You can choose any of the Realtime display modes as renderers, allowing you to output your realtime effects to file.

The rendered frames show the scene as seen by the pass camera and displayed in any 3D view whose viewpoint is that of the pass camera. All scene elements displayed in the 3D views are rendered, except for reference objects like the grid and axes.

1. Set the scene renderer or the pass renderer to Hardware Renderer.

   Do one of the following:

   • Choose Render Render Scene Options from the Render toolbar. On the Scene Globals tab set the Scene Renderer to Hardware Renderer.

   • Choose Render Render Pass Options (for the current pass) from the Render toolbar. On the Output tab set the Pass Renderer to Hardware Renderer.

2. Choose Render Render Renderer Options to open the Hardware Renderer Property Editor [Properties Reference].

3. Choose one of the following from the Render Type list:

   • OpenGL: outputs to file the OpenGL rendered scene as seen in Realtime Shaders OpenGL display mode.

   • DirectX9: outputs to file the DirectX rendered scene as seen in Realtime Shaders DirectX9 display mode.

4. If needed, set a new background color. When you output the scene, the hardware rendered images use the new background color, but the 3D views' background color is unaffected. For details, see Setting Scene Colors [Interface and Tools].

5. Set the required output options before rendering the scene. Frames are rendered in accordance with the options set on the Scene Globals tab (Scene options) and Output tab (Pass options), regardless of the active renderer.