Enable Shaders etc

[KlausK]

Hi everyone

Just a quick question...I have a Surface Layer which has shaders connected to its Input,
Colour Function, Child Layer and Breakup and Mask shader input.

My Question is this:
When I uncheck "Enable" on the Surface Layer tab (disabling it, that is)
should the effects of the connected shaders and functions still be visible in the scene or not?

I thought the whole network of nodes that feeds into the Surface Layer would be disabled.
Or better said the propagation of effects would stop here.
But that is clearly not the case in my scene. A FakeStonesShader connected to the "Input"
of the Surface Layer node still shows its Stones in the render, for example.

Any help and clarification appreciated. Thank you.
cheers, Klaus


ps: this is TG4 Beta, did not test it in TG3.x so far

[Matt]

The input labeled "Input node", which I often call "the main input", is different from all other inputs. When you disable a node it acts like a "pass through" and the main input passes through without any changes.

Matt

[ajcgi]

Here's an example... the layer below is input into 'input' and will always function unless you disable it, as will the layers below. Think of it as passthrough (which matt just said as I wrote this ;P). The images I have going into the colour function here are off in the render until I turn on the layer.
It might be that you're arranging nodes in a way that makes more sense to you than Terragen. I spent years not understanding when to use child. FSS often goes into the child of a layer btw.

[edited for spelling]

[KlausK]

Got it!

Thanks a lot for clearing that up so quickly, both of you.
cheers, Klaus

[Matt]

I think of the shaders as being layers. Anything coming through the main input is not part of the layer, whereas the other inputs are there to supply data to the layer if it is enabled.

Matt

[Kadri]

Just be careful sometimes disabling and disconnecting a node is not the same:
http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,16568.msg161958.html#msg161958

[KlausK]

This makes much more sense to me now.
I`m sure layering a structure gets more straight forward for me understanding the up/downward stream of nodes a little bit better.

Thanks for the link, Kadri
cheers, Klaus