I FULLY agree we shouldnt add new UI thing just for this that will mess things up, there is really a simple way to adress issue but noone really listen that,
Collapsable panel make it longer when someone want to have all the inputs uncollapsed because of extra headers and uncollapsed appereance is also problematic when inputs are connected
So there is a better way to do it without changing UI
Just adding a new ENUM on top of principled shader, that contains all the possible combinations of different categories (that can be further tweaked by user from properties N PANEL if there is a combination that is missing + So it also gives us the material presets to make materials faster )
- Full (Base+ Specular+ Anisotrophy+ Transmision+ SS+ Clearcoat+ Sheen+ Emission+ ThinFilm+Geometry)
- Metal
- Dielectric
4.Car Paint (Base Specular ClearCoat) - Fabric ( Base Sepcular Sheen)
- Plant (Base Specular Subsurface Transmission )
- Glass (Base Specular Transmission )
- Bubble (…Thin Film)
…
…
…
So all possible materials will be added so if someone doesnt wanna use all the menus for specific material, it will already be a choice on list and if that person later change it into ‘‘1.Full’’ it will preserve all inputs when changing enum but the sockets pluggeed wont be lost
Also as I previously mentioned, there will be functionality to add new combinations from N-Panel to select and add new material presets
