Setting per-entity color using an instanced mesh?

Loving the new ECS / job system so far.

I am currently working on a simple molecular dynamics simulation using the ECS (https://github.com/sschoenholz/unity_ecs_md). I am rendering lots of spheres using a single MeshInstanceRenderer. Is it currently possible to color the spheres individually using a component? I guess, more generally, is there an easy way to currently send information from a component to the fragment shader? If it is not currently easy to do, is it possible to feature request that it be easy to do later? I feel like it's a really useful way to debug things.

 

Graphics seems to be in the works atm
https://forum.unity.com/threads/pro...anced-material-component.523094/#post-3436758

 

Ah thanks!

 

As a temporary solution, you COULD create a new system based on the MeshInstancedRendererSystem, adding the property block parameter, but I am unsure of performance at the moment. Changing the null to a property block devised by the components. You, however can not store a MaterialPropertyBlock on a IComponentData so some cleverness will be required

Code (CSharp):

1.  Graphics.DrawMeshInstanced(cacheduniqueRendererType.mesh, 0, cacheduniqueRendererType.material, this.m_MatricesArray, num, (MaterialPropertyBlock) null, cacheduniqueRendererType.castShadows, cacheduniqueRendererType.receiveShadows);

**Edit: I actually missed the fact that the loop is a batch render, so a per-entity colorization with that change wouldn't actually be as feasible, but it is a start.

 

You can store the the MaterialPropertyBlock on a ISharedComponent and have different ISharedComponents for different colors. Basically replaicng null in that call with a MaterialPropertyBlock and adding that MaterialPropertyBlock to your MeshInstanceRenderer component should already do the trick for you.

 

The problem with just replacing that null with a prop block is that most of the performance gain is from batching the render together with cached info. You will have to limit the batch to a size of 1 before you will truly see a "per-entity color" if I understand it correctly

 

i have a question，can u help me? i want to render something,but I have more than one material and only one mesh.how should i use the MeshInstanceRenderer

 

2 meshes, or merge materials.