Denoise correctly with imager denoiser noice

[pproestos]

I want to use imagers and is impossible to

work with denoise.

The final picture that produces is totally dark with no lighting.

Please any support for that?

thx

***

Something is wrong with the cameras.

When I clone a camera, some times the denoise works excellent.

Anyway if any dev want to see my whole max file I can send it to any email given to me.

[CiroCardoso3v]

Is this just on the Arnold Render View? The example you show does have light? When you are on the preview process the image can look brighter.

[pproestos]

Ciro is has an environment hdri, two portals and three interior lights.

If I clone the camera, sometimes it works, I mean I have the bright

picture -the same when I start rendering- and at the end of rendering

wheyn applying imager denoiser noice it just eliminates the noise

but without alterating picture brightness.

This is the perfect scenario, just...is not happening for all cameras.

But...hmmm... you gave me an idea....

Maybe this is a bug because I don't use skydome and

using only environment map for skylight?

Now I am rendering and I must test it later...

For sure there is a huge bug here...

[pproestos]

Allright I just disabled

and now everything works...

[madsd]

That is not a solution.
I think it glitches because you use Both the old Exposure control and Arnold imagers, I have seen that it can pulse if both are on on some earlier builds.

Always use the ARV window, it is much better than Production or Active shade, you can work with Imagers directly in the window, you dont need to do anything in Slate with Imager nodes.


Do you have the absolute newest Arnold installed?

[pproestos]

No Mads I don't use any of the old exposure.

In arnold renderview when I hook that denoise node,

the result is as I mentioned before, dark.

So in my previews I just dont use it.

But when in production render and especially

using batch rendering sctipts to open multiple max file

in a chain, it works correctly.

I just have to disable that parameter!...

[madsd]

This works perfect.
So dont use the old environment panels exposure part at all.
I have zero flickering or highlights lost.

[pproestos]

ok! Mads, I just cannot make your answer as solution, I dont see the button here...

[madsd]

Something is wrong in your setup, if you need to disable this.
We need to find out what, so if you can minimize a reproducable case to a plane and a teapot and upload, then we can verify the glitch.
Else its a bug that gets a workaround and never gets solved, so if you could do that it would be great.

[pproestos]

ok allow me some time and I'll do it

[pproestos]

ok @Mads Drøschler please make test in render view with/without denoise noice...

and then a production render enabling/disabling "using for this scene" render view

https://we.tl/t-rM0kieBLdU

[madsd]

Got the file.

The first thing I notice is that all the Imager nodes inside ARV are called "map"

This indicates we are not using the same version of Arnold. I use the newest from the net.
Make sure you have this version installed, they recently fixed some issues regarding Imager fundamental glitches.

Download it here ->
https://www.arnoldrenderer.com/arnold/download/

Make sure you are always on the latest version of Arnold.

I will try your scene and see if I can provoke any issues with this build, try it yourself and see if that cleared the issue.

[pproestos]

Mads

Here are my notes regarding IPR renderview and imager denoiser (noice)

that I've used since now from the moment they are introduced:

Anyway no matter if this a bug or not, I am completely happy because

after hours of testing, finally now I can run my batch file and imager

denoise perfectly

So to begin, the way I work is this:

1.Old method:

After finalize my scene, I create a separate file for

each camera in viewport.

So if I have five cameras, I create five max files and

then with a max script I render them in a chain with

a batch file script, all night.

After they finish, I denoise all my exr files with noice.exe

and put them in frame buffer to adjust their exposure settings ecc.

Since now that method worked perfect

2.New method:

The same concept as before, but now I no longer use

Environment exposure control and noice.exe to denoise.

Instead I use imagers and imager denoiser (noice)

So regarding the new method, what I noticed is:

A)

If I check Render setup->System->Arnold Render View->

Use For This Scene, every time max opens automatically

to render due to the batch script, there are a lot of times

that renders wrong camera or the same camera again and again.

Instead if I don't check to open IPR window and open the normal

production rendering window everything works perfect, means

that each max file, renders the camera that has in viewport.

B)

I usually use an HDRI file for skylight illumination.

If I use skydome and put this HDRI as texture, imager denoiser (noice)

works excellent.

Even if while rendering shows a darker image, at the end when

applying denoise image has correct illumination and no noise.

Bad things happens when I don't use skydome at all.

So in this situation I put the HDRI as environment map in

Environment and effects rollout window and of course

check "use map".

The result is that when applying imager denoiser, it

gives a noise free but a dark image with no correct

illumination I have setup initially.

So my conclusion is that to continue to work with

batch scripts and correct denoise, I must not check

the IPR window as default for new scenes and I must

not use environment map as skylight illumination but

only skydome.

***Also I noticed that those "Residual lights" parameter

in imager light mixer, if I turn it to 0 it gives not correct

dark image at the end of denoising. So it has to be 1

to work with denoise.

And here I want to thank Ciro @ who inspired me to

find the right solution, at list fot the way I render...