Global Variables?

[Jenssons]

this might be a dump question but is there a way to do a Global Variable in the sense of say i was change a variable during a animation on alot of materials is it possible to have a Global Variable where i just change it once than changing each one in each material

[pragma37]

This is not a built-in feature yet.

There are some ways to achieve the same, though:

• Using drivers.
• Using a node group. This requires the experimental node groups branch, though.
• If you can code you could add a custom render node to store these parameters and add them to the Scene.shader_resources, then retrieve them from a custom shader node.

[Jenssons]

so it will be something you will add in the future? also how does node groups work so if i switch over i know what to do

[pragma37]

Maybe, but it's not planned in the short/medium term.

also how does node groups work so if i switch over i know what to do

They're a way to create custom nodes, but using nodes instead of code.

Each node tree type has its own group type. (ie. Mesh and Mesh (group) ).
You can use a group node tree from other node trees using a Group Node (Shift+A -> Other -> Group Node).
The 'Group Node' inputs/outputs are the same as the group node tree inputs/outputs.
You can see how custom IO works here:
https://malt3d.com/Documentation/Graphs/#custom-io