Manual: Fx Layer

Almost any library item can be added to a material as an Fx Layer.

The added material is masked by two textures: a dynamic mask and a static mask, which often equates to diffuse or alpha, if present.

If the effect is not visible enough, lower the “From Max” slider of the static mask. “From Min” slider reduces the fx.

You can Exclude the Static mask and Invert its effect.

By default the dynamic mask is set to Dynamic Paint, and the Fx is painted over the entire material.

At this point click on the “Paint Fx” button to paint the effect, use “Un-Paint Fx” to delete, “Fill” to distribute the effect on the entire material, “Unfill” to remove it completely.

Clicking on the “Paint tools” button opens the brush preferences page.

It is possible to add more than one effect layer, the only limitation is 24 different textures in Eevee for each single material.

The other 3 dynamic mask options are: Noise, Worn edges and Z-Mix.

Noise applies a mask useful for randomly distributing the effect.

It is possible to adjust the smoothing of the edges with the parameter “Detailed Deadlift”. You can invert the mask.

With “Roughness” and “Details” you control the amount and scale of details along the edges of the islands.

You can adjust the distortion and scale of the mask texture.

On top there are buttons for resetting this section values and show tips buttons.

Press the “Make worn_edges” button to pre-render a mask around the edges of the mesh.

“Make Noise Worn_Edges” adds random noise to the edges mask.

You can then adjust the expansion of the affected area and its strength.

It is possible to invert the mask, reset the set values ​​and enable help hints.

A useful trick is to set the Diffuse parameter to zero, so that the edges are only affected with normals and bumps.

Z-Mix allows you to set a height beyond which the effect ceases.

It is possible to adjust the stretch of the edges, the level of detail, the blur (deadlift), the amount of detail (Roughness) and the Distortion.

You can set the general Scale of the mask, and Switch its direction.

The “Follow Z Location” button takes into account the coordinates of the world instead of those of the object, thus allowing to automatically generate terrains with different aspects depending on the altitude.

The blue arrow allows you to collapse or expand the panel, the yellow fx key allows you to select an effect from all those loaded in the project, by clicking on the name it is possible to rename the effect.

The two round arrows load the selected material from the library into the effect.

The dash allows you to deletete the effect.

Pressing the “Clip Textures” button avoids the repetition of textures in tiles, useful for stencils or special effects.

It is possible to reset the panel values, obtain information and show usage Tips buttons.