Denoise Benchmarks

[Dan Marks]

This is great! We're getting fantastic speed gains on our current project using the denoise method.

So now I have 1500 frames to denoise, what is the best method to denoise this batch of using multiple PCs?

Currently I'm using Lele's VDenoise Command-line helper, I'm selecting "skip existing files" I have just started the process, it seems quite possible for multiple machines to start on the same frame simultaneously Am I right? if so is there a better method available or in the pipeline? Sorry for not fully testing before posting.

Dan

[vlado]

if so is there a better method available or in the pipeline?

I'm working on adding options for the start and end frame to process for the next patch (didn't have time for the release), but for the moment the -skipExisting option is the only way to do it.

Best regards,
Vlado

[Sbrusse]

Where can I find that Lele's VDenoise Command-line helper?
By the way, would be awesome to have a verry little and simple GUI that would just let you load the image sequence, check the checkbox you need and press "GO"

[Sbrusse]

Right, just found the tool from Lele.
For those who are searching for it : http://forums.chaosgroup.com/showthr...(Maxscript-UI)

A GUI from outside 3dsmax would still be great

[vlado]

A GUI from outside 3dsmax would still be great

Yes, will get to that. So far all my efforts have been to get the denoiser to actually work

Best regards,
Vlado

[Sbrusse]

Yep understandable

Just out if interest, did you guys finally managed to get altus on board and is the denoiser part of that partnership or did you guys started from scratch?

[vlado]

Just out if interest, did you guys finally managed to get altus on board and is the denoiser part of that partnership or did you guys started from scratch?

Well, as you know, originally I didn't intend to write our own denoiser and I said so many times. I was hoping that the guys at Innobright will be able to fill that gap and we were talking with them about a tighter integration. However at some point it became clear that they will need more time to get their stuff together, and we didn't really have that time - so we had to roll up our collective sleeves and do it from scratch. I had to sift through any papers that I could find and test out different approaches with my colleagues until we figured out something that worked well enough. Also, our GPU team rose to occasion to produce a GPU-accelerated version which so far seems to work very well.

Best regards,
Vlado

[^Lele^]

Also, our GPU team rose to occasion to produce a GPU-accelerated version which so far seems to work very well.

Hear Hear!

[Sbrusse]

Right, well, well done guys, great tool and it really seems awesome

[jasonhuang1115]

Well, as you know, originally I didn't intend to write our own denoiser and I said so many times. I was hoping that the guys at Innobright will be able to fill that gap and we were talking with them about a tighter integration. However at some point it became clear that they will need more time to get their stuff together, and we didn't really have that time - so we had to roll up our collective sleeves and do it from scratch. I had to sift through any papers that I could find and test out different approaches with my colleagues until we figured out something that worked well enough. Also, our GPU team rose to occasion to produce a GPU-accelerated version which so far seems to work very well.

Best regards,
Vlado

Big THANKS for Vlado and the team to pull this off to implementing the new denoiser, especially considering the time you have and from scratch.

[bardo]

Big THANKS for Vlado and the team to pull this off to implementing the new denoiser, especially considering the time you have and from scratch.

+1

Before reading this I've thought that you implement some tech from outside...but now I know the full story.... well...again...another evidence of your technical skills and attention to make a solid solution for us.

Thanks a lot Chaos Team

[olly]

So now I have 1500 frames to denoise, what is the best method to denoise this batch of using multiple PCs?

I'm working on adding options for the start and end frame to process for the next patch (didn't have time for the release), but for the moment the -skipExisting option is the only way to do it.

I am interested in how this approach could realistically evolve - before we invest in any new hardware. For me, starting multiple denoise jobs on multiple nodes, using skip existing, sounds workable via the command line. But needing to copy all the frames to each node first will likely add another big time overhead. Is it likely to be changed so that the denoiser can work on frames on mapped drives? As I write this, I think I must be missing something - how can skip existing work when the denoised output is saved locally?

Results from my first sequence denoise:
330 frames multichannel exr @ 1280x720, c. 86Mb each
Denoise took 2.5 hours on a Nvidia GTX 780, which we are pretty happy with: an average of 27s per frame that produced a cleaner result than the previous frames we had rendered, that took an hour longer each.

As an aside, has anyone done a GPU denoise on a large (6K+) render yet? If so, what hardware? Our large renders typically have many elements and whilst I understand that only the RGB is denoised, I figure the GPU will need to load a lot, if not all, the elements into memory first? Please put me right, if I am being dim.

[vlado]

Is it likely to be changed so that the denoiser can work on frames on mapped drives?

It works fine with mapped drives; it didn't work with UNC paths, but this is already fixed for the 3.40.02 patch. I also added a -frames option that allows you specify which frames from a sequence you want to denoise so you can distribute the work more efficiently among many machines.

Denoise took 2.5 hours on a Nvidia GTX 780, which we are pretty happy with: an average of 27s per frame that produced a cleaner result than the previous frames we had rendered, that took an hour longer each.

Heh that's very good to read If you can share any results it will be great - I'm curious to see how it works.

As an aside, has anyone done a GPU denoise on a large (6K+) render yet? If so, what hardware? Our large renders typically have many elements and whilst I understand that only the RGB is denoised, I figure the GPU will need to load a lot, if not all, the elements into memory first? Please put me right, if I am being dim.

We detect how much GPU RAM is available and we split the image into strips that are fed to the GPU one by one, so we can handle quite large images - we don't have to upload everything to the GPU at once.

Best regards,
Vlado

[olly]

Thanks for clarifying the mapped drive support Vlado. Is that only in 3.40.02? Is there a release looming for this version?

Great news on the strips fed to the GPU also!

[vlado]

Thanks for clarifying the mapped drive support Vlado. Is that only in 3.40.02?

No, mapped drives have always worked.

Is there a release looming for this version?

Alex queued the builds an hour or so ago, so we should be uploading them on the website later today.

Best regards,
Vlado