I wanted to apply a meterial using the ent_mtlset command and experienced the following strange behaviour.

The behaviour is the same in version 7.5 and 7.53 which i tested with the sample project below.

This is the code which produces the picture below:


With this code no shader seems to be effetive on both entities


With this code the shader works on both entities


Sample Project

Picture: Block on the left using ent_mtlset shows not the expected result, on the right with my.material everything works fine

I don't know what you want to do, but for applying a material, use the entity material parameter. Despite the "mtl" in the function name, ent_mtlset sets a skin material only, and won't affect the material of your entity.

http://manual.conitec.net/aent_mtlset.htm

But in this case i would expect that ent_mtlset and my.material shows the same effect on an entity with just one skin.

What i want to achieve is the follwing.

I import a model with 6 materials to med which creates 6 skins.

I want to apply to each of this 6 skins the relief shader from slin.

Therefore i want to create 6 materials where each has the shader as effect
and the necessary additional images (normal map ...) as mtlskin.

Finally i intended to apply the different materials (stone, wood ...) in
the action to the different skins using mtl_entset.

This is more or less what i understood mtl_entset could be used for. With the entity material pointer i can only apply the same material to all skins which
does not fit my needs.

Picture: House Model in Unwrap3d with 6 Materials


Picture: House Model in another game engine with shaders applied as described


Picture: House Model in Gamestudio without shader

Ok, then the problem seems clear - you were just confusing ent_mtlset with the material parameter. Again: ent_mtlset does NOT set an entity material. But when your effect requires a material, you must set it.

my.material = dm_brick01;

That's how to set a material.

That means that there is no way to assign different shaders to different parts of the model from within the code? I btw tried to assign some shaders directly to the skins in MED but it seems to mess up some things because of different numbers of skins needed per shader...

ent_mtlset is for assigning different shaders to different skins - but it assigns _only_ the shaders, _not_ the material.

For preventing misunderstandings, I've added a comment to the manual:

"This function does not set the entity material parameter. When the effect uses material skins or parameters, the material must be assigned to the entity. Material skins and parameters are shared by all skin effects."

http://manual.conitec.net/aent_mtlset.htm

Just for clarification. This means if i need bump and heightmap i have to prepare my model as followed:

skin1 = texture (e.g. stone)
skin2 = bumpmap stone
skin3 = heightmap stone
skin4 = texture (e.g wood)
skin5 = bumpmap wood
skin6 = heightmap wood
...
(here the others)

Then i apply the shaders with:

ent_mtlset(my,<shader>,1) apply shader to stone
ent_mtlset(my,<shader>,4) apply shader to wood
...
apply shader to the other skins (e.g. roof ...)

in the shader i access the bumpmap and heightmap with entSkin2 and entSkin3.

Is this the intended approach for ent_mtlset?

No. I don't understand why you'd want to use ent_mtlset when you only have a single shader. What you apparently want to do is applying an entity material - so just set it.