instancing

Instancing refers to the practice of creating multiple copies of a given object, component, or service from a single definition or resource, in order to improve efficiency, scalability, or manageability. The term is used in several domains with related ideas but different specifics.

In computer graphics, instancing is a rendering technique that draws many copies of the same mesh with a single draw call. Each instance can have its own transform and per-instance attributes (such as color, scale, or pose). Hardware instancing reduces CPU overhead and memory bandwidth when rendering large numbers of repeated objects, like trees or crowds. Typical approaches store one mesh in memory and supply an array of per-instance data, using an instance ID in shaders to apply per-instance variation.

In databases and data management, an instance generally refers to a running environment of a database system, including its memory structures and background processes. A single database can have one or more instances, which may access the same data files. Multi-instance configurations, such as clustered setups, aim to improve availability and scalability through coordination between instances.

In programming, instantiation is the creation of a concrete object from a class. An instance is an individual object with its own state, produced via constructors or factory methods. Instantiation is foundational to object-oriented design and affects memory layout, lifecycle management, and polymorphic behavior.

In practice, the use of instancing emphasizes reuse of a single definition to support many occurrences, balancing efficiency with the need for per-instance variation or isolation.