No ZDepth?

[Macker]

Hey chaps,

First time I've needed to use a ZDepth pass since the new version of VRay and it doesn't appear to be working. It is returning pure black, regardless of what settings I use. Is it because I still need to create a vray physical camera still, rather than the new physical cam?

[oophus]

Sure you've remembered to setup the distance? It will return black if its set to low values. Like 10 if the scene is 1000 meters big, and the scene is set up in cm.

[Macker]

Yeah I have, I'm now using a standard target camera and it's working fine - rendering an orthographic view to create a texture and using the ZDepth (with very narrow values) as a bump...

I've just had a look again at the physical camera setup (perspective, not orthographic), and the ZDepth output and it seems that there is some Z information in the middle of the render, which fades to black towards the edges/corners... I assume this is because a straight line directly from the camera to the centre of the image is the shortest distance, and takes into account perspective/distortion - this however isn't represented in the viewport clipping planes, which are completely flat, as if orthographic.

[vance3d]

Also check if your camera has got a scale transform on it directly or inherited through a hierarchy. That can screw up the zdepth in my experience.

V Miller

[Zdravko.Keremidchiev]

You are right the Z-depth is generated on distance base, it is not an orthographic plane. You can try rendering from a greater distance with the respective Z-Depth min/max values and camera zoom.