Channels

Overview

A channel is an extra image attached to a render that isn't the picture itself — today, that means a depth map: a greyscale image where each pixel records how far away that part of the scene is.

Once a node has depth, the app can use it to:

• Guide a new diffusion pass with ControlNet depth (your exact map, not a one-off guess)
• Drive Gradient Map fog, haze, underwater light, aerial perspective, or a false-color depth readout
• Export the depth map for other tools

You can generate a true 360° depth map in the app, or import one from a 3D package. Either way it lives on the Graph node, and later edits keep it in step when they can.

Generate depth

Any graph node can get a depth channel with one click. The app runs a dedicated 360° Depth model (DA-2) that estimates distance across the full equirectangular panorama — not a flat perspective crop.

Install the depth model first

Depth generation needs the 360° Depth model (~1.4 GB) on disk and a GPU. You also need a valid license.

From the Pipelines page

1. Open Pipelines in the main navigation
2. Find Utility (same area as other non-diffusion tools)
3. Install 360° Depth (DA-2)

At the point of use

If you click Generate depth before the model is installed, the Graph (or ControlNet / Post Process empty state) offers 360° Depth · ~1.4 GB · Install. Install there and generation starts when the download finishes — no bounce to Pipelines required.

Generate on a node

1. Open a render and go to the Graph tab
2. Hover the node you want depth for
3. Click Generate depth (mountains icon)
4. Wait for the short progress stages; a channel chip appears under the node when it's done

You can cancel mid-generation. Regenerating replaces the existing depth on that node (you'll get a confirmation unless the map is already flagged stale).

Note: ControlNet's Auto depth mode still estimates depth on the fly for a single pass. That estimate is temporary — it is never saved as a channel, cannot be exported, and cannot drive fog. Only a generated or imported depth map becomes a reusable channel.

Import a depth map

You can still bring depth in from elsewhere — an Unreal Engine SceneDepth pass, another 3D package, or any depth tool that can write equirectangular maps.

Accepted formats

The image must be equirectangular at a 2:1 aspect ratio, matching the panorama it belongs to. Anything wider than 8192px is scaled down on import.

From the Graph tab

Open a render, go to the Graph tab, hover the node, and click Import channel…. Pick your .exr or 16-bit .png.

From the Input tab

When setting up a new render from a single image file, the Input panel has an Attach depth map button. The depth map rides along with the input and attaches to the finished render automatically.

This path is only available for a single image file — not for sequences.

By dropping it alongside the image

If you drag an image and its depth map in together, the app pairs them when the depth file is named after the image with a _depth or .depth suffix:

bedroom.png          ← the input image
bedroom_depth.exr    ← picked up automatically as its depth map

bedroom.depth.png works too. A depth map dropped on its own is treated as a normal input image, so pair it with its image if you want it recognized as depth.

Depth Adjust

After depth exists on a node, open Depth Adjust (sliders icon) on that node in the Graph tab.

Depth Adjust re-windows how near and far are displayed — Black, White, and Gamma — without regenerating the map and without changing the underlying distance data. Narrow the range to put more contrast into the mid-ground, or reset to the auto window if you want the original default back.

Use the false-color preview on the panel to see the effect as you drag. Everything that reads depth (ControlNet channel mode, Gradient Map fog presets, exports that respect the display window) picks up the new window.

Seeing your channels

Channels live on the Graph tab, as a small row underneath the node that owns them. Each chip shows a name and where it came from (for example generated, imported, or derived after a warp).

Hover a channel to get:

• A false-color preview — heat-map palette so you can confirm orientation and alignment
• Export EXR / Export PNG16 — save the depth map to disk
• Invert — flip near/far on relative (imported) maps that came in backwards
• Remove — detach it

Depth follows the image

When you transform a panorama so pixels move — Offset, De-Pinch, or Möbius Warp — depth is carried along automatically to the new node. You do not need to regenerate for those edits; the map is warped to stay lined up with the new image.

If depth cannot follow for any reason, the app does not show a misaligned map. It asks you to regenerate (or re-import) for that node. Wrong depth is never quietly reused.

Edits that don't remesh the sphere the same way (for example a simple upscale) keep using the depth from earlier in the chain when it still matches.

Using depth for ControlNet

In the ControlNet tab, set type to Depth, then set Depth Source to Attached Channel. ControlNet conditions on your node's depth map instead of Auto (MiDaS).

Leave the channel picker on the automatic choice when the node has one depth map — that's the normal case. Pick a specific channel only if more than one is attached.

If Attached Channel is selected and no usable depth is found, the render stops with an error rather than falling back to Auto. That is deliberate: silently substituting a different depth map would change the look without telling you.

No depth yet? The ControlNet tab offers Generate depth (or install the 360° Depth model) in place — same generator as the Graph tab.

Using depth for atmosphere

This is where depth pays off visually. See Gradient Map — it maps distance through a color gradient, which is what fog, haze, night, underwater, and aerial perspective all are. Nine of its ten presets are depth-driven.

The False Color preset is also the quickest way to inspect a depth map: it paints distance as color across the whole panorama.

There is no separate depth-of-field blur effect today — atmosphere and distance looks go through Gradient Map.

Related

• Post-Processing — the effect chain, including Gradient Map
• ControlNet — depth, canny, and other guided generation
• Model Management — installing the 360° Depth model
• Derivation Graph — how renders derive from one another