$renamematerial

$renamematerial is a QC command available in all Source games. It allows a model to use a different material to the one specified in its reference SMD.

Renamed materials remain independent from each other for identification purposes, even if they share a new material name. As a result, this command cannot be used to lower the original material count.

Tip:This behavior can be exploited for potentially useful means, such as renaming eyeball_L and eyeball_R to a shared material, allowing the eyes to still function but requiring only a single material file rather than two copies.

Syntax

$renamematerial	<current material>	<new material>

Usage with $texturegroups

Renamed materials will be considered separate materials even if given the same name as an existing referenced material. This can create an issue when listing texture groups, see below:

$body "model_1.smd" //A mesh assigned the material "material_1"

$body "model_2.smd" //A mesh assigned the material "material_2"

$renamematerial "material_2" "material_1" //Rename "material_2" on "model_2.smd" to match the material name on "model_1.smd"

$texturegroup skinfamilies
{
	{ "material_1" }
	{ "material_3" }
}

This would result in only the faces from model_1.smd being changed on the second texture group, due to the compiler considering the renamed material to be separate from the material named on the first mesh, even though they now share the same name.

In order for the skins to change correctly, you must list the original material name in the skin line, then perform the rename operation after.

$texturegroup skinfamilies
{
	{ "material_1" "material_2 }
	{ "material_3" "material_3" }
}

$renamematerial "material_2" "material_1"

Tip:You can temporarily rename the default materials to your alternate skin's materials if you want to display them as the default skin while working on them.

See also

• $cdmaterials
• $texturegroup "skinfamilies"
• $lod "replacematerial"