YCDIVFX releases Offline Render 1.5 for Unity
Originally posted on 7 December 2016. Scroll down for news of the 1.5 update.
Tools developer YCDIVFX has released Offline Render, a new Unity plugin for capturing and exporting in-engine footage as a multi-channel EXR file.
The software is aimed at artists creating visualisation projects or broadcast animation in Unity who need to be able to post-process output via a conventional compositing workflow.
Export Unity footage in 16-bit half-float EXR format for post-production
Offline Render – it’s actually just got up to version 1.1, but we didn’t cover it at the time of the original release – enables artists to capture in-engine footage at a user-specified framerate.
A range of render elements are captured out of the box, including Diffuse, Specular, Emission/Lighting, Reflections, Depth, Velocity, Normals and AO, to which the 1.1 update adds support for Unity motion vectors.
Also as of the 1.1 update, the plugin can output in 16-bit half-float EXR format, and capture footage at a resolution independent of the actual game view.
A couple of limitations still remain: you need to be using Unity’s deferred rendering path, not forward rendering (Updated: resolved as of version 1.4); and the shadow pass only works with directional lights.
Once generated, the resulting OpenEXR file can be imported into any software that supports multi-channel EXRs, including Nuke, Fusion, or – via free plugins like Exr-IO or ProExr – Photoshop.
Updated 16 March 2017: YCDIVFX has released Offline Render 1.5, adding early support for 360-degree renders from VR projects. Initially, only beauty renders are supported, and only output in PNG format.
Since we last wrote about the plugin, previous updates have also introduced support for rendering custom passes in EXR format, ObjectID passes, and Unity’s forward rendering path.
Pricing and availability
Offline Render 1.5 is available now for Unity 5.4.2 and above. It costs $30.
Read more about Offline Render on YCDIVFX’s website
Find the latest release of Offline Render on the Unity Asset Store