Linking internal nodes to external nodes

[reck]

I've opened an example file and I can see that the final node (computer terrain) in one of the internal networks is linking into a surface layer node on the top\external network via the child layers connector.

Firstly I can see that there must be some kind of linking going on because there's a little arrow above the child layers connector on the surface layer, but there doesn't appear to be any indication of where it's linking to. I had to hunt around the internal and external networks until I found the computer terrain node with another little arrow pointing downwards. When you see these little arrows how do you find out where they are linking to?

How do you create these sort of links in the first place? I can't seem to figure out how you would link the child layers connector of the surface layer to a node in an internal network.

Thanks

[jo]

Hi reck,

Firstly I can see that there must be some kind of linking going on because there's a little arrow above the child layers connector on the surface layer, but there doesn't appear to be any indication of where it's linking to. I had to hunt around the internal and external networks until I found the computer terrain node with another little arrow pointing downwards. When you see these little arrows how do you find out where they are linking to?

It's not really possible with outputs and we'll have to do something about that. I'm going to put in a feature request right now. However with inputs simply context click on the input. The first item on the menu will say "Go to" plus the name of the node which is linked to that input. Choose that menu item and the network view will shift to show that node.

How do you create these sort of links in the first place? I can't seem to figure out how you would link the child layers connector of the surface layer to a node in an internal network.

There's a few ways:
1) If the input is one which corresponds to a parameter in the node parameter view, for example the Object maker parameter in the populator, you can choose a node to link to from the Assign button at the right (green plus icon).
2) In the above situation you can also type in a path to the node, although it's probably a lot easier to use the Assign button!
3) You can context click on a node input in the network view and choose a node to link to from the "Assign Shader" submenu.

When you're assigned a node using a menu, as in (1) and (3), the internal networks of nodes are shown as submenus of the containing node. If the containing node is also a node which could be assigned to an input there will be two entries for it in the menu. The first entry just has the name, no submenu. The second entry will have a "network" icon and a submenu. To assign the containing node choose the first entry.

Regards,

Jo

[reck]

Context clicking, always forget to try that.

I was aware of the green plus icon, indeed this is what I normally use for creating links. But with something like Surface Layer->Child layer the parameter is not surfaced in the interface and therefore doesn't have a plus button so I wasn't sure how to link. Context clicking was the answer.

Thanks