Certain render elements in 32bit float exr

[henning]

I'd like to be able to save a few selected render elements like samplerinfo in 32bit exr files. All the other elements can remain as half float 16bit exr files.
Setting the global output to 32bit would be a waste of space and slow the compositing down.

[vlado]

Which render elements do you have in mind? I'm thinking that we should write the z-depth always as 32-bit anyways.

Best regards,
Vlado

[psanitra]

Hey Vlado, Yes, this would be a great help, not sure why it`s not working correctly yet. I`m usually saving the passses via save separate render channels checkbox, where you have to write a exr format. It looks like no matter what I set in elements menu for each pass(16 or 32), it will get overwriten with VFB saving settings.

When writing the passes via save separate you need to take exr elements output settings into consideration.

Henning - when saving without VFB, saving mixed 16 and 32 works just fine, if that will help you , only the naming then is a royal pain in..., as you have to name each one separately again and again for each shot.


thank you.

[Undersky]

+1 on zDepth always being 32-bit. Otherwise I'm fine with all of them in 16-bit, but it wouldn't hurt to have the ability to set the bitdepth on a per element basis. You never know when you need something to do a cheap trick =) Just a simple dropdown menu in the element attributes would suffice.

[joconnell]

Henning - when saving without VFB, saving mixed 16 and 32 works just fine, if that will help you , only the naming then is a royal pain in..., as you have to name each one separately again and again for each shot.

I do this via script based on the max file name, easy enough to implement!

[Rens]

Optional per-element EXR settings would be great! I made a script that works with the VFB disabled and lets you set all the EXR settings for each element, such as RGB/RGBA/mono, 32/16bit. Usually most of the vraySamplerInfo and zDepth and velocity elements would need 32bit, but not always so it would be nice if it were to remain optional as 32bit does take up a lot more space than 16bit.
Max does have a very odd way of interacting with the EXR (or any image) settings though.

[joconnell]

Does the EXR format allow mixing of colour depths with a file? As in could you have a multichannel exr that has some channels in 16 bit and others in 32 bit?

[henning]

Which render elements do you have in mind? I'm thinking that we should write the z-depth always as 32-bit anyways.

Best regards,
Vlado

Particularly the Samplerinfo. I'm currently using its UVW coordinates to place some textures in compositing and i'm hitting the color depth wall.

Thanks for the info, psanitra, but I'd really like to continue using the VFB

[Rens]

Yep, as far as I know the maxscript commands support per-layer settings.

[joconnell]

Ah okay - I wasn't sure if it was in the exr specification. London to stuttgart? Hope the move went okay for you, there's some talented people in that place.

[Rens]

I'm not sure it is either, but maxscript at least supports it.
Haha, yep! Yeah, that's true, there's lots more to do in London though. : )

[instinct]

Does the EXR format allow mixing of colour depths with a file? As in could you have a multichannel exr that has some channels in 16 bit and others in 32 bit?

Yes it explicitly does. Also for integer channels. I think it is limited to layers tho vs. channels, but that makes perfect sense i guess.
We are currently rendering to 32bit and do the conversion in a post process (along with other things).

Regards,
Thorsten