I’ve tried:
export DL_OPENEXR_COMPRESSION=DWAB
… in my .bashrc but write nodes still default to PIZ. What’s the secret sauce @fredwarren or anyone else to forcing DWAB compression in EXR write nodes?
…tagging @finnjaeger here because I swear I’ve seen a screendump of DWAB configged projects and @Slabrie for fun.
2025.2?
apparently the flag env_var got dropped as the compression type was supposed to be sticky between restarts.
have you tried lower case dwab?
never mind - the lower case is a red herring - sorry:
# Each file format is defined as follows:
#
# <Type>[:<Compression>]
#
# <Type> is the format type
#
# <Compression> is the compression algorithm (if available)
# Choices are: None(leave empty),RLE,Packed,
# ZIP-multiscanline,ZIP-scanline,PIZ,PXR24,B44,B44A,DWAA,DWAB
However, the compression is supposed to be sticky now.
Is this SW config?
those are the definitions from /opt/Autodesk/sw/cfg/stone+wire.cfg - yes
But I thought that was just for setting the legacy config compression and format options. Do those control the write nodes as well?
# *****************************************************************************
# IMPORTANT: This section is only used by Flame projects with the Cache and |
# Renders setting set to Legacy Configuration. |
# *****************************************************************************
#
# If the Flame project Cache and Renders option is set to Legacy Configuration,
# then this section defines the file types for each of the bit depths used to
# create image files.
# If the project Cache and Renders is set to an option other then Legacy
# Configuration, then this section is irrelevant to that project. In this
# case, OpenEXR compression is always PIZ.
#
# Each specified file format/compression/quality combination must be valid and
# support the listed bit depth. If not, S+W will not be able to create the
# image files on the application storage.
…so if my project doesn’t use a legacy config then it’s irrelevant or? Fucking archaic
I was just looking for an upper case / lower case convention.
I just launched flame 2025.2 without any env_vars.
I added some bars and wrote out 12 frames of openexr to /var/tmp/dwaa-test/dwaa-test.00001.exr
I added a new batch made some nodes, switched back to the first batch and the node was still set to DWAA.
Then I guit and restarted flame and the node is still set to DWAA
if you disable the DL_OPENEXR_COMPRESSION=DWAB variable?
What I’m trying to do is make a new write node default to DWAB.
just tried a default dwab in the same batch.
rendered it.
quit flame
started flame.
opened batch
it’s still set to dwab
my environment is
rocky 93
flame 2025.2
no env_vars
compression type appears to be sticky
Make a writefile to your spec and put it in your user bin
I want it in the publish, so that that’s not an option. Thanks though.
Ah . . . that may be why it’s not sticky
sorry chris - i misunderstood that you wanted a dwab compression throughout - i’m almost sure that became available as a stone configuration (whereas it used to be a legacy only option).
i tried on this system and it’s not available.
maybe it was a special cut for finn?
Not sure if this is what you are looking for, but as root, open the opt/Autodesk/presets/yourversion/export/presets/flame/sequence_publish/Source Media Export/OpenEXR.xml and change the codec line to 1185912.
We used to use setenv DL_OPENEXR_COMPRESSION piz before you had the option to choose which compression.
Mine is unreliable when it comes to being sticky. We have moved over to DWAB now for all of our commercial work and I get RLE more often when loading setups 
@PlaceYourBetts - i think this is where my confusion arises about the upper lower case thing.
i’m just installing 2025.2.1 but i will try setting the env_var again.
Thanks Tim, but that’s already set as well in my pub template. The issue I’m running into is that I want the write nodes that are created from that publish in the batch files to also default to the same DWAB codec and not PIZ.
I wrote a script that goes over a directory (published batch files ) then fixes the compression to DWAB, you can set your cache to be DWAB now in one of those configs so you can pick DWAB/Prores444 instead of legacy , can have a look where that was in a minute on my project server
need to change the line where it looks for project folders on our specific pathing but it should be easy
changecompression.py (1.2 KB)