LightSphere missing axis pipe

[frueter]

Is it on purpose or an oversight that the VRayLightSphere has no axis pipe? I get that it doesn't need a "look" pipe but an aix pipe would be very useful.

[frueter]

and seconds after posting I see it sticking out the side where it's occluded by the node name...
I think I have made that mistake before. Any reason it's not sticking out at the top where you'd expect?

[Christophe.Cot]

Concretely in this case, the only potential input - an Axis based input - is totally optional and not required at all to have a working node.
Having the input initially "optional" helps to have a clean DAG representation without unused input.
If you need to use an Axis, the workflow is still exactly the same, you would for instance drag the AxisOp output onto the LightSphere node and being the only input it will connect it as expected.
When there is more than 1 potential input, it is generally better to show them explicitly to avoid any surprise.

Unfortunately, Nuke API does not allow the freedom to chose where the optional input is shown - it is always on the side of the node and indeed a long name might occlude the input arrow. Again this is not something we can really control.

[frueter]

Thanks. I have to say though I don't understand the logic. There are many, many nodes in Nuke (including Vray nodes) that work perfectly fine without the top pipe connected. In fact I see no difference t other light nodes. I hardly ever use axis inputs to them. Also, many Nuke users connect nodes bottom up, i.e. dragging the input pipe of a node to the connect it upstream. I am used to that from the old days of Nuke where nodes didn't have an output pipe and you had to work that way. It was only introduced to make it easier for Shake users to adapt to Nuke. It's also a flawed workflow in Nuke as you can't control which input pipe receives the dropped connection in case there is more than one input to the node.
Therefore it never occurred to me to drag the output pipe of an axis onto the LightSphere node.
Anyway, cut a long story short it feels inconsistent and confusing to me compared to all other nodes so UI thought it might be worth reconsidering.

Cheers,
frank