Bevel Shader node Samples value has too low hardcoded limit #80012

System Information
Operating system: Windows-10-10.0.19041-SP0 64 Bits
Graphics card: GeForce GTX 1080 Ti/PCIe/SSE2 NVIDIA Corporation 4.5.0 NVIDIA 451.77

Blender Version
Broken: version: 2.83.5, branch: master (modified), commit date: 2020-08-19 06:07, hash: c2b144df39
Worked: (newest version of Blender that worked as expected)

Short description of error
Bevel shader value has hardcoded limit for the max amount of samples at a very low value of 16. This causes issues when using Bevel shader as a mask for wear and tear procedural materials (by calculating distance between original and beveled normals). Trying to clean the noise using Cycles' AA sampling is then much less efficient and more performance wasting than simply increasing the Bevel samples value to sufficient levels.

Exact steps for others to reproduce the error

In a new .blend file, create a new material and add Bevel shader node
Try to set samples value above 16

Result: The samples value can not be raised above 16.

Expected: The samples value can be raised above 16 so that sufficient sampling can be achieved when using Bevel node output as a maks for procedural materials.

Added subscriber: @Rawalanche

Added subscriber: @mano-wii

Thaks for the report.
Can you provide a simple file showing the problem?

In #80012#1001771, @mano-wii wrote:
Thaks for the report.
Can you provide a simple file showing the problem?

Yes, I can, but this request makes no sense to me as this is not scene specific.

BevelSamples.zip

Changed status from 'Needs Triage' to: 'Archived'

Now I was able to understand the problem better.

As far as I can see this is not a bug, but a request for changed or improved behavior.
There is a reason why this value is limited (See the manual )
Therefore, although procedural, the use of high values indicates misuse as it leaves the materials complex and the rendering time longer.

For user feedback and feature requests other channels are used: https://wiki.blender.org/wiki/Communication/Contact#User_Feedback_and_Requests
We cannot accept feature requestes in this bug tracker. (Here explains the reasons:: https://wiki.blender.org/wiki/Reference/Not_a_bug)

In #80012#1001865, @mano-wii wrote:
Now I was able to understand the problem better.

As far as I can see this is not a bug, but a request for changed or improved behavior.
There is a reason why this value is limited (See the manual )
Therefore, although procedural, the use of high values indicates misuse as it leaves the materials complex and the rendering time longer.

For user feedback and feature requests other channels are used: https://wiki.blender.org/wiki/Communication/Contact#User_Feedback_and_Requests
We cannot accept feature requestes in this bug tracker. (Here explains the reasons:: https://wiki.blender.org/wiki/Reference/Not_a_bug)

This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, because following this logic, Ambient Occlusion shader should also have samples limit hardcoded at this extremely low value. Should I report a new bug that AO shader samples can be increased above 16?

Actually, as a result of this issue, the rendertimes are longer because trying to clean up this kind of sampling with AA samples is incredibly inefficient. (Brute forcing lack of secondary rays with excessive amount of primary ones)

This issue was referenced by a9ae45597c

This issue was referenced by 5f86a10477

Changed status from 'Archived' to: 'Resolved'

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Bevel Shader node Samples value has too low hardcoded limit #80012