@John Thanks for the update.
@John, @Simeon - don’t know what I did but, I was trying to duplicate the rain Shader on Twitter, had the top row of nodes in place and then started to add the bottom row - reached the bottom left and was adding a number node when all other nodes disappeared together with the surface property box. But, the output window still reflected what I already had in place. Scrolling the editing window and pinching to reduce failed to bring up nodes. Closing, re-opening the shader had no effect. Closing Shade and restarting, then loading the shader just returned to the same blank canvas with only a single node in view. Is there any way I could have deleted multiple nodes with one touch?
@Bri_G can you post or send us the effected shader file?
@Bri_G I ran into the disappearing nodes several times and reported it back on page 1. I was playing with adding nodes and connecting lines when all the nodes and Surface list disappeared. I thought they scrolled off the screen, but I couldn’t find them. So I don’t know if they disappeared or scrolled somewhere I couldn’t find them. The only thing I could do was delete the Shader and start over.
@dave1707 - just posted my file to @Simeon, may help. I wondered if I had tried to create a node on top of another. The screen wss getting pretty congested.
@dave1707 - don’t believe it, happened again. This time I had added most of nodes but only connected top row. Moving window to left and they all disappeared. Could they have dropped a z-level, behind the grid?
@John, @Simeon - with the problems I have had with disappearing nodes I tried this : loaded up new blank shader, selected the surface node and pressed delete. The node disappeared. Surely this node should be permanently present?
@John, @Simeon - loaded another file and deleted the surface node, closed and reloaded it. Here are the reported errors in attached screen image.
This is interesting because in the disappearing nodes case you can continue to add nodes implying the surface node is still active in limbo and the system is basically intact. Re-loading a shader with deleted surface is inoperable and fires out the errors as in the snapshot attached.
@John, @Simeon - Just thinking about the disappearance problem. What environment is the shader main window on? Is it a 3D environment or a 2D with scaling capability - i.e. no movement in along z axis. Only mention it because the output window is fixed but is obviously 3D. Have we lost our nodes behind us?
Suggestion, location button in the top right menu which when pressed locates the surface node top right below the menu, then you can pinch zoom as needed.
@John, @Simeon - thought occurred to me with the disappearing nodes - sometimes between nodes you get these routing terminals (mini nodes whatever you call them) I have opened these at times to redirect from x to y etc but with no success - have to learn how to do it. But, on occasion I have left these open and not linked. Could this be effectively repeatedly building up in memory and exceeding memory available and effectively crashes?
@Bri_G thanks for the file. Managed to figure out the problem. Basically somehow you’ve scrolled really far away from the Surface node and the rest of your graph. I’ll have to figure out why that’s happening. We now have a minimap though so it’ll be easy to find your graph no matter where it goes.
@John - thanks for the update, still don’t know why the nodes move away from the screen. Probably so far away because I was scrolling around trying to find them. The minimap is a good idea - at -14000 how small is the minimap image of the Shade 1/14 th of the screen? I still think a re-location tool would be useful until you find the reason for the teleporting shades.
@Bri_G with the minimap you can tap and it will take you straight to that location. I’ve tested it with your shader and its very easy.
@John - Excellent, no pressure but is this in next version? Any suggestion for avoiding the problem until version 6 is out?
I know there was a minor issue with scrolling in one of the earlier versions, could that be the reason behind the disappearing nodes?
Just figured out what swizzling is and how to do the connections. I am afraid the only way I can do it is by zooming into the screen so that the expanded swizzle pip connection are big enough so that I can make connections. My fingers are pretty big and flat at the tips. Think I might invest in a touch pen.
@Simeon, @John - just a quick query re swizzles - @TokOut provided a shader with a gradient coloured sphere using ViewDir, Normal. Dot and Gradient nodes. The link between the Dot and Gradient had a Swizzle present in @Tokout’s shader. When I reproduced this there was no Swizzle. Are Swizzles produced automatically? Can you insert one in between linked nodes? Or, does it depend on the output from the donating node and the options in the receiving node?
Second quick query, I used the Culling property in a recent shader on a sphere object. The sphere is partially transparent, not by design - by play, and reflective. There appears to be a black cube/square within the sphere or on the surface is this omission of points on the sphere? I can’t seem to get rid of it.
Picking up the latter point,can I re-enforce a request by one of the beta-testers to provide selection highlighters (bold print, colour change or a tick) so that we can quickly assess which properties we have selected for the shader. It would make life easier when trying to figure out why changes occur and how to modify them if needed.
p.s. you need to update to 1.5 on your reference version notes.
@Bri_G it could be that an older version of Shade needed the swizzle and the latest beta does not (@John will know)
On the selection highlighters — do you mean highlighting which property has been selected that brings up the popover control to edit it?
@Simeon - yes, I believe someone else raised it in this thread. The problem is, especially when trying out lots of links, when you set up the scene you get a menu in which all the text is the same format - in some cases the selected option is obvious e.g. a sphere as you see it in the output window. However there are many menus, with options and once you have selected them there is no change in the format. So if you move away to add other nodes/features then return to one of the menus - you can not tell which option is currently selected. All you can go on is what is in the output window which is a combination of nodes and other features in Surface etc.
A tick, bold text or highlighted background would mean you can see if the node/feature in question needs editing or not. I tend to cycle through the options to see the effects they have on output but can not tell what the combination is - unless I document my changes.
That’s why I have also suggested a text file output, if needed, detailing the nodes in use, surface settings and the output window settings so that you have a summary of a shader. That would be easier to duplicate than trying to imitate a shader window with connections and variable values.
@Bri_G @Simeon I suggested earlier in this discussion that anytime something in a menu is selected, it’s color changes so you know what was selected.
@dave1707 - aha, thought it might be you.
While I am posting another situation I have found is that I recently have been connecting nodes and Codea has tripped out with error messages. I say Codea because I think that Shade is built on top of it, using the Codea engine behind it.
The errors are usually tripped out because of wrong input type/format. Is there any way to trap these rather than drop out?
One other thing, pardon my ignorance, but I find the UV node perplexing. Knowing what vertices are involved is important, so I take it that when you pick an output object, sphere/plain the UV reflects that object and passes on the model vertices to it. Can we influence this, the checkerboard demo by @Simeon would suggest it is possible as each square on the plain is coloured differently to its neighbours. Or is this just maths and colouring down to pixel values by calculation.
Can we define the vertices involved in the UV, there appears to be no input to it?