Question How to blend two materials (not textures)

Hi

In 3DS MAX, I often mix 2 completely different materials using a Blend material that has 2 materials as sub materials. They are blended using a mask (2D texture).
Is this possible in Shader Graph? Or can't you parent/child full materials?

 

Not possible with Shader Graph. Not possible with real time shaders in general unless you write a custom shader that does it for you. The closest you can have is render your object twice with two separate materials, and have one be set to transparent with a mask to fade it out. Otherwise make a new Shader Graph with both “shaders” in it and lerp between them.

 

layered shaders are a forward rendering feature if Im not mistaken and game engines usually don't do that
Even renderers like Octane only support it with cheap hacks like mix shaders blending 2 together

 

Ok thanks for the insights! I will then use one material and make a blend for each mapping (albedo, normal, specular etc etc)

 

Has anybody tired to "Blend" two materials using dithering and alpha cutout.
Render one material and second material on top with 'depth test equals' and alpha cutout driven by dithered alpha.
Would It work in HDRP ?