Houdini 21.0 Nodes VOP nodes

Generic Shader VOP node

Represents a shader.

Since 17.0

This VOP represents a generic shader. Spare parameters can be added to this node to define the shader parameters.

Optionally, a parameter spare data tag sidefx::connector_kind can specify if the parameter should have a corresponding node input or output. The tag values can be “none”, “in”, “out”, or “inout”. If no such tag is defined, or the value is none of the predefined ones, the parameter defaults to “in”.

Solaris

The generic shader provides some unique capabilities in Solaris. Similar to most other VOPs in a material builder, the generic shader VOP represents UsdShade prims. The Material Library's shader translation can leverage special spare parms on this node, to enable more advanced workflows.

Typically an HDA exists to give each shader a unique UI. So while a generic shader node can be used for any shader prims, typically the power comes from using these to produce materials and nodegraph prims.

An important spare parm is to add is the Import Base Parameters button. Clicking this when the other parms are pointing to a valid prim/reference, sets up the inputs, outputs, and parameters from the shade prim.

Here are a few examples of different spare parm configurations with this node:

  • Specialize USD Material - This is a tab tool in the Material Library tab menu. You can take materials that exist on the input stage, and specialize them into new materials.

  • Material Builder Subnets - These builders setup an inherits arc on newly created materials. These show how some of these spare parms work on subnets, as well as generic shaders.

  • Composing Materials HIVE Talk Files - The “Composing Materials with USD and Solaris” HIVE Talk has some example files, one of which shows referencing a flakes pattern as a nodegraph.

The VOP Properties page for all of the available spare parms. There are also parm tags available, to control how inputs and outputs are translated.

VOP nodes