Node Setup Issue??

This is part of a project I’m working on:
However, in the final render, the mandolin surface has ZERO reflection from an environmental texture (hdri) as world background. Here’s the node setup I’m using - advice really appreciated!! Do I need to move the color ramp??


You can’t plug a shader into a color, and you can’t plug a BSDF into a Fac, and you definitely can’t plug a Z into a shader. I don’t see the rest of your nodes, but it’s surprising that you’re getting anything out of this.

Additionally, your screenshot looks like a texture or solid view. You’re not going to see your nodes until you use a rendered view (shift z).

There is a very very big problem with the node setup, everything needs to be moved.
Also, avoid connecting sockets that don’t have the same color.
This is a correct node setup:


Edit: got ninja’d.

Thanks, Akikun! Corrected setup accordingly, and things work great! Learned a lesson of not putting multiple tutorials together to complete a project! Thanks again…

What tutorial told you to mix up nodes like that? The only “hard rule” is that green (shader) only connects to green. Blue (Vector) and Yellow (Color) are interchangeable, while Grey (Single Number) is a bit more tricky to use when connecting to and from others.

(Smile) @CarlG - Watch out into the big wide web and You find many things… But to be honest: If You really know, how the one or other Node internally works, you can change input channels against the “hard rules”.

Like, if you know how to, you also can use a lumberjack chain saw to carve a swan.

I mean the only “hard rule” regard connecting green to green only, the others are more flexible.
I’m eager to know how to get something useful of green<–>other colour. Share it if you know something.

Wouldn’t that be nice? I would love to get AO out as a value. A shader->color node converter would be such a nice little add-on…

But it’s not possible. Green output only goes into green input in Cycles. That seems about as hard of a rule as they can be to me. You can know how it works interrnally as well as you like and green still goes to green only and nothing else. :smiley: