I often need to update my assets for a specific job within certain lighting conditions; textures, shading, complex nodes etc. Eevee doesn’t support all the Cycles stuff (O-N/DisneyDiffuse, Aniso, Sheen, Bevels), so it can’t show all the nuances. But switching to Rendered/Cycles, it changes to World, which usually consists of a “boosted sun HDR” for a long time. Due overexposure, I need to either switch to world nodes and tweak the output or go to camera and tweak the exposure.
What I’d like to be able to do, is simply activate LookDev Eevee or LookDev Cycles, where the current Eevee world settings are being used (HDR, rotation angle, mirrored). It allows quick comparisons between the outputs, and quick checks if something breaks in Eevee for lack of support or shader compiling reasons (complex box mapping produced pink for me today after 2 min compile, but Cycles renders fine and all complex inputs going into the box mapping works on their own, and simple inputs also works fine).
Is this something we should ask for? Would it be useful for you? And would it even be possible without any major issues?
i had put something in those lines in the right click select to have the lookdev with macbeth charts in both EEVEE and Cycles…etc, i think the best if you ask in the devtalk forum with more specific points. https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/ngcbbc/
Maybe that’s how it’s planned to work, but maybe this is still WIP or a bug.
For World and Object nodes in Shader Editor we have Material Output node from which we can choose to be a node for Eevee, Cycles, or both. So LookDev mode should respect the render engine we have selected in Material Output node depending on the Render Engine that we have selected from Render tab in Porperties Editor.
Edit:
Right now I’m confused, LookDev is Eevee anyway. Now I need to think about it better…
Currently, LookDev serves two purposes: 1, a way to view your objects isolated with temporary lighting and HDRIs and 2, a fast preview for Cycles.
This is confusing though, because users might want to use Cycles in LookDev for some materials work. We have discussed this very issue at the Blender Conference. Hopefully this can be addressed, but probably not in time for 2.80.
Here is someone doing an interior using Corona. This is very similar to how I currently do “LookDev” (ShaderDev) in Cycles - observe how many times he adjusts exposure:
From render preview, isolate the object.
Adjust camera to be exposed for outdoors.
Do the adjustments to the material.
Exit isolation mode.
Bring up exposure back to interior.
Rinse and repeat for all objects in the scene.
In Cycles (possibly also in Corona, I don’t know), you could also just select a world that has correct strength for the current exposure.
But now, with Eevee you can do all lookdev (ShaderDev) by simply switching to LookDev mode (one click! - awesome!). But if you want to audit for Cycles materials, you have to go through a bunch of stuff, including switching engine and world hdr everytime you try a new one and matching rotation. Two buttons side by side where all the LookDev lighting stuff is synched would be a huge time saver.
Ok, thanks for being aware Yeah, I’m not sure what would be the best way to implement it. Having a button that suddenly overrides engine might sound weird as well.
Not sure I follow, but the following options seems to be what you are looking for to switch fast between eevee lookdev and cycles without switching engine or world hdr.
Yes please. With a working Cycles local mode. And possibly also a switch for Scene Render Settings (using set exposure, if off then 0 exposure is used - working in local mode with LookDev lighting), if that makes any sense.
Instead of selecting the rendering engine in LookDev (now “Material Preview”) mode, you can now select the LookDev lighting in “Rendered” mode, which already honors the Render Engine setting.
Yeah, I’m not sure what would be the best way to implement it. Having a button that suddenly overrides engine might sound weird as well.
