z buffer in combustion and vray

[invisiblecities]

I am rendering rpf files from vray so that I can apply 3d fog in combustion and i get an error mesage that there is no z buffer. I wondered if this is a problem with vray rpfs? Any suggestions as to why would be gratefully accepted.
A

[peterC]

Ive been using it quite a lot, theres a "show g-buffer channel" operator you can apply to your footage to check if the z-depth channel is there.
Make shure you have it checked in the rpf render output dialog.
Hope it helps
Ptr

[jonasa]

If you are using Combustion 4 you can render out a simple VrayZDepth pass as jpg's and use the 'G-Buffer Builder' to turn that into a Z-buffer. No need to render out the bloated RPF file format.

Tested this to reasonable result with 3D DOF and Fog.

Also tried using the VrayVelocity pass to create motion blur in post - not perfect but will work.

[panthon]

If you are using Combustion 4 you can render out a simple VrayZDepth pass as jpg's and use the 'G-Buffer Builder' to turn that into a Z-buffer. No need to render out the bloated RPF file format.

.

I use rpfs a lot too and i agree: they are really slow. Do think that using a rpf with zchannel only active would be slower inside combustion than using a gbuffer builder pointing to a jpg or tga? Is it incremental? I mean, if u have 4 or more channels enabled in a single rpf, would it be faster in combustion to render them all as passes and then use the gbuffer builder and add'em all?

[jonasa]

I don't know if using seperate jpg sequences for your passes is faster or slower, but its certainly a lot more flexible (as long as its ok to work in 8bit).

I've only just started messing with using the Vray Elements, but so far quite happy with the results and also the speed of things.

Anyone else done speed comparisons between working with RPF's, JPG passes or even EXR sequences?

[invisiblecities]

I have used the combustion 4" build g buffer" route. It seems to work Ok , thanks for that Jonasa but the mystery for me is that why would depth of field work in the previous version i was doing but not 3d fog? I had all the options in the rpf checked. I think its a vray thing.

[invisiblecities]

i forgot to say that i hate rpfs they are so fing huge