Would someone more familiar with Shader Graph than I am let me know if the new UE Substrate-style material workflow is achievable in Shader Graph, and if not, are there plans to introduce this type of workflow?
GDC video for reference:
The Future of Materials in Unreal Engine | GDC 2023 - YouTube
Not unless you write your own SRP from scratch. That’s not just a different workflow, it’s an entirely different lighting model concept and needs deep integration with the render pipeline.
Gotcha, thank you for the insight.
It is absolutely possible via Custom Target.
I’ve been working on a similar architecture called SlabPBR for the past few months. I can confirm that you don’t need to modify the URP or ShaderGraph source code to achieve a Substrate-like workflow.
The key is leveraging the Custom Target API within ShaderGraph. By defining a custom SubTarget, you can implement a closure-based blending logic (Vertical Layering) and handle the energy conservation between “Slabs” at the code generation level.
