VRayDenoiser complete black unless I uncheck the hardware acceleration

Hi,

I have an issue with VRay 3.4 denoiser. I got all black VRayDenoiser render element. After trying to figure out what might be the problems, I turn off hardware acceleration option, and I my denoised image came out.

My hardware: HP ZBook 15 G2 Mobile Workstation

Rgds,

Chen

Hey Chen, good that you have found what is the cause of the problem. I think those workstation can be configured with different GPUs. V-Ray comes with a tool named ocldeviceselect.exe. Can you run it and see what devices it finds ? Also, does this happen with every scene ? Can you check what are the messages in the V-Ray log in 3ds Max when this happens ? Also, what is your video driver version ?

Thanks,
Best,
Blago.

Hi Blago

I have the same thing (Fujitsu H370 mobile workstation, Quadro K2100M gpu), was going to post about it tomorrow morning, but will just add to this thread instead.
Nvidia driver is 362.13
oclselect attached

Will check the log and let you know if it gives any info.

Log says Denoising complete in 12.08 s.
0 errors 0 warnings.

Yes, it happen with all scenes. Here are screenshots of OpenCl devices and drivers info:



I found a GPU with the same core as the K1100M and K2100M and tried to reproduce it here. It wasn’t a Quadro series though, so the driver was a bit different.
Unfortunately, it seems to work on our machines.

We can try the following:
1. Add the V-Ray denoiser render element and form its advanced denoiser parameters choose Mode->“Only save render elements”.
2. Render any scene and save it as .vrimg from the VFB.
3. Navigate to the tools directory (default is C:\Program Files\Chaos Group\V-Ray\3dsmax 2016 for x64\tools).
4. Open a command window there and run the following denoising commands:
    “vdenoise -inputFile=pathToSavedImage.vrimg -useGpu=0”
    “vdenoise -inputFile=pathToSavedImage.vrimg -useGpu=1”
    “vdenoise -inputFile=pathToSavedImage.vrimg -useGpu=1 -oclquery=intel”
    “vdenoise -inputFile=pathToSavedImage.vrimg -useGpu=1 -oclquery=nvidia”
I will need the log from the command window and also I will need to know if the denoised result was correct.

If you don’t want to deal with this, we can arrange team viewer session, so we can log in and check what is going on.

Hi Blago,

What information you need for the team viewer? (I never use it before)

We need the ID and the password in order to connect to your machine.

Please download(link bellow) and install(or just run) Teamviewer, then send the credentials to support@chaosgroup.com and include svetlozar.draganov@chaosgroup.com in CC.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Also having this issue on one of the workstation only for now. Mine works fine, one of my staff has to uncheck gpu for the denoiser to show something else than black.
The workstation are extremely similar but he updated the driver this morning when I didn’t for a month or more.

Hi Blago

Ran the tests in command.
1st,3rd and last all gave denoised result. 2nd gave black screen.
Attached is the command log.

Thanks
Denoise Test.txt (5.02 KB)

Okay, so it seems to happens in nvidia GPUs only. Now I only have to manage to reproduce :). I hope the team viewer session will help.
Btw, I don’t see the log. Is it something at my end or you forgot to attach them ? edit: I see them now.
Best,
Blago.

980 TI black here, too.

Not sure if I should chime in here as this is related to the Maya version but I also get an instant crash on my 2013 Macbook Pro (NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M, 10.11.4) if I don’t uncheck Hardware Acceleration. Should I post this on the Maya side?

Thanks
Ben

Can you try downloading again from the website and re-installing ? The first version uploaded had this issue, but it should be fixed already ..
Sorry for that,
Best,
Blago.

Bobby, what is your driver version ? Does it work without the hardware acceleration ?

Many thanks for the test !
You have run 4 tests. Is it the case that the 1st and the 3rd and 4th worked, and the 2nd didn’t ? Or the 2nd and the 4th didn’t ?

Thanks for the feedback guys. We hope to find the cause of this as soon as possible.

I’m not sure of the driver version, but I know it is the latest. I can check in about an hour. I didn’t see anywhere to disable the hardware acceleration.

It is in the VRayDenoiser render element settings, expand the “Advanced denoiser parameters”. You can check the driver version if you start the Nvidia Control Panel.

Hi Blago

Yes the 1st, 3rd and 4th all worked. So when the nvidia was expressly set with the -oclquery=nvidia it worked.
Only the second one gave the black screen.
When you say you need the log. I copied what was in the command panel and attached as a text file. Does it record a log somewhere else.
I checked the vraylog.txt in temp, but I couldn’t find anything relating to those tests in it.
I can clear it and run them again.

Just looked through that again quick

(1) This worked
vdenoise -inputfile=denoise_test.vrimg -useGpu=0

Forcing CPU implementation.

(2) This is the one that returns black
vdenoise -inputfile=denoise_test.vrimg -useGpu=1

Using devices:
1: Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600
OpenCL compiled successfuly

(#3) This worked ( I assume this is just using the cpu, correct)
vdenoise -inputfile=denoise_test.vrimg -useGpu=1 -oclquery=intel

Picking devices that match “intel”
Using devices:
0: Intel(R) Core™ i7-4910MQ CPU @ 2.90GHz
OpenCL compiled successfuly

(4) And this worked
vdenoise -inputfile=denoise_test.vrimg -useGpu=1 -oclquery=nvidia

Picking devices that match “nvidia”
Using devices:
2: Quadro K2100M
OpenCL compiled successfuly

No, we are good and this is actually very helpful! Thanks!
Can you set the env var “VRAY_OCL_DENOISER_DEVICES=nvidia”, restart Max and try again to see if it will help ?

Where do I set that? Is that a registry entry? Maxscript?

Here is how to do it for Windows 7 How To Add/Edit Environment Variables in Windows 7 - NEXTOFWINDOWS.COM. You DON’T want to edit the PATH variable, but add a new one, so in the env variables windows, you have to click NEW instead of EDIT (there are 2 NEW buttons there, it doesn’t matter which one you will use).
In the other Windows versions it should be more or less the same. For variable name you have to put “VRAY_OCL_DENOISER_DEVICES” and for variable value you have to put “nvidia”. After you do this, you have to start a fresh copy of 3DS Max.

Best,
Blago.