Shader Complexity (from Viewport Modes)
- Hotkey: Alt + 8; console:
viewmode shadercomplexity - Visualizes number of shader instructions used to calculate each pixel. Good for base scene performance and particle overdraw spikes.
- Caveat: only instruction count — 16 texture lookups much slower than 16 math ops on all platforms; loops not unrolled (esp. vertex shaders) not represented accurately. Still good metric in vast majority of cases.
- Colors: green→red linear inexpensive→expensive; pink/white jump to very expensive. Small white areas OK; majority bright red/white → poor performance.
- +ShaderComplexityColors in BaseEngine.ini, lerped by instruction count.
- MaxPixelShaderAdditiveComplexityCount default 2000 (override in DefaultEngine.ini); MaxES3PixelShaderAdditiveComplexityCount default 800.
Related modes often used with materials
- Light Complexity: Alt+7 /
viewmode lightcomplexity— non-static lights affecting geometry. - Buffer Visualization: Base Color, Metallic, Roughness, World Normal, Shading Model, Material AO, Opacity, etc.
- Reflections mode: flat normal + roughness 0 for diagnosing reflection captures.