[Bf-cycles] Possible ideas for the upcoming official ubershader

[Matthew Heimlich]

Hey Brecht,

I know you've been working on an ubershader to be available in an upcoming
release, and I wanted to toss in my two cents as far as the feature set
goes.

I recently released an ubershader created entirely with the node group
system to the community, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive
so far. It's given me a good reference for what people seem to really enjoy
in terms of added functionality.

The shader has the standard Diffuse/Glossy/Anisotropic/Transparent options,
as well as options for SSS, the choice between decoupled Refraction/Glossy
for glass-like materials or the glass shader itself, emission, and a flat
color matte that only affects camera rays.

There are a couple of options in the glass/refraction shaders that people
have absolutely gone nuts for. There is the option built in to control
shadow color, allowing for tweaking opacity for things like flat glass
tables without having to mix several nodes together. On top of that, there
is an option for fake, nearly free caustics using some vector math and the
normal and incoming geometry variables. This seems to be the one feature
that people love most from the shader, and it's surprisingly convincing,
especially for animations.

The other feature people really seem to like is a simplified Beer's Law
transmission/absorption effect for glass/refractions. It includes the
option to manually control the transmission color and depth at which it
occurs.

If you'd like to take a look at the shader the download link and full
documentation are over at
http://www.blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?283248-Ubershader-v4-0-New-Release-5-24-2013-Come-and-Get-It!

As always, many thanks for the work you do for the Blender and the
community as a whole. I hope I can be of some help in the decision making
process.

Matt Heimlich
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