Layered Material

A layered material stacks multiple materials on top of one another to handle multi-component materials, such as a tail light that has inner white glass and outer red glass. Where these two glasses are melded together and share the surface between. Since there is no air or gap to handle the refractions correctly, Z-fighting becomes an issue, unless a layered material is used.

Unlike the multi pass material, the order of traversal is determined by the normal of the geometry. This allows it to use the layered material as a two-sided material.

With a tail light, for example, hide one of the 2 surfaces. In the Material Editor, create a layered material and move both materials into the layered material. Now, assign the layered material to the visible surface. The order of the materials within the layered material influences the rendering. If the order is incorrect, coloring and refraction will be incorrect. Reorder the materials within the layered material to correct this.

Layered materials are also used for single-sided objects, such as playing cards. The outer normal will have a different material from the inner normal. The order in the layered material determines what is rendered on which side.

Additionally, glass materials are handled in a special way. If two glass materials are added to the layered material, the index of refraction of these glass materials are adjusted in a way that allows you to use them in glass-on-glass contact situations. If you add more than two glass materials, only the index of refraction of the first and last glass material is considered, all other glass materials get an Index of Refraction of 1.0 and act as a color filter if material density is turned off.

For information on creating and modifying Layered Materials, see Working with Multi Pass, Layered, and Switch Materials.

Layered Materials Attributes

When a layered material is selected, its material variants are listed in the Properties Editor.