Group input in shader node tree
Very simple idea. Same shader nodetree for several different objects. But it has a group input like for geometry nodes. So for each object that uses this nodetree, it can for instance supply a base color or a decimal value to control something in the material.
The user can then reuse materials instead of duplicating them to make tiny adjustments and end up with many very similar but not identical materials. Reusing the material instead of creating many duplicates makes it easier to update all of them.
I know I can use geometry nodes to store named attributes, and then use them in materials. But that is a cumbersome workaraound. I have to create a bespoke GN for each material.
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Reminds me of my proposal years ago to make Materials and Geometry Nodes consistent: blender.community/c/rightclickselect/O8WY/
Yes, I work a lot with GN and then going back to other type of nodetrees, I feel very limited.
Tbh this makes perfect sense, currently the whole material properties panel is kinda useless, its in a way a legacy feature. It could be replaced by a "GN like" system where every material is a nodegroup
There are 1 or 2 official proposals for this actually, heres the one I could find but I swear there was another one projects.blender.org/blender/blender/issues/112547
It should create the attributes at the moment the material is assigned.
Sorry, could you elaborate a bit?
Isn't that what regular nodegroups already do?
No, they don't behave like geonodes.
That is another workaround, yes. I would still need several materials. Complex workings could be put into the group and shared between the two materials. It's a good point, but I think my suggestion still makes it much easier to handle. And makes the material nodetree work more like GN.