Chaos Corona Forum

Chaos Corona for 3ds Max => [Max] Daily Builds => Topic started by: maru on 2023-08-09, 10:54:59

Title: Depth of Field Highlights Solver playground!
Post by: maru on 2023-08-09, 10:54:59
Not really a daily build feature, since Corona 10 is already released, but we didn't have a dedicated playground thread for this, and we are super curious about your results, so here it is!

If you are rendering a scene where highlights are blurred due to depth of field (distant city lights, interior lighting, reflective/refractive objects), you can enable the new DOF Highlights Solver to get faster rendering.

You will find the checkbox in Render Setup > Performance > Performance settings. You don't have to change the Budget and Reprojection values as the defaults work well (but you are welcome to test them if you wish!).
(https://forum.corona-renderer.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=40706.0;attach=186628;image)

You also need a camera with depth of field enabled.

Example 1 - Same render time - Click to open interactive comparison

(https://forum.corona-renderer.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=40706.0;attach=186622;image) (https://corona-renderer.com/comparer/Qi74Zv)


Example 2 -Same render time - Click to open interactive comparison

(https://forum.corona-renderer.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=40706.0;attach=186624;image) (https://corona-renderer.com/comparer/MVjVbX)


You can learn more about the new Highlights Solver and DOF in general at:
- Corona Help Center (https://support.chaos.com/hc/en-us/articles/4528608272785-How-to-enable-and-control-Depth-of-Field-DOF-in-Corona-for-3ds-Max-#h_01H3208VDBVX29VA2HACX56B2V)
- Corona Documentation (https://docs.chaos.com/display/CRMAX/Performance+Tab#heading-DOFHighlightsSolverEXPERIMENTAL)

 
Title: Re: Depth of Field Highlights Solver playground!
Post by: romullus on 2023-08-09, 11:16:59
I'm curious to see other's results too. I did test this feature briefly and found that in some situation it gave very impressive improvement, but in other it made noise significantly worse and also trying to DOF solver settings produced counterintuitive results. Unfortunately i didn't save the scenes, nor did i try the solver on other scenes, so it would be interesting to hear what others find about it.
Title: Re: Depth of Field Highlights Solver playground!
Post by: maru on 2023-08-09, 16:52:39
I'm curious to see other's results too. I did test this feature briefly and found that in some situation it gave very impressive improvement, but in other it made noise significantly worse and also trying to DOF solver settings produced counterintuitive results. Unfortunately i didn't save the scenes, nor did i try the solver on other scenes, so it would be interesting to hear what others find about it.

Perhaps you were trying it during the daily builds phase? We had some similar results in our internal tests, but all of that was fixed in the final V10. Of course if anyone is getting worse render times or more noise with the new DOF solver enabled, please let us know! (and preferably share scenes)
Title: Re: Depth of Field Highlights Solver playground!
Post by: romullus on 2023-08-09, 19:31:00
Yes indeed i think it was one of the first builds with the new feature. Glad to hear that some issues were fixed, i will definitely give it another try sometime soon.