Input Color/Input Greyscale

[jdswiney]

Is there any particular technical reason the Input Color/Input Greyscale nodes will only accept a File input node from Maya and not any other float3 texture input?  I mean they are all float3 variables right?

[Galen Helfter]

It's currently set up to take the file path from the file node and load it, which I think is an old setup for it. It doesn't sample the nodes. There's not an easy way to change it at this point.

For the 2.0.0 major release, I'm currently looking at ways to leverage the hardware renderer to acquire the texture information instead of loading it from the filepath, so that's definitely something we want to be able to do in the future.

[Galen Helfter]

So there is a technical reason, but it's not really a good one. I do think that is something that should be expected to work.

[jdswiney]

Thank you very much for those replies. You have saved me hours of head pounding based on a misunderstanding of the inner workings.

[Galen Helfter]

I'm messing with image inputs right now for the currently in-development Maya 2.0.0 release of the plugin.

It's still a WIP on this part, but I was able to have the new plugin sample any texture node (such as procedurals) and use those, so it should be a feature to look forward to at release in a few months time.

[jdswiney]

  That is excellent news! Thank you.

[sonali31]

The Input node let you create an input entry into your graph.
Therefore, it will allow the user to plug a (color or grayscale) map when your substance will be used in another graph or software.
Usage
How to use it ?
    Plug the Input node to the location where you want the user to be able to choose the map he wants. Choose eithern Color or Grayscale depending of the map you need to plug.
When to use it ?
You will to use an Input node any time you want to give the control to the final user, on which element should be affected by your Substance.
This a great way to make your work more modular, thus to expand its possible use.