Can I disable real color output in Vray framebuffer?

[ben_hamburg]

Titel says it all...
We usually only use the clamped Output, because we often had issues with fireflies (I know Vray 3.0 has that new feature for firefly reduction, but I couldn´t get it to work properly yet).
So I have a whole bunch of files clogging the hardrives, that I always need to delete after rendering (16 bit tif files in stereoscopic 1080p tend to quickly fill up space...).
So is there a way to only save out rgb channel, but not real color?

Another nice feature would be to be able to save out the render elements in different folders via the frame buffer, is that a max restriction or would you consider adding that feature?

[Svetlozar Draganov]

You could save the output file as 8-bit image or you could set the Clamp value to 1 and use any image type.
You may consider saving images in compressed file format as JPG for example in order to not fill up space so quickly.

According to the feature request could you please be more specific how exactly it should work?
For example what names should be used for the folder? Should the RBG image placed into separate folder or not?
What about if someone would like to use different folder-names, or if he doesn't want to save in separate folder?

[ben_hamburg]

8 bit formats are not an option, since we need the extra bit depth for compositing (color correction is just so much more fun with 16 bit and of course Zbuffer needs to be at least 16 bit).

This is how I would imagine the perfect file handling for the Vray Frame buffer output:

1. Once I enable the Framebuffer output, I could choose from an option to either save all Elements into one folder, or to create folders for all enabled render elements according to the name I enter in the render elements Tab. So I could either leave the default name (p.E. VrayAlpha) or use my own naming convention (A for Alpha, W for Wirecolor, Z for Zbuffer etc.) and would then have a folderlist named accordingly.
2. Like I said: It would be nice beeing able to disable either real color or rgb color output to save disk space.
RGB and Real Color should be placed into seperate folders aswell.
3. One major time saver would be to be able to create outputs for multiple fileformats aswell (one checkbox: "create Proxies" with some options for resolution and fileformat).
The reason for this: With big Tif-Files (like in our case: 40 Mb per frame) compositing becomes a real pain, because filehandling alone via a server is a major bottleneck.
In After Effects it´s possible to set proxies, so I can use lower resolution jpegs to do the compositing and then switch to the originals for rendering.
But creating proxies for every render element is also tedious and time consuming, so beeing able to do this during rendering on the fly would also be great.

[Rens]

What do you mean by Real Color? Under Frame Buffer in the render options you can disable Save RGB.

[vlado]

Yes, I was going to ask... you mean that you get a Real Color render element in the VFB?

Best regards,
Vlado

[ben_hamburg]

Well, either a real color render element in the VFB or the ability to either disable "Save rgb" OR "Save Real color". I can´t say I´ve ever come across the need to output BOTH of them.

[vlado]

Yes, my question was more on the lines of where you get the "real color" element from? It's not something that V-Ray normally outputs.

Best regards,
Vlado

[ben_hamburg]

haha, no idea....

no seriously:
In the frame buffer options if I tick "seperate render channels" i can untick "Save RGB" and "Save alpha", but vray always writes out something called "test.real.color.tif"

[vlado]

In the frame buffer options if I tick "seperate render channels" i can untick "Save RGB" and "Save alpha", but vray always writes out something called "test.real.color.tif"

Ok; do you have any 3ds Max post-effects in the scene? Also, what file format are you saving to?

Best regards,
Vlado

[ben_hamburg]

No 3ds Max post effects. unless you count the Phoenix FD atmospheric effect as post effect.
I´ve actually only tried this workflow (saving out with "separate render channels") on the last project, where we made heavy use of Phoenix.

Right now we´re saving as uncompressed tifs in 16 bit, but due to slow performance in our compositing software (the bottleneck beeing the server the files are saved to, 40Mb per frame for stereoscopic full HD) I´m trying out other formats right now.