Chaos Corona Forum

Official Stuff => News => Topic started by: Ondra on 2012-11-29, 00:18:52

Title: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Ondra on 2012-11-29, 00:18:52
Ok, this algorithm is probably the best thing you can get to render reflections/refractions of caustics (objects enclosed in glass, water caustics, ...) in an unbiased way

(http://i.imgur.com/8d2AY.jpg)

excuse me while I do my victory dance
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: alieneye on 2012-11-29, 02:08:55
Great! Thank you!
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Chakib on 2012-11-29, 03:53:12
Oppa OH YEAH STYLE ! :D

waited for it !
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Javadevil on 2012-11-29, 05:23:26
Sweet !!! Just brilliant :)
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: lacilaci on 2012-11-29, 07:33:03
That's just Amazing!
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: relox on 2012-11-29, 08:07:50
wow!! really its going to help alot with scenes that require light plus glass and reflections on metals, i´ve never heard of vcm but it is more accurate than metropolis i see it on the link posted. this will come with the new alpha corona version? this release will come in christmas or before christmas? thanks for the hard work to make this posible in cg.
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: andreupuig on 2012-11-29, 08:30:45
Well done. Can't wait to try the new alpha/beta.
Thank you!
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: petoboso on 2012-11-29, 12:06:13
it look very helpfull, i have often problem with noise in reflections like this in vray.
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Sam75 on 2012-11-29, 16:44:26
Faster for caustics only means it can replace PT in term of speed right ?

Perhaps an option to turn off caustics with PT and render caustics only on a different pass with VCM ?
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Chakib on 2012-11-29, 18:19:21
This fix will be released in the next alpha or it is available in dropbox ?

because i did test the latest legacy ( 27 nov ) and i did test VCM mode but it gives me weird result.
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Ondra on 2012-11-29, 19:02:36
some basic version will be available hopefully soon
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: maru on 2012-11-29, 20:20:40
Thank you for being awesome!
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: petoboso on 2012-11-29, 21:44:48
I tried reproduce scene and render it in maxwell, here is result, rendertime 50s : (http://i50.tinypic.com/205cjyg.jpg)
In summary is noise litle bit more reduce in maxwell but in reflections (most critical areas)  is very  similar. if you use unbiase setup of course.
Good job 
I would like to try more complex scene

Edit: now i notice that in maxwell version is coplete missing  some reflection ...weird
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Ondra on 2012-11-30, 01:07:33
Yes, it is missing exactly the problematic part ;)
(http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/31031136.jpg)
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: petoboso on 2012-11-30, 09:32:48
i think since version 2 there are some optimalisation, user can change shading quality on each object, default is low. i guess it is therefore.
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: racoonart on 2012-11-30, 10:21:04
This whole technique stuff is pretty amazing, I didn't understand what bidir really does and why it isn't as fast as pt but solves some problems - (excluding this one here). But I found a page for everyone who's interested to learn the principles:
http://youtu.be/QhJhVkbCgVU (http://youtu.be/QhJhVkbCgVU) hundreds of videos explaining render stuff :)
Now I got it :D
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Sam75 on 2012-11-30, 18:09:46
Will Bdir and VCM ever be able to work with HDcache to speed up things ?
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Ondra on 2012-11-30, 21:07:33
Will Bdir and VCM ever be able to work with HDcache to speed up things ?
no, there is no framework yet to use caching for bidirectional methods
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Javadevil on 2012-11-30, 22:37:02
This whole technique stuff is pretty amazing, I didn't understand what bidir really does and why it isn't as fast as pt but solves some problems - (excluding this one here). But I found a page for everyone who's interested to learn the principles:
http://youtu.be/QhJhVkbCgVU (http://youtu.be/QhJhVkbCgVU) hundreds of videos explaining render stuff :)
Now I got it :D

Great find, I will be watching them.
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Ondra on 2012-12-02, 00:01:23
More hard-to-render scenes:
(http://i.imgur.com/fLWWi.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/MwlNZ.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/mynAL.jpg)
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Javadevil on 2012-12-02, 00:56:55


Freakin'  Awesome  !!!!!!
Only dancing pony's I could find :)

Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Ondra on 2012-12-02, 01:00:08


Freakin'  Awesome  !!!!!!
Only dancing pony's I could find :)

what about
(http://i.imgur.com/TF1KE.gif) ? ;)
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: tomasd on 2012-12-02, 14:36:59
VCM is not unbiased ;-)
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Chakib on 2012-12-02, 20:34:00
VCM is not unbiased ;-)

why do you say that?

anyway, i just want to test it very very very soon, i need it :s
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Ondra on 2012-12-02, 20:49:38
VCM is not unbiased ;-)

why do you say that?

anyway, i just want to test it very very very soon, i need it :s
he is right, it is not unbiased, but consistent - it means that when rendering the bias eventually goes to zero with time.
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Chakib on 2012-12-02, 21:04:34
VCM is not unbiased ;-)

why do you say that?

anyway, i just want to test it very very very soon, i need it :s
he is right, it is not unbiased, but consistent - it means that when rendering the bias eventually goes to zero with time.

i see , but it's doing a great job here, maybe you should make a 2 hours render of a full test scene with VCM so we can see better.
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Sam75 on 2012-12-02, 21:57:53
I see you don't have those funny white splotches, Do you keep "use merging" off ?
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Ondra on 2012-12-02, 22:27:52
FYI VCM with "use merging" off equal regular bidir
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Sam75 on 2012-12-02, 23:25:54
FYI VCM with "use merging" off equal regular bidir

I see, you noticed those splotches I am talking about ?

Also edges get over exposed as soon as I used an environmental light, Coronasky or Hdri

Actually both Bdir and VCM are doing great with direct lights but it gets very noisy and slow if I use environment lightning.
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: tomasd on 2012-12-03, 00:19:49
Chakib: Saying that because it is (I am one of the method's authors). But it doesn't really matter, as you want low noise, not some math buzzwords :-)
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Ondra on 2012-12-03, 02:07:38
FYI VCM with "use merging" off equal regular bidir

I see, you noticed those splotches I am talking about ?

Also edges get over exposed as soon as I used an environmental light, Coronasky or Hdri

Actually both Bdir and VCM are doing great with direct lights but it gets very noisy and slow if I use environment lightning.

grab the newest build, there were some bugs in older ones (including incorrect environment weighting). If the problem persists, post screenshots. Also you usually need to tweak the search radius parameter to get good results (there is tradeoff between blurring and fireflies)
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Chakib on 2012-12-03, 04:42:31
FYI VCM with "use merging" off equal regular bidir

I see, you noticed those splotches I am talking about ?

Also edges get over exposed as soon as I used an environmental light, Coronasky or Hdri

Actually both Bdir and VCM are doing great with direct lights but it gets very noisy and slow if I use environment lightning.

grab the newest build, there were some bugs in older ones (including incorrect environment weighting). If the problem persists, post screenshots. Also you usually need to tweak the search radius parameter to get good results (there is tradeoff between blurring and fireflies)

does it include the legacy build ?
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: lacilaci on 2012-12-03, 07:29:54
*(there is tradeoff between blurring and fireflies) -> But both are resolved and gone in time, right? Anyway, would also like to test in legacy build if you find time...
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Dom74 on 2012-12-03, 12:02:07
Tested yesterday, it's working very well with glass/refractions/caustics, but antialiasing seems to be less effective than standard progressive path tracing.
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Sam75 on 2012-12-04, 00:18:55
FYI VCM with "use merging" off equal regular bidir

I see, you noticed those splotches I am talking about ?

Also edges get over exposed as soon as I used an environmental light, Coronasky or Hdri

Actually both Bdir and VCM are doing great with direct lights but it gets very noisy and slow if I use environment lightning.

grab the newest build, there were some bugs in older ones (including incorrect environment weighting). If the problem persists, post screenshots. Also you usually need to tweak the search radius parameter to get good results (there is tradeoff between blurring and fireflies)

I use the latest builds

It's easy to replicate, you can use your cornell box scene, turn off direct lights and turn on environment light, you should see those bright edges

It can help you to identify the problem: it happens only with geometry without thickness, if I add a shell modifier to my cornell box, the problem is gone, but there seems to be a relation between the thickness amount and the VCM lookup radius.
 
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Sam75 on 2012-12-04, 01:39:00
Some screens about noise, first one is PT (only PT no HDcache) second is VCM.
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: relox on 2012-12-04, 01:49:26
Hi looks like vcm need more time to render less noise or its more for night lighting, how do i download the alpha version with vcm???? or sam you are a tester for that version that will be released???? thanks i aprecciate any answer.
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Chakib on 2012-12-04, 02:03:26
Some screens about noise, first one is PT (only PT no HDcache) second is VCM.

too much noise...

There is no glass and metal in your scene, can you add some ?
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: tomasd on 2012-12-04, 09:18:51
If the scene contains no caustics (or even no glass/mirror), then VCM is overkill. It will do lot of heavy lifting to solve problems that are simply not there.
For examples of scenes it alone can handle have a look http://www.smallvcm.com/ (the complicated scenes from paper).
I would look at it as method that opens new artistic opportunities, rather than speeding up the current ways of doing stuff. (At least, that was the hope when we came up with the method)

I am afraid there is no silver bullet (yet).
I got some ideas for time-adaptive algorithm, that is pretty much unpublishable, but could make production guys happy.
(Will bother Keymaster with it once his deadlines are gone).

In the meantime, I will have to re-check with him today, but I am pretty sure there is still a bug in his implementation of environment lights. These things are damn hard to catch, especially since the example implementation uses different way of envrionment light (and I am quite sure still has bugs of its own).
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Chakib on 2012-12-04, 09:31:34
If the scene contains no caustics (or even no glass/mirror), then VCM is overkill. It will do lot of heavy lifting to solve problems that are simply not there.
For examples of scenes it alone can handle have a look http://www.smallvcm.com/ (the complicated scenes from paper).
I would look at it as method that opens new artistic opportunities, rather than speeding up the current ways of doing stuff. (At least, that was the hope when we came up with the method)

I am afraid there is no silver bullet (yet).
I got some ideas for time-adaptive algorithm, that is pretty much unpublishable, but could make production guys happy.
(Will bother Keymaster with it once his deadlines are gone).

In the meantime, I will have to re-check with him today, but I am pretty sure there is still a bug in his implementation of environment lights. These things are damn hard to catch, especially since the example implementation uses different way of envrionment light (and I am quite sure still has bugs of its own).

Good luck guys your doing great job
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Sam75 on 2012-12-04, 20:30:06
Hi looks like vcm need more time to render less noise or its more for night lighting, how do i download the alpha version with vcm???? or sam you are a tester for that version that will be released???? thanks i aprecciate any answer.

For latest builds you need to see that with Keymaster.
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Sam75 on 2012-12-04, 20:32:11
Some screens about noise, first one is PT (only PT no HDcache) second is VCM.

too much noise...

There is no glass and metal in your scene, can you add some ?

Lot of reflective materials.
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: pionier on 2012-12-06, 18:13:46
should I email to Keymaster in order to get that build?
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Sam75 on 2012-12-13, 03:36:17
Watching CPU usage I ve noticed that VCM is not fully multithreaded, do you think it will be able to make a better usage of CPU in the future ?
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: pionier on 2012-12-13, 10:50:56
should I email to Keymaster in order to get that build?

thanks to answer for my question ; )
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Dom74 on 2012-12-13, 12:08:43
has someone noticed that the anti-aliasing doesn't work well ?
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Sam75 on 2012-12-31, 09:23:45
has someone noticed that the anti-aliasing doesn't work well ?

Yes I did

For some reason the default value for image filter width is set at 1.5 while the documentation recommends to keep it at the same value than internal res. which is by default 2.

So using a width value of 2 makes things a bit better but the image won't be as sharp.

You should make a new topic about this issue.
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Sam75 on 2012-12-31, 09:27:18
Keymaster VCM is still crashing max with the latest builds, it won't render at all. Actually the 2 or 3 latest builds won't even load. There is an error plugin at max start.
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Ondra on 2012-12-31, 11:59:27
what does it say? Have you copied the new dll from dropbox into 3dsmax folder?
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Sam75 on 2012-12-31, 12:15:02
Have you copied the new dll from dropbox into 3dsmax folder?

I guess I did since this is what I am talking about :)

Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Ondra on 2012-12-31, 14:23:47
that looks like there is corrupted build on dropbox ;)
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Sam75 on 2012-12-31, 14:50:57
that looks like there is corrupted build on dropbox ;)

I tried the latest releases for max 2013.
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Ondra on 2012-12-31, 16:54:01
I'm uploading newest version which should work
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Sam75 on 2012-12-31, 17:01:51
I'm uploading newest version which should work

Yes loading fine, VCM still crashing max though.
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Ondra on 2012-12-31, 20:59:56
I went through the code, some parts are currently broken. I'll fix it eventually, but I don't have the time right now.
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Sam75 on 2012-12-31, 22:51:58
I went through the code, some parts are currently broken. I'll fix it eventually, but I don't have the time right now.

Ok, progressive is the only usable for me right now anyway, was just to let you now.
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Sam75 on 2013-01-05, 11:39:58
What is that rar file included in the latest release folder for max2013?
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Sam75 on 2013-01-07, 12:08:03
Keymaster, I see you fixed VCM it's not crashing max anymore.

Can you tell why VCM is not using CPU at 100% ? Is it a multithreading issue ?
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Ondra on 2013-01-07, 13:19:55
it has many single-threaded stages interleaved in the computation. I haven't optimized it yet, and I don't know if I ever will (if the algorithm proves usable in some real scenes)
Title: Re: Vertex connection and merging added!
Post by: Sam75 on 2013-01-07, 13:29:15
it has many single-threaded stages interleaved in the computation. I haven't optimized it yet, and I don't know if I ever will (if the algorithm proves usable in some real scenes)

Ok thanks.