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RodZill4
Document $time
Feature/enhancement description: It would be great if the documentation mentioned the magic $time variable that's necessary in order to do animation. It was really hard to find!
Alternately, a "clock" node could just output $time. Of course, it's not strictly necessary, but it might be easier for people to understand.
"Clock node" would not work, $time is supported in parameter expressions, not connections. There's a node based expression editor in the roadmap.
I think a clock node could work. If I create a math node with the operation as fract(A), and set A to $time, that does what I'm imagining. Of course, this shows that such a node isn't needed -- but since $time isn't discoverable right now, it might be nice to provide a way for new users to even understand that animation is possible.
$time is documented on this page: https://rodzill4.github.io/material-maker/doc/nodes_common.html?highlight=time
A clock node as you describe it would just expose 1% of what can be done with $time (math node only affects the values of a greyscale texture).
Ah, thanks -- I somehow missed that document. It might be worth adding a separate subsection on animation, but not strictly necessary.