Optix denoise option for AOVs is suddenly gone?

[Anonymous]

as the subject suggests, we just updated our Arnold

we use 3ds Max 2021.3

Arnold 6.2.0.0

There used to be an option to denoise using Optix individual AOV's but it looks like they took that option away! Am I missing something? is there any way (using Noice or Optix) to denoise individual AOV's?

[anm8rjpL4DCB]

I am having the same issue. I have uninstalled Max to A several times. Rolled back to previous versions of Max to A. Installed various versions of Nvidia drivers, studio and game, and installed different dated versions of the drivers. Today I reinstalled 3DS Max 2021 from scratch. Still no luck. My only out of the ordinary hardware complexity is I have a Threadripper with 2 Nvidia Cards at 2080 Ti and a 2080 (regular) in the same system. This issue cropped up last week for me. 3ds Max 2021.3 Max to A 4.3.0.78 currently.

[julian.hodgson]

You should still have the Denoise with Optix option on the Arnold ROP in the Output tab, along with the same options per AOV, which will enable Optix denoising for the beauty or selected AOV. Note this not available on OSX.

Alternatively you can create an imager graph and add the optix denoiser imager there instead.

[Anonymous]

Sorry Julian, forgive my ignorance...I'm not sure what you mean by the Arnold ROP.

The only places I can find the option to denoise using Optix (or Noice) are as

1.imagers (accessable through the Renderview window or the Material Slate editor as a graph)

2. the Denoiser tab, which is only used as a Noice post process. (render the correct necessary AOV layers and then run your sequence through the Noice denoiser, afterwards)

am I missing something? I hope so

[nicola.stefano.jannuzzo]

@Matthew Goldblatt I think Julian did not read that you are in Max. Correct, we removed the per-AOV flag, because the denoiser is not available as an imager, and the AOVs you want to denoise should be manually added in the layer selection string parameter as a regular expression.

In the future we may improve this by providing an AOV picker and creating the regex under the hood.

[julian.hodgson]

Apologies I misread, yes my reply was HtoA specific so please ignore for this thead.

[anm8rjpL4DCB]

I am having the same issue. I have uninstalled Max to A several times. Rolled back to previous versions of Max to A. Installed various versions of Nvidia drivers, studio and game, and installed different dated versions of the drivers. Today I reinstalled 3DS Max 2021 from scratch. Still no luck. My only out of the ordinary hardware complexity is I have a Threadripper with 2 Nvidia Cards at 2080 Ti and a 2080 (regular) in the same system. This issue cropped up last week for me. 3ds Max 2021.3 Max to A 4.3.0.78 currently.

[Anonymous]

ok, I have found the part in the MaxtoA 4.3.0.78 release notes where it clearly states the Optix denoise flags have been removed from the rendering options and AOVs.

However the current system of making both the Optix and Noice denoisers available as imagers badly needs to be debugged. Nicola, when you state that "the AOVs you want to denoise should be manually added in the layer selection string parameter as a regular expression "I assume you mean that in the imager dialog, the name of the layer (eg. diffuse) must be manually entered in the Layer Selection field. and Output Suffix can also be entered in it's field which SHOULD create a new layer with the Suffix in the name.

Sometimes, I don't get my denoised layers. Sometimes I do. Sometimes, I'll enter the layer diffuse with the suffix _denoised, but end up with coat_denoised or something else completely incorrect. Sometimes I will see the correct layer denoised in my Renderview, but not in my EXR AOV render.

I have been trying depserately to find a pattern (CPU vs GPU, Optix vs Noice, single vs multiple denoised layers, etc) but I can't.

I really feel that the concept of treating denoisers as imagers is AWESOME in principle, but there is a serious communication problem between the imager dialogs (via within MSE or within Renderview) and how the EXR's get written, or maybe between the imager dialog and the Renderview itself, or something like that. I've set my super-simple scene up so that it works...then quit max and reloaded, and suddenly it doesn't work anymore. something is very wrong.