VFB EXR to scanline exr convertor tool

[dcullipher]

Forum user Instinct has confirmed my EXR woes in another thread

http://www.chaosgroup.com/forum/phpB...ic.php?t=20662

Basically VFB needs to right in tile-based mode to take full advantage of the memory saving features but most compositing apps use scanline mode to read files. This difference results in painfully slow performance in many compositing apps when rendering multi channel exr files.

If someone has the ability to code a tool that can batch convert these EXRs and keep the layers intact I would glady pay to support the development as long as the tool is made available for the community as a whole.

I think the EXR multilayer format is the way to go but this problem is stopping me from using it in our workflow.

Any thoughts?

[Dynedain]

I think if in your compositing app you open the exr and then resave as another exr, it will switch it from bucket to scanline organization.

[dcullipher]

Yes but you lose all embeded layers in every app I have tried.

You have to render out each pass individually.

[instinct]

then you didnt try nuke it seens

Regards,
Thorsten

[dcullipher]

You are correct

I did not. I have fusion, combusiton, AE and inferno



No nuke license.

[DanielBrew]

dcullipher,

Is your Combustion up to date? The reason I ask is there was a service pack in May (4.05 I think).

From the read me....

Combustion now reads properly OpenEXR alpha channels.

Dan

[dcullipher]

Yes combustion can read the files, however when writing them the layers do not remain intact. Thats the issue. So far onlye nuke can do just a straight conversion from what I have heard.

[dimo]

Hi,

I don't know if someone mentioned it already but there's a maxscript switch

renderers.current.output_rawExrUseHalf = true

Best regards,

Dieter

[dcullipher]

Dieter

That sounds interesting. Do you know what it does or how to use it?

Sorry I am pretty uneducated on this type of development.

[dimo]

Honestly I haven't tried it myself but from its name I would say that if you type
renderers.current.output_rawExrUseHalf = true

in your listener VRay should write the exr with half precision. This doesn't solve the scanline problem though

Dieter