Chaos Corona Forum

Chaos Corona for 3ds Max => [Max] I need help! => Topic started by: grantcpuk on 2022-05-16, 20:26:02

Title: .exr Elements saving black
Post by: grantcpuk on 2022-05-16, 20:26:02
Hi,

I've been using multipass .exr files and everything was working perfeclty until today. I added a z-depth pass onto my render elements and now all of the render elements render out black.

No idea why this has started happening as it was working perfectly fine in the same file.

Any help would be great.

Details: 3ds max 2022, Corona 8
Title: Re: .exr Elements saving black
Post by: TomG on 2022-05-16, 20:41:02
Do they start working again if the z-depth pass is deleted after being added? Can you upload the scene (or simplified version of it) in working form before the z-depth is added? Thanks!

Actually, some other questions - do the passes show as black in VFB before saving to EXR? And if the scene can't be shared, can you list which render elements are being rendered? Thanks again :)
Title: Re: .exr Elements saving black
Post by: TomG on 2022-05-16, 20:49:09
PS - you haven't enabled "Render only masks" by chance? In the Scene tab of the Render Settings dialog.
Title: Re: .exr Elements saving black
Post by: grantcpuk on 2022-05-16, 23:30:59
Hi Tom,

Unfortunately i cant share full scene as its all under NDA but i've saved out a version of the scene with a few bits of simple geo. One from the scene before the issues and one after.

The passes show perfecly fine in the Corona frame buffer which is why im finding it strange that everything is saving out black.

Deleting the z-depth after adding it does not seem to fix the issue. Render only masks is not enabled.

Passes included are:
- CMasking_ID
- CNasjubg_Mask
- CGeometry_ZDepth
Title: Re: .exr Elements saving black
Post by: TomG on 2022-05-17, 03:31:48
Hi! What is a CNasjubg_Mask ? I couldn't find a translation for that, and neither does it show up when I load the scene (I just get the other two, no other render element).
Title: Re: .exr Elements saving black
Post by: TomG on 2022-05-17, 03:40:40
For me, following the steps of disable saving the render, rendering in the VFB, then using the Save option from the VFB and choosing OpenEXR, the Normal file is in fact not saving properly (I am getting the CMasking_ID.RGB result showing in the RGB result where the Beauty should be), but the results from the Broken Max file works properly.

Deleting and re-adding the two masks to the NormalFile version then saves properly, so something seems corrupted in the initial set up (even if it is apparently working for you) - what happens if you delete and re-add the passes before adding the ZDepth? Was the normal file created in an earlier version of Corona? Does saving from the VFB rather than using the Save File option make a difference for you?

(as a note also, I am loading the EXR into Photoshop using the free Exr-IO plugin since Photoshop on its own is very bad at handling EXR files)
Title: Re: .exr Elements saving black
Post by: grantcpuk on 2022-05-17, 12:00:23
Sorry I was in a rush typing last night, I meant "CMasking_Mask." and Yes im using Exr-IO plugin in photoshop & EXtractoR in after effects.

Strangely, Deleting all of the render elements and adding them again has fixed the issue...

Thanks a lot for the quick replies Tom, you've saved my bacon!

Title: Re: .exr Elements saving black
Post by: TomG on 2022-05-17, 13:46:27
Glad it is working, and you are welcome! Render Elements in Max do sometimes just get outright confused and need to be rebuilt from scratch unfortunately, often this occurs with some network path being saved to and Max can start to throw some error about that, maybe something similar happened here - at least there were just a couple of Elements to recreate in this case so it proves not too annoying, whew!