Hi folks, I don't know if you have found that using skin shader core insides material builder looks strange.
The problem:

1.So when you put Lab's Luiz into the obj context, and create a material builder that contains a skin shader core.
2.Then you connect output node of the ss core to the collect node, mantra only renders a white mask to the geometry.
3.Unlink the output node of the ss core to the collect node, the SSS effect get rendered.

However, the displacement/normal texture is another story, the output node for displacement/normal has to be linked with the connect node..If you unlink those nodes, there won't be normal/displacement effect.

And if you extract the "skin shader core" to the /mat context, you get the white mask rendering..

Is the BSDF output a special kind of channel?

It doesn't work because it's connected wrong.

Connect the 'layer' output to a compute lighting node, then connect the compute lighting node's outputs to the surface output node, then finally to the collect node. Don't connect only 'f' as it only works with the pbr render engine.

The auto-epilogue might be doing some automatic shader completion for you when the shader core not connected. I find it odd that it renders with a surface shader when the output is disconnected.

jsmack
It doesn't work because it's connected wrong.

Connect the 'layer' output to a compute lighting node, then connect the compute lighting node's outputs to the surface output node, then finally to the collect node. Don't connect only 'f' as it only works with the pbr render engine.

The auto-epilogue might be doing some automatic shader completion for you when the shader core not connected. I find it odd that it renders with a surface shader when the output is disconnected.

Hello Jsmack, thanks for your answer.
What I found is that when I do the wrong connection in Solaris/Karma, it sometimes work.. So I am a little confused. But is there some document regarding the usage of the traditional mantra material nodes? I searched through SideFX document and find that in Skin shader core's page(https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/nodes/vop/skinshadercore.html) it does not shows how to connect those nodes. It even does not have a sample hip file..