Instances

Table Of Contents

Introduction

Instances are lightweight copies of an object that do not contain any geometry data, but rather maintain a link to the original object. Because each instance only stores a limited amount of data – such as a transform matrix and sometimes material assignment information – they have several advantages over regular copies:

Instances use much less disk space for scene files.
Edits to the original are automatically applied to all of its instances, making editing many identical objects much simpler.
Instances use very little memory when rendering using Redshift and can significantly improve performance.

A scene with 1300 instances of a high resolution Buddha model (approximately 880,000 triangles per instance). Over a billion instanced triangles.

How To Use

Redshift automatically converts all Cinema 4D instances (Instance Objects, Cloners etc.) to equivalent Redshift instances when supported. Objects that are not supported by Redshift's instancing mechanism (for example Lights, or Volumes) are translated as copies.