Independent Material Editor Proposal
Short description: It is proposed to develop the ability to edit materials in Blender without them necessarily being linked to any object in the scene, similar to the material editor in Unreal Engine.
â Problem: In the current version of Blender, direct material editing is only possible after it has been assigned to an object in the scene. This creates inconveniences, especially when working with materials assigned via Geometry Nodes or when creating material libraries. To edit such a material, the user has to create a temporary object and assign the material to it.
â Proposed solution: Develop an "Independent Material Editor". This could be a separate window or mode in which the user can open and edit any material in the project (or from an external library) without the need to assign it to an object.
đ Possible implementations: Creating a new window type ("Material Editor"). Adding the ability to "open for editing" a material directly from the Outliner or Material Properties.
âĄī¸ Advantages: Convenient editing of materials assigned via Geometry Nodes. Simplification of the process of creating and editing material libraries. More intuitive workflow for material artists. Improved integration with procedural content generation systems.
đ¤ Example of use: A user creates a grass material to be assigned to many instances generated by Geometry Nodes. With the "Independent Material Editor," they could open this material and adjust its shader network directly, without having to create a separate sample grass object.
Example:
âšī¸ Reference: Driver Editor also can be opened in different window by context menu. Unreal Engine's Material Editor is a good reference for independent material-asset editing.
đĢļ Conclusion: Implementing an "Independent Material Editor" would significantly improve the workflow in Blender, making material editing more flexible and convenient, especially in the context of procedural modeling and working with large scenes.
3 Comments
I agree with the problem, but think the easier solution isn't another editor but simply to not require a material to be an object or mesh property.
It should just be allowed to belong to the scene/file.
That's not technically the issue: any data block can exist in the scene/file without being assigned to an object. But you have to mark them with a fake user to make sure they won't be deleted by data purge or reopening the file.
The actual issue it that the Shader editor only shows the materials of the selected object. If we could e.g. select a material in the outliner to see it in the Shader editor, or have an extra mode in the Shader editor that let us access any material of any kind in the scene, now that would solve the issue.
I phrased it quite poorly; you're correct on fake user and the rest, so that correction is needed.
But agreed, pls let me edit any material, not just one assigned to an object.