The SurfaceMeshRenderableSeries3D accepts color palettes via the MeshColorPalette property.  Several options are available for paletting the mesh, including:

• SolidColorBrushPalette - applies a solid color to all cells in the mesh
• GradientColorPalette - maps a linear gradient to the mesh, where heights map to successive colors.
• BrushColorPalette - maps a BrushStyle to the mesh. For example, this can be used to map an image via the TextureBrushStyle type.

We will talk about each of these options below.

SolidColorBrushPalette

The SolidColorBrushPalette is simple enough.

surfaceMeshRenderableSeries3D.setMeshColorPalette(new SolidColorBrushPalette(ColorUtil.DarkGreen));

GradientColorPalette

The GradientColorPalette can be used to map a Gradient Brush set of colors to heights in the Surface Mesh. The mapping is similar to that performed by the Heatmap Series in 2D Charts.

Given the following code:

final int[] colors = new int[]{0xFF1D2C6B, Blue, Cyan, GreenYellow, Yellow, Red, DarkRed};
final float[] stops = {0, .1f, .3f, .5f, .7f, .9f, 1};

surfaceMeshRenderableSeries3D.setMeshColorPalette(new GradientColorPalette(colors, stops));

Colors are mapped onto Y-values as follows:

• Y values corresponding to Minimum are drawn with the gradient stop color at offset 0.
• Y values corresponding to Maximum are drawn with the gradient stop color at offset 1.
• All other values are linearly interpolated (including Y-values outside of Minimum and Maximum).

GradientColorPalette.IsStepped

When the property IsStepped is set to true, the color map is not interpolated, and graidnet stops are interpretted as hard steppings.

final int[] colors = new int[]{0xFF1D2C6B, Blue, Cyan, GreenYellow, Yellow, Red, DarkRed};
final float[] stops = {0, .1f, .3f, .5f, .7f, .9f, 1};

surfaceMeshRenderableSeries3D.setMeshColorPalette(new GradientColorPalette(colors, stops, true));

The Surface Mesh now looks like this:

BrushColorPalette

A texture can be applied to the SurfaceMesh and mapped over it in the X-Z plane by using a combination of BrushColorPalette, MeshPaletteMode.Textured and MeshColorPaletteSize.

final Bitmap bitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(getResources(), R.drawable.smiley);
final TextureBrushStyle brushStyle = new TextureBrushStyle(bitmap);
surfaceMeshRenderableSeries.setMeshPaletteMode(MeshPaletteMode.Textured);
surfaceMeshRenderableSeries.setMeshColorPalette(new BrushColorPalette(brushStyle));
surfaceMeshRenderableSeries.setMeshColorPaletteSize(new Size(bitmap.getWidth(), bitmap.getHeight()));

Creating a Custom Palette

You can create a custom Color Palette by inheriting MeshColorPalette and overriding getTexture. For example, see below.

class CustomPalette extends MeshColorPalette {
    @Override
    public Texture2D getTexture(int width, int height) {
        final Bitmap bitmap = Bitmap.createBitmap(width, height, Bitmap.Config.ARGB_8888);
        try {
            // TODO fill Bitmap
            return Texture2D.fromBitmap(bitmap);
        } finally {
            bitmap.recycle();
        }
    }
}

The palette is applied to a SurfaceMeshRenderableSeries3D as before.

Effect of SurfaceMeshRenderableSeries3D.MeshPaletteMode

The MeshPaletteMode property changes how the palette is applied to the Mesh.

• MeshPaletteMode.Textured means the Palette is applied to the mesh in the X-Z plane (the plane of the floor of the 3D Chart). Imagine the palette is stretched over the mesh itself.
• MeshPaletteMode.HeightMapInterpolated means the palette is applied in the Y direction (vertically) 
• Other variations such as MeshPaletteMode.TexturedSolidCells and HeightMapSolidCells perform the above two functions but without linear interpolation between nearby cells. use this to have each cell a constant colour.