Quote - So I would need a shader tree just like that one, with that many nodes?
It does seem rather complicated in order to just fade out a texture.

Not really very many nodes (two are only there to provide obvious places to set the min and max values), but most of the Poser nodes are primitive (in the same sense as a sphere or cube), so you need to construct things from first principles, which is why Matmatic is handy (it's a material compiler).

Complex would apply to these node setups
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?message_id=2290402&ebot_calc_page#message_2290402
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?message_id=2389494&ebot_calc_page#message_2389494
http://www.runtimedna.com/mod/forum/messages.php?ShowMessage=240354