Shader error: Material doesn't have stencil properties ??

Questions & Answers
1

This is a new shader error for us with Unity 5:

Material doesn't have stencil properties

What is causing this? We are using a stencil buffer in the shader but AFAIK there is nothing else in the Unity docs that talk about a stencil property.

1 Like
2

(answering my own question)

There seems to be a magic property called _Stencil, which is supposed to be used for the unique stencil buffer id.

_Stencil ("Stencil Ref", Float) = 0

in full …

// these six unused properties are required when a shader
// is used in the UI system, or you get a warning.
// look to UI-Default.shader to see these.
_StencilComp ("Stencil Comparison", Float) = 8
_Stencil ("Stencil ID", Float) = 0
_StencilOp ("Stencil Operation", Float) = 0
_StencilWriteMask ("Stencil Write Mask", Float) = 255
_StencilReadMask ("Stencil Read Mask", Float) = 255
_ColorMask ("Color Mask", Float) = 15
// see for example
// http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/980924/ui-mask-with-shader.html
3

…or as in my case, if you were only interested in the text element, just use a material based on the following shader: UI/Unlit/Test

Shader "UI/Unlit/Text"
{
	Properties {
		[PerRendererData] _MainTex ("Font Texture", 2D) = "white" {}
		_Color ("Tint", Color) = (1,1,1,1)
		
		_StencilComp ("Stencil Comparison", Float) = 8
		_Stencil ("Stencil ID", Float) = 0
		_StencilOp ("Stencil Operation", Float) = 0
		_StencilWriteMask ("Stencil Write Mask", Float) = 255
		_StencilReadMask ("Stencil Read Mask", Float) = 255

		_ColorMask ("Color Mask", Float) = 15
	}
	
	FallBack "UI/Default Font"
}