Instancing Layered Materials

arthard

Hi Polycount!

I was wondering if anyone could share some knowledge on how I could go about making a material that can be instanced, and within that material I could plug different existing materials (like tiling wood, tiling rock or metal, etc) and use a mask or multiple masks to control where each material is placed. The thing about the https://wiki.unrealengine.com/Creating_Layered_Materials_(Tutorial) is that they use material functions to layer different materials into a single one. But unfortunately you can't create parameters with those material functions. Any suggestion you can guys have would be greatly appreciated!

Obscura

Thats a basic issue with layered materials and material functions, and unfortunately there is no solution for this (if you want to keep them as functions).

arthard

Hello Obscura, yeah I guess that is the case. What if instead of material functions they're made as regular materials that can be used instead of those functions, do you know of a way to make that possible?

Obscura

The only way to change the layers, if you keep the input textures as texture parameters inside the material or function. Then you can access the textures, as regularly. I know, you still can't just swap a full layer with all of its functionality with one click.

arthard

Too bad because if you change the material via textures, you'd have to adjust the parameters again to make the interchanged material look accurate again. I was hoping to have a way to go about making a "plug-and-play" style setup. Thanks for your input!