Is it possible To Link Object Mesh Data without changing UV mapping?

Question

I'm planning to use multiple "hexagon style" images in my scene but this will create millions of the same hexagon object and slow down the software. So after i generate hexagon objects with my geometry nodes, i apply the mesh, do an unwrap project from view, add a material, load an image texture, and then i would like to link ONLY the mesh data of all the hexagon objects to reduce the number of faces/vertices in the scene while keeping the image as is.

But linking the mesh data also links the UV map to the same coordinates as the active object i am linking from hence wiping out my image. I read that it is possible to have different materials for the same linked mesh by using Link Material To Object instead of Link Material To Object Data. Is this also possible for the UV mapping? Or is there another method i should employ to retain the image while having shared mesh data?

Answer 1

Two possible solutions here.

First

Make a GN setup which will generate UV map for rendering, but keeps instances for viewport.

it's not clear to me how you did the UV unwrapping step since i cannot unwrap each instance individually

I have default grid initially UV unwrapped. Then UV coordinates are transferred to instances using Transfer Attribute node. Last step - to make UV coordinate act like a pixel, I use Capture Attribute node in Instances mode, to make UV coordinates share per instance.

After that, I pass the resulted UV coordinate to attribute in the modifier settings:

And this attribute can be used in shader node tree as an attribute:

1.1

You can also pass color information instead of UV:

Second

Use object color in material, so that object and material will be linked

But colors must be set somehow, maybe using python