Multichannel EXR: Normal Pass is wrong

[kosso_olli]

Hey guys,
I have some trouble with Multichannel EXR (yet again).
When a Multichannel EXR is saved, the Normal render element looks very different. Here is a screenshot from the frame buffer, the neutral area around the car is 0.5/0.5/1.0 RGB:



In Chaos Player (or anywhere else) the saved normal pass from Multichannel EXR looks like this. The neutral area is read as 0/0/1.0 RGB, so full blue. The rest of the image looks skewed.


In comparison, here is the normal pass saved through separate render elements via EXR, the neutral area is 0.5/0.5/1.0 RGB, as expected.



Can somebody please explain those inconsistencies and how to avoid them?

Best regards

Oliver

[vladimir_krastev]

Hi, thanks for posting. What are your V-Ray and 3ds Max versions? Your example looks exactly like the discrepancy we are not getting due to the 3ds Max's 2025 build in default ocio color management.
Like this one:

Are you using ocio color management in 3ds Max (the default with 2025)?

[kosso_olli]

Hi,
this is on Max2023 with V-Ray 6.00.20
So no color management on this one, it is the old Gamma 2.2 workflow.

[kosso_olli]

Do you need a scene or any further infos?

[vladimir_krastev]

Hi, this is expected behaviour. From the docs page:

When Normals Render Element is saved as a separate render channel, its output value is kept between [0;1] range; if saved as a V-Ray raw image, its output value is in the range from -1 to 1.

[kosso_olli]

Edit: Nevermind.