title: Unity3D: UGUI Benefits of applying a Material to UI Image elements
body: <p>The UI Image (<a href="http://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/script-Image.html" rel="nofollow">http://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/script-Image.html</a>) object has a Material and Source Image attribute.  </p>
  
  <p>Two Questions:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li><p>If I'm just rendering plain square solid-color element in my UI (ie a
  background or non-rounded button) is there any benefit to setting a
  non-null source image?  I thought maybe adding a white 'filler' sprite that's attached to a central sprite map might reduce draw calls or something, but it appears that it has no effect vs just leaving the sprite null.</p></li>
  <li><p>In the same plain square solid-color element, is there any benefit to using non-null
  Material?  As in, are the default UI shaders provided by Unity any
  extra performance value over just using the null setting?</p></li>
  </ol>