Is there any way to create a dynamic material when no materials have been compiled?

Questions & Answers
1

In the process of creating a dynamic scene I discovered that it would not render the materials when built.

From what I can gather unless you actually compile the script with an object that has a material the resources required to build a material will not be included.

Is there any way (that I haven’t been able to discover after quite a bit of searching) to dynamically create a material that will render in a build?

I seek to build everything from scripts and an empty game object. No other assets, resources, etc.

2

You need a reference to the shader.
Unity only compiles assets that are used or in the Resources/StreamingAssets folders.

If you need to create a material at runtime, just make sure you have all the needed assets first.

public class MaterialFactory:MonoBehaviour
{
       [SerializeField] private Shader shader;
	   public Material CreateMaterial()
       {
            return new Material(shader);
       }
}

Click the circle icon on the shader slot, it will open up the inspector, you can now assign a shader and it will be shipped with the build if you place the script on a GameObject in a scene.

3

I have found the solution.

  1. Create a scripted shader. This can be done automatically by selecting Create > Shader in your Project folder in the editor.
  2. You then need to create a new material with this shader. I do it by creating an object field in the inspector. public Shader shader; which you can drop your shader script into. Then create your material Material material = new Material(shader);
  3. And finally you attach this material to your objects gameObject.GetComponent<Renderer>().material = material;