Flickering animation

[MikkoK]

Hi

I've rendered a fly-thru animation and it has a lot of flickering. I used Light Cache for this and now I'm trying without it (still rendering). But do you have any idea what could be causing this? And I'm sorry but I can't share the scene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0RUzhxwH9g

Mikko

[npg]

It could be some extreme form of light cache leakage. Please tell us how disabling LC affects it. And what were the light cache settings you used when it was on? It should improve with more LC samples and higher retrace value. The defaults are low.

[MikkoK]

Thank you for your answer. I just noticed that I've accidentally turned off Flicker Reduction in the Denoiser options and that caused the flickering. (of course)

Thanks anyway.

Mikko

[npg]

This is quite surprising because the artifacts did not look like what the denoiser could produce. Maybe it was both the light cache and the denoiser option?

[MikkoK]

It may be so. I was also surprised how the denoiser could do something like that. I will continue experimenting.

Mikko

edit:
Oh yeah, and the LC options was:
LC filter primary checked
LC cell size 0.04
LC sample limit 2048
LC retrace threshold 1.0

I think those are the defaults except sample limit.

[npg]

Ah, I see now. "Filter primary" is a debug-only option that leaked into the last patch. You should not use that. We will remove it in the next patch.

[vladimir.nedev]

Hi

I've rendered a fly-thru animation and it has a lot of flickering. I used Light Cache for this and now I'm trying without it (still rendering). But do you have any idea what could be causing this? And I'm sorry but I can't share the scene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0RUzhxwH9g

Mikko

Which version of Vantage are you using exactly ?

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[MikkoK]

Nikola: Thanks for the info!

Vladimir: 1.8.5

[vladimir.nedev]

Nikola: Thanks for the info!

Vladimir: 1.8.5

Are you sure you had "LC filter primary checked" when you rendered the animation as shown in the youtube clip ? It doesn't look quite like it.

Besides the camera, do you have anything else animated in the scene ?

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[MikkoK]

Yes, I'm sure. By default it was on, and I didn't change it because I didn't know what it does.

The camera is only moving thing in the scene. It is animated in max using Path Contstraint.

[vladimir.nedev]

Yes, I'm sure. By default it was on, and I didn't change it because I didn't know what it does.

That's strange, this option is OFF by default, maybe you saved it in your "default config file" from Edit -> "Save Scene Settings as Default" ?

The camera is only moving thing in the scene. It is animated in max using Path Contstraint.

Hm, that's unexpected. If only the camera is animated, the light cache shouldn't be changing this much between frames.
We would really love to take a look at your scene and do more tests with it...

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[MikkoK]

Oh, by default it is off? Okay, then I was wrong and I must have turned it on. Sorry about that.

I took it off now and will test how it works.

I would like to send it to you but I don't think if I could because it is a client work. :/

[MikkoK]

Oh well. If I send it to you, how would you like to have it? Max file or vrscene?

[vladimir.nedev]

Oh well. If I send it to you, how would you like to have it? Max file or vrscene?

Thank you. It's better if it's a max file. You can upload it to a file sharing service and send the link to my e-mail : vladimir.nedev@chaos.com

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[simon_kotowicz]

Hello, I too have flickering in my animations. It's in the shadows. Is there a tutorial for "Light Cache" anywhere? I've read the Docs (Vray for 3DS Max) and it only tells me the settings, not how I'm supposed to use them.
I'm using:
3ds Max 2023.
Vray GPU 6 update 1.2

Light Cache settings:
GI engine - Light cache
Preset - Animation
Subdivs - 3000
sample size - 0.01
Chow calc. pahse - Checked
Store Direct light - Checked
Retrace - Checked 8.0

Then after that I have no idea what to do. Am I supposed to pre-process the lights somehow, like you had to in Mental Ray? I see no obvious option. I've searched YouTube for tutorials, but I'm only finding people with light cache problems and no tutorials.

If there's a step by step for solving flickering in animations would you mind pointing me to it, please?

It also occurs to me that I may not need Light Cache. To remove flickering in the past I'd record a Mental Ray Final Gather pass and then blend ajoining frames. I'm not even sure if that's what Vray light cache is for.

Many thanks!

Simon in Scotland.