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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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?
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.
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.
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.