New Principled BSDF emission socket but no strength option?

First of all - thanks for adding Emission and Alpha to the shader - it just got even more ultimate, than it was before!
But Emission shader itself does have two options: color and strength. So why only one parameter was inserted? I understand that Emission itself is not very PBR’ish, but so what?
Instead of that, it’s handy! I think emission strength also should be added in this shader

2 Likes

You can mix with black or multiply with 0 before connecting to the emission input. Thats your strength. The principled shader is already massive enough imo, no need to add more sliders than we need to.

Of course you can, but, like, what’s the point of the shortcut in BSDF shader, if you have to make as much clicks, as when Emission was a separate shader?

4 Likes

I have the same remark as @BohdanLvov .
It’s nice to have both options available. A good example is the subsurface part of the Principled shader: It has both strenght and color inputs available within the Principled shader.

Good solution @ManuelGrad And indeed, it’s already a big node :slight_smile: . But as Bohdan already said: why make the shortcut available in Principled if you need to make the extra clicks anyway if it’s not there.

Is there a common workflow in other 3D software or game engines where there is only one emmision slot to put something? Maybe they did it this way because of that? Although a quick glance in Godot and 3dsMax (i know, i know) shows that in their material-system, they have two slots available for emission (emission color and emission strenght).

Hi. I have also posed the same question in Blenderartists forum starting from here:

The OP got a point. It feels incomplete and pointless the way it is now.

1 Like

Not only they:
Arnold: https://docs.arnoldrenderer.com/display/AFMUG/Emission
VRay: https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/VRAY3MAX/V-Ray+Material+|+VRayMtl#V-RayMaterial|VRayMtl-Self-Illumination
Redshift: https://docs.redshift3d.com/display/RSDOCS/Material?product=maya#Material-Advanced

1 Like

Hmm. I guess I see three possibilities then:

  1. The Blender Dev team have made an omission as many of you think, and should add the emission strength to the shader
  2. Emissions have no place in a Principled BSDF and should be removed from an already over-crowded shader
  3. It is correct. People wanting a stronger strength are missing the point of a Principled BSDF which is about modelling realism - and less strengths can be got simply by reducing the Light component of the principle colour (white->grey->black - or any other hue range you select)

I don’t actually mind which answer is right - but would like to know which way the development team were thinking…

See https://developer.blender.org/D4971

6 months and this is still in review? :frowning:

I am working on it! Life got side-tracked.

3 Likes

The patch is done and has been approved.

6 Likes

Update: Seems like it will be a 2.91 feature because it breaks compatibility with some external format IO for materials.

To the comunity: Addons may need fixing, if you have a third party addon that accesses Principled BSDF shader nodes by hard coded socket index (switch to named lookup please) or expects emission color of white to be full luminance without accounting for strength, keep it updated or contact the author. (I have already made Quixel aware of it for example)

Edit: Created a right-click select thread to discuss this feature and how to go forward with addon compatibility: https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/0cgbbc/

3 Likes