You dream to be able to pause Blender animation render? Your GPU rendering take away too many PC’s resources? You would like to use computer and don’t stop render manually? Your dream comes true!
“Render when idle” is an addon for Blender that can start render animation when OS is idle (the mouse is inactive)
Note! This addon doesn’t pause rendering process!
This addon stops rendering via pyautogui module if Blender detects mouse activity or continue it if Blender detects mouse inactivity
After click the Render button the addon will start waiting when the mouse will be inactive
Render will start if Blender detects mouse inactivity within 3 seconds
Render will be stopped if Blender detects mouse activity
Render will be continued from the stop frame if Blender detects mouse inactivity again
Render will be not started if mouse will be placed on Blender window edge
To stop the addon make it “not watching” (click corresponding button)
Notes:
If the user will click window minimize button than render process will be RWI-paused. The render will be continued after blender window will be showed. For this feature was developed the “backlash zone” - if the cursor will be placed on blender window edge then render process will not start.
If blender window will cease to be active and will not be minimized, then the RWI can’t watch for the cursor, so the user will have to stop the RWI and click RWI “Render” button again.
The users can setup the idle time on the RWI preferences in the Blender User Preferences (“Waiting times” field)
How to install:
install “Render when idle” addon on the Add-ons tab in the Blender User Preferences from downloaded archive;
enable “Render when idle” addon;
use “Render when idle” addon panel on the Render tab on the Properties area
Hi Skitd,
I personally make very seldom use of Cycles, though I’m inclined to think that the idea is interesting, cannot say how convenient it is.
What could be really useful, imo, is a Stop / Resume button.
And a thing that I find really annoying and stupid in blender is that the Esc key halts the rendering whatever is the active area and even if the image window is not visible, so if you intend to keep on working while a rendering is running, you will end with stopping it soon or later because the Esc key is so much used during modeling and other tasks. A way to overcome this (hard coded) limit would be very welcome.
Hi, nice idea ! it could be great to work on other things with a blender render instance in background which would be auto detecting when you stop to launch render !
Does it work only with blender as active window ? I think this could be a gamechanger if it worked with blender in BGround too !
And just an idea, for complicated render, if it starts automatically after 3s of idle, it could be not enough to be sure you’re not working and just starring at your wall thinking about something… so it should be great to make the user setup the idle time before starting rendering !
And a last thing, if i understood correctly, the render quits when mouse cursor moving, it could be great to have an option to not cancel the frame, but just stop render after rendering current frame !
Just thoughts, anyway thanks a lot for the addon ! really cool one !
Thank you for the comments!
I think very strange that blender don’t have render pause feature, at all
About the add-on:
The users can setup the idle time on the RWI preferences in the Blender User Preferences (“Waiting times” field)
And the addon works correctly only with blender as active window.
Also it works correctly if blender will be minimized through window minimize button.
If the user will click window minimize button than render process will be RWI-paused. The render will be continued after blender window will be showed. For this feature was developed the “backlash zone” - if the cursor will be placed on blender window edge then render process will not start. Generally window minimize button is placed on blender window edge.
If blender window will cease to be active and will not be minimized, then the RWI can’t watch for the cursor, so the user will have to stop the RWI and click RWI “Render” button again.
