Material override pass

[Jpjapers]

Is it at all feasible to have a material override render pass just like the cTexMap?

[pokoy]

Probably not, because ray distribution would be different, which would mean a different reflection/refraction/GI scenario which then would be two different sampling scenarios/results... the scene would basically need to render twice.

[Jpjapers]

Probably not, because ray distribution would be different, which would mean a different reflection/refraction/GI scenario which then would be two different sampling scenarios/results... the scene would basically need to render twice.

I thought this might be the case. I think theres an instance however where it shouldnt matter.
It would be nice to have a pass for shadowcatcher in some circumstances but since its a material and not a map unfortunately it cant be done.

[maru]

It would probably mean doubling render time, and if you would add more render elements like this, then multiplying it further. What would be an example use for such render element?

Unless you don't care about GI and other effects, and only want to have the override material visible directly. But then I think an easier way would be compositing the render out of the CESSENTIAL render elements, and replacing some of them with solid colors.

[Jpjapers]

It would probably mean doubling render time, and if you would add more render elements like this, then multiplying it further. What would be an example use for such render element?

Unless you don't care about GI and other effects, and only want to have the override material visible directly. But then I think an easier way would be compositing the render out of the CESSENTIAL render elements, and replacing some of them with solid colors.

To make it clear, i mentioned material render pass as a cover-all but really its just the shadowcatcher i found the need for.

The example use of a render element like shadowcatcher specifically, would be that if youre doing passes to be composited or changed in post production through fusion, You are able to retrieve specific shadows as a pass. The use case we have right now is for product configurators. We have to render a few hundred shadow catcher passes for different options available for customers to configure. If there was an option to have a shadowcatcher render element, we could save many many hours of rendering, submissions and scene preparation. Currently we have to render double the amount of renders to be able to have a pass of isolated object shadows.

Im aware its a very niche use-case and isnt a huge and pressing issue for the dev team, but thought it was worth posting incase others in future have the same need.