UPDATE.md

HOW TO UPDATE?

This guide has been designed to simplify migration to a newer version.

To v3.0

(based on v2.12)

• NRD_USE_MATERIAL_ID_AWARE_FILTERING renamed to NRD_USE_MATERIAL_ID
• NRD_NORMAL_ENCODING simplified to NRD_NORMAL_ENCODING_UNORM and NRD_NORMAL_ENCODING_OCT
• NRD_MATERIAL_ID_AWARE_FILTERING renamed to NRD_USE_MATERIAL_ID
• changed parameters in NRD_GetCorrectedHitDist
• REFERENCE:
  • denoiser input & output changed to dedicated IN_RADIANCE and OUT_RADIANCE
• REBLUR:
  • settings collapsed to ReblurSettings shared across all REBLUR denoisers
  • LobeTrimmingParameters renamed to SpecularLobeTrimmingParameters
  • normalWeightStrictness replaced by lobeAngleFraction (a different value with similar meaning)
  • materialMask replaced with enableMaterialTestForDiffuse and enableMaterialTestForSpecular
  • exposed minConvergedStateBaseRadiusScale
  • exposed roughnessFraction
  • exposed responsiveAccumulationRoughnessThreshold
  • exposed inputMix
  • exposed enablePerformanceMode
• RELAX:
  • rejectDiffuseHistoryNormalThreshold renamed to diffuseHistoryRejectionNormalThreshold
  • enableSkipReprojectionTestWithoutMotion renamed to enableReprojectionTestSkippingWithoutMotion
  • phiNormal replaced by diffuseLobeAngleFraction (a different value with similar meaning)
  • exposed roughnessFraction
  • exposed enableMaterialTest

To v3.1

NRD requires explicit definitions of NRD_USE_OCT_NORMAL_ENCODING and NRD_USE_MATERIAL_ID to avoid a potential confusion when NRD was compiled using one set of values, but an application uses other values. The CMake file has been modified to simplify NRD integration into projects, where it is used as a Git submodule. Now these macro definitions are exposed as Cmake options.

To v3.2

• removed PrePassMode
• added maxSupportedMaterialBitNum and isCompiledWithOctPackNormalEncoding to LibraryDesc
• added optional worldPrevToWorldMatrix to CommonSettings
• REBLUR:
  • exposed diffusePrepassBlurRadius and specularPrepassBlurRadius
  • exposed enableAdvancedPrepass matching previously used PrePassMode::ADVANCED
  • exposed enableHitDistanceReconstruction
• RELAX:
  • removed diffuseHistoryRejectionNormalThreshold
  • removed minLuminanceWeight and added separated diffuseMinLuminanceWeight and specularMinLuminanceWeight
  • exposed enableSpecularHitDistanceReconstruction

To v3.3

• exposed HitDistanceReconstructionMode
• REBLUR:
  • enableHitDistanceReconstruction replaced with hitDistanceReconstructionMode
  • removed residualNoiseLevel
• RELAX:
  • enableSpecularHitDistanceReconstruction replaced with hitDistanceReconstructionMode

To v3.4

• exposed REBLUR_DIFFUSE_SH, REBLUR_SPECULAR_SH and REBLUR_DIFFUSE_SPECULAR_SH denoisers
• NRD.hlsli:
  • REBLUR_FrontEnd_PackRadianceAndHitDist renamed to REBLUR_FrontEnd_PackRadianceAndNormHitDist
  • REBLUR_FrontEnd_PackDirectionAndHitDist renamed to REBLUR_FrontEnd_PackDirectionAndNormHitDist
  • REBLUR_BackEnd_UnpackRadianceAndHitDist renamed to REBLUR_BackEnd_UnpackRadianceAndNormHitDist
  • REBLUR_BackEnd_UnpackDirectionAndHitDist renamed to REBLUR_BackEnd_UnpackDirectionAndNormHitDist
  • RELAX_BackEnd_UnpackRadianceAndHitDist renamed to RELAX_BackEnd_UnpackRadiance
  • removed NRD_GetCorrectedHitDist
• API:
  • exposed miscellaneous function GetMethodString
• REBLUR:
  • removed inputMix
• RELAX:
  • exposed confidenceDrivenRelaxationMultiplier
  • exposed confidenceDrivenLuminanceEdgeStoppingRelaxation
  • exposed confidenceDrivenNormalEdgeStoppingRelaxation

To v3.5

• NRD.hlsli:
  • REBLUR_FrontEnd_PackDirectionAndNormHitDist renamed to REBLUR_FrontEnd_PackDirectionalOcclusion
• REBLUR:
  • exposed historyFixFrameNum
  • exposed historyFixStrideBetweenSamples
  • removed historyFixStrength
• RELAX:
  • disocclusionFixEdgeStoppingNormalPower renamed to historyFixEdgeStoppingNormalPower
  • disocclusionFixMaxRadius renamed to historyFixStrideBetweenSamples
  • disocclusionFixNumFramesToFix renamed to historyFixFrameNum

To v3.6

• REBLUR:
  • Removed SpecularLobeTrimmingParameters
• NRD.hlsli:
  • Removed NRD_GetTrimmingFactor

To v3.7

NRD_USE_OCT_NORMAL_ENCODING and NRD_USE_MATERIAL_ID replaced with more explicit NRD_NORMAL_ENCODING and NRD_ROUGHNESS_ENCODING to offer more encoding variants out of the box.

• API:
  • removed maxSupportedMaterialBitNum and isCompiledWithOctPackNormalEncoding from LibraryDesc
  • added normalEncoding and roughnessEncoding to LibraryDesc
• REBLUR:
  • Removed enableAdvancedPrepass

To v3.8

Introduced optional NRDEncoding.hlsli file which can be included prior NRD.hlsli to properly setup NRD encoding for usage outside of NRD project, if encoding variants are not set via Cmake parameters. Also introduced optional IN_DISOCCLUSION_THRESHOLD_MIX which allows to smoothly mix CommonSettings::disocclusionThreshold (0) into CommonSettings::disocclusionThresholdAlternate (1).

• API:
  • Exposed IN_DISOCCLUSION_THRESHOLD_MIX, CommonSettings::disocclusionThresholdAlternate & CommonSettings::isDisocclusionThresholdMixAvailable
• REBLUR:
  • Removed minConvergedStateBaseRadiusScale
  • Removed maxAdaptiveRadiusScale

To v3.9

Introduced optional OUT_VALIDATION output, which contains debug visualization layer if CommonSettings::enableValidation = true.

• API:
  • Removed DenoiserCreationDesc::enableValidation
  • Exposed CommonSettings::enableValidation
  • Extened CommonSettings::motionVectorScale to 3 floats

To v4.0

Since NRD tracks specular motion, now, if requested, it can modify provided diffuse-like motion in IN_MV with internally computed specular-like motion if specularity is high. For this purpose an optional IN_BASECOLOR_METALNESS input has been added. This feature improves behavior of spatio-temporal upscalers, like TAA or DLSS.

• API:
  • Introduced CommonSettings::isBaseColorMetalnessAvailable
  • Reworked DenoiserDesc to clearly indicate that there are 3 types of resources each of which "sits" in a predefined space (set in VK):
    • constant buffer - binding is shared across all pipelines
    • samplers - bindings are shared across all pipelines
    • resources - bindings vary per pipeline
  • Name changes:
    • isHistoryConfidenceInputsAvailable => isHistoryConfidenceAvailable
    • Resource => ResourceDesc
    • DescriptorRangeDesc => ResourceRangeDesc
    • ComputeShader => ComputeShaderDesc
    • DescriptorSetDesc => DescriptorPoolDesc
    • all fooNum => foosNum
  • GetComputeDispatches return type changed to void
• REBLUR:
  • Exposed specularProbabilityThresholdsForMvModification to control diffuse / specular motion mixing
• RELAX:
  • Removed enableSpecularVirtualHistoryClamping

To v4.1

SH (spherical harmonics) have been replaced with SG (spherical gaussians). It unlocks physically-based high quality diffuse & specular resolve. The following functions have been added to NRD.hlsli (or renamed):

• NRD_SG_ExtractColor - extracts unresolved denoised radiance
• NRD_SG_ExtractDirection - extracts light dominant direction
• NRD_SG_ExtractRoughnessAA - extracts modified roughness (increased in areas with high normal variance)
• NRD_SG_ResolveDiffuse - reconstructs diffuse macro details
• NRD_SG_ResolveSpecular - reconstructs specular macro details
• NRD_SG_ReJitter - reconstructs diffuse & specular micro details (resurrects jitter vanished out after denoising)
• NRD_SH_ResolveDiffuse - reconstructs diffuse macro details using SH resolve (for comparison only)
• NRD_SH_ResolveSpecular - reconstructs specular macro details using SH resolve (for comparison only)

To v4.2

A single NRD instance can now include any combination of denoisers, including repeating ones (for example, RELAX_DIFFUSE, RELAX_DIFFUSE and SIGMA_SHADOW). Transient memory pool is internally optimized to reduce memory consumption.

• API:
  • Introduced Identifier to distinguish one denoiser in the instance from another one
  • Introduced SetCommonSettings
  • GetComputeDispatches now expects a list of identifiers, specifying which denoisers collect dispatches for
  • Added explicit CommonSettings::cameraJitterPrev and CommonSettings::resolutionScalePrev (since SetCommonSettings can be called several times per frame)
  • Name changes (including sub-name usages):
    • Denoiser => Instance
    • Method => Denoiser
    • fullResolutionWidth => renderWidth
    • fullResolutionHeight => renderHeight
• NRD INTEGRATION:
  • Introduced NewFrame
  • Introduced SetCommonSettings

To v4.3

• RELAX:
  • Introduced AntilagSettings
• REBLUR:
  • Removed enableReferenceAccumulation
  • Introduced usePrepassOnlyForSpecularMotionEstimation
  • AntilagIntensitySettings and AntilagHitDistanceSettings replaced with simpler ReblurAntilagSettings

To v4.4

• API:
  • inputSubrectOrigin => rectOrigin and clarified usage
  • improved dynamic resolution scaling support: now not only viewport can be adjusted on the fly, but resources can be suballocated from a heap on the fly too
    • removed DenoiserDesc::renderWidth and DenoiserDesc::renderHeight
    • removed CommonSettings::resolutionScale and CommonSettings::resolutionScalePrev
    • exposed CommonSettings::resourceSize and CommonSettings::resourceSizePrev
    • exposed CommonSettings::rectSize and CommonSettings::rectSizePrev
    • NRD INTEGRATION: currently statically allocates resources at NRD instance creation time
  • all denoisers use resources without mips:
    • removed TextureDesc::mipNum
    • removed ResourceDesc::mipNum and ResourceDesc::mipOffset
  • simplified number of samplers
    • removed Sampler::NEAREST_MIRRORED_REPEAT and Sampler::LINEAR_MIRRORED_REPEAT
• NRD.hlsli:
  • added NRD_FrontEnd_SpecHitDistAveraging_X functions, needed to properly average specular hit distance for correct specular tracking in case of many RPP
  • NRD_INPUT/OUTPUT_TEXTURE_START renamed to NRD_INPUTS/OUTPUTS_START
  • NRD_INPUT/OUTPUT_TEXTURE renamed to NRD_INPUT/OUTPUT
  • NRD_INPUT/OUTPUT_TEXTURE_END renamed to NRD_INPUTS/OUTPUTS_END
  • NRD_SAMPLER_START/END renamed to NRD_SAMPLERS_START/END
• REBLUR:
  • removed historyFixStrideBetweenSamples
• RELAX:
  • removed historyFixStrideBetweenSamples
  • removed enableReprojectionTestSkippingWithoutMotion
• REFERENCE:
  • IN_RADIANCE renamed to IN_SIGNAL
  • OUT_RADIANCE renamed to OUT_SIGNAL

To v4.5

• API:
  • ResourceDesc::stateNeeded renamed to ResourceDesc::descriptorType to match ResourceRangeDesc::descriptorType because the former is a concatenation of the latter

To v4.6

• REBLUR:
  • blurRadius renamed to maxBlurRadius
  • exposed minBlurRadius with the default value matching older versions

To v4.7

• SIGMA:
  • removed blurRadiusScale
  • exposed lightDirection, which is needed only for directional light sources
  • exposed `stabilizationStrength'
  • clarified usage:
    • float shadow = SIGMA_BackEnd_UnpackShadow( OUT_SHADOW_TRANSLUCENCY );
    • float3 translucentShadow = SIGMA_BackEnd_UnpackShadow( OUT_SHADOW_TRANSLUCENCY ).yzw;

To v4.8

• API:
  • exposed CommonSettings::viewZScale improving FP16 viewZ support
• SIGMA:
  • explicitly uses IN_VIEWZ instead of storing viewZ in IN_SHADOWDATA
  • IN_SHADOWDATA renamed to IN_PENUMBRA (describes penumbra properties)
  • IN_SHADOW_TRANSLUCENCY renamed to IN_TRANSLUCENCY (describes optional translucency)
  • SIGMA_FrontEnd_PackShadow has been explicitly separated into 2 functions:
    • IN_SHADOWDATA: SIGMA_FrontEnd_PackPenumbra (2 variants: for infinite and local light sources)
    • IN_SHADOW_TRANSLUCENCY: SIGMA_FrontEnd_PackTranslucency
• Deprecated and removed with all dependencies:
  • SPECULAR_REFLECTION_MV
  • SPECULAR_DELTA_MV