Change a material property

Change one numeric property on a shipped Unity Material. This example makes the damaged Fireworm material less glossy.

You need

• ContentTool installed and enabled.
• The shipped bundle and exact material name.
• The serialized property name and a number. Fractions use .; values such as 1 and 1e-3 are also accepted.
• No image or material source file.

Folder layout

Mods\
  MyMaterialMod\
    meta.json                 <- declares the ContentTool dependency
    ppcontent.json            <- holds the material edit

Steps

1. Find the material in the game console. You should see the exact name ALN_Fireworm_DMG.

ct_list assets aln_fireworm_assets_all.bundle Material ALN_Fireworm_DMG

1. List its serialized properties. Check that _GlossMapScale is present.

ct_list props aln_fireworm_assets_all.bundle ALN_Fireworm_DMG

1. Create meta.json:

{
  "ID": "example.mymaterialmod",
  "Version": "1.0.0",
  "Name": [{ "Key": "English", "Value": "My material mod" }],
  "Dependencies": ["com.morgott.ContentTool"]
}

1. Create ppcontent.json. The material value is one property, =, then one number:

{
  "id": "example.mymaterialmod",
  "bundle": "MyMaterialMod.bundle",
  "replace": [
    {
      "bundle": "aln_fireworm_assets_all.bundle",
      "asset": "ALN_Fireworm_DMG",
      "material": "_GlossMapScale=0.15"
    }
  ]
}

1. Bake, read the final line, and package only after ALL PASS:

ct_project MyMaterialMod
ct_package MyMaterialMod

1. Enable the mod and load a Fireworm with damaged skin. Its material should look less glossy. Follow the lifecycle when checking a bundle that may already be loaded.

Check it worked

patch aln_fireworm_assets_all.bundle: material 'ALN_Fireworm_DMG' _GlossMapScale=0.15
P3 PASS material 'ALN_Fireworm_DMG' in the copy carries _GlossMapScale=0.15 -> <read-back value>
ct_project: ALL PASS - this project has no bundle of its own; the patched copy(ies) above are the whole output

The first line says what was requested. P3 PASS reads the value back from the patched copy.

Common errors

What you see	Why	Fix
P3 REFUSED "material": "_GlossMapScale,0.15" is not <property>=<number>	The edit does not use =.	Write _GlossMapScale=0.15.
P3 REFUSED target 'ALN_Fireworm_DMG' is not a Material in aln_fireworm_assets_all.bundle - <reason> - list the names it does hold with: ct_list assets aln_fireworm_assets_all.bundle Material	The target name is missing or ambiguous.	Run the printed list command and copy an exact, unique name.
P0 REFUSED "bundle": "<file>" is not a bundle this game ships - no file at <path> - check the spelling and list the real names with: ct_list bundles	The bundle filename is wrong.	Run ct_list bundles and use the shipped filename.

See messages for other refusals.

Example

MaterialTweak contains one _GlossMapScale replacement row and no art or DLL.