When you edit materials and maps, these appear in the active View as “nodes” that you can wire together.
Example of a material node
A node has several components:
By default, the Slate Material Editor displays only slots that you can map.
Input and output sockets
1. Input sockets to the material’s slots
2. Output socket for the entire material
You can collapse a node to hide its slots, or expand it to show the slots. You can also resize a node horizontally, so the slot names are easier to read.
Node display controls
1. Collapse/expand the node.
2. Resize the node.
Left: An expanded node (the expand/collapse icon is a minus sign)
Right: The same node after collapsing it (the expand/collapse icon changes to a plus sign)
Left: An expanded node
Right: The same node after resizing it by dragging the resize icon
You can enlarge the preview in a node’s title bar by double-clicking the preview. To reduce the preview, double-click the preview again.
Left: A node with the default preview size
Right: The preview has been enlarged by double-clicking it. (A second double-click returns to the small size.)
While a node's parameters are displayed in the Parameter Editor, in the active View it appears with a dashed border.
Highlight for a node displayed in the Parameter Editor