Textures & Materials

Textures are imported source assets. Materials are authored .slmat assets that can reference textures and provide rendering properties to mesh content.

Texture sources

The Asset Catalog recognizes:

• PNG
• JPEG (.jpg, .jpeg)
• BMP
• TGA

The texture importer directly handles BMP and routes PNG/JPEG through the image import path. Texture source intent/import settings are stored in the texture's .vmeta sidecar.

Select a texture in Project / Assets to inspect its import settings. Refresh the catalog after replacing a texture file externally.

Materials

Create a material with Create → Create Material Asset. The material appears as a .slmat asset.

A material can hold a stable reference to its base texture. Assign materials in the Inspector by selecting or dropping the material asset onto a Mesh Renderer.

From C#:

var renderer = Entity.EnsureMeshRenderer();
renderer.SetMaterial("materials/stone.slmat");
renderer.Tint = new Color(1.0f, 0.9f, 0.85f, 1.0f);

Or use a stable AssetReference:

renderer.Material = Assets.FromPath("materials/stone.slmat");

Moving textures or materials

Materials participate in stable reference repair. Move referenced textures/materials through Project / Assets so the catalog can retain identity and rewrite fallback paths.

Practical workflow

1. Add a texture under assets/.
2. Refresh the Asset Catalog if needed.
3. Create a .slmat material.
4. Assign the texture to the material in the Inspector.
5. Assign the material to a Mesh Renderer.
6. Save the scene and test in Play Mode.