Denoiser confusion Tweet

[Andreas_Resch]

Of course I agree about consistency across applications. Makes sense. But as I don't have Cinema 4D or any other 3D app running at the moment, I can't cross check if the implementation works better in the other interations.

I've tested a little more and here are some thoughts ...

*) From what I see, it's probably best to use the Camera Imager (Preview Mode) with "Override" all the time. For one you will be in a WYSIWYG scenario, which is good, and you won't have any shifts when you switch from the free view to the camera view.
*) What's a bit confusing (to me at least) is the shifts that can occur when you go from free view to camera in case the "Override" checkbox is unchecked. So the label should at least be changed to "Override Camera Imager (Render Mode)".

But here's what might be even better ...

I would isolate the now "Override" checkbox so that it never grays out the section below and so that it has no effect visually (in the Preview) whatsoever. I would rename it to "Use for final render". In doing so, the changes of the panal settings will always be used no matter of you are in free mode or in the camera view. Users will no longer see shifts in brightness when they flip in out out of camera view and you will never have the situation where you move sliders (like Exposure) and nothing happens. So this would act like real preview adjustments now. When the "Use for final render" checkbox is set, what you see will be use for the output as well and whatever is set in Camera Imager (Render Mode) is void. Otherwise the settings fall back to what is set in the Camera Imager (Render Mode). If you want to quick check the settings of the Camera Imager (Render Mode) in case it is different from what you choose to use in Preview, you can always use the topmost checkbox next to Camera Imager (Preview Mode). That one feels a bit redundant and confusing as it is now anyway. And if you uncheck it, I would gray out the complete panel, just for clarification.

I'm sure those changes will resolve a lot of issues that users have at the moment.

PS: I could only find the documentations for Octane 2021. Could you please share a link where the documentation for 2022 can be found?

[Andreas_Resch]

Here's a mockup about how I would adjust the Camera Imager (Preview Mode) panel.

I would also do these things ...
*) Never gray out the first section of the panel, no matter if the Override checkbox is checked or not.
*) Align all the sub section to the left.
*) Make the Denoiser (and maybe the Upsampler, which I don't really use) independant from the Render Mode setting. Me (and I guess most users) would have the Denoiser OFF in the viewport for performance reasons and would like it ON in final rendering.
*) Alternatively automatically denoise the passes that are checked in the Denoiser passes section, no matter if any Denoiser checkboxes are checked anywhere.

With those changes I would set my Render Mode settings properly for output (including Denoiser ON). I would have the "Override" checkbox in the Preview mode OFF and would not have to worry about the final rendering settings any more. I would also mostly have the preview denoiser OFF (as it's set in the Render Mode section anyway).

Maybe give those changes a thought. I think they might improve the overall experience.