mesh_shader(3)

💅 mesh_shader — ok so listen, this is the one that swaps your shader

Hey bestie 🫶 welcome to the Arcan Lua API manual, page for mesh_shader(3). Yes we're reading manpages together now, it's called character development ✨

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🌸 NAME 🌸

mesh_shader — literally just changes the active shader for a submesh of a model. That's it, that's the whole job, and she does it flawlessly 👑

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

nil
mesh_shader( mesh, shid, slot )

so like, the return value is nil — she gives you nothing back, not even a little crumb 😭 and she takes three things: mesh, shid, slot.

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so picture this 🎀 every single 3D-model can have a bunch of meshes attached to it — and a "mesh" here is just grouped primitives, no cap. Like little friend groups of polygons 💖

and each one of those meshes can also have its own custom set of processing instructions, which we call a "shader" — yes, a whole separate glow-up routine per mesh, we love a main character with her own styling team 💅

this function right here is what you call to associate a prebuilt shader with an individual mesh slot of a 3D model. So:

• mesh — the 3D model whose mesh we're messing with 🌈
• shid — the prebuilt shader you already have sitting there, ready to slay ✨
• slot — the individual mesh slot that's getting this shader, iykyk 🎀

that's the vibe check: you point at a slot, you hand it a prebuilt shader, done. Periodt 🫶

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

go read these next bestie, they're in the same universe fr fr:

• build_shader(3)
• image_shader(3)
• shader_ugroup(3)
• shader_uniform(3)

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ok that's the whole page 🧚 tysm for reading with me!! this was the 3d section of the Arcan Lua API, dated October 2026 — screenshot it, cite it, frame it, idc 💜 mwah, study date again tomorrow, same time, same terminal 💖🎀🦋