Material architecture selector

Need	Use	Cost/risk to check
Variants of one surface family	Parent + Material Instances	parent scope, static permutations
Repeated math or mapping	Material Function	propagation to every caller
Reorderable artist-facing layers	Material Layers	per-pixel layer cost and masks
Global scalar/vector state	Material Parameter Collection	global coupling; not per-object
Unique values per primitive/instance	Custom Primitive Data	index contract and update ownership
Landscape/object blending cache	RVT	page memory, uploads, static suitability
Local grime/damage/signage	DBuffer/deferred decal	receiving response, overlap, sort
Complex physical BSDF composition	Substrate	project/platform support and cost
One-off simple surface	Direct Material	avoid needless framework overhead

Before choosing, answer:

• How many assets and variants share the logic?
• Which parameters vary globally, per material, per object, or per frame?
• Does the choice create new shader permutations or only runtime uniform values?
• Is the surface opaque, masked, or truly translucent?
• What is the largest screen coverage and overlap count?

Split parent families when domains, blend modes, shading models, or platform feature sets differ.