[MCPE-145467] Ray Tracing denoiser causes a major reduction in Reflection, Shadow and Ambient Occlusion quality

The denoiser used when Ray Tracing is turned on in its current state results in significant reductions in reflection clarity, shadow accuracy, and ambient occlusion visibility. I have attached detailed specific comparison shots that showcase what lighting effect becomes worse/is no longer present when the denoiser is on.

Steps to Reproduce:

Enter any world with Ray Tracing activated
Observe the Shadows, Reflections and Ambient Occlusion
Change the Render Method to "Game Path Tracer" instead of "Game"
Observe the new visual differences in the Shadows, Reflections and Ambient Occlusion

Observed Results:

With the denoiser on, shadows have a much higher blur to them (making them appear unnaturally blurry) and they occasionally completely disappear when they are of a small size. Their accuracy in the world is also heavily reduced, with them very often appearing disconnected from the object that is casting them.

Reflections also appear to be heavily blurred as well, and appear to smear heavily when moving throughout a world.

Ambient Occlusion in between blocks is heavily reduced in visibility, and ambient occlusion from smaller blocks like the vine completely disappears after moving a very short distance away from the block.

Expected Results:

Shadows should retain their sharpness and detail, and no longer be disconnected from the objects they are being cast by
Reflections should retain their near-perfect clarity instead of being heavily blurred, and should no longer smear heavily when moving in the world
Ambient Occlusion should no longer completely disappear at a small distance away, and instead be retained at much further distances from the object it is caused by

Having these major issues be fixed would result is a much better experiences for everyone using Ray Tracing in the game, no matter their RTX resource pack.

Here is a link to the PBR resource pack I was using during my testing: https://www.mediafire.com/file/ngisqn3mkjn4c44/Defined_PBR_v1.1.5.mcpack/file

Attachments

1.17.41 Denoiser Cheat Table.CT

2022-08-12 18-41-35.mp4

ambient occlusion denoise comparison.png

ambient occlusion denoise comparison 2.png

Comments 13

MazeWave 2021-10-20T21:50:06Z

This is true, the denoiser blurs everything from shadows to reflections. Plus, it affects performance drastically, wthout denoiser, I'm getting 144FPS while playing with Ray-tracing enabled and 12 chunks in render-distance (1080p)

MazeWave 2021-10-20T21:51:19Z

I confirm that changing the render method from 'Game' to 'Game Path Tracer' fix this, but add some noises

MazeWave 2021-10-20T21:53:47Z

With denoiser : Blurry shadows, less details

[media]

Without denoiser : More details, noise

[media]

Felipe Sena Costa 2021-10-22T01:27:31Z

This is very true, especially with lava light emmission in caves. Using "Game Path Tracer" greatly improves shadows. It also improves bump mapping.

DENOISER ON:

[media]

DENOISER OFF:

[media]

EveryCabbage884 2021-10-28T09:02:03Z

Resolving temporarily as Awaiting Response. How to you change the Render Method to "Game Path Tracer" instead of "Game"? The ticket will reopen automatically when you reply.

3 more comments

MADLAD 2021-10-30T02:56:08Z

The issue is still visible without changing the Render Method, as you can observe the ambient occlusion disappearing from behind blocks like vines when moving a small distance away from its location. Toggling between the raw path tracer output and the final denoised output is how we discovered that the denoiser is not effectively retaining shadow, reflection and ambient occlusion quality.

Since the Render Method option isn't actually available to change in the vanilla UI, we believe that it is an internal parameter accessible to developers through a specific RTX tweaks menu. Since this is true, the only way we could find and change the option was through a third party program that could edit the values stored in memory by another program, called Cheat Engine. The way you would observe the major issues that the denoiser brings compared to the raw path tracer is by changing the Render Method, which can turn off the denoiser.

I have attached a Cheat Table file to this bug report, with which you can open through Cheat Engine. After opening the file, it will include the memory pointer to the Render Method option, and to make it work you will initially need to attach Cheat Engine to the Minecraft process under "Select a process to open > Processes > Minecraft.Windows.exe". The pointers included in the Cheat Table will automatically reveal the location and value of the Render Method option, so using that you should be able to set it to 1 and observe the game without the denoiser. This specific cheat table is only compatible with the release 1.17.41 version of the game.

Cubeir 2021-11-04T19:46:02Z

This affects myself as well, because of this, Ambient Occlusion, which is supposed to be a by product of ray tracing, is nearly none-existent in most cases or is really weak, not to mention how it butchers reflections quality.

Sandro Fahrion 2021-11-14T19:43:58Z

The fidelity for reflections on water or shiny surfaces is really bad. Its way too blurry

Moist crafter 2021-12-08T06:52:06Z

looks like gaussian blur after denoising

Skyler Jensen 2021-12-08T09:12:17Z

Very noticeable and distracting during gameplay

Anthony 2022-04-20T05:43:32Z

This is very noticeable and affects a lot of the environmental ambiance that RTX is supposed to enhance. Shadows aren't as sharp and contrasting with the denoiser on compared to off and the water is a very blurry mess. I believe this would be a great change to Minecraft's RTX mode to improve visual fidelity to really create those strong environments.

Mineliver 2022-08-08T11:25:12Z

Very ugly. I've noticed this for a while now. RTX doesn't have enough shading around blocks so when you view from the sky, blocks especially look like they merge together because of the lack of shadows and darkened areas with the denoiser on. It makes using RTX useless because it doesn't look realistic. 😞 Right now, RTX ain't worth it to me with all the bugs going around.

Skyler Jensen 2023-06-29T12:21:10Z

Hes the creator of that mod ._.