problems with shared material and different colors

TLDR how can I frequently color objects differently and still use dynamic batching.

I have lots of colored objects on the playfield and thus want to use dynamic batching. When I use

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. renderer.material.color = ColorManager.GetColor(colorIndex);
3.  

this works and each object has the color it should have but there are way too many drawcalls since every object has its own material instance.
According to this documentation

Then I gave ColorManager an array of materials whose color is set once in initialization. The idea is that each object is assigned a reference to a material so it has its desired color but the materials are shared between all objects of the same color.

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. renderer.material = ColorManager.GetMaterial(colorIndex);
3. // or with same result
4. renderer.sharedMaterial = ColorManager.GetMaterial(colorIndex);
5.  

When I assign the material from the array to the material or shared material all objects appear in the same color (the last one from the array).

So my question is if I'm doing something completely wrong or if the concept should work and I have a bug in my (complex) code. How can I assign an object a shared material of a certain color?

 

Have found a solution myself (sorry for the trouble).

It appears that assigning a color to a material during runtime also sets this color in the original asset instance (in editor). So if I want several different colored materials it seems I must predefine them in the editor and cannot color them dynamically during runtime from one base material. Appears a bit unlogical to me but however.

I don't know how to change the thread title to [solved].

 

You can instantiate materials to get a unique one for your needs.
Something like:

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. Dictionary<Material<Dictionary<Color32, Material>> storedMaterials;  
3.  
4. Material GetUniqueMaterialFromMaterialAndColor(Color32 color, Material sourceMaterial)
5. {
6.     if (storedMaterials == null) storedMaterials = new Dictionary<Material<Dictionary<Color32, Material>>();
7.  
8.     if (!storedMaterials.ContainsKey(sourceMaterial))
9.     {
10.         Dictionary<Color32, Material> newDict = new Dictionary<Color32, Material>();
11.         storedMaterials.Add(sourceMaterial, newDict);
12.     }
13.  
14.     if (!storedMaterials[sourceMaterial].ContainsKey(color)) {
15.         Material clone = Material.Instantiate(sourceMaterial) as Material;
16.         clone.color = color;
17.         storedMaterials[sourceMaterial].Add(color, clone);
18.     }
19.     return[sourceMaterial][color];
20. }

 

Thanks ThermalFusion this is an interesting addition. Currently I have solved this with several instances in Editor but when also shaders and textures will be switched this method will become handy.