► Render Monster ◄

Render Monster is a tool for capturing image sequences directly from Unity, for further merging them into video file.

Most of the promo videos of my assets are captured using Render Monster.

Render Monster is FPS (frame per second) independent and can capture images at any rate.
Images are saved in lossless PNG format up to 32K resolution (may be limited by your hardware).

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Very easy in use. Just attach Render Monster script to the active camera and let it do its job.


Note!
Transparency is not saved, only RGB data.
During capturing frame rate will drop (depend on hardware), but it will not effect final video frame rate.
May not be suitable for capturing active game-play videos.

Spoiler: Update History

v2019.1
• Updated for Unity 2017.4 and 2018.2

v2017.4
• Unity 2017.1 compatible

v2017.3
• Fixed editor screenshot button not working correctly.
• Fixed open folder button creating new window instances on every click.

v2017.1/2
• Initial release

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Looks amazing, What do you recommend using to merge the image sequences into a video file?

 

Mostly Photoshop, fast merging and clean video.



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Hi,

I just bought Render Monster - I was very curious when I saw it advertised. I use Helios regularly, which is great, and was curious about this. I have to say, it works really well: simple, clean, practical, I like it. But, it crashes Unity a lot. I have a Titan Black, running the latest certified driver, 378.92, on Windows 10 64bit with Unity 5.5.2f1.

I set the base resolution at 1920x1080. My first try was straight to 32x - that crashed. Then I stepped it up gradually, two steps at a time - they all rendered fine. This is screenshots, by the way. Then I randomly tried 14x- it crashed Unity again.

So my initial experience, and a little frustrating, is that it seems somewhat unstable. I know you stated that you recorded 32x with a GTX660M, which s massively impressive, so I reckoned my Titan Black, even though getting long in the tooth, should handle it.

Couple of other points. Each time you hit the Open button for the output folder, it opens a new instance of the folder. It could do with checking to see if the folder is open already and then bring it to the front.

The hotkey for screenshot - can't get it to work. By default it says F5. But pressing F5 does nothing. You can change the hotkey, apparently, which I did, but that does nothing either.

Can you help please? Particularly with the stability.

Thanks.

 

Here is 32K image captured on GTX660M: https://goo.gl/VnivAE

What crashes Unity? Capturing image sequence or screenshot?

Screenshot hotkey works only in game mode, like other features.


BTW, during several years usage of Render Monster it has never crashed Unity at my side, just does not capture anything if using very high resolution, but crashing no. You can check editor log for crash report. May be its driver issue or not enough memory?

[EDIT]
Ok, there is one problem only if using screenshot (camera icon) inside editor. It uses render texture and will cause crash if Unity can not allocate enough memory for it.
Screenshot game mode capturing (by hotkey) uses different method (not render texture) and should not have such problem.

[EDIT 2]
Multiple folder instance opening will be fixed.



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I just purchased your amazing wireframe asset and I have been pining over an excuse to purchase curved world, which I will someday soon, and now I'm interested in Render Monster. Quick question, what do you mean "May not be suitable for capturing active game-play videos", can you explain a little more?

 

Captured images are instantly saved on the hard drive, because of it during capturing frame rate inside Unity will drop down (without effecting final video frame rate).
If you need game-play recording, (e.g some first person shooter) you may end up with just a few frames per second and just will not be able to move character and navigate camera correctly - that's what I meant by active game-play.

In promo videos where I use Render Monster most of animations are scripted or event based, interaction from user during capturing is minimal.



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That makes sense, thanks.

 

OK - thank you for the response. I was only trying screenshots for the first go, and from the editor with the camera button, so that would match your explanation.

I didn't realise about the hotkey only working in game mode - apologies, must have missed that in the docs.

My GPU has 6Gb of GDDR5, and my motherboard carries 64Gb of DDR5, so I don't think amount of RAM is an immediate problem.

Thanks again for the help.

 

Any plans for stereographic or stereoscopic integrations?

 

Currently no.



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I can't even figure out how to attach it the the camera.

 

Finally figured it out:

• Select Main Camera
• Component > VacuumShaders > Render Monster

 

At the moment, trying to capture anything with Render Monster crashes and locks up Unity. I am using Version 2017.1.0p4. I have tried to deactivate anything on the camera. Just a vanilla camera. No high quality stuff enabled. I hit play mode and as soon as I try to capture anything it dies on me.

 

Just tried in Unity 2017.1.1f1 and 2017.3.0f3 and no problems at my side.
May be with your Unity version ("p" means patch) you are downloading asset for Unity 5.4 and that why it does not work. Can you upgrade Unity to some newest "f" (means final) version and re-download asset?



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Thanks for the quick reply. Upgraded to 17.3.0f3 and there it works. However, it should work with the patch releases, too. As do most other addons. Maybe you can install the .1.0p4 Editor and look into that issue?

 

Inhuman Kind - Maciej Szczesnik - Neon Challenge
4K 60 fps captured with Render Monster

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I really enjoy Render Monster But tonight we tried rendering a scene that uses Amplify Motion and it just didn't see it. The pictures rendered fine but without the motion blur. I wound up doing the test with Unity's motion blur from the PostFX V2. If possible I would love to see this become compatible with Amplify Motion though.

 

Just tested in Unity 2018.1
Camera has only Amplify Motion and Render Monster.


Do you have any other scripts attached to the camera? May be there are some conflicts. Change script execution order, making RM script the first one or the last one.



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I do have several scripts on there, But Render Monster is the last one.
On your test image the motion blur is clipped at the edge of the mesh. Which is incorrect behavior.
I will try turning everything else off and see if that has any affect.

 

Even without Render Monster scene looks the same way for me.
I'm not a user of Amplify Motion, can you share 'correct' motion results?



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With the amount of motion blur I am seeing it should extend beyond the outer edge of the mesh outline was what I was saying.

 

Un

Unfortunately I was not able to make Amplify Motion work 'correct' at my side, even without Render Monster motion blur is always clipped at the edge of the mesh. Tested in Unity 2017.4 and 2018.1 (forward and deferred).



However everything works properly with Unity's Motion blur, with and without RM.



Can not say where is the problem, in AM, RM or in Unity rendering pipeline.



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Thanks for looking into it, I will send Amplify an email about the issue..

 

Hey there!

Thanks for trying it out but Amplify Motion is not ideal for offline rendering, and the clipping effect is inherit of the vector-based technique used.

Thanks!

 

I need a solution to load images asynchronously, you can not do it?

 

I have a question about the run time API.
I can't seem to find the proper way to call BeginRecording() at all.
I've tried including the namespace VacuumShaders.RenderMonster, and also just targeting it directly with not much luck.
I basically just need an actual usage example here.

EDIT: Derp, I knew if I posted this I would figure it out immediately afterwards and it would be simple.
Solution is to get a reference of Render Monster Extension in the scene and call BeginRecording() on it.

 

hmm, good to capture promo video? what video software is good to merge files in?

 

Most video editors can merge image sequence into video file. Even Photoshop.



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Hey there I'm having some trouble with Render Monster in Unity's new HDRP. For some reason my grass looks beautiful and fine when in-game but when I record it always comes out like this video I recorded as an example. For some reason recording makes the "sway" effect of the Grass Shader Graph shader move over twice as fast as it appears to me when not recording.

 

HDRP is still in rapid development. Problem may be there.



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Not going to say you aren't right but I've seen plenty of recordings of HDRP both from Official Unity and from users like me using the same exact shader without the issue. They might be using another asset or FRAPS or something external I'm unsure but this issue I've had over different versions of HDRP from alpha, beta to 2.f. I desperately need to record production-quality video and can find nothing comparable to how this asset works. Even with this issue, I think this is the best recording solution out there and would like to continue using it if possible.

Update: Tried it with Unity Recorder in preview to much the same effect. So you were right in it being something HDRP related. I have no clue what could be affecting the shader like this and why specifically only recording seems to cause the bug.

 

Hey, thanks for this resource, it is great. I noticed that when recording at 4k 120 fps that each frame starts out with the motion blur active but then half way to the next frame it disappears, and the frame is saved without the motion blur. Any idea what might be causing this?

Not using amplify, just the HDRP post processing

Thanks!

 

It needs some research to understand what is going in with motion blur effect. It may be some Unity rendering core delay.
Currently have no solution.



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Okay, thanks for the reply. That is the only issue using it, it's really useful!

 

I can not drag and drop the scrip onto the camera. What do I do wrong?

 

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Is there a funtionality to merge the captured images into a video? Using your plafrom inside unity?

 

No video. Only image sequence and screenshots.



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Dear Arkhivrag, is there a way to set or reset the saved image counter?

 

nFrameCounter property is declared in the RenderMonster.cs file on line:46. You can make it public and change it from any other scripts.

You can also add menu function to the RenderMonster.cs file and reset it any time:

 

Thank you!!!

 

Hi, when I changed the Super Size from 1 to other, it also switched the camera 1 to another camera. Does someone know the reason?