Question by MartinsWar · Feb 19, 2019 at 04:54 AM · c#scripting problem renderer skinnedmeshrenderer

accessing materials from skinned mesh renderer

I am trying to swap shaders on objects at runtime when they are clicked on. after they are clicked off i want the shader to be returned to the standard shader and the original material to be reapplied. I have been able to get this to work with a normal mesh shader but only if i set the material in the inspector. I am trying to assign the material that is on the object at startup to be reapplied. I have not been able to do this in any capacity and have not been able to extract an array of materials from an object with children using a SkinnedMeshRenderer. I would really appreciate any help, i have been working on this for many hours with no luck.

This is the important code:

     MeshRenderer newRenderer;
     SkinnedMeshRenderer[] skinRenderer;
 
     public Material[] mat;          // array for materials currently on object and children for MeshRenderer
     public Material[] sMat;         // array for materials currently on object and children for skinnedMeshRenderer
     Renderer[] childMats;           // Materials on parent and all applicable children
 
 
     Shader shader;      // standard shader
     Shader outline;     // Shader I want to swap with
 
 void Start()
     {
         newRenderer = this.GetComponent<MeshRenderer>();
         newRenderer = this.GetComponent<MeshRenderer>();
 
         skinRenderer = this.GetComponentsInChildren<SkinnedMeshRenderer>();
 
 
         if (newRenderer != null)
         {
             childMats = this.GetComponentsInChildren<Renderer>();
             foreach (Renderer rend1 in childMats)
             {
                 Material[] mat = rend1.materials;
             }
         }
 
         if (skinRenderer != null)
         {
             childMats = this.GetComponentsInChildren<SkinnedMeshRenderer>();
             foreach (SkinnedMeshRenderer rend1 in childMats)
             {
                 Material[] sMat = rend1.materials;
             }
         }
     }

These next sections of code are called when an object is clicked on (OnFocus) and when it is clicked off of (OnDeFocused):

   public void OnFocused (Transform playerTransform)
     {
         isFocus = true;
         player = playerTransform;
         hasInteracted = false;
         if (newRenderer != null)
         {
             newRenderer.material.shader = Shader.Find("Outlined/UltimateOutline");
         }
 
         if (skinRenderer != null)
         {
             skinRenderer.materials.shader = Shader.Find("Outlined/UltimateOutline");
         }
     }
 
     public void OnDeFocused ()
     {
         isFocus = false;
         player = null;
         hasInteracted = false;
         if (newRenderer != null)
         {
             newRenderer.material = new Material(Shader.Find("Standard"));
             gameObject.GetComponent<Renderer>().materials = mat;
             Debug.Log("DeFocus");
         }
 
         if (skinRenderer != null)
         {
             skinRenderer.materials = new Material(Shader.Find("Standard"));
             gameObject.GetComponent<Renderer>().materials = mat;
             Debug.Log("DeFocus");
         }
 
     }

The error I am getting is in the two functions, "OnFocused" and "OnDeFocused" specifically when trying to swap shaderes here:

         if (skinRenderer != null)
         {
             skinRenderer.materials.shader = Shader.Find("Outlined/UltimateOutline");
         }
 
 
         if (skinRenderer != null)
         {
             skinRenderer.materials = new Material(Shader.Find("Standard"));
             gameObject.GetComponent<Renderer>().materials = mat;
             Debug.Log("DeFocus");
         }

The error is " 'UnityEngine.SkinnedMeshRenderer[]' does not contain a definition for 'materials' and no extension method 'materials' of type 'UnityEngine.SkinnedMeshRenderer[]' could be found. Are you missing an assembly reference?"

I found that there is SkinnedMeshRenderer.materials in the api but cant get it to work. I also cant seem to get the inspector to extract the current materials on the objects.

I hope someone can help me with this, thanks.

Add comment · Show 2

TreyH · Feb 19, 2019 at 12:40 PM 1

You wouldn't change shaders -- you'd change materials.

Shaders have fields for properties that are populated when you create a material from them. You can access and change a Skinned$$anonymous$$eshRenderer's materials whenever and however you want.

$$anonymous$$ake a second set of materials using the other shader and swap them out that way.