material assignment issue

[super gnu]

im a bit confused re. material assignment. 

ive got a multi event flow, with shape instances of reference objects.  in the first event they have one set of shapes, and later they switch to another shape reference. 


i wish the material to change too. 

easy! i thought.  just set the shape node to use "inherit from reference" 


i did this for both sets of shape nodes, and applied different materials to the reference objects. 


i get no change in the rendered material. 

tried changing them to "scene material" and setting new material there... still no new material. 

placed an "instance material" node and set it there.... still no change. 

in fact the only material that seems to render on the particles is whatever i assign to the actual tyflow object via the material editor. 

how to resolve this?   quite urgent..

[tyFlow]

You're rendering with VRay as instances?

[super gnu]

yes! although the particles with a different material also have a different shape, so they should be unique within the flow. - anyway, no longer super urgent, since im exporting to objects so i can do what i want with materials.