Just something I would like to add about the updates: if you update the plugin, you might want to update the first post with the current working version’s link (for the most part it’s been the plugin page) and a timestamped changelog at the end. It’s just to be clear and concise so newcomers (and those who follow) don’t have to search through pages and pages of comments and updates just to get the newest version.
Anyway, enough of that. I’m glad to see you’re on top of things for the community. I’d love to see this become a standard plugin in trunk some day.
You know, I never thought about it because my last add-on (IOR Values) didn’t receive many posts. I’ll update my original post now and start doing what you’ve suggested.
Thanks for the suggestion, and thanks for the kind words. I’m glad you’re liking the add-on.
So, all future updates will be logged and linked to from my original post.
I would also like to report some form of bug. It’s using my sun lamp rather than my cameras. I have two cameras, and it lists two objects, but it lists my single sun lamp twice. It won’t let me rename either or select or change one without the other. I’ll use the preview button and it will give me a view FROM the lamp as if it were a camera.
That issue arose in a release from yesterday. I’ve since updated the add-on (see my initial post for download link ).
The current version was completely re-written and collects/stores the information differently to the original. Please make sure have the current version and let me know how you get on.
Aaron, your addon doesn’t freeze or hang Blender anymore and seems much more responsive
But for some reason if i enable the addon and save as default quit and restart blender and set up three cameras (Camera-1, Camera-2, Camera-3) it only render the last camera (Camera-3)
If i don’t have the addon enabled as default and just enables it and go and set up three cameras it renders out all three but backwards, it starts with Camera-3 then 2 and 1.
If i save a blend with the three camera setup and enable the addon as default, quit blender and restart blender (addon enabled as default) and reopen the the scene it just renders Camera-3.
If i open blender (addon disabled) enable the addon, reopen the scene, it just renders Camera-3
If i open blender (addon disabled) reopen the scene, then enable the addon it renders all three cameras but backwards 3,2,1.
EDIT: Am I right in thinking the “refresh” button isn’t actually needed? I’ve had a little bit more of a play around with it and it seems to be updating fine on its own.
I didn’t notice anything changing if i used the refresh button or not, it seems to update just fine.
Btw… I can confirm that it works with BI, Yafaray and Cycles.
On the wishlist: different render resolution for the cameras, even though i think that’s a Blender thing.
Different resolutions will be in an update coming soon, as well as a couple of other changes and additions. I think I’ll only be able to control BI and Cycles resolutions though. I have Yafaray and Lux, so I’ll be able to see how easy it’d be to do for those. I can’t promise anything for that, but I’ll look into it.
If you have any more ideas/requests for additions and/or changes, just give me a nudge.
I have some very exciting news for you, Aaron. It appears to work PERFECTLY with Lux internal. It renders up to the predetermined SPP limit, then automatically switches to the next camera. You have truly outdone yourself, albeit inadvertently.
Those who DO want to use Lux with this plugin, keep in mind that it will create an entirely new export for each camera in the folders specified in the shots panel. Therefore, if you have a very large export it will write all the files to disk before rendering; it may take a while. Also, this will NOT work with the external GUI renderer. It just stops rendering and that’s it. On that note, Aaron, if you could somehow get Blender to export the data for each camera, THEN queue each one for the external, it should automatically run through the queue list and you’ll end up with your stills just as you would using internal. My only thought on this would be the ability to do animations with the external since it enqueues each image for an animation.
Hope that helps someone. Fantastic job, Aaron!
EDIT: I just tested this with Luxconsole, and it works just like internal. This is most likely due to the fact that Luxconsole will close when it’s done rendering, which the GUI doesn’t.
Thanks for that info! Yeah, it seems all “internal external” render engines go through Blender’s render pipeline in some fashion. This would explain why when using Lux’s external GUI it’ll only render one image - no callback to let the script know it’s finished (which is how the add-on works).
I’ll have a play around at some point and see if I can get Lux to give a callback somehow when rendering with it’s external GUI. I’ll definitely try and figure something out.
Came across a crash the first time I tried using two cameras. It rendered out the first camera (in reverse order) just fine, then goes on to the second and crashes at about the third frame. It’s a simple scene, default camera is the first, second camera is directly above the default cube. I’m using two different resolutions, the first being 200200, second being 1680200. Again, it renders in reverse order, gets to second, renders a few frames and crashes. A few screen caps are attached showing my settings.
I should also mention that my scene camera settings are different, at 1920*1080 @25%. Both cameras are different.
This is what happens as it crashes. The render size was supposed to be 200*200, but somehow it changed to something else, this is that size:
EDIT: What’s interesting about this is that I opened one of my old scenes and tried to render with three cameras and they all rendered up to 10 frames, no problems. My guess is that it involves the different resolutions. How, I don’t know, but I’ll try it on this scene and report back.
That’s pretty strange, and nasty! I noticed you were using Targa and OpenEXR formats. So, I recreated your scene and found that the last image only renders at the wrong size when using RGBA, but renders correctly using BW or RGB (for both Targa and OpenEXR). This is very strange and definitely warrants investigation and research!
One problem: my Blender doesn’t crash, so I’m not 100% sure what’s causing that.
As for the reverse order, that’s because I started working on v0.2 as I sorted that out in v0.1 and forgot to correct it in v0.2. So, I’m a silly sausage!
I’ll try my utmost to find a solution to this for you!
EDIT:The second image renders at the incorrect size no matter whether the format’s set at BW, RGB, or RGBA. Doing more research!
EDIT: Okay, I only just realised that the second image is rendering at correct size for the scene (1920x1080 / 4 = 480x270), and it’s all formats, so that rounds it down to some error in the scripting for sure! The crashing issue still eludes me.
EDIT: Sorted it! All works fine now. I’ll do a couple more tests to make sure and then upload the update, but it’s all good. Again, the crashing is still a mystery to me. =/
It works great in OS X 10.7.4 no freeze or crash and opens saved files with multiple cameras ready to render.
The different render settings is great, only thing is that it’s hard to frame a shot when you don’t see the desired render size aspect ratio (attached image)
But it do renders different sizes and that’s cool.
Well, everything on this computer crashes for no reason, so it might actually just be me this time. Steam games crash when I exit them, Adobe programs crash when I start them up and close them, occasionally Blender will crash, so don’t be surprised if you can’t find the cause of the crash issue.
).
