🔹 How to Install (Blender Manual)

1. Download the .zip file of the add-on.
2. Open Blender and go to Edit → Preferences → Add-ons.
3. Click Install and select the downloaded .zip file.
4. Once installed, enable the add-on by checking the box next to its name.
5. Close the preferences window, open the Shader Editor, and start using Shader View!

🔹 Updating or Removing Old Versions (on Windows)

1. Disable the add-on in Blender’s Preferences → Add-ons.
2. Restart Blender to ensure all files are unloaded.
3. Go back to Preferences → Add-ons and remove the add-on.
4. Install the latest version following the steps above (if updating).

🔹 How to Use Shader View

Once installed and enabled, use the following shortcuts to control the add-on:

• Shift + S → Open ShaderView Menu
• Ctrl + H → Show/Hide Node Preview
• Ctrl + O → Select Output Socket
• Ctrl + R → Select Preview Object
• Ctrl + L → Toggle Lighting Mode on/off
• Ctrl + V → Toggle Vector View
• Alt + Shift + Double Left Click → Switch to Next/Previous Result Preview for Split Vector
• Alt + Shift + Hold Left Click → Move Focus in Zoomed Preview
• Ctrl + E → Enable/Disable Previews for ALL nodes

🔹 Changelog:

Last Update:

v 1.0.21-25, March 18

• Improved update and rendering process with new batching logic, enhancing performance and stability.
• Extended scalar preview functionality (originally introduced in v1.0.12) from a single result to full texture previews using a grid display.
• Added min/max scalar value display for textures.
• Added UDIM texture tile switching for previews.
• Fixed various bugs and stability issues.

v 1.0.20

Fixed a bug that caused the add-on to stop working when other add-ons added custom attributes to shader nodes.

New Feature, added mouse controls:

• Shift + Drag to move a zoomed texture.
• Double Click to switch channel preview for split vectors.

v 1.0.18

New Features:

• Add global settings for preview size, render engine, and resolution - now can adjust it for all nodes at once.
• Add new feature: Vector Splitting, enables preview of RGB/XYZ components separately.

v 1.0.17

• Made the math scalar preview encoder more efficient.
• Added 'render_threshold' in preferences. This sets how long (in seconds) to wait before deciding the render is stuck and restarting the background process. For large or complex node groups, consider increasing this value.
• Updated the add-on's restart logic when 'render_threshold' is exceeded to prevent malfunctions.

v 1.0.15

• Resolved an issue where node preview of complex shader node trees rendered as gray color due to the background process not updating the scene in time before rendering.

v 1.0.13

• Resolved an issue where packed images did not update correctly when changing materials.

v 1.0.12

New Feature: Added functionality to toggle display modes for nodes with value output sockets, allowing users to switch between color previews and actual scalar values. This applies to nodes such as: Math, Clamp, Map Range, Float Curve, Vector Math, Separate XYZ, Layer Weight.

Bug Fixes:

• Resolved an issue where multiple chained reroute nodes could lead to incorrect updates in the node tree.
• Fixed a bug causing the add-on to stop functioning after registering/unregistering on Windows systems.
• Addressed a timing issue where the background process environment didn't update promptly, resulting in gray color previews.

v 1.0.11

• Fixed bug where the Texture Node (and all connected nodes) failed to render previews due to malformed paths on Windows.

v 1.0.10

• Completely reworked the logic for handling rendered previews. Instead of loading images, it now converts them into NumPy arrays and then into textures. This fixes a bug where loading images inside a restricted handler could break the add-on, especially when other add-ons also manipulate bpy.data in the .blend file.
• Overhauled the communication system between the background process and the main process. Since we’re now handling large NumPy arrays, subprocess.PIPE was no longer efficient and has been replaced with multiprocessing.connection.
• Both changes significantly improve performance. 🚀