Material import / export
Exporting / importing materials in a standalone files can really improves studio workflow and allows material management like assets' one
I know that we can append or link material, but that's not an handy way to manage shaders for a big project, we need to have the smaller file possible, version it, with the ability to edit it / publish it
this can also allows loading cycles material in other DCC with cycles support, like maya or max. about max, someone did a material exporter, as seen here : youtube.com/watch
I think materialX is a great solution for this, but as it doesn't support all cycles features, it's maybe not enough for now (maybe with an osl complement ? )
the way I see it, the importer can create a group with the shading nodes in it, that we can modify. on the group node itself, we can have an option to export and save (if one is already loaded). maybe their is nicer way to do it, but you get the idea
bests
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Honestly, I was surprised to see Blender doesn't have this. Being able to save and import animation graphs would be a great thing too.
* @Zafar Iqbal * totally agree, good idea about animation curve, can be interesting to look at kiko : github.com/Toolchefs/kiko
I think most people are using Quixel, with its many import/export plugins, including Blender. Tryout the Quixel Bridge, and be sure to have Unreal installed beforehand. That way you get free access to all the materials and models.
* @matthew1 * that's not a solution. we are supposed to be free to choose our tools. and how about linux ? Do i have to compile unreal for it just for this feature ? Unreal takes a lot fo space too, quite an heavy install for just allowing import/export of materials :)
* @kaiz3rwork * You may want to look at Quixel Megasans library before making a snap decision . . .
quixel.com/megascans/home/
And if you are already running Max & Maya, you are probably on windows . . .
* @matthew1 * I use maya and i'm on linux. I know quixel library and it not really having a link to what I'm asking. I talk about production ready shading import / export in blender. Not a library, not an external tool (that doesn't support all apps by the way). The goal is that studios can publish materials THE WAY THEY WANT to fit the pipeline/projects needs