# Compositor Time Node Cap

Trying to set the end of my Time node to a big number but blender won't let me stopping at 32,767. After some suspicious poking it turns out that is also 2^15-1. Is this a bug in Blender or a limitation in the language Blender was written in? Any workarounds in the meantime <edit>like with a script or something<edit>?

Specs: Blender 2.80.74 2015 MacBook Pro (buy necessity not by choice)

This is not a bug, it's simply the current limit because the underlying data type is short. You can retrieve the upper and lower limit for the property through

bpy.context.scene.node_tree.nodes["Time"].bl_rna.properties["frame_end"].hard_max


and

bpy.context.scene.node_tree.nodes["Time"].bl_rna.properties["frame_end"].hard_min


which are 32767 and -32768 respectively.

The reason for this is because Blender uses two variables custom1 and custom2 of type short declared in DNA_node_types.h for various node properties. This includes the start and end frame of the Time node as can be seen in static void def_time(StructRNA *srna) from rna_nodetree.c.

• So is there a way to bypass this by replacing the time node with a script (if so how) or am I SOL? – jHinman Oct 21 at 22:35
• That depends on what your actual goal is. There may be otherways to accomplish it, without using the Time node. Writing a patch for a larger range would make sense though, since it should be able to cover the same range as the actual animation. Perhaps this could be discussed on devtalk or rightclickselect. – Robert Gützkow Oct 21 at 23:00
• This basically youtube.com/watch?v=-ldLJ3e8jQw – jHinman Oct 21 at 23:06