---
title: "Position Pass"
url: "https://help.maxon.net/c4d/en-us/Content/html/VPPOSITIONPASS.html"
section_path: "Render Menu > Render Setting > Post Effects > Position Pass"
element_id: "VPPOSITIONPASS"
description: "The Position Pass can be used in 3D-compatible compositing applications that can in turn be used to create all sorts of effects with it."
---

# Position Pass

The **Position Pass** can be used in 3D-compatible compositing applications that can in turn be used to create all sorts of effects with it.

In short, this pass contains 32-bit encoded positional information. The composition application knows the location of each pixel in 3D space and can - depending on the application itself - calculate effects such as new lighting, 3D masks or other three-dimensional effects.

> **Tip:** Tip:Since the position information is 32-bit encoded and can also contains negative values, such a pass can only be saved in 32-bit image formats: B3D, OpenEXR, PSD, PSB, TIF.\
> OpenEXR is the recommended format.\
> Note that Photoshop CS5 often has difficulty handling negative values and also cannot correctly read OpenEXR layers.

Make sure of the following when using this post effect:

- **Multi-Pass** is enabled
- The Multi-Pass **Post Effect** is enabled
- **Position Pass** is enabled

Edge antialiasing has intentionally been omitted from the Position Pass function because this would render it unusable.