Render properties as a datablock
The datablock system in Blender is one of the best design ideas in this software. For me, it feels like everything is instantiated by default. It's incredibly convenient for consistency, iteration, optimization, clarity and organization.
What if the render properties of a scene were a datablock? Then you could have multiple scenes with the same render settings.
It wouldn't be like render layers because you could create or swap to another render setting at any time.
Was this feature ever envisaged ? What do you think ? Thanks!
10 Comments
All you need is saving application templates (there are tutorials on youtube). That way you have a UI for each thing you want to do. For exemple, i have a application template for 3d printing, for things in meters, another for things in mm. And each one have different preferences
I don't see the link with render settings...
youtube.com/watch
I don't think this is the way to go. Data-blocks are for data, not settings.
However, the concept of sharing data-blocks is great so what should be done instead is to replace the clunky presets system with a data-blocks-like alternative.
This way it's separate from Append/Link data browsing, there's no need to add a lot of exceptions for assets or user counts, add-ons could add their own (they can't add new data-blocks at the moment, for example), plus all the benefits like linking. Overrides for presets would be MUCH simpler than the current system (mainly due to the lack of recursiveness) and so on.
Thanks for the explanation. I understand the need for simplicity. But when you have a lot of scene there is a need to instance.
Maybe take a look at the take system in C4D. it's somewhat similar to the scene/viewlayer system in blender. More versatile but a lot more confusing.
The one thing that better is that you can create render settings and assign them to each take. You gain a lot of time in iteration and setup management with that.
Screenshot from C4D here : i.imgur.com/40lpuEl.jpg
What do you think ?
And you are right, more support for presets will be great !
I think preset system which can change multiple panels would be better than another datablock. How it would work for cycles and eve since they have different settings? What about other render engines?
Pablo said a few times on streams what devs regret adding palette datablock because of poor integration. It makes sense to restrict datablocks to just things what can be used in a lot systems.
After some more thinking - what about some way of using text datablocks as presets? Presets internally are just py files with text anyway, so this might be a more usable solution.
Regarding "How it would work for cycles and eve since they have different settings? What about other render engines?" It could be just a parameter of the datablock like a light datablock can be a spot, area, point or sun.
Yes. Something like this could also be used to finally combine world shader settings with scene Exposure settings. When I switch from a night HDRI that needs high exposure to a day HDRI that needs low exposure, it's too many clicks.
Other thing view layer dont support : changing the camera while keeping the same render settings.