Troubleshooting

My turntable or camera animation video is blocky or isn't smooth

You can adjust the encoder target bitrate within the Forma Render application by going to Settings > Exports > Animation > Arguments. Increasing, or doubling, the bitrate may improve the quality of your video.

There are seams, line, or edge artifacts in my 360 shots

You can use raytraced shadows and reflections to remove most 360 shot artifacts.

Alternatively, since 360 shots are rendered from 6 individual 90-degree sides as a single cubemap, screen space effects like ambient occlusion or reflections often show artifacts at the edge of each side. Within the Forma Render application, you can increase the amount of edge overlap by going to Settings > General > Debug > "360 Shot Edge Overlap" and adjusting it from 0 to 0.5 or 1 degree. This setting renders each side with a slightly larger field of view which is then cropped back into the cubemap. This setting introduces some distortion and should be kept as low as possible.

The Forma Render UI, windows, and/or panels are corrupted and unusable

This can happen in Unity 2020.3 and 2021.1. Close your project, delete the {ProjectFolder}/Library folder, and reopen your project. Alternatively, you can upgrade to Unity 2021.2 or newer.

Forma Editor strings and labels are corrupted and/or missing characters

Close your project, delete the {ProjectFolder}/Library folder, and reopen your project. Alternatively, you can upgrade to Unity 2021.2 or newer.

I want to use a different folder than "My Documents" to store shots and domes

Go to your root asset folder and open up RenderStudioSettings.json. You can set the "projectFolder" variable to a path of your choice.

I cannot move the camera

Camera movement controls can be found in Navigating the 3D view section of the documentation.

Additionally, most camera types have movement restrictions depending on the type of camera they are. For example, Orbit cameras can only orbit around your product and cannot translate or pan. You can see what type of camera you are using by looking at the inspector in the Camera panel. For more information about the different camera types, please refer to the Navigating the 3D view section of the documentation.

Can I have a unique lighting setup for each camera?

Forma Render does not currently support per-camera attributes. However, you can implement custom camera events and manage the states yourself. An example of how to do this is shown in the CustomCameraController.cs script which can be found by importing the sample scripts from the Unity Editor's Package Manager.

What format is the depth AOV?

You can retrieve the distance in meters with the formula 1 / (zBufferParams.z * depthAovValue + zBufferParams.w) where zBufferParams.z is (-1 / cameraFarClipDistance + 1 / cameraNearClipDistance) and zBufferParams.w is (1 / far).

Why are some objects pink in my AOV output?

Some materials do not currently support AOV output, such as HDRP/Unlit, so you may need to change your materials.

Forma Render changes my lighting, raytracing, or scene settings in an undesired way

Go to your root asset folder and open up RenderStudioSettings.json. You can set the "bypassRenderSettings" variable to true to disable Forma Render's defaults.

I can make Forma Render standalone builds in DirectX 11 but cannot make DirectX 12 builds

Please refer to the Unity Forma documentation. You need to create a new "Forma Compatibility Settings" asset, add a Graphics API setting, and explicitly check Direct3D 12 (auto graphics api is not enough) for every platform that you need. Choose this asset in the Forma build window for your Project Compatibility Settings.

My shots, domes, batches, and/or products are missing

If you have recently updated your version of Forma Render, you may need to re-import your assets. Please refer to the Upgrading section of the documentation for more details.

I use GAIA and my trees come out transparent, gray, or white

Please change the HDRP Color Buffer Format to R11G11B10 in the Unity Editor under Player Settings > Quality > HDRP > Rendering > Color Buffer Format

The underside of my product is too bright

For best lighting results, upgrade to Unity 2021.2 and enable path tracing. If path tracing is not an option, you can enable the "Shadow Plane > Reflect Shadow Plane" post-processing effect and increase "ambient occlusion intensity" and "ambient occlusion radius" values.

Refer to the Rendering with Raytracing section for more information about raytracing and path tracing.

Where can I find domes?

Forma Render supports any HDRI panoramic image for use as a dome. Polyhaven is an example of one place where you can find public domain images.

Where can I find glTF files to use as unconfigurable products?

You can find permissively licensed sample files from the Khronos Group on GitHub and you can also buy models on Sketchfab. To use them in Forma Render you need to convert the glTF model into a single .glb file (including textures) using a converter, such as this online converter, to produce .glb files.

I am unable to change stage or environment via image on demand

The string used to identify the environment is the Forma unique code or unique id for that environment, not the label. To identify it, use the Forma Render UI to select this environment, take a shot, and open the resulting meta.json file in a text editor. You should find the "stage" : { "name" in this meta file.

CPU and GPU usage is very high when idling in batchmode

See the documentation regarding default frame rate. You may want to set this to a constant value in your built Forma Render application.

Batchmode image on demand is producing images with different fov depending on the machine resolution

Some camera features are gatefit dependant and are affected by the window size. To resolve this, you can pass constant window size arguments to the player instance such as "-screen-width 1024 -screen-height 768".