OT: Are there any other cool node based programs out there?

I thought Virtools (3D engine) had a node based 'programming' environment. I never used it myself though.

Filter Forge UAD ha-ha

jffe

FF's competition i guess -

http://www.darksim.com/

Doesn't look as cool as FF though IMO and i have never tried it so i dunno if it's any good

DarkTree does make nice textures but the program is outdated and nowhere near as intuitive as FF. (What the screenshots don't show you is the options dialog attached to each node that looks like a 747's cockpit!) It is VERY powerful for texturemaking though.

Their new product (Tactile Ink) does look interesting but no word on a release (or even a beta).

-Jim

I had a look at DarkTree awhile back; one thing I learned from their website I'd like to see here, is a list of notable creations where Filter Forge has been used. On this page, they laud DarkTree as having been used to make DOOM III's textures, for example.

Remember tho, a YUGE strength of Filter Forge is that it has such an emphasis on user-created content, which can come up with more excellence from diverse creative minds than any one company could hope to achieve (especially considering they must focus on bettering their product). It's lovely we have a community here to discuss things.

I wonder how Tactile Ink will be able to simulate more subtle effects, because from this page, it actually feels to me like they went all mid-90s-style hyperexaggerated with the bump mapping, lighting, beveling, etc. — in other words, looks like a grotesque gauntlet of Kai's Power Tools! Hehe. But the descriptions below sound compelling; I can think of many reasons why I'd want to do that in realtime and smoothly.

Currently, I use PhotoSEAM to help me get seamless textures, but it hasn't been updated in 6+ years. One of its big strengths is how easy it is to use with the brushes, which makes me crave being able to "paint on" effects and filters with Filter Forge selectively!

I can only second that. ImageSynth is an excellent weapon in every texture artist's arsenal.

@uberzev: I tried imageSynth, but was not impressed with how it assembled stuff together. In my experience, it had a very "chunky" look, and didn't crossfade rough edges of the little snippet squares (granted, they are called chunks!), giving them more of a "cut up a paper and collage it together" than melded blends. It looks good for obviously homogeneous stuff like sand or grass, but not so good when I tried really crumpled tin foil, or even wood with warping and knots. So it was interesting, but not that controllable.

What I'm currently doing with textures is taking 768x768 source files, loading them into PhotoSEAM, and using 512x512 so here's some excess material to blend between. I use PhotoSEAM's brushes to paint cross-border to get precisely the variance and seamlessness I'm looking for without having to chop the original into many little pieces. It's such a simple, straightforward way to go about things.

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uberzev wrote: Perhaps for video or sound production?

Conduit, a plugin for Final Cut:
http://www.dvgarage.com/prod/prod.php?prod=conduit15

This thread is seriously out of date. Ancient bump! Guess I'll write some new ones anyway because its been mentioned.

Here are some of the newer releases I know of:
PixelConduit is now free and available in the appstore! You can expand the functionality but most of what you need is usable. PixelConduit works with as well with FinalCut as a plugin so you can make your own little video plugins. Very handy! Works just like FilterForge (with less functions)
http://pixelconduit.com/

Vuo looks like a really promising as a nodey editor. Looks very simple and seems to have a lot of flexible complexity. They seemed to have aimed it for a variety of artsy productions (video, interaction, art... stuff...) but not available to the public yet.
http://vuo.org/

Blender has seriously vamped up its node-based editor since this thread has been created. There's a complete compositing suite, image editing capability, shader creation, and a ton more. The program has really gone fr om being hard to use to something a bit accessible. Definitely worth checking: http://www.blender.org/

MAX/MSP/Jitter had a major overhaul since 2007 has really helped with everything. http://cycling74.com/products/max/

Derivative Touch Designer 088 is soon to be released, the current beta is available but much of the software, for non-commercial purposes is free for use. The software behaves much like QuartzComposer and is geared towards visual experimentation and interactive design. There are a lot of technical capabilities! Lots of good stuff! http://www.derivative.ca/Events/2012/088BetaRelease/

Most of these get quite technical but the simple-surface stuff is really really easy and fun. Just when people want specifics it does get very complicated quickly and most of these unfortunately aren't as easy as FilterForge since there's a lot more data handling to do. But there's a lot of good stuff that's possible. I encourage to sit down and just learn one thing at a time. If you learn one, most others will feel the same, just naming conventions and functions become mildly different.

Either way 2013 looks promising for more visual programming projects but the well-known softwares are keeping things well updated. Vuo is honestly the most promising for a really well-rounded tool. Most node-based editors become biased towards a subject.

Also, Unreal Kismet:
http://www.unrealengine.com/features/kismet/

Oh yeah Peacock returned as Nodewerk if you folks didn't know. It's now an Adobe Air based software: http://nodewerk.com/

*ahem* Quasimondo and friends doing more werk.

Thanks for all the links and all the answers, specially to Skybase for the long post.

By the way, it seems that you have forgot one that has been told already in some other thread, NODEBOX and GENETICA

Even having so many node based programs, I think that Filter Forge is really great and very user friendly and easy to use and that has a nice and good editor and is well done and like it much more than the one on Substance Designer and Genetica (from my particular experience) .

I really can´t tell more about others software as I have not tried them other than the two already said before here

Other would be...

- Werkkzeug3 texture
- MapZone 2.6 Editor
- ...

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Skybase Oh yeah Peacock returned as Nodewerk if you folks didn't know. It's now an Adobe Air based software: http://nodewerk.com/

OH Yes! I have not seen this before, or I have seen it I did not notice at all that the maker and the company of Nodewerk IS the famous AVIARY!!!!

Aviary’s Developer Of Peacock Takes Popular Photo Manipulation Tool Independent, Calls It Nodewerk

I will a shot and try it and see what can be done, although I have seen that is not easy at all, although I try anyway.

If there is any possible help and hints and tips for a very beginner for this nodewerk would be very welcome. Thanks

I have just found that the help guide is not from Nodewerk website as there is none, you have to go to the old Peacock software that is very similar to Nodewerk, so there is a lot of help and tutorials In this help website here