rdInst Tutorial 3.3 – Adding ECS Instances
Last Updated: 31st August 2026
Tutorial created with rdInst version 1.35
There’s a number of different ways to add ECS Instances (Entities) in rdInst depending on what you’re wanting them to do.
If you right-click your StaticMesh asset in the Content Browser and select rdInst->Instance Settings – you’ll see that there’s an option for the “Preferred Render Type”. You can select this for your assets to set the default render behavior.
It’s possible to change them at any time after building, either with the Edit Objects tool or edit the sids in the DataAssets directly.
1. rdProceduralActor – you can use any type of instance with these, just drag them into the “Drag Here” boxes to have them automatically set up with default settings and start rendering. These types of Entities are very basic, but fast – they just have a simple “Component” which describes their transform. To add a rdProceduralActor to your level, just drag one in from the AddActors panel or add from the Add Menu.
By default, for Meshes – the Rendering Type (i.e. ISMC/Compless Mesh/etc) is chosen from the “Preferred Rendered” Setting in Instance Settings. You can change this at any time with the rdSpawnActor->Edit Objects option, or by manually editing the Baked Data Assets.
2. rdNPCSpawner – this one is aimed more at NPC moving entities – again they can be any type. Each NPC type is set up in Descriptor DataAssets along with movement types, proxies etc.
The Entity Setup and DataAssets are described in this tutorial here.
3. rdSpawnActor – you can bake any level actors/instanced into raw SpawnActors which can be edited in place, moved back to the level and/or Foliage Actors and split into layers for work on sections of them.
It’s also possible to harvest PCG and Foliage volumes at runtime into rdECS containers with simple nodes in rdInstSubsystem, including any streamed in levels and/or WP tiles.