Layer Textures

Layer Textures stacks up to four full albedo and normal sets on a single material and blends them with masks. It is the right tool for environment art that mixes moss, dirt, snow, and paint over a base, without spawning a separate decal or splat shader.

When to use it

Environment rocks and props with moss, dirt, or snow.
Painted props where the paint is masked separately from the wear.
Stylized vehicles with rust, decals, and base paint as distinct layers.
Hero items where each layer has its own normal frequency.

Difference from Detail Textures

Detail Textures adds one high-frequency overlay. Layer Textures adds up to four full materials at the base frequency, each with an explicit mask. Reach for Layer Textures when each layer has its own color and bump.

Modes

Vertex-mask blending — each layer’s weight comes from a vertex color channel (R, G, B, A), authored in Blender, Maya, or Polybrush.
Texture-mask blending — a packed RGBA mask drives all four layer weights from a single texture sample.
Height-driven blending — each layer compares against a world-Y range. Pairs with Height Gradient for snow caps and waterlines.

Plain rock texture with no variation.

Moss masked into crevices via vertex green, snow blended in above Y=2.

Base only

Base + moss + snow

A single-layer rock against a three-layer environment material. Drag to compare.

Properties

Inspector label	Shader property	Type	Default	Description
Layer Count	_LayerCount	Int (1–4)	2	Active layers. More layers cost more texture samples.
Layer 1 Albedo	_Layer1Albedo	Texture2D	white	Layer 1 albedo map.
Layer 1 Normal	_Layer1Normal	Texture2D	bump	Layer 1 normal map.
Layer 1 Tiling	_Layer1Tiling	Vector4	(1,1,0,0)	Per-layer tiling (xy) and offset (zw).
Layer 1 Mask Source	_Layer1Mask	Enum	VertexR	Source of the layer weight: vertex, texture, or height.
Blend Mode	_LayerBlendMode	Enum	Mix	Mix, Multiply, or Overlay across layers.
Height Blend	_LayerHeightBlend	Float (0–1)	0.0	Adds heightmap-based blending sharpness.

Usage

Set Layer Count to the number you actually need; unused layers still cost samples.
Pick the mask source per layer. Vertex masks are cheapest; texture masks are the most flexible.
Author masks in 0–1 greyscale; the blender uses them directly as weights.
For snow on rocks, set Layer 2’s mask source to Height and feed it a Y range.


material.SetInt("_LayerCount", 3);
material.SetTexture("_Layer2Albedo", mossAlbedo);
material.SetFloat("_LayerHeightBlend", 0.4f);

Tips & gotchas

Each layer is two texture samples (albedo plus normal), so four layers is eight samples before any other feature — budget carefully on mobile.
Vertex masks lose precision at low poly counts; high-poly meshes paint cleanly, low-poly ones tile sharply.
Height blend needs a Height Blend above 0 for contrast; at 0, layers cross-fade linearly.
Pairs with Triplanar, whose UVs can drive each layer for UV-free terrain.

Detail Textures — single high-frequency overlay.
Height Gradient — drives layer height masks.
Vertex Colors — author layer weights per vertex.
Triplanar Mapping — UV-free layer projection.