Material.SetColor Paradox

Unity Engine
1

Hi all,
So I’m on the merry journey of creating my first Unity game, but hit another small hiccup. So, let me explain:
I know I can use:

gameobjectname.renderer.material.SetColor("_Color", colorVar);

I know that because I read the script reference, and made a simple test scene with a primitive to test it. It works perfectly.

But for some reason, in my game, it doesn’t work, visually the colour remains unchanged. But, if I do GetColor for the material I just changed, before the change code, and after it, the two values are different - as if the colour has been changed. Also, I get no errors whilst the scene is running.

This code is part of quite a long function that is basically loading a save game, but here’s the relevant section:

GameObject stockShell = GameObject.Find("stockShell");
				// convert hex to colour
				Color playerCarColourA = HexToColor(currentCarSplitPaintHexA);
				Color playerCarColourB = HexToColor(currentCarSplitPaintHexB);
			// apply player colour			
				stockShell.renderer.material.SetColor("_Color", playerCarColourA);
				stockShell.renderer.material.SetColor("_Color2", playerCarColourB);

I’ve tried changing playerCarColourA and B to things like Color.red - and I get the same result: no visual change, but doing a before and after GetColor, the console is telling me the value has changed. No errors. But no visual change.

Any ideas folks?
Thanks
Matt

2

If the value is right but you don’t see a difference… do you use the right name for your shader?
Sometimes there are several colors and textures, maybe you got the wrong one. Which shader are you using?

3

It’s a car paint shader. By shader name do you mean the _Color and _Color2 values? I’ve checked inside the shader and they are the correct names for the properties.

I was wondering, if maybe there was a way to reference the name of the shader- carBody, and change it directly, rather having to go stockShell.renderer.material etc.

4

Do you have a test scene?

5

It sounds like there is a problem with the shader, or the way the shader was designed, especially if you are getting the value back after a GetColor. When you tested in the primitive, was it with the car shader?

6

Yes, the test scene is using the same shader and it works fine.

Out of curiosity I added one of my car prefabs to the test scene, and tried to change the colour on it using the same technique- and it works fine. Now, I’m really confused :face_with_spiral_eyes:

Edit: Turns out I was just being a noob. Although the GameObject I was referencing wasn’t giving a error, I just created a new one and assigned it to the right part and it works now.

D’oh.