In 4.0, what's the new material group output "panel" about?

Support Materials and Textures
1

I’m not finding any information in the manual about this one:

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So, what’s the purpose here? I don’t notice anything anywhere.

2

It’s a first step to create collapsible panel in nodegroups just like in the new principled bsdf :

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Eventually this should also work in the modifier tab, where it’s probably going to be the most useful, but for now it’s just in the nodegroup, which is a bit confusing since you might miss it :slight_smile:

3

To add to what sozap says
You can make your own panels for nodegroups for inputs and outputs.
So if you have nodegroups with loads of inputs (or outputs) you can group them in panels.

This is the stupidest nodegroup ever created but it is just as an example:

Panels
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On the left 2 copies of the node group one with the panels opened up and the other closed.

To use click the + sign, add a panel, rename it and drag the inputs into it (over the panel name.)

4

Oh cool. Eventually figured I had to drag exposed inputs/outputs to re-arrange them (still missing from light groups, maybe should be generalized more?), I completely forgot to try to drag into the panel part. Thanks.

5

Yes definitely, only node groups for the moment, shaders and Geometry nodes.
I think next they want to get them working in the main inputs of geometry node modifiers.