Cause: pipeline::Cx rendered with Backend::Auto, which picks the CPU or the
GPU compositor for each top-level frame from measured frame times
(render::AutoPick: warm-up on both sides, a re-probe every 48 frames). The
two compositors differ slightly, so frames came out differently depending
on which side the timings favoured in that run, and two GPU exports of the
same frames differed.
Fix: the job renders every frame on the project's renderer, as After
Effects renders a job with one renderer: Backend::Gpu with Mercury GPU
Acceleration (frames the GPU declines still render on the CPU, as they do
in every GPU render), Backend::Cpu with Mercury Software Only. The viewer
and previews keep Auto. Docs (architecture, parity, web) say so.
Tests: render_settings::a_job_renders_on_one_compositor exports ten frames
with a stand-in GPU compositor that keeps Auto history and draws solid
green: with Mercury GPU Acceleration every frame is green and two runs are
identical (with Auto the warm-up sent frames to the CPU: it fails), with
Software Only the stand-in is never asked. The web worker GPU job test's
comment no longer describes Auto.
Diagnosis by @pat-the-wizard.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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