Zap Viewer — Render History Inside Blender
Farax Creative
Does it change my renders in any way?
No. It never writes to your render settings, never touches Blender's native render slots, and never touches your sequence editor. It writes image files into its history folder and stores its list on the scene. Your .blend and your renders come out identical whether it is installed or not.
Will it slow my renders down?
No. The work happens after a render finishes, not during it. Saving one frame is a file copy.
Does playback move my timeline?
No. Playback runs on the add-on's own timer and never advances scene.frame_current, so playing a rendered sequence does not animate your 3D viewport or scrub your scene. This is the reason it does not use Blender's own animation playback.
Where are my renders saved?
In a zap_viewer_history folder next to your .blend by default, or wherever you point the History Folder setting. They are ordinary image files - that is why the history survives quitting Blender.
If I remove an entry, are my files deleted?
No. Remove untracks the entry and leaves the file on disk. There is an explicit Also delete files option, and even that only ever touches your history folder - never a folder you imported from.
What if I uninstall the add-on?
Your renders stay. They are real files in a real folder; nothing is packed into the .blend and nothing is locked to the add-on.
Can I use it with renders it didn't make?
Yes. Point Import at any folder - a render farm's output, an older project, a folder a colleague sent. Nothing is copied or moved; the entries point at the files where they already are, and a run of numbered frames comes in as one sequence rather than one entry per frame.
Does it handle multilayer EXR?
Not in this release. A saved still is flattened to its combined result, so its passes are not preserved in the history copy. Blender writes no file at all for an interactive F12 still, so the add-on has to produce one from the Render Result, and every route available for that flattens it. If you need the history copy to carry passes, render to single-layer EXR for now. The Layer tab says this in the UI rather than letting you find out later.
Does it break on a render farm, or in blender -b?
No. In headless or background renders it never tries to open the Viewer window - the window only appears in an interactive session.
Which Blender versions does it work on?
Blender 5.0 or newer. Verified on 5.0.1, 5.1.2 and 5.2 - the full suite of 246 automated tests passes on each.
Is this a subscription?
No. One purchase, single version - there is no Free/Pro split.
Where do I report a bug?
Through the report form at https://farax-creative.github.io/report/?product=Zap%20Viewer - the same form the rest of the Zap series uses.
$19
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| Blender Extension Compatible | Yes |
| Published | about 2 months ago |
| Blender Version | 5.0 - 5.2 |
| Extension Type | Add-on |
| Render Engine Used | Cycles, Eevee |
| License | GPL |
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