I am pretty sure this has been talked about before, but it would be amazing if there was some simpler way to get to nodes for creating and converting basic datatypes.
Right now it is a bit messy with some nodes having seemingly taken over the historic names from beta and some having new conventions. In the end it usually ends up being a lot of trial and error typing in the nodebrowser till you find what you want.
A good example is Int3 vs Vec3. They are very very similar. 3 values put together. But the names are very different:
Not only are the names very different, but vector join doesn’t even have its format in the name, making it even more difficult.
Something similar happens when you want to convert from one to the other. Sometimes its “To…”, other times its “From…”. Other times its “From” and then you get subcategories for the datatypes.
So in all the mental model is very different from case to case. In the end it means a lot of trial and error and eventually just sort of having to remember. Especially for beginners this can be hell, because you would think that it would be the simplest part of patching.
I don’t have a perfect solution, but I am happy to support if I can. I just think it should either be very consistent or there should be a simpler way to get what you need.
Something like being able to search by input and output. So I can say effectively: show me all the nodes that have an integer input and an int3 output.
I think it would also help if the nodebrowser showed more clearly which nodes have subcategories for different data types. Right now the only way to notice if it does or not is by hovering over the name in the nodebrowser and if it shows the input and outputs you know you can just click it and its created and if not you know there is another level down.
Lastly, I think it would actually help a lot if I saw where nodes are located in the folder structure of the node browser. Double clicking any node you get the nodebrowser but it virtually shows you nothing of any value:
Could it not show me that the Int3 category the node comes from, is actually located in the Primitives folder?
That way next time I know where to search if I need something related.
I am certain there are good reasons for many of the things mentioned here, but its really a source of a lot of frustration, again, mainly for beginners.