Is it available to render passes at diffrent PNG files?

[jesse_james]

Hi, everyone!

I hadn't find an answer in docs, but anyway. Is it possible to render passes separetly into diffrent PNG files and what variable I must use to do so? Maybe there is $PASS, something like that?)
Or I can use only EXR format for this purpose?

[juanjgon]

Yes, from the docs:
https://docs.otoy.com/Houdini/?page_id=928

Image file path/prefix
The image where the resulting image will be rendered. Include $F in the file name to insert the frame number.
The file name also supports the custom $OCTANE_PASS variable to add the render pass code, and the custom $OCTANE_LAYER variable to add the current rendered layer ID.


-Juanjo

[jesse_james]

Yes, from the docs:
https://docs.otoy.com/Houdini/?page_id=928

Image file path/prefix
The image where the resulting image will be rendered. Include $F in the file name to insert the frame number.
The file name also supports the custom $OCTANE_PASS variable to add the render pass code, and the custom $OCTANE_LAYER variable to add the current rendered layer ID.


-Juanjo

Oh, my bad!!

Thx a lot for Ur work juanjgon!

[juanjgon]

No problem

Thanks,
-Juanjo

[gui2one]

yeah ... looks like it should be easy, but it really not !

I am trying to save a simple beauty and Z depth pass on an animation .
I 've been fighting for half an hour now, and tried almost everything :

the output file path is something like $HIP/folder/frame_$OCTANE_PASS.$F4 ( leaving the extension to the plugin )
the plugin either saves only the Z pass , with no mention of $OCTANE_PASS in the name
OR, saves both passes, but without mention of $F4 ( which naturally means it overwrites the same file over and over)

I tried different formatting for the string path , replacing "_" by ".", or inserting some {}
how can I make it work ?

[juanjgon]

You are right. Sorry, something seems broken if you use the Octane variables with the $F4 token. Investigating ...

-Juanjo

[gui2one]

thanks Juanjo.
by the way , I've been using the multilayer EXR instead , and I had to uncheck "asynchronous file save" otherwise some of the passes in exr output file were just black.

How come these exr files are not compatible with Houdini Cops ?

[juanjgon]

I am still investigating the variables issue ...

I am not sure why the EXR files are not compatible with the Houdini Cops, the EXR files are saved using the Octane native EXR file functions. Perhaps there is a compatibility issue with some parameters. Do you get any error, or the file simple doesn't load at all?

-Juanjo

[juanjgon]

the output file path is something like $HIP/folder/frame_$OCTANE_PASS.$F4 ( leaving the extension to the plugin )
the plugin either saves only the Z pass , with no mention of $OCTANE_PASS in the name
OR, saves both passes, but without mention of $F4 ( which naturally means it overwrites the same file over and over)

Well, one of the problems is that the Octane API crops the .$F4 extension to add the file extension (perhaps because it thinks that for example a ".0001" is a wrong extension)

Can you please try the same scene adding the file extension? In your case $HIP/folder/frame_$OCTANE_PASS.$F4.png ... it should work fine.

Thanks,
-Juanjo

[gui2one]

Hey Juanjo, sorry I didn't see your answer before.

I just tried it, and it works fine. I don't know why I didn't try to add the extension myself, it was silly of me .

thanks a lot