Houdini rendering to mplay but not rendering out exr file

[jimmaybones]

When I render to disk normally I get an exr file, but I don't get a preview. I'd like to see a preview of my sequence as it is rendering. Is there a way to render out my sequence EXR's while having a preview of sequence showing? Redshift and Octane seem to do this as a default. I can't figure out why it's not working with Arnold.

[philW9W7M]

Why is Autodesk not responding to this type of question? It blows my mind that I can't render out sequences to mplay that also save to disk. 

[philW9W7M]

Furthermore, when rendering to hick.exe (the only method for renderring locally to disk), the only way to kill a render is to end the process, which then requires a reboot on windows. Not exactly the best process for kicking out animation tests. Sure, works amazingly for teams with big pipelines, but for small shops that's a super annoying workflow.

[julian.hodgson]

You are able to render sequences to mplay, and you can save to disk afterwards from mplay, but you won't have the same metadata in the exr since you're then not using the arnold exr driver.

Is this workaround useful to you?

[philW9W7M]

That workaround is only partially useful because it doesn't include all the passes. It makes designing stills annoying for folks that like to use cryptomattes. 

[julian.hodgson]

Thanks for the feedback. It may be possible to do both at the same time, so I’ve created ticket HTOA-2023 to look at this. I don’t think it should always do this so we can look at adding an extra option for this.

[philW9W7M]

Much appreciated. Thank you.

[philW9W7M]

FWIW --- I do think Karma has a good implementation in it's render settings here. A checkbox for an MPlay monitor when rendering to disk.

[philW9W7M]

Hey Julian,

Can you share a link to where those tickets live?

Thank you!

[Stephen.Blair]

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@philW9W7M wrote:
Hey Julian,

Can you share a link to where those tickets live?

Thank you!

---

The ticket system is not a public system.

[peterDTE7K]

Hey, it would be really great to have this feature. Currently when I "Render to disk" I don't have any preview of the rendering process and I have no way of knowing how much time is remaining.