Batch Camera Render

272 votes
Version: 
1.18
Date Updated: 
08/03/2022
Author Name: 
Sergo Pogosyan

This script aims to replace standard 3dsmax's Batch Render and imitates Houdini Output Node workflow. Using it you can specify rendering parameters - frame size, frame number, output path - directly to camera object, so every camera in scene 'knows' what it intended to render. Additional functionality is Lighting Assignment - you can specify which light will be turn on or off for selected camera during the rendering.

1.18:

  • Support for 3ds max 2023 Update fixed

1.17:

  • Corona and Vray Sun inside Daylight System fixed (thanks to busseynova for reporting)

1.16:

  • CoronaSun supported inside Daylight System

1.15:

  • Don't Save Render Elements Checkbox (Thanks to antomor)
  • Limited support for camera objects in xref scene files (Only root objects in first level xrefs. Cameras in nested xrefs not supported)

1.13 Bugfix:

  • Deadline submission should work now

1.12 New Feature:

  • Deadline support.
    Very basic imlementation, it allows you to submit your jobs on a deadline server. Enter deadline repository address and check "Use Deadline" checkbox. Other checkbox doesn't matter in this case ("Net render", "Show Submit Dialog").
    Probably it requires Deadline 3ds max Submitter installed. I didn't have a chance to check it on a clean machine.

1.11 Features and fixes:

  • State sets support added
  • "projectname" keyword added which resolves to project's folder name
  • other fixes and improvements

1.10.3b Fixes:

  • Crash when vray ir/lcache maps are set to auto-save
  • Region render was not set properly during the rendering

This is major update of the script, so it may not be as stable as before. Backup scenes or cameras at least before running this version. More information can be found here - 1.10b Multiple presets for each camera

Previous updates:

1.10.2b Fixes:

  • Problems with render elements paths
  • Copy/paste of render region settings
  • Properly convert render region values when change resolution

New features:

  • Multiple presets for each camera
  • New keyword %presetname% to support multiple presets
  • Distributed rendering checkbox added to vray common settings
  • Bugfix - Net render not starting after cancelling during local rendering.
  • Improved performance with scenes with lots of cameras
  • Added support of Vray RT as a production renderer
  • Added support of using MFRender script to render scenes through BatchCamera script.
  • Bugfix - Error was popping up sometimes during drag-n-drop
  • Bugfix - Render elements didn't render in certain conditions
  • Bugfix - Pre-render/post-render scripts didn't work on network rendering
  • Bugfix - Select All and Toggle All buttons didn't work properly

Here are some details: http://usakhelo.github.io/batchcam/batchcam-1.9.20.html

Script's website - http://usakhelo.github.io/batchcam/

Github - https://github.com/usakhelo/batchcam

2015 Updates

  • Region render parameter can be specified for each camera
  • Set Viewport button sets viewport camera and resolution and aspect as well
  • It is possible now to specify backburner servers and server groups for silent rendering submit (code editing required)
  • Vray Elements fixed for Vray 3 and Vray output saving with VFB color correction
  • Cancelling of rendering of multiple cameras at once,
  • Hierarchical ini files

2013 Updates

  • Drag-n-drop of cameras in list
  • Camera list window size can be changed (script restart required)
  • When committing region render it is possible to switch to view render without restarting the render
  • Keyword syntax can be used in Scene State names - thanks to Stefan Runevik for suggestion

2011 Updates

  • Preview button added - renders only current frame without saving anything - no images, no vray maps, no scripts running, no elements.
  • Ortho mode added to Vray rollout - it turns any camera to orthographic, including Vray Physical camera.
  • Copy/Paste from one camera to one/several cameras - use new buttons at the top of the window.
  • Submit Scripts section - you can assign script files that will run on each render submit. Per Submit script runs once per render submit and Per Camera script runs for each camera before submit. All these scripts run on local machine, not on render server.
  • Last Rendered Location field - here is stored last render file location. Very useful for locating last-time rendered images.
Additional Info: 

Installation:

Run this script with Maxscript -> Run Script command from any folder on your hard drive, then go to the *'Customize User Interface' -> 'Toolbars'*, browse to category 'Sergo Pogosyan' and add 'Render scene cameras...' button to the toolbar or to the menu.

Usage:

When you start this script it iterate over all cameras in scene and list them in the dialog box. To each of these cameras you can assign frame resolution, number of frames to render including nonsequential frames, output file location and lighting setup. All these properties can be changed for one or several selected cameras. Output file location is split to folder path and file name, so you can specify new folder for all selected cameras in scene. 'Lighting assignement' section contains three list: Solo light list contains lights that will be only lights turned on during the rendering, 'Forced On' and 'Forced Off' lights are turned on or off respectively during the rendering. After all these setting will be set up (if some properties is not set value from the Render Setup will be used), check the camera(s) in the list and hit Render button. Check Net Render checkbox to submit network render job.

Supported lights: All bundled 3ds max lights, all Vray Lights
Supported cameras: All bundled 3ds max cameras, Vray PhysicalCamera

Version Requirement: 
3ds max 2008-202x
AttachmentSize
batchcamerarender_1.17.ms245.88 KB
batchcamerarender_1.18.ms245.92 KB

Comments

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fajar's picture

Become comercial ?

Become comercial ?

sergo's picture

Didn't try under max 9, but

Didn't try under max 9, but I guess it should work. Why not?...

I add sun/sky setting to the todo list. If there would more people demanding such setting that feature will get higher priority. Can not say that there is too many people with suggestions, but anyway, there are some features I've already planned to implement.

I hope scriptspot will have voting system in near future, so it would be easier to decide which feature is most popular. Until that time (and after that too) I'm ready to customize (or to build from scratch) scripts for the inhouse use, as a paid job, of course.

my scripts and tips/tricks:
www.sergepogosyan.com

birket's picture

Fair enough - it was only a

Fair enough - it was only a suggestion.

We always use the sun system as our clients demand that we use correct (realistic) times of day for their images.

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www.blinkimage.com

fajar's picture

is this support max 9 ?

is this support max 9 ?

sergo's picture

Here's new version with some

Here's new version with some improvements. Namely Render Elements path support and some vray specific features.

to birket: Now you can render ONLY vray image files. Just turn off save file checkbox in main output, and turn on save vray image file in vray settings rollout.

my scripts and tips/tricks:
www.sergepogosyan.com

sergo's picture

With current version you can

With current version you can not render ONLY vrimg file, sorry, I didn't understand you well.

You know, lighting state setup is already implemented in the script, and since sun/sky is the light source it should be treated as a light source. This behavior is cleaner by design of the script.

To be honest I don't use sun/sky systems at all, and implementation of this feature would be the contribution to the community, so the bigger is the community the bigger is the chance that this feature would be implemented. May be it would be usefull to have some sort of voting system at this site. But voting itself is also the question of popularity.

my scripts and tips/tricks:
www.sergepogosyan.com

birket's picture

Sergo Thanks for the prompt

Sergo
Thanks for the prompt reply. I will test again saving ONLY a vrimg file and see what happens.

WRT the sun/sky system, is there no way of controling the time/day per camera rather than having multiple daylight systems? It would just seem to me to be a cleaner/simpler interface/idea than having different skylight and sunlight systems floating about your scene.

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www.blinkimage.com

sergo's picture

Hi birket Render region

Hi birket

Render region option is already in near future todo list. Vray image should be saved separately if you've checked save vray image checkbox. Just let me know if it doesn't work.

I've just discovered that script doesn't support sun/sky systems! Thank you for the pointing out. I'll make the script see sun/sky systems as lights and it will be possible to add different sun/sky systems for different cameras. Just as you can do with other lights now. Not through the separate parameters for the days and hours, but through adding several sun/sky system to the scene, each for the different camera, and pointing these systems as on or off or single for the corresponding camera.

As for the external tools, I don't sure if it will be added to the script. But I'm planning to add custom script-running feature, (just like post-render scripts in max) after each camera, or after all camera. And by using that feature you can run whatever external tool you like.

my scripts and tips/tricks:
www.sergepogosyan.com

birket's picture

Yet another idea: how about

Yet another idea: how about combing it with shimakaze's tools for extracting all the exr files out of the vrimg file. Now that would be nice!

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www.blinkimage.com

birket's picture

Just having a look at this

Just having a look at this and it could prove to be a very useful little script.

I'd also like to ask for the render region option, and I can't seem to be able to save out a vrimg on its own at the moment. I seem to have to save an image as well. This could just be my lack of understanding though.

Another useful feature would be to set the sun/daylight system time of day/year so that each camera can have a different time associated with it.

----------------------
www.blinkimage.com

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