Material library

[micheus]

This discussion has started in Yafaray plugin theread with the subject "default material details for the renders":

Because of my experiments I'm thinking about to add a [Set default] button for each render session. The option that we have on Plugins Preferences dialog doesn't help us much - it's important define the material details too.

Yes it would be good to be able to set more than just the shader type. The default values worked for the simple test renders I was doing but for more control one should probably be able to set other defaults. This could get messy since some shaders have only a few settings and others have lots of settings. Compare "light material" shader to "Translucent SSS" shader.

This could get messy since some shaders have only a few settings and others have lots of settings.

The idea is to use a structure data to store each render settings. This way, we replace everything for that render (we can have only one default material per render app)

So you want to move the "Default Shader" setting under Edit > Plugin Preferences > Yafaray to the Material Properties dialog. Why not simply add a "Default Shader" setting under Edit > Plugin Preferences > Kerkythea??? Once set, I don't think one would change it very often.

I'm not thinking only about Kerkythea.
I think that we should to store a default material with the whole material parameters - not only the shader type in some place.

Lights should not be managed and by setting the properties once you probably will not need to do it again - as you told - but it comes in handy when using that "Vertex to material" option for creating many materials.

But while I was writing this post, I thought about to change that button I named [Set to default] to [Save to library]. This way we would create something like a Material Library for Wings3d.

What "Wingers" think about that?

[oort]

Micheus,

Yes, it would be good to be able to set more than just the default shader type.

It would be great to have the ability to save materials to a library. Could they be kept in a separate file similar to color palettes? Then they could be shared with other "Wingers". I think you would want separate libraries for the different rendering software. I only use YafaRay and wouldn't need what would come with Pov-Ray or KerkyThea. Unless that makes things too complicated, then they could all be kept in one file.

oort

[micheus]

oort, I noticed in your homepage that is possible to have a material definition outside the exported file by Wings3d. Is that right?
If so, how it can be used.

For POV-Ray material editor we have the option to not export the material definition - just use the name. That's make possible to use a material name that we can find at POV-Ray library (.inc files) by just adding the include clause to the exported file.

[oort]

Micheus,
Are you talking about the YafRay Material (.mat) files on my old Oort Cloud page Oort Cloud Wings3D Page ? If so, these only work with old YafRay. Sadly this feature is not available in the new YafaRay.

Yes, the external .mat files would simply be referenced by their name in the YafRay .xml file.

oort

[micheus]

Are you talking about the YafRay Material (.mat) files on my old Oort Cloud page Oort Cloud Wings3D Page ? If so, these only work with old YafRay. Sadly this feature is not available in the new YafaRay.

Yes.
So, that's a pity.

Thanks

[oort]

Yes, it is. There was some discussion about this in the YafaRay forum but it does not seem to be a priority at this time...

oort

[oort]

Micheus,
To make this quick and easy (assuming it would be easy) you could improve on the File > Merge command.

You may have noticed the Wings3D Material Palettes (old YafaRay) on my old Oort Cloud Wings3D page. Those palettes were created before it was possible to keep materials in a file without the materials being assigned to an object. That is why there is an icosahedron in those .wings files. I never got around to deleting the object and enabling "Save Unused Materials" under the File drop down menu.

If it was possible to have more control over how File > Merge works, one could choose to only import materials. That way if someone has a .wings file with materials they want to use in another .wings file they could File > Merge and choose to only import the materials and avoid adding Views, Render Settings, Objects, etc..

Just a thought...
oort

[louis_gurley]

nice thread. thanks for sharing that information.

[ubiquity]

Micheus,
To make this quick and easy (assuming it would be easy) you could improve on the File > Merge command.

You may have noticed the Wings3D Material Palettes (old YafaRay) on my old Oort Cloud Wings3D page. Those palettes were created before it was possible to keep materials in a file without the materials being assigned to an object. That is why there is an icosahedron in those .wings files. I never got around to deleting the object and enabling "Save Unused Materials" under the File drop down menu.

If it was possible to have more control over how File > Merge works, one could choose to only import materials. That way if someone has a .wings file with materials they want to use in another .wings file they could File > Merge and choose to only import the materials and avoid adding Views, Render Settings, Objects, etc..

Just a thought...
oort

I tried to get around this by creating a Materials_Library.wings file with a default cube and a number of saved, unassigned materials. Unfortunately, when I tried to merge this file into another Wings fell over so I had to abort the attempt. It would certainly be useful to have a library of materials and, for that matter, textures. A selective merge would be a good intermediate step.

[micheus]

Hi ubiquity
There is a W.I.P. related to merge operation. It's paused now because wings3d UI coding has been changed, but if you are using wings3d 1.5 3 it is working.
You can check this thread. The latest dialog appearance you found in the post #72.