Strange flicker and fireflies on the anim render

Started by Ben Martin, July 13, 2015, 05:20:49 PM

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Ben Martin

Hi,

I've tried most of the "tips" I could find on this forum.
Even turned the GI samples, AA settings, up.
Also turned the Receive Shadows from surfaces on but nothing seems to make this go away.
Please check the attached "Test.mp4" file.
Check the dark side of the canyon wall, (left side of the image) lots of flashing.
On the right side, there are also a lot of flickering on some areas.

The render settings (you can download the attached scene and check):
Detail 7.5
AA - 4
GI - Write / read cache file (to test render you must turn GI settings to "NO GI Cache file" since I can't send the GI cached files - too big)
GI cache detail - 4
GI  sample quality - 4

Any ideas?
I uploaded the small Test.mp4 and the scene for the ones interested on make some tests.
One test you can do right away if, go to frame 25 and do a render, all seems nice (on the left canyon rocky wall), now, step to frame 27 and render, the bright areas appear right away.

Cheers.

Matt

Hi Ben. I'll run some tests, but we're missing the "output.ter" file.

Matt
Just because milk is white doesn't mean that clouds are made of milk.

Ben Martin

Oh, you are absolutely right.
Sorry for that.
Here you have it. Many thanks for bothering testing this.

Hannes


Ben Martin

#4
Tkx Hannes,

It is nothing great, really... it is only an animation integration test for Lightwave.
My friend uses Terragen 3 with Maya and MAX and I love what he is able to get out of it.

I'm a Lightwave user and for landscapes I use Vue since version 4 Professional.
I was a beta tester for Vue xStream till version 7.

I like some things on Vue but I'm really starting to dislike the "plastic look" on the renders.
There is something on Vue renders that "gives it", right away.
I really can't explain what it is and I tried alot of different rendering and atmosphere settings but that weird "visual feeling" remains.
So, I grew tired of Vue xStream on my works.

I'm really interested about Terragen 3.
Most of all I need to understand how can I benefit from animations via FBX integration (light source, camera animation and geometry sync with Lightwave to composite) .

All tests I have been doing were great, till I tried this animation scene and crashed into this render issues.
I truly hope that this is something I'm doing wrong, else, I'll have to stick with Vue xStream for a little longer. :-(
   

Kadri


Hi Ben.
It is probably related to something like the "Ray detail region padding" and-or "GI prepass padding".
Not sure without testing.But Matt will give you the precise answer for certain.

I use Terragen and Lightwave too because of some of the reason you mentioned above.
Nice scene by the way.

Ben Martin

Tkx Kadri.

I hope so, because how more I learn Terragen, more I start to realize how fantastic this software really is.
Like Lightwave, it seems to be a little "wrong" understood.

Cheers.

Oshyan

I agree with Kadri, looks like shadow popping due to off-camera geometry being calculated at a lower detail. Try enabling 360 detail in ray detail region padding (in the renderer node) and render some test frames. It'll take a good deal longer, but that will tell you conclusively if it's a ray detail region issue. There are settings that will take less time to render than 360 degree but it's worth identifying for sure whether that will even fix it before you spend time with smaller adjustments of padding to find the right balance of render time and output quality.

- Oshyan

Ben Martin

Will do the test.
Many tkx for the tip.  ;)
I'll report the results.

Ben Martin

Ok, here we have the new render version with "Ray detail region padding" set to 360.
I notice less fireflies/flickering, but it stills present.
Now, I notice something else, the shadows are changing like if the terrain geometry appears and disappears form certain spots.

Could the problem be related with the fact that  the terrain was generated and imported by a ".ter" file exported from "World Machine 2"?

Cheers

Matt

To use 360 degree mode, change the "ray detail region", not "ray detail region padding". As in this screenshot.

I am currently rendering some tests with a few different settings, including those later frames where the shadow on the ground is changing.

Matt
Just because milk is white doesn't mean that clouds are made of milk.

Ben Martin


Matt

#12
In my render, "360 degree detail (highest)" stabilised the large shadow on the ground. You might be able to use "360 degree detail (optimal)", which will be faster, but I haven't tested it on this scene.

For another test I also went into the Render Subdiv Settings node (in the internal network of the render node), and turned "Fully adaptive" OFF, as well as "Microvertex jittering" OFF in the render node. This was able to stop the flickering details in the shadows on the cliffs on the right hand side.

The Animation Check button doesn't automatically turn these off because they can have other side effects, but in your scene it seems to be good with them turned off, and definitely worth it to remove the flicker.

Matt
Just because milk is white doesn't mean that clouds are made of milk.

Ben Martin

Here we have it.
Another test but this time with the 360 degree mode, change the "ray detail region" only.
It is much better indeed.
The shadows are stabilized and most of the flicker is not so problematic.

The next test is rendering again but setting the "Fully adaptive" OFF, as well as "Microvertex jittering" OFF.
I'll let you know the result after the render is done but for now this render (360 degree mode, change the "ray detail region" only) looks much better.

Many thanks for helping me finding the best render settings for this test.
Your help may very well, be the most important step on my tests to go from Vue to Terragen. ;-)
Well, I'll keep using Vue to export some plants and also on other specific scenes, but for larger landscapes, Terregen is going to be the tool of choice.

Cheers

Hannes

Perfect! There's one little bright spot after about one quarter of the animation. I guess it's only on one frame, so this could easily be fixed manually.