How to preview a materialx node?

Forums Solaris and Karma How to preview a materialx node?

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jerry7: Member; 681 posts; Joined: Nov. 2013; Offline

Nov. 6, 2024 12:18 a.m.

Hi,
When authoring mtlx material, how to preview a intermediate node's result without creating a new surface shader and connecting to it?
Thanks.


protozoan: Member; 1889 posts; Joined: March 2009; Online

Nov. 6, 2024 7:35 a.m.

Select the node, press "X", and it will create a visualizer that overrides surface.


jerry7: Member; 681 posts; Joined: Nov. 2013; Offline

Nov. 6, 2024 6:49 p.m.

Thanks!
It seemed there is a bug that the visualizer does not work if a pattern node has only one connection to displacement.


GustavBP: Member; 3 posts; Joined: Nov. 2016; Offline

Nov. 8, 2024 5:38 a.m.

In Karma, the visualize node only seems to work if the node you're previewing is connected to the output down stream.
Is there any way around this, other than going through the hassle of creating an unlit surface and connecting to the surface output to preview WIP areas of the shading network?


jsmack: Member; 8252 posts; Joined: Sept. 2011; Offline

Nov. 8, 2024 2:19 p.m.

GustavBP
Is there any way around this, other than going through the hassle of creating an unlit surface and connecting to the surface output to preview WIP areas of the shading network?

make sure the network is not isolated from the material. I can be connected to anything, it doesn't have to be contributing meaningfully.


inversionstudio: Member; 21 posts; Joined: Nov. 2019; Offline

April 16, 2026 6 a.m.

I'm having the same issue, the visualzier only seems to preview certain nodes and not others.
So does this mean you have to have the node you're trying to preview connected to the main MaterialX Shader output in order to preview it?

mtlximage1 - can be previwed fine:

mtlximage8 & 9 - doesnt show anything:

But the normal map seems to preview ok too:

Thanks

Edited by inversionstudio - April 16, 2026 08:18:57

Attachments:
viz_ok.png (1.2 MB)
viz2.png (1.2 MB)
viz3.png (1.2 MB)
viz_normal.png (1.7 MB)


edlgm: Member; 29 posts; Joined: Oct. 2020; Offline

April 16, 2026 1:54 p.m.

It has to be connected to something for it to work. This node is also extremely finnicky and causes a lot of crashes for us so beware. You can always drop a surface unlit shader and connect that to the output, very annoying and slow to work with but at least it doesn't crash 50% of the time.

Edited by edlgm - April 16, 2026 16:55:44

Enrique De la Garza
CG Supervisor @Frame48


inversionstudio: Member; 21 posts; Joined: Nov. 2019; Offline

April 16, 2026 4:44 p.m.

Many thanks for the reply edlgm - ill stick to COPs then

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