EXR with 16bit compression through Backburner?

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

Ok... So I am trying to render to 16 bit EXR files through Backburner, but it does not seem to be working properly. If I save the 16 bit EXR locally it is about 1.8 megs. If I que the sequence, and send it through Backburner to the farm, it saves out at roughly 9.5 megs.

 

Meaning, that the farming is saving the EXR's at 32 bit, and not 16 bit.

 

If I save the same file locally as a 32 bit EXR, it saves out at roughly 9.5megs.

 

Any ideas? ....this is with Max2009. Maybe 2010 with the EXR extension pack will correct this problem. Anyone know if that is true?

[luckymutt]

I hadn't noticed before, but I'll give it a shot tomorrow morning when I get into the office.

Are you saving with any compression?

Perhaps it is still saving at 16bits, but is not using a compression algorithm on the farm?

[luckymutt]

Well I just did a quick test here at home on Max 2010, sending a scene to my own machine with backburner, and I am not getting any discrepancies. I compared with saving 16 bit uncompressed as well as the default ZIP compression.

I will give it a go with 2009 tomorrow at work (ran out of C drive space and had to uninstall 2009 here at home)

It could also be that there is no difference since I am sending it to the same machine...kinda how gamma setting are/were not respected on a farm...who knows what other setting may not translate to other machines.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

Yes, ...sending with whatever the default compression is. I am not at my production machine, so I can not check which compression it is currently.

 

I like the idea that it is like the gamma settings. Maybe I will og into the farm machine, save a file as a 16bit EXR, and then see if it modified any of the .ini's. Or something along those lines.

[Nic H]

Hey Travis,

hope you dont mind a quick hijack on a related problem i just encountered today.

 

I cant work out how to save 16bit multichannel EXR's from the Vray Raw Image dialogue box. I just rename the .vrimg to .exr but have no options to make it 16bit - it just defaults to 32 bit.

 

Unlike the split render channels which gives you full set up options?

 

We are trying to switch to a full 16 bit EXR multichannel workflow, mainly for the the ease of use in embedding loads of channels in one file which makes updating comps very quick and fool proof.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

Nic, Not sure off hand. I am just firing back up Vray after taking a year off to use MR, so I am a little rusty when it comes to technical issues dealing directly with Vray.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

Michael,

 

I think I found the .ini that allows you to set the defaults for EXR. It is located in the "plugcfg" directory, and is called "openexr.ini." It seems to contain all of the defaults. I am going to set them how I want, and then distribute that on the farm, overwriting the one that is already on those machines.

 

EDIT:

 

Ok, that worked perfect. In the openexr.ini file, I changed the following lines..

 

Dflt_RGBABitDepth=FLOAT32

to

Dflt_RGBABitDepth=HALF

 

 

.

Edited December 17, 2009 by Crazy Homeless Guy

[luckymutt]

Good to know, Travis.

I didn't have a chance to try it out today. I was unexpectedly out of the office for most of the day.

For the fun of it, I'll give it a go with the default installs tomorrow with both 2009 and 2010 and see what happens.

 

I don't seee it in the "plugcfg" directory.

I only have it in:

C:\Documents and Settings\michael\Local Settings\Application Data\Autodesk\3dsmax\2010 - 64bit\enu\plugcfg

Edited December 18, 2009 by luckymutt

[Nic H]

Nic, Not sure off hand. I am just firing back up Vray after taking a year off to use MR, so I am a little rusty when it comes to technical issues dealing directly with Vray.

 

opps i forgot that. thanks anyhow

if anyone else knows? need to go scour the Chaos forum I think.