Has anyone run into a problem with z depth not saving in Vue 10 Infinite? When I complete a render, I click on the z depth and the B&W picture displays, but when I go to save it, it saves it as a color picture.

Is this related to using DOF?

Which DOF did you use?

Using hybrid 2.5

I clicked in the "Z" icon and the objects had the right gray scale in the render view.  I used fast hybrid 2.5D and saved as exr.  I'll try using hybrid 2.5D.

I've been trying to save them as jpg's, which is what I've always done in the past, to import into PS

I used to use BMP until I found out that it was crummy depth bit.  EXR gives a better range of numbers between 0 - 255.

ADDED:

It's going to be awhile.  32 minutes to do hybrid 2.5D.

Ok.  I saved as JPG and there is depth there, but view looses a lot of the detail when saving JPG.  What version of Photoshop do you have?  Can it read EXR format?

Hey Shawn -

I've got CS5 extended. And I can see exr as an acceptable format. Still strange, though, that the vue file won't save it as a jpg, regardless.

I'm in the middle of a long render right now. When it completes, I'll try the exr and see what happens.

Appreciate you looking into this.

Ok.  Good.  I was going to mention about saving in PSD format if you can't open EXR.  So do the JPGs look all white or all black?  If white, did your Photoshop's gamma get shot up too high and is washing details out?  But you would notice colors washing out, too if that happened. Hmmm...

Also, what lens are you using?  50mm, 100mm?  Are you doing a mutli-pass?  Is a mask washing out your depth map?

Double-check your file paths.  I had a saved image go to another folder I didn't know I had.  So now I check the date/time on every image I open from Vue to make sure I have the most current render.

Ran a bunch of tests after the big render completed. New scene. No DOF, no GR, for what it's worth.Also no multi pass.

Regardless of what file type I try to save as, I'm still getting a full color picture. It's not that I can't locate the image. It's where I expect it to be, it's just full color, not grey scale.

I click the Z in the render menu, and the grey scale image appears, but what saves is always the full color picture. In the case of the.exr, it created a full color images without the sky.

I'm starting to think something's screwed up in my install and I meed need to reinstall. This is happening on every render, regardless of camera, lens, etc.

Before you uninstall.  Did you have more than one version of Vue installed?  Did you uninstall one after installing a newer one?  Have you reset all of Vue options back to defaults yet?

Maybe you are missing a depth I/O ddl somewhere?  That would seem so rare though.

Actually this is a new install on a new computer, so it's the only version. I haven't yet reset the preferences. I was just thinking I should try that

Also go into your temp folders and look for and eon folder that has nothing but random folder names in it containing cluttered render files.  Delete them so that you have a nice clean render folder again.  I'm not sure if depth can be turned off in a render.  But I'll look around.

Don't delete the render stack.  That is normal to have.

Another thing to try is to cancel the last update our two.  Then see if it still happens.  If it's fixed, then download the latest update again and install that.

Well interesting. Resetting the options seems to have fixed it. I'm now able to save the grey scale. Really strange. Before resetting, I looked all through the options and couldn't find anything that might have been causing it. Still a bit of a mystery, especially since I hadn't changed anything in the options since the install.

Long as we're here, one unrelated question: Scale issues. I've been in Vue since 5, and a lot of the plants I've acquired over the years are all over the board with their default scale when loaded into a scene. Is there any way to correct for this, or is it just the way it is with the changes that have happened to Vue over the years? Also, what unit sizes do you use? I've got the default now of 1 Vue unit is 1 meter.

Between just you and me, Vue wants its units set to 1.0 = 1m.  Not 0.1, not "ft", not "in".  As trees go, in your next life you can resize your trees to what they look best as and then save them as your own VOBs if you can for later use.

About the depth not saving.  I wonder if you ever got a warning message from Vue asking if you're sure to turn that off before saving, blah blah.  And it was one of those questions you just click OK to without really reading it (like I do sometimes) and Vue thinks you'll always asnwer that way and never ask you again about it.  And since you didn't read the question, you never think too much about it months later when you need to do something you used to be able to do you thought.  He he.

Thanks for the info on scale. appreciate it, and you're probably right about a warning message. Sometimes ya do just get a little lazy with Vue.

Appreciate all your help working through this.

I leave all my modeling apps at the default unit settings.  "cm" in Hexagon.  "m" in modo.  "m" in Vue.  The programs are not used enough with different values.  So if there are bugs using feet and inches, not many users bother to report it and just go back to the default units to get their work done.

You're welcome.  I do notice e-on changing some of the sample scene files to match the new unit scale in the newer Vue versions.  They also (with the latest update) removed the error messages when loading a sample scene that is missing content.  I don't know if that was a good idea.  But I like that clouds look right in the new unit universe of things all Vue.

One more question.  What gamma do you use?  1.0?  1.8?  I use 1.8 for everything.  Just in Vue though.  Other apps see 1.8 as having a piece of the Sun in their scenes.

Yeah, the cloud handling is a vast improvement. I'm finding 10 to be fairly buggy but in small little ways. Very strange.

9.5 and 10 are very stable on my very old single core with 2GB RAM.  I don't have anything else running on my computer except for Carbonite.  Newer system seem to crash Vue a lot.  But I think the newer computers just have more stuff running on them besides Vue.  Vue 7 and 8 were a mess on this computer.  Things kept changing with each update.  Living hell for Poser users, too.  But 9.5 and 10 run like silk, if that is such a thing.

I think the OS has a lot to do with it too. Are you on XP?

Yes. XP Pro 32-bit SP3.  I'm shocked Vue even still runs on it, or that e-on still supports XP.  XP will be 11 years old in a few months.  SP3 will be 8 years old.  Still, that is unheard of.  Computer years is more than dog years.

Anyway, Fallout 3 runs great on this old computer.  My favorite game of all time.  I'll probably still be playing that game in 2020.

LOL. Right. Really miss XP. Best OS MS put out.

I've built thousands of computers in my time.  Repared over a thousand, too.  The reason why I hang onto this old computer is probably because I built it just for me.  I built computers to last.  Computers I fix I don't see again until their hard drive dies years later.

Computers now just seem too throw-away.  If it breaks, buy a new one.  Like laptops.  The batteries cook the innerds of those things and the case hinge cracks.  Plus, batters are only good for 500 charges.  So everyone uses their laptop as a desktop.  17" screen laptop?  Really?  Get a real computer with dual monitors or something if you're not going to carry your heavy laptop around like you thought you were when the sales guy said, "Yes, it's very light."

Sorry to but in here guys, but I've only now got PhotoShop CS5 and don't know how to use Vue's Z depth in it, can you help?

Save the z-depth image in EXR format from Vue if you can.  Then follow this tutorial (I made it before I could do EXR, so I used BMP instead at the time).  EXR works better than just 8 bit. 

http://www.shonner.com/ta/commander_wip.htm scroll down half-way to where the Vue to Photoshop z-depth stuff is.  I guess it will work the same in CS5.  I used CS2.

Thanks Shawn!

Let me know if the steps don't work for you.  Google claimed it's one of the better ones out there for z-buffer.  But that was a few years ago.

It didn't take long for me to get into trouble. I don't know how to get the Z buffer image into the newly created channel.  Help!

Click on the z-buffer image and select all of it from the Select menu.  Then do a copy of it from the Edit menu.  Then click on your color render image and choose the alpha channel.  Then do a paste.  The alpha channel image should look like your z-buffer image now.

Hoorah Shawn! That worked. Now back to the tutorial.  :-)

Hi Shawn Thank you so much. I wouldn't have been able to work it out without your Tutorial.

The only strange thing that I encountered is that if I save the z Depth image in Vue as an "exr", it's a blank image, when I open it in PhotoShop. 

I've heard others mention this.  I have not had the problem myself.  I do not know what combination of software causes it.  Let an e-on technician know what is happening with you.  I save the EXR using the default settings,  32-bit floating by the way.

Thanks Shawn! Will do.   :-)

Hi Shawn,

I heard back from eon tech support about the "exr" file problem.

They say, because of the complexity of the issue, it can't be fixed with an update. However it will be fixed in the next release. Version 10.5, I suppose.  :-) 

Yep.  10.5 is just around the corner.  And nope.  I'm not buying it.  Between the versions 9.5 and 10 that I have, I should be able to do in one that is broken in the other, and vice versa.