Crash when using non-preloaded material

[LeXXik]

When a render component is changing to a material that was not preloaded, the application crashes.

Repro: https://playcanvas.com/project/965390/overview/material-issue

1. Click a mouse to change the cube material.
2. App will crash.

Repro in 1.54.1 and 1.53.4.

There is no crash, if the changed material is set to preload.

[kungfooman]

So when you const red = this.red.resource; and the asset is not loaded, you receive undefined and then you set undefined to type Material?

I don't think that is right in the first place and a clear type error, what should happen otherwise? Maybe preallocate a StandardMaterial and assign it to Asset#resource, that is then "updated" later by Asset, once its loaded?

[slimbuck]

Yep, you'd have to get the red material asset and 'load' it as usual. Once that's complete, asset.resource should be valid and you can set it on the render component.

Perhaps we can also issue a debug message when render.material isn't set cc @mvaligursky ?

[LeXXik]

Yes, I understand the reasoning and the cause. Currently the crash is cryptic and hard to debug, especially in multi-user projects.

[yaustar]

Yeah, the error message is pretty far from the code that's causing it from the user point of view:

[mvaligursky]

Debug warning added in #4524.
Closing this ticket, as there is no other issue.