Altus denoiser

[M.Max]

Can you email your inputs to support@innobright.com so we can run some tests?

Sorry for the delay I have sent the files
Cheers.

[Mnietek2707]

Here's the latest version of the sample script...

Is it necessary to calculate light cache twice?
Maybe your script could set light cache to be stored in file?
I mean options "Auto Save" and "Switch to saved cache" could be set to ON before rendering of first image
Then during rendering of second image stored light cache could be used..

_____
sorry for my English

[^Lele^]

I calculate the LC twice because i do not want to know ANYTHING about the render settings a user set up.
It's a design choice, so the script just takes a scene, however set up, and only makes sure the minimum necessary conditions for an Altus denoising to happen successfully are met.
Feel free to go ahead and modify the script, however, it's allowed AND encouraged!

[Mnietek2707]

When I render scene using your script there is a lot of warnings about missing textures on DR servers (I have option "check for missing files" ON).
It looks like that for some reason "transfer missing assets" option doesn't work.
When I render without script - all OK.
Any suggestions how can I change script to avoid this?
____
sorry for my English

[^Lele^]

the script issues two "render" commands.
You can modify those if you need different flags, and all of VRay's properties are available from within the variable cr (for current renderer).
So, for instance,

cr.progressive_noise_threshold = 0.01

will set the noise trheshold for the VRay progressive sampler to 0.01
For DR settings, i have no idea if that option is bugged or not.
I can tell you that this page shows you all the possible ways to interact with V-Ray
http://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/V...lobalFunctions
with parrticular regard to the

[B]vrayEditDRSettings[/B][COLOR=#000000][FONT=HelveticaNeue-Light]()[/FONT][/COLOR]

command.
Try perhaps switching the option off and on right before invoking the render command.

[Mnietek2707]

Thanks for help. But this is too far for me...
When I execute vrayEditDRSettings() command 3ds max just hangs.
It's a pitty that "transfer missing files" option is not exposed to max script.
I think so because "showProperties renderers.current" doesn show anything like that

[innobright]

Dear VRay users,
Altus now costs 50% less - please checkout the blog - http://www.innobright.com/great-news...costs-50-less/
Happy denoising!

Best Regards,
Innobright team

[Kim Laughton]

I bought a month subscription of Altus to test out - the script is great (thanks Lele) but it feels that the software/documentation itself is just barely there at the moment.

Wondering if anyone is actually using it for animations (where on the face of it there would be the most benefit) and what settings work best? The overly soft denoised look is most obvious when there's motion blur and it would be nice to get a slightly less aggressive option but not sure if that's possible?

[vlado]

There are a few parameters on the command line that can modify the behavior of the denoiser (radius, k1, k2, k3). Maybe adjusting them can get you a better result.

Best regards,
Vlado

[Kim Laughton]

Thanks Vlado! For anyone else wondering, Nick from Innobright sent this info on the parameters:

The frame radius setting chooses neighboring frames to help adjust and calculate between
frames you can change it to zero so that no neighboring frames will be used, this should
address the motion blur issue with animation

The other values that you can adjust are the kc values

kc_1 affects how edges are handled, kc_2 affects how color information is handled and kc_3
is a noise remover hence why its value is so high. Also the radius number is the size of
the window the default is 10. A smaller radius will affect a smaller range of pixels which
will in turn change how the noise is handled. A larger radius will affect a larger range
which will increase noise removal. We use a method called non local means which searches
for like information in that window size, so a smaller window gives it a smaller search
pattern which will reduce the over smoothing effect if that is what you are experiencing.

Need to play more!

[vlado]

Ok then; I'm curious to see your results if you can share them.

Best regards,
Vlado

[Kim Laughton]

Sure, will do!

[Kim Laughton]

For anyone considering the Altus, I have been trying it out on a couple of projects now, and it does - after trial and error - produce impressive results, especially in scenes that really benefit from a super clean look.

I can't however recommend it. For stills the configuration and testing needed isn't worth the effort, I'd rather leave the render going for a few extra hours. For animation, where it ought to really shine, it's unusable thanks to a memory leak that causes it to crash after processing a number of frames. Apparently this is something they're aware of (and support is helpful) but it seems irresponsible to sell the software without warning in its current state. Even if this is something they manage to sort out, there's still the inconvenience of setup and thanks to all the elements you will end up with half a terabyte of data for a couple of minutes of animation.

I have a feeling that it won't be long before this kind of content aware noise reduction is commonly applied to renders, and as we become more familiar with the denoised look it will become an annoyance.

[innobright]

Dear Altus users,
We fixed the memory leak problem and we are testing it currently, releasing the new version 1.4 by early next week which addresses the major stability issues as well. This release 1.4 should work quite well for your animations. We are also working on layered EXR and stereo render support as part of our next release and we will keep you posted on that.

Happy denoising!

Innobright team

[Donfarese]

Dear Altus users,
We fixed the memory leak problem and we are testing it currently, releasing the new version 1.4 by early next week which addresses the major stability issues as well. This release 1.4 should work quite well for your animations. We are also working on layered EXR and stereo render support as part of our next release and we will keep you posted on that.

Happy denoising!

Innobright team

Does your denoiser have a plugin for 3dsmax that would be a one click process? Another words take the setup of vray we have, and click "Altus denoiser render" and have it render out the entire shot or animation with your denoise? If not, I think that is what everyone is looking for.