"Image Optional" Category for filter library

Take for instance Dilla's new Aqua Buttons Galore filter. He could have easily put in an option to sample colors from a source image but then the filter would have ended up under the "Effect" category.

If he did you might find some people not use it because they assume it requires a source image when in fact that is merely just one option.

Another option is for him to submit two versions of the filter but IMO it's inefficient to have two separate filters that are 99% the same.

Therefore I propse a new category named "Image Optional", either top level, or a subset of "Textures"

Maybe "Filter Variants" within the primary filter would do the same thing.....

I think that also having more control over lighting would help clean up some of that too.....like options to lock lighting controls in randomization, omit lighting from randomization, set up and remap parameters of lighting controls to include in control panel, etc.....to mop up duplicate filters that only use different lighting.

I'm probably the biggest perpetrator of this ineffiency.....for a couple of different reasons. First, the mechanics are virtually the same, but the effects are different and viable.....so I make a separate filter under the assumption that not all users are going to pop the hood and tweak it to get it. I'm assuming that the general puplic is just going to use the controls that I give them and that's it.

Second, worthy stand-alone effects can be burried within the overall effects of a filter.....and would be more efficient for use as a stand-alone filter. Even overloading presets with the burried effect would not allow the user efficient use of it because controls can not be locked in randomization.

All in all, I think that you are right about finding a more efficient way to do it.....

Speaking of efficiency, I've found quite a few disfunctional filters that look like they have been intentionally dismantled and dumped back into the library.....like "Iron Age", "Malachite", etc.....