Question Texture dilema/issue ( or so I think)

I've been working on a custom function node graph for some time, and I've been documenting myself regarding shaders for a while now (still a noob tho), and I still can't understand this phenomenon about float4 output. Basically I am using shadergraph almost as a 2D editing software. I have some spheres in the scene that I want to use as "alpha" for another shader and I'm using a camera with a RenderTexture output, to produce a Texture2DArray to feed inside my custom function graph. Each slice takes a snapshot of each sphere by itself, and they all have a complete dark material. What I am trying to do is merge each Texture2D from the array, one by one and produce an "alpha" map with 3 intensities ( white, grey, black), Where ( black => is the most transparent area). I am trying to iterate through all my slices in the Texture2dArray, but I've notice something that I do not fully understand. The float4 outputs that the custom function spits, even tho it looks completely 0/1, black/white, and even sampled as pure white/black, it still has some 'hidden' data that reveals itself when increasing the intensity. I don't know much about the depth of images and what they really store in there but I assumed that if I snapshot a completely black object there's no way to retain any other information.


This is the code for generating the 2 outputs:

Code (CSharp):

1. void AlphaGenerate_float (Texture2D source, Texture2DArray mask, int textureCount, SamplerState state, float2 UV, float2 res, float Alpha, float Beta, float Delta, out float4 output, out float4 output2)
2. {
3.  
4.     float4 grey = mask.Sample(state, float3(UV, 0));
5.     float4 black = 1.0f;
6.  
7.     for (int i = 1; i < textureCount; i++)
8.     {
9.         black *= grey + float4(min(1.0f,mask.Sample(state, float3(UV, i)).rgb), 1.0f);;
10.         grey *= float4(min(1.0f, mask.Sample(state, float3(UV, i)).rgb), 1.0f);;
11.     }
12.  
13.     output = float4(black.rgb, 1.0f);
14.     output2 = float4(grey.rgb, 1.0f) - float4(-0.5f, -0.5f, -0.5f, -0.5f);

Thanks in advance,
Chris

############################

Just when I was about to go to bed, after not sleeping for 2 days, I figured it out during a hot shower.. it's the only graph I didn't even think of trying "Clamp", does exactly what I needed.. I even tried making my own 'clamp' with Min, Max, but for some reason I completely forgot about it..

 

This is the final code in case someone is interested. Not so many examples on the internet with the custom function node. Code with sphere merging and processing + applying the blur based on resulting map. Wish there was a way to blur the resulting masking map, but not easy to manipulate float4.

Code (CSharp):

1.  
2. void BlurFilters_float (Texture2D source, Texture2DArray mask, int textureCount, SamplerState state, float2 UV, float2 res, float Alpha, float Beta, float Delta, out float4 output, out float4 output2)
3.    {
4.  
5.        float4 grey = mask.Sample(state, float3(UV, 0));
6.        float4 black = 1.0f;
7.  
8.        for (int i = 1; i < textureCount; i++)
9.        {
10.            black *= grey + float4(min(1.0f,mask.Sample(state, float3(UV, i)).rgb), 0.0f);;
11.            grey *= float4(min(1.0f, mask.Sample(state, float3(UV, i)).rgb), 0.0f);;
12.        }
13.  
14.   float4 subt = clamp(float4(black.rgb, 0.0f), 0.0f, 1.0f) * clamp(float4(grey.rgb, 0.0f) - float4(-0.5f, -0.5f, -0.5f, -0.5f), 0.0f, 1.0f);
15.    float4 tex = 0;
16.    for (int y = 0; y < Alpha; y++)
17.    {
18.        for (int x = 0; x < Alpha; x++)
19.        {
20.  
21.            float2 displace = float2(x, y) - (Alpha - 1) / 2.0;
22.            float grayscale = (subt.r + subt.g + subt.b) / 3 + displace* Beta / Alpha;
23.  
24.            tex += source.Sample(state, UV + displace * Beta * grayscale / Alpha);
25.        }
26.    }
27.    output = tex / (Alpha * Alpha);
28.    output2 = subt;
29. }