Float texture is like a Swiss Army knife — it is used almost anywhere in OctaneRender®. When converting RGB to grayscale values, the float value creates black for 0 and white for 1. The same is true in Roughness, Bump, Normal, Opacity and Transmission channels. The Float texture can be used with any node that has the parameters of "amount" or "texture". 


Create Grayscale Value from Float Node

Open the Node editor and prepare the setup as seen in the image below. This setup will create grayscale values when the Float node is connected to the diffuse channel of the parent material. The color in your diffuse channel is overridden by Float node.



Create Mix between Gradient Texture Node using Float  

Open the Node editor and prepare the setup as you see in the image below. Connect the Float Node to the input option of the Gradient texture node and enter any two color values from the gradient texture options. Then connect the gradient texture node to the diffuse channel of the parent material. As you can see in the image below, when the float value is adjusted the gradient color values will be mixed. 



Using Float with Mix Texture Node   

Open the Node editor and prepare the setup as seen in the image below. In this setup, you can mix the Float Node into the amount slot of the Mix texture node and mix it between two different textures.