Dynamic texture on Cube sides.

Unity Engine
1

I have some 3D geometric shapes (Cubes, pyramids, …) that I want to control the textures of the sides individually from script. So on one side of the cube I may change some text, on another rotate through different bitmaps, and another dynamically generate/composite bitmaps for the texture.

Do I need to have each side be a different object and change materials/textures on the side objects individually? Or is there the equivalent of 3D text for bitmaps that I can just overlay on the sides? I was thinking of a cubemap, but then what would I do for pyramids and other shapes?

In the case of dynamically generated textures (built from compositing different bitmaps) do I need to generate a texture/material from them after generation and then apply?

Is there a simpler method?

2

Use submeshes, where a cube would have 6 submeshes, one for each side, and then an array of 6 materials on the object would control the textures for the 6 sides. As far as performance goes that’s pretty much the same as having 6 separate objects, but it can be more convenient. (A cubemap isn’t for mapping different textures to a cube, it’s for generating things like fake reflection maps.)

–Eric