I have a strange problem. I use a RTX 4080 and Win 11, Blender 4.1.1.
The mist pass of ALL blender files stoped working kind of. It displays correctly in the viewer and backdrop. The Z pass is still working correctly including file saving.
But whenver I save the mist pass in any file format (OpenEXR, JPG, PNG, whatever) I only get a blank or totally black white file. It looks totally different from the viwer/backdrop.
I also tried using the normalize node.
The mist passt shows up correctly inside the compositor/viewer. But when I save it to a file (file output node) it gets a blank, black file or at best a totally black white file, where I can only see the cube in 100% white and the rest in 100% black.
I appears to be a global problem. Blender 3.6 does the same. I can even open old once working files and they now stop working. Only the mist pass is affected. And it still works in the viwer. It only gets the error, when I output the file.
Maybe there could be a connection to Flowframes? I lately installed flowframes and reinstalled the newest Phython version to get it to work? Could it be that installing the newest Phython version and Pytorch destoyed the msit pass saving functionality inside blender?
Everything else works fine. The Z pass can be saved. Only the mist pass can’t be saved correctly, but is displayed correctly inside the viewer in the Compositor.
Thanks a lot!
EDIT: It is the same in cycles and Eevee and in CPU and GPU mode in Cycles
And of course the same for OpenEXR - I get an empty msit pass saved into the file as well. I checked the file inside Photoshop and After Effects, no information inside…
I also have older scenes - ONCE working and still with the correct output files - and if I rerender the mist pass the old correct mist pass files will be overwritten with blank files.
I fear I somehow destroyed something with reinstalling Phython maybe…
Yes of course I am an instructor at an art academy, too and know this problems from students.
Thanks four making sure I get the basic setup/steps correct…
But today on my PC the problem seams to be global, Blender 3.6
Blender 3.0 and Blender 4.1 all the same strange behavior right now.
The msit pass is broken - I can display it in preview - but saving the image destroyes it…
I don’t know what the problem is.
Jpg is an 8-bit image and Exr is only a 32-bit image.
The image you attached above seems to have been seen in the image viewer.
I don’t know if the image viewer can handle Exr 32bit images.
I didn’t see it as an image viewer.
Only After Effects inprets the newly rendered OpenEXR files differently … they are only blank in After Effects and Photoshop - in the Blender image viewer the new files are the same.
Seams to be some compatiblity issue with After Effects / Photoshop
Now that is stupid - inside Blender image viewer both look the same - but in Photoshop and After Effects the new image (0083) is simply empty… the newly rendered files appear incompatible with Adobe, strange
The older file (0070) opens correctly in Photoshop and AE (set to 32bit float)
I think there is no bug anywhere, blender simply changed the way it outputs exr float files from 3.6 to 4.0. If I render it in Blender 3.6 I can still use it in AE without the need of the extractor effect - singel layer exr of course.
If I render the same scene in Blender 4.0 I now need the extractor effect in After Effects.
Sadly you get a different depth appearance for Blender 3.6 and 4.0 in after effects. So I need to render old Scenes in Blender 3.6 to make sure I do not break all compositing related to the depth pass.
So no bugs. Blender 4.0 simply outputs depth exr float files in a new way and you always need the extractor effect in AE and Photoshop can as well no longer open the exr files from blender (all single layer of course).
So my conclusion is no bugs, just a change in behavior on the side of Blender 4.0 outputing the files.
Of course for new projects it isn’t a problem as well, only extra step is using the extractor effect in after effects. Works as good as in the past.
