Different colored boxes

[Game Producer]

I was wondering how big deal would it be to have like 100 box objects in a screen, but somehow change their color so that I don't need to create additional materials. Is there good way to do this?

(I'm thinking procedural creature creation... where creature would be made of boxes and each individual box might have different colors....)

 

I was also wondering if this would increase memory consumption?

 

Thanks in advance

 

(Was there demo about this? I searched forums but could not find one)

[Game Producer]

Holy smokes, EntityColor seems to do the trick:

http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/page/Documentation/le2/_/command-reference/entities/entitycolor-r139

 

(thanks macklebee for help via chat)

[Game Producer]

LUA example by macklebee:

 

require("Scripts/constants/engine_const")
require("Scripts/math/math")
RegisterAbstractPath("")        
Graphics(800,600)        

fw=CreateFramework()        
fw.main.camera:SetPosition(Vec3(0,1,-5))
camerapitch=fw.main.camera.rotation.x
camerayaw=fw.main.camera.rotation.y

light = CreateDirectionalLight()
light:SetRotation(Vec3(45,45,0))

material=LoadMaterial("abstract::cobblestones.mat")
boxphy = CreateBodyBox(1,1,1)
box=CreateCube(boxphy)
boxphy:SetMass(1)
boxphy:SetCollisionType(1)
box:Paint(material)

groundphy = CreateBodyBox(100,1,100)
ground=CreateCube(groundphy)
ground:SetScale(Vec3(100,1,100))
groundphy:SetPosition(Vec3(0,-2,0))
groundphy:SetCollisionType(2)
ground:Paint(material)

cubephy = {}
for i = 1, 99 do
cubephy[i] = boxphy:Copy(1)
local cube = cubephy[i]:GetChild(1)
cube:SetColor(Vec4(math.random(255)/255,math.random(255)/255,math.random(255)/255,1))
cubephy[i]:SetPosition(Vec3(math.random(10),i,math.random(10)))
end

SetStats(2)
HideMouse()
MoveMouse(GraphicsWidth()/2,GraphicsHeight()/2)
while KeyHit(KEY_ESCAPE)==0 do   
gx = Round(GraphicsWidth()/2)        
       gy = Round(GraphicsHeight()/2)        
       dx = Curve((MouseX()-gx)/4,dx,3/AppSpeed())        
       dy = Curve((MouseY()-gy)/4,dy,3/AppSpeed())        
       MoveMouse(gx,gy) 
camerapitch = camerapitch+dy        
       camerayaw = camerayaw-dx        
       fw.main.camera:SetRotation(Vec3(camerapitch,camerayaw,0))
move = Curve((KeyDown(KEY_W)-KeyDown(KEY_S)),move,3/AppSpeed())        
       strafe = Curve((KeyDown(KEY_D)-KeyDown(KEY_A)),strafe,3/AppSpeed())      
MoveEntity(fw.main.camera,Vec3(strafe/10,0,move/10))

fw:Update()
fw:Render()
collectgarbage(collect)
Flip(1)
end
ShowMouse()[

[Josh]

Yep, we just store color in the unused fourth column of the entity's 4x4 matrix when it's sent to the GPU.