I have the same issue. Makes me think that this happened after the latest update. I am using progressive rendering now to clean the image.
I don't repro the problem.
The preview render goes up to AA = 0 only, so it can't be better than a render with the actual camera AA settings.
What do you get when you disable Preview?
I tried to record it to show what happens.
If I disable the preview I still get a noise render with the same settings that I would use for production. Here is an example
ActiveShade
Production
Btw for ActiveShade in this example I am actually using CameraAA 4 and for Production 3
Those can't be the same settings. Can you get an Arnold log for each?
or maybe even upload the scene somewhere, or send it to support?
Is there an email I can send the scene? I am using the same samples for ActiveShade and Production.
support at arnoldrenderer dot com
Fix is in the latest upate: https://docs.arnoldrenderer.com/x/kgDJBg
This happens when you have AOVs enabled, right?
This is a known issue and we're working on a fix.
I am going to upload the scene and send it to the support. I think is something very specific to this scene.
You don't have AOVs enabled? Because we already know about the problem when AOVs are enabled, and are working on a fix
I didn't know that to be honest. Let me test.
That was the issue. Solved. Thanks
@
New update with the fix: https://docs.arnoldrenderer.com/x/kgDJBg
Already installed it. Amazing how we can get this fixes so quick. Great job
Recent Arnold versions seem to have a more general problem with sampling. For example the sample settings of the dome light seem to be quite useless. At 4 global camera samples and 12 dome light samples it's still very noisy. With Arnold 4 it was very good with 4 dome light samples already. It seems very difficult to get the dome light clean at all.
The same goes for volumes. I have to use a much higher sample number comapred to Arnold 4 and it's still more noisy. And takes longer of course. And yes, I have adaptive sampling off.
I don't know exactly when this started but the late Arnold 5 versions had the same problem as well.
One thing I liked about Arnold is that the settings were predictable and precise. Both is not the case anymore.
The attached package conatins both scenes as well as the resulting images.
Thanks for supplying a repro! In this particular example the skydome_light.samples setting, is actually ignored because it tends to give better performance/quality. The missing step here is that you either need more camera rays (try adaptive sampling, it makes these decisions easier) or enable diffuse bounces (at least depth 1) and in this particular case I found that diffuse samples set to 2 produces a pretty good image. Remember to lower the skydome_light.samples back to 1, since even though we are not actually casting these rays, there is still some overhead in deciding not to cast them.
Do note that in scenes with more complex skydome_lights, the skydome_light.samples does have an effect.
the skydome_light.samples setting, is actually ignored because it tends to give better performance/quality
Obviously not in this case.
So the global diffuse samples do have an effect now even if the diffuse depth is 0. That's different from Arnold 4.
However, these are global settings and that's exactly what I don't want. How about letting the user decide that?
For example, setting the dome light samples to -1 would set it to automatic like it is now. But as soon as the samples are 1 or more it takes these.