Thank you so much, I was reading a lot of the talks lately, but I did miss those quotes. So as unsatifying as the situation is right now, at least the problem is evident to Clement. Until now I was under the impression that the issue was not considered very relevant. Let’s hope for the best
Thank you for your answer.
Yes, the video used to show the normal effect is using transparency in regular materials,
I tried it because I wanted to see if the quality could be improved by using the lighting information directly from NPR without diffusing Shader to RGB. Just from this point of view, it was really not necessary to restore a similar effect in NPR;
Yes I think this is an improvement for sure. I’m not entirely sold on Zone IO, but I think right now at the very least it’s communicating a difference from color which is thumbs up from me. It’s a tough UI to handle.
Another thought comes to mind. Upon reflection I’m not sure if the name “Light Loop” communicates entirely what it does. There are different kinds of loops, even repeat, which we already have in the NPR branch is technically a loop. I wonder if “For Each Light” might communicate it’s function a bit better? For those who are familiar with different types of loops this immediately tells me what kind of behavior to expect, and for those not familiar with loops “Light Loop” might already be confusing anyways. Might be nice to be a closer 1:1 to the naming conventions in geometry nodes, since that was the first area in Blender that got loops.
Any thoughts on this?
1 Like
I think I read above that the light loops only once? If so, perhaps the term “loop” isn’t the best label… On paper it seems more like a one way filter/adjustment (or assignment), than a repeat.
1 Like
This is a for each loop, meaning what is in-between the zone input and output is executed on every light. So yea, it “loops” only once. I don’t mind the node having a non technical naming scheme, but if “loop” is getting used, then I think specifying with “for each” is a good move.
1 Like
If I point to a room of people and say “everyone with blonde hair, put your hat on” … I guess maybe that’s a for each loop in terms of math? But in pragmatic sense it doesn’t mentally feel like a loop. So, I guess I’m just wondering if the terminology needs to be mathematically correct, instead of a bit more abstract.
“Fire” vs “dynamic thermoreactive energy dissipation”.
(Not trying to be overly argumentative, just pondering out loud)
3 Likes
No no, I got what you were going for. I was also trying to clarify basically I understand what you are trying to say. That’s why
This could be named “Light pass” or “light control”, I don’t know, can’t think of a good name, but anything would be fine. My point is that if its not a name like that, and we are using the term “loop”, like we currently are, might as well make it “For Each Light”.
Whether it have a non technical name, or a technical name, I’m fine with either.
2 Likes
Maybe a stupid or obvious question, but: Is there a way, or plan for, something like Image Sample in the Light Loop? Something that offers Offset functionality - for example, to distort just the shadow mask?
Yes, in hindsight “For Each Light” would have been a better name, but atm my options would be:
- Change only the label name and keep the current name in the code, which is confusing.
- Change the name in the code too, and break current blend files using Light Loops.
- Add versioning code to handle the name change, which would take a fair bit of development time I’d rather expend elsewhere.
So, IDK.
1 Like
This would be tricky and fairly expensive.
However, if you don’t mind limiting yourself to a few shadows you could store your own “shadow masks” in AOVs and read them from a refraction layer.
Since this is a prototype, this is fine imo.
5 Likes
I know. This is what the splash screen in the prototype looks like:
So nobody can say they weren’t warned. XD
It still hurts to break user scenes, though.
1 Like
The reason I am asking for this, is that i feel there are 2 separate pathways, we can:
a) do cool stuff with Sample Image and offset, like painterly effects, edge distortions and so on
b) do cool stuff with light loops, but in that case can’t do the distortion stuff
There is some overlap, as we CAN distort the normals before feeding them into light loops, and refraction could work, but likely not as easy to use.
What is great, is the ability to have 2-tone hard edged primary shading, with soft, ‘realistic’ indirect lighting/color bleeding added to it.
1 Like
Adding to that: Shadow mask in itself is great, great way to simplify the shading and avoiding the dreaded 3d toon shading effect 
2 Likes
Fair enough. We missed on the opportunity to name it “Link Light” lol ;.;
“Link the LinkLight into the node here like so, and end the connection. But before you do all this, apply the Light Link and Shadow Link to link the process in full swing” xD
Dodges a tomatto for lame joke
In the end I’ve renamed the “Light Loop” zone to “For Each Light” along other UX tweaks. 
2 Likes
I think the most recent build isn’t packaged right. The .zip won’t open
1 Like