Creating Node Goups Changed in 3.0.1, or Bug?

Hello, I must have something in prefs turned off, or a I have managed to screw up something basic. Trying to make an editable procedural Asphalt Material Node Group.

For starters, I was trying to follow this tutorial:

I realize it is from 2020 and probably using 2.9+? However I am seeing completely different things in 3.0.1 UI and it is very confusing. If there is a new way of doing this and someone knows of an updated tutorial that explains this, I would very much appreciate a link.

First obvious problem, when I select my nodes and press CNTRL-G I no longer get the Green background making it obvious you are in a node group. I see that I do have a Group Input and it says “NodeGroup” at top, but what happened to the Green?!?

When I press “N” and go to the “Node” tab, that is not where I can do what the tutorial is showing (adding/changing Input/Output settings), I have to go to “Group”. Also, when I add a default numeric input for the Voronoi Scale, it completely removes it from my object? I chose Float, and tried all others nothing works, I could have this part incorrectly setup as well, but why would it remove it completely?!?

And, when I am there it still doesn’t look the same or even work the same as the tutorial for anything. I made an input for the “Crack Color” and changed the Type from “Float” to “Color” and it is completely ignored.

I know this is a common workflow people use, I am just completely lost and can’t find a tutorial on how to do this in 3.0.1. There are many different UI changes or changes in where things are compared to what I see in my searches, I can’t figure this out.

Any help would be much appreciated, with so many UI changes from 2.9 to 3.0+ I thought for sure I could find an updated tutorial, but I must being using wrong search words or…I don’t know.

I believe I am starting to figure it out. There are still some anomalies that I’m finding, like the missing Green BG, the default inputs not working/showing. But, I have found if I Tab out and set the default numeric input in my Controller Group then Tab back in, it seems to fix the missing visual inputs (if that makes any sense).

I’m sure I am still doing some things wrong but for now, I’m hacking through it. Trying to add input controls for ColorRamps was a mystery as well, but found someones cheat, instead of using “Drivers” they used “Add” nodes, works well enough for this.


Keeping up with the constant UI changes is quite the struggle!