[Plugin] Advanced Material Changer

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#1

Hi there !

I am Fabrice, and recentIy been working on a new plugin called “advanced material changer” (If you have another name idea please tell me i’m desperate).

WHAT THIS PLUGIN DOES: If you are a builder, you probably know how to change a part’s material, and if you know that, you also know that after doing this, you have to change the color of the part, reflectance and other properties to really change the part’s material. With this plugin, you can do all of that : In one single click.

EXAMPLE : just
HOW TO USE IT : First, install the plugin (link at the end of the post), then open studio, go onto the plugin tab, click change material, select the part(s) you want to change, and click the material you want. Simple, right ?

PRICE : What are you talking about ? This plugin is free !

NOTE : This only works for BaseParts.

HOW TO REPORT A BUG/ASK FOR A FEATURE : You can reply to this post or contact me on twitter (@fabrice_1236).

DOCS : Click here !

F.A.Q. :

Q.I want to use it on a union but it doesn’t work, how do I fix it ?
A. Go into the union’s properties and make sure that “UsePartColor” is set to true.

Q. Will there be another version of the plugin ?
A. Maybe in the future…

Q. Will the plugin be updated ?
A. Yes, it will !

Q. I want to contribute to the plugin by scripting, designing, other.
A. I do not need any scripters at the moment but if you want you can help me design the guis. For other, please contact me.

Link : Advanced Material Changer

Credits : @fabrice1236 : scripting
@ROBLOX_MATEMATH : icon

3 Likes
#2

What’s so special about this? What makes this better than just going into properties and changing it yourself?

6 Likes
#3

Its faster then going into the properties

1 Like
#4

I might be lazy, but I am not THIS lazy.

9 Likes
#5

If you don’t know what the materials look like, then you don’t have to go through looking for the one you actually want.

#6

This is not faster, you can easily open the material list and select one. Your plugin makes you go to the plugin menu, select the plugin, then choose the material, plus you then must close the plugin. Not faster in any way.

8 Likes
#7

There’s a Materials menu in the Model tab at the top of your Studio window (in the ribbon). It does the exact same thing.

This is nice, but you didn’t show that off in the gif. You only showed brick, which doesn’t have a transparency or reflectance. You should expand on this to allow builders to create and save “material presets.”

3 Likes
#8

When you change the material to brick, it will make lines and the color (per exemple) will still be from the last color so I think its faster

#9

But what if you want a different color? Then you must swap back to the right color.

1 Like
#10

If you wanna give feedback please be constructive. This plugin was just released so if its bad please say why and not only that you don’t like it.

Edit : Thanks to (almost) all the replies, I already know what the next update will be… It will be coming in the next few weeks ! I also hope next time there will be more constructive replies like we had here :smile:

2 Likes
#11

In order not to say everything that has already been said and to be able to justify my answer at the same time, I want to say that it seems to me a plugin to which we would have to add some extra and particular functionality that is not so easy to modify directly in the roblox interface, which be something more personalized or specific what you do, for example, there is a complement called extended materials, which what it does is duplicate an element a certain number of specific times and give each part different materials and opacities, giving new material effects that they don’t exist in the list, that’s what I mean by special or particular. Nothing more than that. you have a good day.

#12

When I see Advanced Material Changer I’m thinking of something like DataBrain’s extended materials plugin which cleverly (though at the cost of more parts) blends two materials together to create a newer looking one. Those such practices are outdated though, since you can just make your own textures or use surface appearances.

If this plugin provides no more utility than to visualise materials, then it isn’t substantial or advanced and probably doesn’t deserve the title its been given. I’m not too sure how you can build upon the material changing workflow though, given developer-created textures are out and environmental artists have probably been long-since used to testing materials until they find the one they want.

The purpose of plugins is to help expedite the development process or accomplish a task that would normally take longer. This extends the time it takes to change a material. I think what may be a better investment of your time is an engine feature request to preview materials on a part. That is, when you hover over a material from the dropdown, the part changes to that material to effectively “preview” how it looks when changed.

1 Like
#13

This seems kind of useless maybe this can be repurposed into the ability to make custom materials with instead of adding a surface appearance and changing all the properties you can just do this once and use the plugin to add it in. That would be a better use case for this.

#14

I see you already guessed one of the next updates :wink:

#15

If that’s the next update then I can’t wait :smiley:!
make sure to send me a link!

#16

Yeah, I don’t see it being that useful since you can do it pretty quickly using the default Studio menus. Might add a bit of extra value if you could choose your own presets. I won’t be using this though, only useful really if it’s docked and I have far too many menus docked already.

1 Like
#17

I don’t exactly see how this is an advanced plugin at all. This is more than not just changing the material with extra steps.

The title is misleading. This plugin can be easily replicated by getting all objects currently selected, then on a button being clicked, connect a function which turns all selected parts’ material into Enum.Material.MaterialName.

#18

I don’t really see a use for this, however I got an idea while reading your post. Custom save slots that contain frequently used material/color/transparency/reflectance combinations would be cool.

#19

I know this small update is useless but we have a brand new logo thanks to @ROBLOX_MATEMATH !

#20

What you are really saying is “if you wanna give feedback then it must to good”. All of the feedback you have got is good criticism. Your plugin is trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. It could be argued that your plugin is slower than changing the material and color manually.

You could maybe improve on your plugin by giving builders the ability to make custom presets. ← This point has been said by many other users as well and I think if you took the time to add it into your plugin, it could be something builders use on a day to say basis! :slight_smile:

1 Like