Automatically detect image files for specular, roughness, etc. and combine into a single image texture node
Problem
Many materials are composed of several image textures, resulting in cluttered node layouts. The complexity is often unnecessary, since the images often share the same mapping settings, tiling settings, etc.
Proposed solution
When an image texture node is added and an image file is chosen, Blender could automatically find related files that share the same root name, e.g. 'Artwork', followed by an underscore and variant name e.g. '_Roughness'. Each variant would become an output socket, as in the mockup below.
Additional UI would probably be needed to enable / disable this functionality, refresh the list of variant images, etc.
2 Comments
It is interesting but I wonder what's the added benefit compared to a node group doing the same thing ? What about the maps that need to be set to non-color data, or are in different color spaces ?
With this sentence, you break the idea that all nodes are simple and their functionality is decided by quantity in the first place. Offer:
Simplifying such a thing when you just do template stuff... .