Chaos Corona Forum

Chaos Corona for 3ds Max => [Max] I need help! => Topic started by: sicrum on 2016-05-11, 18:16:36

Title: Low lighting areas noise
Post by: sicrum on 2016-05-11, 18:16:36
Hi guys

I am new to this forum and Corona render.

I think my question is very popular, but I am pretty sure that every scene has it's own reason for noisy areas on final renders.
Below is my render.

Summary details and questions:
1) 1600x1200, 180 passes, 2 h 30 mins. My PC is i7 2600, 16 GB RAM - is that normal time or should I look for heavy materials/lights in the scene? What passes number is good with scene like mine?
2) Lighting.  There is VRayHDRI with HDRI map in Corona environment slot. CoronaPortalMtl in the windows. No holes behind the camera. 3 corona spherical lights inside the ceiling light. 2 corona IES lights to the left on the camera (not on the render)
3) Curtains. CoronaMtl with bitmap opacity mask, transcluency and AlphaMode = "Always Transparent"
4) Ceiling is white with 0.7 level, no reflection. Walls are Glossines 0.4 and Reflection 55 and with bump

As you may see there is noise in the corners at the top of the table and on ceilings.
Walls are also looks more noisy rather than bumpy with glossy reflection.
Also, colors are unnatural. But most likely photoshop will help.

Will appreciate any advices.

Let me know if you need any info regarding the scene.

This is full size link: http://s020.radikal.ru/i713/1605/8a/287251a1dfa2.jpg

(http://s020.radikal.ru/i713/1605/8a/287251a1dfa2.jpg)
Title: Re: Low lighting areas noise
Post by: FrostKiwi on 2016-05-11, 19:04:46
Your setup is fine and correct.
I presume you are still on Corona 1.3 and not on the daily releases.
This is 100% GI noise and you can either increase AAvsGI to send sample more GI rays, or... the recommended version... Upgrade to 1.4 daily or wait a week till 1.4 release.
In 1.4 there is adaptivity implemented, which should pickup on that noise and sample the noise away, long before 180 passes. Or even the denoise function which can just outright denoise.

If you need an immediate solution without rerender, you may region render and paste in photoshop. the noisy area.
Also, you can decrease MSI, incase that noise stems from strong rays not being averaged out over time, due to their strength vs the low shadow area samples.

As for the colors, if you do correct PBR workflow with all textures being 50-180 RGB, you will indeed get an ugly washed out look, which requires tonemapping to look nice. But look on the bright side, it's difficult making a a punchy unrealistic image punchy and realistic, then a realistic and washed out image look punchy and realistic.

edit: dat rug looks damn nice :D
Title: Re: Low lighting areas noise
Post by: cecofuli on 2016-05-11, 23:54:06
Try this:

Remove the curtains,
Delete the glass windows,
Add a portal on the window
Use use Corona Sky
Override the material with a simple RGB 180-180-180
turn off the lamps and the monitor
Remove the carpet
MSI= 10
Maybe GI VS AA 24

And see what happens. I think you will have less noise
Now, turn on the material, lights etc... And you will find where is the problem.

Good luck

Title: Re: Low lighting areas noise
Post by: sicrum on 2016-05-12, 04:57:08
Guys, thanks for your replies.

I will try your suggestions
Title: Re: Low lighting areas noise
Post by: sicrum on 2016-05-12, 10:31:05
Try this:

Remove the curtains,
Delete the glass windows,
Add a portal on the window
Use use Corona Sky
Override the material with a simple RGB 180-180-180
turn off the lamps and the monitor
Remove the carpet
MSI= 10
Maybe GI VS AA 24

And see what happens. I think you will have less noise
Now, turn on the material, lights etc... And you will find where is the problem.

Good luck

Applied these steps and got  strange result. White dots inside a window.
I thought that something wrong with window frame and replaced it with simple extruded spline which intersects wall so that light cannot came from there.

Any ideas?

(http://content.screencast.com/users/sicrum/folders/Jing/media/497ac2c6-72bf-4a03-954c-4507ebf678a8/2016-05-12_1428.png)
Title: Re: Low lighting areas noise
Post by: sicrum on 2016-05-12, 11:29:12
How can I remove previous post?

Here is 100 passes, no lights but Corona Sky, with portal in the window. Still looks ugly :(
(http://content.screencast.com/users/sicrum/folders/Jing/media/2e8e7296-4458-4005-aea9-1d00eba32f5b/2016-05-12_1526.png)
Title: Re: Low lighting areas noise
Post by: romullus on 2016-05-12, 11:32:53
Make sure you using portals in a right way: https://coronarenderer.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/5000501660-how-to-use-light-portals-in-corona-

What's that thing that blocks most light in window opening? You should definitely get rid of it.
Title: Re: Low lighting areas noise
Post by: mitviz on 2016-05-12, 11:35:12
i would advice just using a regular rectangular light and set it to invisitble instead of a portal, it looks way better and gets rid of the issues you are having
Title: Re: Low lighting areas noise
Post by: romullus on 2016-05-12, 11:41:38
i would advice just using a regular rectangular light and set it to invisitble instead of a portal, it looks way better and gets rid of the issues you are having

It's better not to give advise at all, than give bad advise. Putting big light in window opening maybe was good in old days, but certainly not novadays. Putting light source in enviroment, is all that needed for Corona to give great results. Additional sky portals may be beneficial in some circumstances, but not crucial.
Title: Re: Low lighting areas noise
Post by: sicrum on 2016-05-12, 11:42:32
sorry, last picture was my fault. I forgot to add portal to exclusions when use global material overriding
Title: Re: Low lighting areas noise
Post by: mitviz on 2016-05-12, 11:45:51
i would advice just using a regular rectangular light and set it to invisitble instead of a portal, it looks way better and gets rid of the issues you are having

It's better not to give advise at all, than give bad advise. Putting big light in window opening maybe was good in old days, but certainly not novadays. Putting light source in enviroment, is all that needed for Corona to give great results. Additional sky portals may be beneficial in some circumstances, but not crucial.

actually there are many scenes where putting a light there is needed, in cases where there is little lighting to be used inside a room or when you don't want the exterior really blown out, using a light portal doesn't give me what i need most times and since you think its bad advice then i would advise the person who is having the issues to give it a try for himself, it might be bad advice and an old way to work but i am old school and it works for me
Title: Re: Low lighting areas noise
Post by: PROH on 2016-05-12, 12:15:26
I agree with romullus. There is a window + some artificial interior lights. That should be more than enough to make this scene work. The problem here could very well be in the scene setup, or the HDRI, so an additional artificial "window light" would probably only clutter things more.
Title: Re: Low lighting areas noise
Post by: maru on 2016-05-12, 12:20:56
actually there are many scenes where putting a light there is needed, in cases where there is little lighting to be used inside a room or when you don't want the exterior really blown out, using a light portal doesn't give me what i need most times and since you think its bad advice then i would advise the person who is having the issues to give it a try for himself, it might be bad advice and an old way to work but i am old school and it works for me
It is not a solution. It is a bad workaround. You will get completely different, and most importantly inaccurate results.
Title: Re: Low lighting areas noise
Post by: mitviz on 2016-05-12, 12:40:04
actually there are many scenes where putting a light there is needed, in cases where there is little lighting to be used inside a room or when you don't want the exterior really blown out, using a light portal doesn't give me what i need most times and since you think its bad advice then i would advise the person who is having the issues to give it a try for himself, it might be bad advice and an old way to work but i am old school and it works for me
It is not a solution. It is a bad workaround. You will get completely different, and most importantly inaccurate results.
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Thats true but for ne it seems to work and i get great lighting in most cases
Title: Re: Low lighting areas noise
Post by: romullus on 2016-05-12, 13:33:04
But did you tried to adopt new workflow, maybe it would work even better?
Title: Re: Low lighting areas noise
Post by: cecofuli on 2016-05-12, 15:10:02
Send us the simplified .max file.

Or, download my scene and to make a revers engineer process.

LINK (https://forum.corona-renderer.com/index.php/topic,11266.0.html)

Bye
Title: Re: Low lighting areas noise
Post by: mitviz on 2016-05-12, 15:16:33
O i have but i find that i get cleaner n faster renders with a simple plane light in the window, its not accurate as you say but many people dont care as long as i deliver nice looking images, but as you say its bad advice n practice but it hasnt failed me yet. I work this way with all rendering engines though n i know its not accurate but am never really after accuracy 100 percent, once it looks look am game n thats where corona excells, no matter how inaccurate i setup the scene i do in the end get very good results with corona n i do bet many others work this way if they have been rendering awhile
Title: Re: Low lighting areas noise
Post by: cecofuli on 2016-05-12, 17:25:10
Honestly, CoronaSky (or HDRI) + Sun + Portal is fast enough. tThere isn't any reason to add a real Corona Arealight on windows to simulate the environment...
Title: Re: Low lighting areas noise
Post by: mitviz on 2016-05-12, 19:43:22
Honestly, CoronaSky (or HDRI) + Sun + Portal is fast enough. tThere isn't any reason to add a real Corona Arealight on windows to simulate the environment...

fully true, in most cases there is no reason at all to add anything but a sun or hdri or sun alone
Title: Re: Low lighting areas noise
Post by: sicrum on 2016-05-13, 13:12:44
Hi guys

I have found an answer for my original question. I took my photo cam, switch it to manual mode and played a little bit.
Finally, found out that the issue was that there was no enough illumination from HDRI outside. And instead of increasing HDRI light power I tuned ISO to 2400 that is obviously too high for the daylight room like that. Same noise you usually see when you try to make a photo in the dark and increasing cam ISO to get something visible on the photo.

Here is new render.

(http://s019.radikal.ru/i640/1605/05/af01dadcdbca.jpg)
Title: Re: Low lighting areas noise
Post by: PROH on 2016-05-13, 13:45:54
Glad you found the problem. It was what I suspected. The picture/light looks way better now :)
Title: Re: Low lighting areas noise
Post by: cecofuli on 2016-05-13, 14:59:48
In my opinion, you need som CC... It's too dark, no contrast, no colors etc...
Title: Re: Low lighting areas noise
Post by: sicrum on 2016-05-13, 16:57:14
In my opinion, you need som CC... It's too dark, no contrast, no colors etc...

this is raw render without postprocessing
Title: Re: Low lighting areas noise
Post by: geesve on 2016-11-20, 13:56:15
Hi guys

I have found an answer for my original question. I took my photo cam, switch it to manual mode and played a little bit.
Finally, found out that the issue was that there was no enough illumination from HDRI outside. And instead of increasing HDRI light power I tuned ISO to 2400 that is obviously too high for the daylight room like that. Same noise you usually see when you try to make a photo in the dark and increasing cam ISO to get something visible on the photo.

I know this is the old topic and i see the red warning message on the top. But i just want to keep solution from this message clear because i have the same problem like OP in his first message and i did not really understand what he do here to fix that, because i'm non-native English speaker.
If i see that in the interior scene i need to increase Exposure value in Corona Frame Buffer to high values like 8 or even more - there is not really good idea and would be better to increase power of HDRI map/Corona Sun/Sky, right?
I was confused because with my current very first scene i try to keep lights inside of the room in Lumens values, which is looks very low if it converted for default "values". I mean 750 Lumens is just 1.548563 (Default:W/sr.m^2) and for now i think that this is also was not really good idea.
Title: Re: Low lighting areas noise
Post by: maru on 2016-11-21, 13:37:39
Can you start a new thread about this, or submit a support ticket here? https://coronarenderer.freshdesk.com/support/tickets/new
It would be great if you could actually show your problem. I did not fully understand the problem and solution from this original thread either... If there is noise, then you could try following this guide:
https://coronarenderer.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/5000501983-how-to-get-rid-of-excessive-noise-

Also, I am not sure if there is not some kind of misunderstanding here, so just for clarification:
Increasing ISO in Corona DOES NOT introduce any noise. It only impacts scene exposure.