isolate shading effect based on the node selection

[jasonhuang1115]

Hi,

We have Isolate Select as Render mask mode that lets you see Isolate select objects updated in context with other scene objects, but I am seeking something a bit different.

It would be very handy, during IPR, to see the shading effect on your lookdev-ing object based on the selected node in the shading tree to see that up to "this point" of the tree, what does it look like. It will help dial in parameters as lots of times it's much harder to see what a texture/procedural noise/pattern is doing when it's mixed up with other shading effects at the end of the shading tree. Huge boost on the efficiency of lookdev.




Ideally, hoping the Isolate select can be toggled directly from VFB menu and can isolate following nodes during IPR:

• Geometry: renders the selected geometry only; all other geometry is rendered as a black matte.
• Materials: renders the selected material only; all other materials are rendered as a black matte.
• Shaders: any individual shader (utility, texture, blend, etc.) part of a shader tree can be isolated, showing its resulting output in the render. Any geometry whose shading tree does not contain the isolated shader is rendered as a black matte.
• Light: isolating a light means that all other lights are disabled, and the scene is lit exclusively with the selected light.

[jasonhuang1115]

May I possibly get some feedback from devs to learn what are your takes regarding the necessities of these features and possibilities of implementing these features?
If the screenshots aren't clear enough, I can attach videos to show the intent.

Thanks!

[francomanko]

Having the solo mode work on the materials would be great.

[pixelmonk]

yeah I just mentioned that in another thread of what Arnold has that Vray doesn't. Isolate Selected would be great, along with some of the other debug features in ARV.

[selavfx]

I second this! This is a must have for fast look-deving imho!

[jasonhuang1115]

Hope this feature gets some more attention for Vlado and V-Ray for Maya devs.
Believe this feature was asked several times in the past in other threads here.

[dgruwier]

I use extra_tex a lot for this purpose. Like, I'll have multiple extra_tex passes strewn around that I can pipe parts of my shading network into. Does that do more or less what you want? The main downside is that you have to create a new render layer, or re-render the full beauty when you want to preview the extra_tex layer.

[jasonhuang1115]

dgruwier , thanks for the input. The request of this feature is to move away from the extra_tex AOV workaround. I think you just mentioned exactly the difference in term of efficiency. If we have the isolate selected feature directly in VFB in IPR (and some debugging modes that come free without render time or performance hit), it saves users time to set up those extra_tex passes and re-string nodes and re-render during look-dev.

[vlado]

I've made a note to look into, but it might be a while before it goes into the builds.

Best regards,
Vlado

[jasonhuang1115]

Thank you Vlado. As long as there is a note, there is hope.

[jasonhuang1115]

Hi Vlado, would like to follow up on this "Isolate Select" feature request. You said it would go into a build. Can we expect it to be a nightly build of 3.6 or 4.0+?

Thanks!

[vlado]

I don't know yet, I'm afraid. It is still on the "to do" list.

Best regards,
Vlado

[jasonhuang1115]

Thanks for the response, Vlado. I look forward to the day when it's available.