Replacing sharedMaterials by an existing Material C#

Question

Hello, My question is why this is working and changing the color:

 gameObject.GetComponent<Renderer> ().sharedMaterials[1].color = Color.blue;

But replaced by this it isn´t changing the material:

 gameObject.GetComponent<Renderer> ().sharedMaterials[1] = Resources.Load ("NewMaterial/TestMat") as Material;

or this;

 Material NewMat = new Material (Resources.Load ("NewMaterial/TestMat") as Material);
 Debug.Log (NewMat); // working!!
 gameObject.GetComponent<Renderer> ().sharedMaterials[1] = NewMat;

I don´t get an error and the material "TestMat" is stored in the right folder! As an Unity-Beginner i probably overlooked something obvious! Thanks for helping!!!

for better understanding

 using UnityEngine;
 using System.Collections;
 
 public class SetMaterialToo_04 : MonoBehaviour 
 {
     
     void Start() {
 
         Material[] materials = gameObject.GetComponent<Renderer> ().sharedMaterials;
         int Arraylength = materials.Length;
         Debug.Log (Arraylength);
 
         for (int i = 0; i < Arraylength; i++) {
             string matName = materials [i].name;
         
 
             if (matName == "Test_rot") { 
 
                 int var = i;
                 Debug.Log (materials [var]);
 
                 Material NewMat = new Material (Resources.Load ("NewMaterial/TestMat") as Material);
                 Debug.Log (NewMat); // working!!
                 gameObject.GetComponent<Renderer> ().sharedMaterials [1] = NewMat;
 
             
             }
         }
     }
 }

Answer 1

Best Answer

Answer by maccabbe · Jun 10, 2015 at 02:23 AM

gameObject.GetComponent ().sharedMaterials and gameObject.GetComponent ().materials return a copy of the array that stores the materials.

 mesh.materials = {mat1}
 copyMaterials = mesh.materials
 so
 copyMaterials = {mat1}

So we do not expect that editing the copy to affect the original.

 copyMaterials = {newMat}
 but
 mesh.materials = {mat1}

In addition, the copy of the array of materials stores the original materials. So editing the materials contained in the copy of the array also edits the materials contained in the original array

 copyMaterials.mat1.color=newColor
 so
 mesh.materials = {mat1} (where mat1 has had a new color assigned)

However you can change mesh.materials[] by assigning to it

 Material[] materials=gameObject.GetComponent<Renderer> ().sharedMaterials;
 materials[1]=Resources.Load ("NewMaterial/TestMat") as Material;
 gameObject.GetComponent<Renderer> ().sharedMaterials=materials;

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chris3331 · Jun 11, 2015 at 11:52 AM 0

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Thank you very much! But what if I want to keep the changed materials even after ending the Play Mode? At the moment all changes are resetting after ending the Play Mode but I would like to change the existing materials of the Object forever!

OnyDeus · Jun 26, 2015 at 01:18 AM 1

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I beleive if you want the changes to be permanent you should look into [ExecuteInEditMode] (and thank you for asking I was banging my head and should have known better)

Replacing sharedMaterials by an existing Material C#

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