PassPilot documentation

PassPilot saves every render pass of a Blender render as its own file, automatically. This page explains every control of the panel with real screenshots, so you can use it without any video: install, activate, choose a folder, tick the passes, render. Orange numbers in the screenshots match the numbered lists under them.

1. Requirements and installation

• Blender 5.2 (Windows x64). Other versions and systems have not been tested.
• Render engine Cycles or EEVEE.
• A PassPilot license code (you receive it after purchase; it looks like PO-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX).
• An internet connection once, to activate the license.

1. Download the PassPilot ZIP from your Superhive order. Do not extract it.
2. In Blender open Edit → Preferences → Get Extensions.
3. Open the menu at the top right of the Extensions page and choose Install from Disk.
4. Select the PassPilot ZIP. Enable the extension if Blender does not enable it automatically.
5. Restart Blender after installing an update, so the new version is loaded (the panel shows the running version).

2. Where is the panel?

Open the Properties editor, click the Output tab (the printer icon in the column on the left) and scroll to the PassPilot panel. It is shown only when the render engine is Cycles or EEVEE.

The Output tab (printer icon, highlighted on the left) with the PassPilot panel. Everything PassPilot offers is in this one panel.

3. Activate your license

Until a license is active the panel is visible but locked (greyed out), so you can see what it offers.

The panel before activation.

After activation the first line of the panel says License active and shows a Deactivate button. One license code works on up to 2 computers. To move PassPilot to another computer, click Deactivate on the old one first (this needs the internet too) and activate on the new one.

4. Quick start: your first render

1. Open the panel (section 2) and make sure Save passes on render is ticked.
2. Set Directory to the folder that should receive the files.
3. Leave Output Mode on Separate Files and the format on PNG.
4. Choose AOV in Preset and click Apply: every pass the engine supports is ticked. Untick what you do not need.
5. Press F12. When the frame finishes, the last line of the panel says how many files were saved.
6. Open the folder: one file per pass, grouped by scene and View Layer (section 8).

5. The panel, control by control

5.1 The top of the panel

The top controls.

5.2 Save passes on render (the master switch)

The checkbox is on by default: an installed PassPilot saves the passes of every render. Untick it for a render that does not need passes:

Switched off: the message says renders are not changed and no passes are saved, and the rest of the panel is greyed out. Your settings are kept.

• PassPilot then does nothing at all: it does not change the passes of your View Layer, does not check the scene and saves no file.
• Tick it again and the next render saves as before.
• It does not switch off passes that Blender itself already renders. If you also want to save render time, untick them in the View Layer properties.

5.3 Layer Overview: several View Layers

Layer Overview opened, with two View Layers.

5.4 Output: folder, mode and format

The Output box in Separate Files mode.

The grey information line reminds you that Cryptomatte and ID masks are always written as PNG or EXR, whatever format you choose, because they need exact alpha or manifest data.

MultiLayer EXR and Both

Output Mode set to Both: the MultiLayer EXR box appears above the Separate Files box.

Both boxes together.

Separate Files as OpenEXR

With OpenEXR the Color and Color Depth rows disappear: EXR files are always linear float, no clipping.

5.5 Passes

The Passes box with the AOV preset applied.

Tick a pass and PassPilot enables it in the View Layer and saves it as its own file. The full list with the file names is in section 9. Under the checkboxes:

Object Index and Material Index are built from real sub-pixel coverage, so their edges follow the true silhouette. They also number objects that appear through collection instances, particle instances and Geometry Nodes (nested groups included). Objects linked from another file keep the index they have in their own file, and PassPilot warns you when two linked objects share one.

The same box with EEVEE: passes this engine does not provide are greyed out and marked Unavailable. Cycles marks Shadow and Transparent the same way, because those two are EEVEE passes.

5.6 Compositing data: Cryptomatte and Exact ID Mattes

Cryptomatte and Exact ID Mattes are data for a compositor, not images to hand to a client. They are therefore never written into your main folder.

Compositing data is off by default.

Tick Export Compositing Data to write them into their own folder:

Compositing data switched on.

5.7 Denoise Light Passes

Denoise Light Passes ticked.

Cycles itself denoises only Combined and a few volume passes. With Denoise Light Passes PassPilot runs Intel OpenImageDenoise on the Diffuse, Glossy, Transmission and Volume Direct and Indirect passes while saving them. It is off by default.

• It works in Separate Files mode with 16-bit RGBA PNG or OpenEXR, and uses the helper program that is included. If it cannot work with your settings, the row is greyed out and says why.
• Combined, data passes, Cryptomatte, albedo and Noisy Image are never filtered.
• With Both, the MultiLayer EXR stays unfiltered; only the separate files are denoised.
• If denoising cannot run, the raw passes are still saved and the last-save line says so.

5.8 The status lines at the bottom

After a render PassPilot tells you, in the panel, what it did. The icon shows the level: a tick is fine, a triangle is a warning, a cross is an error.

Fine: the last save and the check before the render.

• Last save: the time, the frame and the number of files written. It can add (left out, no data: ...) for passes that held no data at all in this scene (for example Volume passes without a volume), and (denoise failed, written raw: ...).
• Checked before render: before every render PassPilot checks the engine, camera, file names, pass support, denoise limits and the output folder. It informs you but does not stop a render started with F12. An animation is checked once, not every frame.

A warning: here Noisy Image is ticked but Denoising is off, so there is no undenoised image to save.

An error: here the scene has no active camera. Fix it before you wait for a frame.

6. Where do the files go?

In Separate Files mode the files go to Directory/{scene}/{View Layer}/{View Layer}_{pass}.png. A real example from a render with the Directory set to D:\Renders\Demo\, scene Extended, View Layer Completo:

D:\Renders\Demo\
  Extended\
    Completo\
      Completo_Combined.png
      Completo_Diffuse Direct.png
      Completo_Diffuse Indirect.png
      Completo_Diffuse Color.png
      Completo_Glossy Direct.png
      Completo_Normal.png
      Completo_Depth.png
      Completo_Alpha.png
      Completo_Object Index.png
      Completo_Material Index.png
      ... one file per ticked pass

D:\Renders\Demo_compositing\      (only with Export Compositing Data)
  Extended\Completo\
    Completo_CryptoObject00.exr
    Completo_Object Index Mattes.exr

• MultiLayer EXR goes directly into the Directory, named by the File Name pattern, for example MyShot_Extended_Completo_0001.exr.
• Animations: when a second frame shows that it is an animation, a frame number is added to every file name (Completo_Combined_0001.png, Completo_Combined_0002.png, ...), and the first frame is renamed to match. A single still has no number.
• Old files of a pass you have switched off are cleaned up only for files PassPilot itself wrote earlier, never for anything else in the folder.
• Files are written under a temporary name and renamed when complete, so an interrupted render never leaves a half-written file under the real name.

7. How do I ...

... deliver a clean folder to a client?

Use Separate Files (or MultiLayer EXR), leave Export Compositing Data off or set a separate Compositing Folder. The main folder then holds only the delivery passes.

... get ID masks for compositing?

Tick Object Index and Material Index for coloured masks. For exact masks tick Export Compositing Data and Exact ID Mattes (one named channel per object), or Cryptomatte Object, Material and Asset for a Cryptomatte-aware compositor.

... save only a few passes?

Leave the preset on Custom and tick only the passes you need. Combined is always saved.

... render an animation?

Press Ctrl+F12, or use blender -b file.blend -a. Each frame is saved as it finishes, so you can start working on early frames while the rest renders.

... use several View Layers?

Every View Layer enabled for render is saved into its own folder. Use Layer Overview to add, duplicate, enable and switch layers, and set the passes of each layer separately.

... turn PassPilot off for a test render?

Untick Save passes on render (section 5.2).

8. Pass reference

The checkbox on the left, the files it writes, and how the values are stored. Passes that hold no data in a scene are left out and listed on the last-save line.

9. If something does not work

PassPilot writes one line for every render (saved, checked, or skipped and why) to %LOCALAPPDATA%\PassPilot\passpilot.log. The line says exactly what happened. When you ask for help, send the last lines of that file.

10. License, limitations and support

• License and notices: the license text and the third-party notices are inside the add-on. The add-on's Python code is plain, readable source code; the helper program pom_core.exe is supplied as a compiled program. The source code of the helper program is available to buyers on request: use the Message Creator button on the PassPilot page on Superhive.
• Memory: ID masks with many objects at high resolution use a lot of memory. At 4K with 28 full-frame IDs a Smooth export peaked near 3.2 GiB in testing, and near 6 GiB with Exact ID Mattes. Render a small test frame first.
• Limitations: Depth, Position, Object Index and Material Index come from a single camera sample per pixel in Cycles and are never averaged, so they can look grainy at silhouettes. Cycles allocates denoised buffers only for Combined and a few volume passes. PassPilot supports Blender 5.2 on Windows x64 and has not been tested elsewhere.
• Support: use the Message Creator button on the PassPilot page on Superhive and attach the last lines of %LOCALAPPDATA%\PassPilot\passpilot.log.