Intel published the release of version 2.1 of Open Image Denoise (OIDN). OIDN is a collection of filters designed to reduce noise in images produced using ray tracing techniques.
OIDN is being developed as part of the larger project onEapi rendering toolkit, which aims to develop software visualization tools including the sdvis library, the Embree ray tracing library, the GluRay photorealistic rendering system, the Ospray distributed ray tracing platform, and the OpenSWR software rasterization system. OIDN is written in C++ and is open-sourced under the Apache 2.0 license.
The goal of OIDN is to provide high-quality, efficient, and user-friendly noise reduction functions that can enhance the quality of ray traced results. By using the proposed filters, users can achieve a level of quality comparable to traditional rendering methods, but with a shorter and less computationally intensive process.
OIDN effectively reduces random noise that occurs during ray tracing algorithms, such as the Monte Carlo method. Traditional rendering methods require tracing a high number of rays to avoid noticeable random noise artifacts in the final image. With OIDN, the number of necessary calculations per pixel can be significantly reduced, allowing for faster generation of the initially noisy image with quick noise suppression algorithms. This enables interactive ray tracing with on-the-fly noise elimination, given the appropriate hardware.
The library is compatible with a wide range of devices, from laptops and PCs to clusters. It is optimized for various 64-bit Intel CPUs with SSE4, AVX2, AVX-512, and XMX support, Apple Silicon chips, GPU Intel XE, NVIDIA architectures (Volta, Turing, Ampere, ADA LoveLace, and Hopper), and AMD architectures (RDNA2 and RDNA3). SSE4.1 is the minimum requirement.