Grouping Nodes

[will2power]

I've run into something that I would like to share with the group. I love the Orbx format because it allows me to cross connect my shaders no matter the application that I'm working in so I'm not stuck constantly having to re-create materials in each application. But I've noticed something in Cinema 4D that significantly slows down my workflow. If the material is complex with a lot of different nodes, when I bring in the Orbx, instead of getting a single material in the Material section, it seems that each node gets a material entry, which is fine for one or two materials like that. The problem comes when you have a scene with a lot of objects and a lot of materials --at first I separated them into tabs, but then the number of tabs grew and it got confusing real quick. I would like to request that there be a way to group the nodes so that only one material is visible in the material list, but the nodes are in their proper place when you view them in the node editor. Maya Octane does this with Orbx Materials if you want an example of what I'm talking about. The Orbx material is one entry but all the nodes are in their place when you graph the node in the Hypershade.

[aoktar]

Grouping the texture nodes are currently available. Is it what you want?

[bepeg4d]

Hi will2power,
are you using Mix materials?
If yes, you need to convert them into Composite Materials, in this way they will be displayed as single material in the c4d material manager.
ciao Beppe

[leehenshall]

I think my feature request for an ORBX Material Loader would help in this situation.

viewtopic.php?f=88&t=75760

I'd prefer to have my Master material library in SA and import into C4D via an orbx loader that exists as a C4D Material. That way the only materials that are inside my local scene are ORBX Containers that serve as connections to SA orbx files. Hopefully it would still be possible to use texture mapping via the c4d tag this way.