Usability and Luxcore workflow streamlining ideas

[lacilaci]

It only give me the feeling that it is there to avoid newbie to do things wrong.

Yes you are correct!

[lacilaci]

Ok, so here's an idea that I always get but I'm not sure if applies to other users.
I have pretty big library of textures that I gathered thourough the years and they are great but.
I almost never use them as they are by default, almost always i need to plug a mix node between texture and material input(mostly applies to roughness)
It is kinda slow and very repetitive process, not a big deal but...

What if there was color mix and saturation+contrast controls right in texture node? So that every texture can be tweaked in it's own node?

By color mix I mean basic color just a swatch and mix mode with % control. Saturation and contrast with a % control too. And if the user needs more advanced mixing(with other textures) and controls over it, they can use regular nodes and/or do it outside blender.

Reasoning is, that roughness or glossines maps you get from internet or even when you make your own outside blender and luxcore will always need some tweaking for final material look, and even more so in some specific situation/lighting. And diffuse maps often need some saturation/contrast tweaks too.

Vray and if I remember corona too, have this covered by having a default color for every input that can have color and when you plug-in texture you can then lower the % right in material node to get weaker influence of the texture by mixing it with the default color of given input.
But having this in texture node gives much more freedom since every texture can be tweaked on it's own.

I think this could be a pretty big timesaver and makes material editing cleaner.

[B.Y.O.B.]

I have also thought about this.
In the old LuxBlend there was an "M" button for each texturable property, and if you pressed it, the original color would be multiplied with the texture ("M" as short for "Multiply").

I have done a mockup/hack how this could look like:
Video: https://youtu.be/08W_nVxosuw

[lacilaci]

I have also thought about this.
In the old LuxBlend there was an "M" button for each texturable property, and if you pressed it, the original color would be multiplied with the texture ("M" as short for "Multiply").

I have done a mockup/hack how this could look like:
Video: https://youtu.be/08W_nVxosuw

Multiply looks like a very bad way to control texture color to me.

Your mockup is close, but if instead "M" there was value input in % to signify how much effect does the texture has over color (basic mix not multiply) /this is how vray and corona in 3dsmax work afaik. Feature being not too useful for diffuse as much as Roughness for example. (It still might need a little thought to clarify to user how it works, like positioning "###%" value box near input and color swatch on the far side/after "Diffuse color" name with default value of 100% for texture )

For diffuse type of textures it would be much better to have a texture node setting for contrast, value/brightness, hue maybe. To avoid using extra nodes for basic tweaking if only single texture is being tweaked..

I'm doing lots of rendering these days but then I maybe find some time to do a mockup if needed to clarify what I'm asking for.

[B.Y.O.B.]

Your mockup is close, but if instead "M" there was value input in % to signify how much effect does the texture has over color (basic mix not multiply)

Yes, makes sense.

Instead of changing the UI we could also make a shortcut that inserts a mix node or HSV node.
We could try to mimic some of the top features of node wrangler.

[lacilaci]

Your mockup is close, but if instead "M" there was value input in % to signify how much effect does the texture has over color (basic mix not multiply)

Yes, makes sense.

Instead of changing the UI we could also make a shortcut that inserts a mix node or HSV node.
We could try to mimic some of the top features of node wrangler.

Yes I even forgot about node wrangler. Super useful when working with 2.8 and cycles.

It is kinda less intuitive since it would be hidden behind some shortcut for new users I think. On other hand, people that use blender also tend to use node wrangler and are familiar with it's shortcuts.... Although I only remember ctrl+t myself