Depth maps
Add a CZDepth pass to each render so furniture keeps its shape as buyers walk between renders.
Between two renders, the tour paints each render onto your proxy model. Anything that isn’t in the proxy, like chairs, stools, pendants or a vase, smears or shows twice as buyers walk.
A depth map fixes that. It records how far away every pixel of a render is, so the tour knows the real shape of everything the render saw. Furniture then keeps its shape between renders. Standing on a render still shows the render exactly as you rendered it.
Render the depth maps
The quickest way is the ArchviewVR Toolkit: on the Render tab press Render depth maps. It renders a fast depth-only pass of every camera, with glass hidden, and saves each one as its name_depth.exr next to the renders.
To render them yourself instead:
- In 3ds Max, open Render Setup → Render Elements and add a CZDepth element.
- Set its maximum distance to cover the whole tour, including views out of windows and doors. 30 m suits most homes and apartments. Anything past the maximum can’t be placed and shows a little softer as buyers walk. Anything just short of the maximum is treated the same way, because past the maximum CZDepth flattens everything onto that distance.
- Render each panorama as usual. Save the CZDepth pass as EXR (16 or 32-bit), not JPG. JPG only has 256 steps of depth, which shows as stair steps.
- Name each file after its render, like Pano_01.exr or Pano_01_depth.exr. If the names differ, ArchviewVR matches each file to its render by the camera position 3ds Max saves in the EXR.
2K wide (2048 × 1024) is plenty for depth, even if your renders are 6K.
Warning: glass should be see-through in the depth too. If the depth records a window as solid, the tour builds a flat sheet there, painted with whatever the render saw through it. Corona’s CZDepth usually sees through glass already. If yours doesn’t, use the Toolkit’s depth pass with glass hidden.
You don’t need to set the CZDepth minimum or say whether white is near or far. ArchviewVR works that out by comparing the files with your proxy model.
Add them with the renders
Put the EXRs in the folder with your renders when you upload. They’re matched to their renders and saved with them. No model file? ArchviewVR can make one from the depth maps. See Upload your folder. We still recommend a model file for the best 3D plan.
To make the model again from depth maps, press Renders › Add or replace renders and drop the EXRs (with or without the renders) and no model file. ArchviewVR asks whether to make the model again or keep the saved one. Making it again is worth doing after an update to how models are made.
Add them to a saved tour
- Open your project, then Set up tour → Options.
- Under Depth maps, choose the EXR files or drop them on the box. You can add them all at once.
- Each render shows how well its depth map matches the model, for example Ready · 92% matches the model. Walk around the preview to check.
- Press Save at the top right.
The list shows every render with a depth map. Click Remove next to one to take it off, then save. To check the difference, untick Use depth maps. The preview then goes back to painting on the proxy only. Buyers see whatever you save.
Tip: a match of 60% or more is normal. Walls, floors and ceilings should match the proxy; furniture doesn’t, because it isn’t in the proxy. A depth map that doesn’t line up at all is usually from a different camera.
Mesh detail and clean-up
Under Depth maps in Options:
- Mesh detail sets how finely each depth map is turned into shape. High follows thin things like chair legs and pendants more closely but takes more memory. Standard suits most tours. Phones never go above standard.
- Clean-up removes stray shapes floating in open space, such as a sheet stretched across a doorway. It checks each surface against the renders nearby: if one of them sees straight through it, the surface isn’t really there. It also removes small loose pieces joined to nothing else. Normal suits most tours. Turn it up if odd shapes still float in walkways, or down if thin things like a lamp’s stem go missing.
Both change the preview straight away, so walk around to compare. Buyers see whatever you save.
To see them working:
- The line under Clean-up shows how many meshes are built near you in the preview, how detailed they are, and how many triangles the clean-up removed. Press Rebuild to make them again now.
- Tick Show what clean-up removes and everything it took out shows in red in the preview. Red on a real surface (a door frame, a vase) means the clean-up is too strong there: turn it down.
These settings are for walking. The model made from depth maps has its own clean-up, below.
The model made from depth maps
With no model file, ArchviewVR makes the model from the depth maps, fused from all of them at once. Every depth map votes on a grid of small cubes about 6 cm across: a cube counts as solid only where the renders that can see it agree, and anything a render sees straight past is open. One surface is made from that. So doorways stay open, stray pieces and sheets are voted out, and the walls join up without gaps.
Anything no render saw (under a bed, behind a sofa, a room with no camera) is left open. To make it again, press Renders › Add or replace renders, drop the EXRs with no model file and choose Make it again.
What buyers see
- Depth maps load for the renders around the buyer as they walk, a few at a time. Phones load a lighter version.
- A floor behind a chair that no render saw is filled from the floor next to it. Another camera that sees behind the furniture fills it properly.
- Walking still stops at walls using your proxy model (or the model made from the depth maps).
- Standing exactly on a render always shows that render as rendered, clean, whatever the depth maps say.
Updating renders
Depth maps stay with their render when you upload new versions of the renders, as long as the cameras don’t move. If you change the model’s scale in the check step, the depth maps are removed; add them again.
Each depth map uses about 0.3 to 1 MB of your project’s storage.