Custom Material Layers For MaterialVariants

Feature Requests Engine Features
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#1

Issue

It is currently annoying to have materials with a special coloured layer (like how Corroded Metal has its brown uncolourable layer) being tinted instead of layered over top of colour. Currently, there is no way to do something like this.

Examples

Bricks

Bricks have a white layer on top of the colour layer.

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The same goes with the 2022 materials but instead, it also has a subtle layer of red. This shows that it is still possible, even using modern materials.
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CorrodedMetal

Corroded metal has a layer of brown rust that is on top of the coloured layer. This goes the same with both the 2022 version and legacy.

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WoodPlanks

Wood planks have a layer of grey metal nails that hold the boards in place in the legacy material.
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LeafyGrass

Leafy grass has a layer of leaves that aren’t able to be coloured and are always brown.

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Solution

I do have an idea of maybe having a second ColorMap value that can be used as a layer on top of the current ColorMap. I would be okay with it being uncolourable, but it would be super helpful for making materials look nice. Maybe something like how Unity has for secondary colour layers with Albedo (known as ColorMap on Roblox) and Normal Map.

Unity Engine’s Secondary Maps
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I can see that this is possible with pre-existing materials, but why not allow custom materials to utilize this as well to allow for more creativity for custom materials? I have been itching to see these as something possible and hope that there is a way to make it possible.

I hope I made my post understandable for readers :sweat_smile:

23 Likes
#2

I’ve been asking for this since custom materials were beta’d. This would bring custom materials entirely on par with built in materials and unlocks a huge array of customization options.

5 Likes
#3

last i’ve heard on this subject was this reply to my post asking for some way to have these custom colored parts of materials. it’s unfortunate to see no momentum on this as of yet. my terrain materials are always a bit too homogenous as a result of the mostly mandatory color tinting.