

Profiler open on Heatmap tab with materials sorted by complexity, color-coded severity.

When to use it

• Material performance audit: finding the most expensive materials
• QA pass: confirming materials follow project conventions (BPP, sampler limits, naming)
• Substrate migration: finding compatible / incompatible materials

What it isn’t for

• Don’t expect this to fix materials. Surfaces issues; fixes happen per-material in the Material editor.

Opening the tool

1. Open the EQLabs Hub and search for Material Profiler (or browse to Tech → QA).
2. Click the tool card.
3. Use the tab bar: Heatmap / QA Linter / Substrate.

Tab 1: Material Complexity Heatmap

Visual complexity classification — instruction count, sampler count, texture lookups summed into a complexity score with color-coded severity.

The Heatmap tab comparing estimated instruction counts across five materials, with M_LayeredSignal flagged Critical.

Tab 2: Material QA Linter

Project-wide audit covering:

• BPP (Bytes Per Pixel) usage limits
• Sampler count exceeding platform limits
• Instruction count thresholds
• Naming convention compliance
• Common authoring mistakes

The QA Linter listing six issues: an overdraw risk, a high-complexity material, naming problems and a redundant override.

Tab 3: Substrate Analyzer

Substrate shading-model audit (UE 5.4+).

Output

• In-panel results per tab.
• Click-to-navigate. Single-click pings asset, double-click opens Material editor.
• No edits. Read-only.

Tips and gotchas

• BPP limits are platform-dependent. Mobile/Quest are tighter than Desktop/Console.
• Substrate-incompatible materials need migration. Won’t render correctly in Substrate-mode.

Related tools

• Shader Diagnostics Suite — shader-level analysis
• Material Layer Studio — parent-chain debugging