Hi Robert,
Currently, the RailClone object doesn't automatically inherit any of materials used by its Segments and the user is responsible of creating a material and applying it to the RailClone object. In case of having different materials applied to the source geometry, you'll need to create your own multi-sub material, assigning a different material ID to each element and applying it to the whole RailClone object. Please feel free to check more detailed information and examples in the "
4 - How to Control Material IDs" chapter of our "
Next Steps with RailClone" guide. As mentioned in
this related post on our forum:
"I would suggest you to check the "Why do segments in RailClone ignore my Materials" article in our Knowledge Base (a recommendable way to create the Multi/Sub-Object material is to Attach all objects into a single mesh / Detach them).""
If you don't want to create a multi-sub object shader and re-assign IDs manually, an easy way to consolidate materials is as follows:
(1) Attach all the objects into a single mesh. Use the default options, so Max creates the multi-sub object.
(2) Detach each object back into separate objects.
(3) Re-adjust the pivots if necessary.
You may find there are some scripts that can make a multi-sub object for you. For example, RappaTools has a Multi-Material from Selection option. This creates a multi-sub object material and automatically reassigns the IDs. Let me add, that's possible to use
MultiTexture or
VRayMultiSubTex map(s) too.
Hope that helps.
Best regards,