Shadow Banding and Strange Shadow Behavior

3D Studio Max Plugin (Export Script Plugins developed by [gk] and KilaD; Integrated Plugin developed by Karba)
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brianzero
Licensed Customer
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon May 09, 2016 2:15 am

Hi All,

Im having some problems with strange shadow banding and general weird results in dark areas on several different projects. In the frame buffer, the shadows look perfectly fine, and when I save them out, they show the strange banding problem. Does anyone have a guess as to why??
test 1.jpg
problem.jpg
elsksa
Licensed Customer
Posts: 784
Joined: Sat Jul 24, 2021 1:06 am

Hi brianzero,

Are you exporting to PNG 8-bit per channel by any chance? The banding would likely occur when doing so. The industry-standard recommendation is to export in OpenEXR 16-bit Linear-Scene-Referred (unclamped) if the post-production software used does support OpenEXR. TIFF would be the alternative in non-EXR supported applications.
brianzero
Licensed Customer
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon May 09, 2016 2:15 am

Yes, youre right about exporting a PNG, but they were 16 bit PNG's. I wonder if that made any difference? Its interesting to note that for other older versions of Octane I never had this issue.

I will give the EXR 16 a try. Thats what I would have exported had this been an animation for After Effects. My only reservation about EXR's is that they dont play nice with Photoshop.
brianzero
Licensed Customer
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon May 09, 2016 2:15 am

I tried EXR and get the same banding as the PNG's. Could this be a bug specific to this version of the Max plugin?
elsksa
Licensed Customer
Posts: 784
Joined: Sat Jul 24, 2021 1:06 am

Could you attach the EXR + the EXR export settings (including the "color management" settings)?
brianzero
Licensed Customer
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon May 09, 2016 2:15 am

I started a brand new empty scene, and imported my 'problem' Max scene to erase any weird settings that might have gotten checked. I also deleted and defaulted all settings, even with the camera.

The exported EXR from the new scene had the same banding problems.
Attachments
settings.jpg
elsksa
Licensed Customer
Posts: 784
Joined: Sat Jul 24, 2021 1:06 am

Thank you for the screenshot that contains the settings used.

Unfortunately, I can not rely on your screenshots to inspect the file(s), exported from Octane. It would be ideal if you could export a 16-bit Linear-scene-referred EXR and attach it so I or other forum members can look into it.
brianzero
Licensed Customer
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon May 09, 2016 2:15 am

Lets see if this zipped EXR works as an attachment:

And I might have to supply my Max file to see what's going on? And I should mention, if I open a Max file that worked and rendered with no banding in previous versions of Octane, it renders in the current version with banding. Im thinking of rolling back my plugin.
Attachments
test.zip
(1.65 MiB) Downloaded 96 times
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paride4331
Octane Guru
Posts: 3813
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2015 7:19 am

Hi brianzero,
your file looks good opening with photoshop.
Are you sure that it is not an issue in AE?
Regards
Paride
Attachments
test.jpg
2 x Evga Titan X Hybrid / 3 x Evga RTX 2070 super Hybrid
brianzero
Licensed Customer
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon May 09, 2016 2:15 am

Paride, take that image and flatten it. Youll instantly see the banding better. I can see the banding on that image as I type. Not only that, the shadows are much darker than in the VFB.

I am also getting this exact error on another project. I am ONLY getting these errors in the newest plugin, again more banding, shadows extrememly dark, shadows separating.

Ive used Octane for since it was released, and Ive never seen this error in any of the 1000's or renderings Ive created.
another.jpg
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