[REQ] Preview loads up Material Editor

[Doug Armand]

Not sure how easy this would be to do but when you press the preview button in Blendigo Material Editor would be nice to have your material loaded directly into the Material Editor instead of an instance of Indigo.
Maybe the option to do both?

I am starting to move more and more of my material editing to the Material Editor now and using the resultant external materials.

Wouldn't this also get around the problem of previewing external/emitter materials direct from Blendigo - which I believe isn't possible atm?

Hope this ain't giving you too much work Dougal2 but hey sometimes one needs a challenge eh?

[dougal2]

Hope this ain't giving you too much work Dougal2 but hey sometimes one needs a challenge eh?

There's a fine but distinct difference between 'challenge' and 'too much work' - but I know what you mean

In fact, what you're proposing is to use the material editor instead of the material settings in Blendigo, such that Blendigo _only_ needs the external material settings.

In which case, why do you need the preview function in Blendigo at all? Why not do all your editing and previewing in the material editor, and save to .pigm for Blendigo to use ? If you overwrite your files as you edit, you don't need to use Blendigo's material editor at all.

I'm not saying that I won't implement this, but it'd be good to get other user's opinions on workflow.

(in fact, in the long run it'd be much simpler to just use the material editor and not try to replicate it entirely within Blendigo ).

[Doug Armand]

There's a fine but distinct difference between 'challenge' and 'too much work' - but I know what you mean

(in fact, in the long run it'd be much simpler to just use the material editor and not try to replicate it entirely within Blendigo ).

I agree with this - I think it would be better to forget trying to convert Blender materials all the time and switch to only using Indigo's Material Editor. I mean Indigo's Material Editor is purpose made for the job making materials - makes sense to use it.

But thats what I personally would like - I'm not sure if other users would be happy with that. Maybe it's time for a poll?

And from a workflow point of view - having a button that loads up the material editor with the selected material is quicker than me externally Loading the Material Editor and then manually navigating to where the .igm/pigm file is.

How about only using external .igm/pigms in the future?
You could check when the preview button is pressed to see if there is already a external .igm/.pigm being used - then fire up the Material Editor with that file - or if there is no external .igm/.pigm already being used - then create a default plain one using the blender material name in the Material Editor?

[dakiru]

switch to only using Indigo's Material Editor

NOOOOO....!

calculon-scene.png (115.53 KiB) Viewed 2699 times

But thats what I personally would like - I'm not sure if other users would be happy with that. Maybe it's time for a poll?

Please, guys. May I vote several times?

To explain why: personally I use Blendigo to create materials in most of the cases. Just some of them with absorption transmittance layer or sss I create in material editor. It can be a bit uncomfortable to switch to mat editor just to change exponent, for example. Or color.

Maybe material tabs in MatEditor can be the solution, so you can have all the needed materials opened at once and change them on the fly.
switch to MatEditor -> Select the material -> Change -> Save -> Switch back to Blender (and the path to external mat remains the same)

[Doug Armand]

switch to MatEditor -> Select the material -> Change -> Save -> Switch back to Blender (and the path to external mat remains the same)

This is exactly why I said we should maybe switch to using only external materials - because that way it would be very a quick method of material tweaking/updating. It would make a very fast but flexible workflow solution.

I am starting to do more and more complicated blended materials - and these are really NOT easy to do in Blendigo.

Another possible option is to leave Blendigo's material handling as is - but also add a 'Material Editor' button, next to the 'Preview' button, that would load up the current material in Material Editor for editing - a sort of compromise?