SME hidden Feature

[3dwannab]

I've yet to see this used by anyone and it's very time-saving.

Just long press (half second or so) on the preview window in the slate material editor (see attached) and you get an option to add a textureMap, controllers to any of the exposed values or maps.

You can long press on all Materials, Maps to get options associated with that map type.

I had to give myself a pat on the back when I discovered this today :D


It lends itself to a more fluid workflow when adding maps to SME.

[romullus]

Hmmm... have you seen this: https://forum.corona-renderer.com/index.php/topic,14304.0.html

[3dwannab]

Hmmm. No.


He never uses it in his tuts (not sure why). I think it's made SME even better for me.

[3dwannab]

He does touch on it but he shows maps getting plugged into that side of a material not from the material to a map or from a map to another map.


The node also doesn't need to be expanded as it can be in compact mode and you can still long click on the preview from any material or map.

[romullus]

Hmm, i'm using this method constantly and i was pretty sure Ludvik did address this trick in his video. Anyway, it never hurts to popularize SME, as there still are people who uses archaic compact material editor. Can you believe it? :]

[3dwannab]

No as I'm in the process of developing a script for it. Maxscript functions are really limited for sme but I hope it's like the next mini rappatools for sme. :)


I can't believe most tutorials still use the compact one.


How easy is it to follow Ludvíks tuts!

[maru]

I am mostly using compact editor, especially for simple materials, but that's probably just a bad habit.
For complex materials with many maps, and a lot of nested stuff, slate is priceless.

[Freakaz]

Slate is usable only when you have a multi-monitor setup, otherwise it takes enormous amount of viewing space. In my case to fully switch to slate I would need 3 monitors. Working with compact is somehow much faster for me, with rare ocassions of switching to SME to arrange some maps in material and then reverting to compact again.

[3dwannab]

Each to their own I suppose. I have a 32 inch (for max) and 26 inch in portrait mode which holds the SME, chrome, explorer etc.


200EUR for a monitor is worth it IMO.


I've added more to the discussion on Rawalanches post. Hope you find them useful.

Thanks Rawalanche.


I found some useful tricks here.


Here's some more that you missed out on.

[Fluss]

2x 27" setup here. Can't go back to compact material editor. Just a waste of time imho. Everything is way more convenient in slate mode.