Chaining Node Effects

The Chaining Workflow

The power of All In 1 Shader Nodes comes from stacking multiple effects together. Most nodes are designed to take an input, apply their effect, and output the result - which becomes the input for the next node in the chain.

Chaining Color Effects

Color effects follow a simple pattern: each node takes a color input, modifies it, and outputs the modified color.

1. First Node: Connect your main texture (or any color source) to the input color port [marked as 1]

2. Subsequent Nodes: Connect the output color from the previous node to the input color port of the next node [marked as 1]

3. Continue: Keep chaining as many effects as you need

4. Connect the result to the shader Base Color Output or mix the result with some other operation or custom logic.

Chaining UV Effects

UV effects work the same way, but operate on texture coordinates instead of colors:

1. First Node: Connect your UV coordinates to the first UV effect node

2. Subsequent Nodes: Connect the output UV from the previous node to the input UV of the next node

3. Use Result: The final UV output drives your texture sampling

Chaining Vertex Effects

Vertex effects follow the same principle, modifying vertex positions:

1. First Node: Connect your vertex position or normal data to the first vertex effect node

2. Subsequent Nodes: Connect the output from the previous node to the input of the next node

3. Use Result: The final output drives your vertex displacement and is plugged into the Position input of the shader

Chaining Alpha Effects

Alpha effects operate on a single float value representing transparency. This requires separating the alpha channel from your color data before processing.

The Alpha Workflow:

1. Split the Color: Use a Split node to separate your RGBA color into individual channels (R, G, B, A)

2. First Alpha Node: Connect the A (alpha) output to the input of your first alpha effect node

3. Subsequent Nodes: Connect the output from each alpha effect to the input of the next alpha effect

4. Use Result: Connect the final alpha output to the Alpha master node input on your shader

Recombining (Optional):

If you need to recombine your processed alpha with color data before the master node, you can use a Combine node to merge your RGB channels with your processed alpha back into a single RGBA color.

Combining All Four

A typical shader will chain UV, vertex, color, and alpha effects:

1. UV Chain: Distort/modify your UVs first

2. Vertex Chain: Apply vertex displacement or normal modifications

3. Sample Texture: Use the modified UVs to sample your texture

4. Color Chain: Apply color effects to the sampled texture result

5. Alpha Chain: Split the alpha, apply alpha effects, and connect to the Alpha master node

This gives you complete control over texture sampling, mesh deformation, final color processing, and transparency.

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Remember: The demo graphs at Assets\Plugins\AllIn1ShaderNodes\Demo\Graphs show many real-world examples of effect chaining. Reference them to see how complex effects are built from simple node chains.