abreukers wrote:since these changes here are easier said than done, we will concentrate first on implementing some absolutely necessary features such as sss, and also the plugins.
Being able to copypaste a node (just a bunch of xml text) is absolutely necessary and much easier to do than plugins & sss. Since the product is out for two years, maybe it's already due to finally have this little fundamental feature.
I really hope we won't need to wait months & years before the material editor & shading pipeline sees some drastically needed improvements & fixes. In between those big projects that take RS months to implement & debug, you guys could throw a few usability fixes now and then, that would make the everyday work with Octane a little less tedious:
- copypaste nodes
- moving nodes between tabs
- click select / box select and move nodes in group
- box select and save a group of nodes in .ocm (instead to just being able to save a single node)
- panning the GE area with the mouse
- saving nodes in .ocm without automatically embedded textures
- bulk import nodes (Ctrl + click in the file loader to select multiple files)
- import node at current cursor (right click -> import, instead of menu -> import)
- implement the distinction between image & texture, so we don't need to click&reload a thousand times if we want to change some image source for a set of textures.
- more pixel blending modes for textures (you already have all the framework coded, just need to create a new function, throw a
x - y there and call it
subtract 
)
...these are all quite small features & fixes and the list goes on... I could write a few pages about what and why it's needed, but I don't know if it will do any good or have any effect.
Sorry for being a pain, but some of this stuff is so fundamental, that's hard to believe that RS is pursuing to do plugins (which could take months or the whole next year, as we are seeing all the setbacks with the max plugin) before introducing any of this.
Also, RS could start to deliver some of the shading features discussed & proposed in
this thread. (atleast those that are implementable without any big changes)