Denoise aov's using oidn in solaris

[mattiasTQTV7]

Hi,

How do we go about denoising aovs in Solaris. Im using the default Arnold rendernode setup that creates an oidn shader in /materials/default_arnold_imager. In the Layers of that one I can see RGBA and its the only pass that is getting denoised. I created my own one which tries to add additional layers like direct. This however does not work.

The help file states this:

Selects layers processed by this imager with a glob or operator expression. An imager can use a selection to determine what nodes will be selected to be processed by the imager at render time. The selection is an expression that can consist of multiple selections concatenated by:

• or (union)
• and (intersection)
• not (negation)
• and not (exclusion)
• () for nested scoping

So I have tried both * and "RGBA and direct" in the layers windows but without success. I actually dont know what layers refers to I just assumed it was AOV's but thats just guessing from the fact that RGBA is a AOV and it is in there by default.
Anyone who can shed any light on this would be greatly appreciated. We are in dire need of rendering with denosed AOVs.

[Stephen.Blair]

That's a known issue:
Layer selection does not work with Intel Denoiser · Issue #1498 · Autodesk/arnold-usd · GitHub

[mattiasTQTV7]

Hi Stephen,
Thanks for reply. It seems that was a known issue in Apr 20, 2023. Thats over a year ago. Either way can I use any of the other denoisers like noice in solaris? Is there any documentation on how to get that to work? I have not found it for Solaris.

[Stephen.Blair]

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@mattiasTQTV7 wrote:
Hi Stephen,
Thanks for reply. It seems that was a known issue in Apr 20, 2023. Thats over a year ago. Either way can I use any of the other denoisers like noice in solaris? Is there any documentation on how to get that to work? I have not found it for Solaris.

---

They are all just imagers, so I think they will have the same problem.
But, to use them, you just create an imager and connect it via the Render Settings.

I was just about to do some testing, so the above is "off the top of my head"

[mattiasTQTV7]

Hmm, I tried doing that . I create a material library node. A arnold image builder. Inside I connected an oidn denoiser. I then dropped an arnold render settings node and went to shaders->imagers and linked it there. Nothing happened. Tried an exposure as well without result.
Basically I followed these instructions.
https://help.autodesk.com/view/ARNOL/ENU/?guid=arnold_for_houdini_solaris_ah_Imagers_Stage_html
Is it possible to confirm this is working? Am I just missing something here.

[Stephen.Blair]

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@mattiasTQTV7 wrote:
Hmm, I tried doing that . I create a material library node. A arnold image builder. Inside I connected an oidn denoiser. I then dropped an arnold render settings node and went to shaders->imagers and linked it there. Nothing happened. Tried an exposure as well without result.
Basically I followed these instructions.
https://help.autodesk.com/view/ARNOL/ENU/?guid=arnold_for_houdini_solaris_ah_Imagers_Stage_html
Is it possible to confirm this is working? Am I just missing something here.

---

Sure, it works.

• In a Material Library, add an Arnold Imager Builder.
• In the Arnold Imager Builder, create a denoiser imager. I did an Optix imager.
• I had other materials in the Material Library, so I had to increase the number of materials and set the Material VOP to the denoiser imager. Then I could see it in the Scene Graph.
• In the Arnold Render Settings, go to the Shaders tab and set the Imager to the imager builder.

Same problem with Optix as OIDN though. It's just the RGBA.
Unless I use sick, then the additional layers are also denoised.

[mattiasTQTV7]

Thanks Stephen, yeah got it to work now but as you said only for RGBA. How do I render with this sick thing? I can se the manual saying "A command called "sick" can be used to replace the Solaris default "husk" that is used to render Hydra scenes." but I cant seem to find where I should put this in?

[Stephen.Blair]

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@mattiasTQTV7 wrote:
Thanks Stephen, yeah got it to work now but as you said only for RGBA. How do I render with this sick thing? I can se the manual saying "A command called "sick" can be used to replace the Solaris default "husk" that is used to render Hydra scenes." but I cant seem to find where I should put this in?

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Sorry, I should say "Direct USD Render"
That's on the Arnold tab of the USD Render ROP.

BTW, it seems that the problem has been fixed in the USD repository.
https://github.com/Autodesk/arnold-usd/issues/2084

I just don't know when that will be released. Maybe next update, or if not, the one after that.

[mattiasTQTV7]

Ok got it to work for now with the USD direct render. Good to hear that this will be fixed shortly as well. Thanks for your help today!

[skeydzh]

Hey! is there any update on this? looks like its still not working

[2309527867]

Hello, I’d like to ask whether denoising can now be applied to AOVs.
If that’s possible, could you teach me how to do it?

[Stephen.Blair]

It's working for me with the latest HtoA. Probably been working for awhile, I haven't tested it for awhile until yesterday. 

I've attached my test scene. 

Because it's for testing, I'm not using the default denoiser imager that HtoA created. I'm using one I created in my MaterialLibrary.

I've also used the Output Suffix, so I added two custom AOVs named RGBA_denoised and direct_denoised.

[2309527867]

@Stephen.Blair Thank you. While using OIDN, I’ve found the results to be very unpredictable. I increased the samples, but it had no effect on the denoising result. With AA 2 and AA 8, the RGBA denoising result is exactly the same. How can I achieve better denoising results?