Changing the color of a material during runtime (works in editor, not build)

Questions & Answers
1

So, I’ve got this scene for customizing the color of your player: Screenshot
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The player is a prefab that is instantiated in the game scene when it runs, and the materials I am editing in this scene belong to the prefab.

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When I try it out in the editor, it works perfectly. it saves all of the colors correctly when the game is played, but when I build the game, I try to edit the player, but as soon as I switch scenes to the game, the colors revert to what they originally were.

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Here is my code:

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	public Renderer Player;
	public int Index;
	public Color ResetColor;
	public Slider Red;
	public Slider Green;
	public Slider Blue;
	public RawImage bg;
	
	private Color color;
	void Start(){
		color = Player.sharedMaterials[Index].color;
		Red.value = color.r;
		Green.value = color.g;
		Blue.value = color.b;
	}
	public void Reset(){
		Red.value = ResetColor.r;
		Green.value = ResetColor.g;
		Blue.value = ResetColor.b;
		color = ResetColor;
	}
	void Update(){
		bg.color = color;
		color.r = Red.value;
		color.g = Green.value;
		color.b = Blue.value;
		Player.sharedMaterials[Index].color = color;
	}

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There is a ColorScript for every body part I am editing, and the public variables are set correctly. Player is the prefab, and I am using sharedMaterials because of that. I just don’t understand why it works in the editor but not in the build. Can somebody please help me?

Thanks…

2

The reason is that by modifying sharedMaterial you modify material asset itself.
You can verify this by inspecting your material after exiting play mode.

This is non-intuitive and strange at first but has very useful applications.

To start with, here is a simple rule to remember:

When run in Editor: All asset changes are preserved.

When run built player: Assets are read-only.

Also, take a look at documentation.