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Here's a small thing I've been wondering about for a while: Occasionally, when I import models from other sources (e.g. 3ds Max -> FBX -> Blender), I see in the Node Editor some nodes which are apparently connected to themselves. Like so:

enter image description here

Can somebody explain what's up with that? How is this self-connection useful? How can I do it in Blender?

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The node is not connected to itself, it is muted. You do that to a node by pressing M. The red line indicates a "pass-through" - the input goes straight to output and the node is disabled.

I would guess the script that creates the node network always makes the full tree and just mutes the nodes that are not used in the original material, like normal mapping in this case.

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    $\begingroup$ Wow, muting nodes is really useful :-D $\endgroup$
    – Nam-Quang Tran
    Aug 8, 2018 at 9:33
  • $\begingroup$ Oh, that's right. A node connected to itself would show the connection line a bit differently. That would be wrong. Muted nodes make a lot more sense. $\endgroup$
    – Martynas Žiemys
    Aug 8, 2018 at 13:12

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