Darktree? No I don't think so. I've not used that prog but it looks like the Poser material room - assembling nodes into a tree. That's not cool - too slow. After you put about 120 nodes in, you're totally lost. And you can't give even a 50 node shader to someone else who didn't watch it being made - they don't have a clue.

No what I'm saying is I use matmatic to build a monster shader with 500 nodes in it. Then I give you a GUI to modify the 25 key parameters. I already have that, using Parmatic. You never look at the script or the shader. But you don't get a real-time preview unless you go into the material room, and then that's really slow.

I'm talking about giving you the 25 dials, a nice BIG preview, and one that updates instantly. As well, it would have parametrically nearby neighbors previews as well, so you can ignore the parameters and just point at which one you like best. Then it makes more variations and you point at the one you like best. You keep repeating that until you get something you like a lot. And you have no need to know how the parameters got there.

I can't imagine anything being easier.

---

Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)