But Vilters, I'm seeing the opinions of multiple people and they conflict here. This thread is incoherent.

Quote - He /she (sorry ladies) does not have weeks or months to figure out all nodes and all possibilities

Then this person should use presets.

You can't have your cake and eat it too.

One person says they want to make shaders FROM SCRATCH.

Another person says the materials need to be easier to build.

These are conflicting goals. You either can make anything you want, but you make it from scratch, or you take the limitations of presets and you don't make it from scratch.

I give people shaders that have plenty of knobs to turn for different results and there is NO MATH in doing that. Yet only a handful pay attention to that. If you want to build a little bit, you can do that too. You want a clouds node in your BBGlossy diffuse color? Plug one in.

Yes it is also possible to do senseless things, like plug a Blinn into Diffuse_Color, multiplied by 0. I don't see that as a problem.

It sounds to me that what is being said is it would be desirable to have a system that produces something sensible no matter what settings or connections you pick. But, that seems motivated only by a desire to enjoy mindless experimentation without frustrating black output.

That's like assembling electronic components at random. You're never going to find a radio or MP3 player by accident, no matter HOW sensible the connectors force you to be.

 

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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)