Mapping in world space in Cycles- without UV

For global space coordinates, use a texture coordinate node and object data node, then connect the object output of the texture coordinate node and the location* output of the object data node into a vector math node set to add. When you plug it into the vector input of the texture node, the texture will appear to be swimming through space when the object is moved just like in BI.

    • I keep forgetting if the object data node has the output labeled as ‘position’ or ‘location’, either way it does the same thing.