Neural network system with temporal feedback for denoising of rendered sequences

Abstract

A neural network-based rendering technique increases temporal stability and image fidelity of low sample count path tracing by optimizing a distribution of samples for rendering each image in a sequence. A sample predictor neural network learns spatio-temporal sampling strategies such as placing more samples in dis-occluded regions and tracking specular highlights. Temporal feedback enables a denoiser neural network to boost the effective input sample count and increases temporal stability. The initial uniform sampling step typically present in adaptive sampling algorithms is not needed. The sample predictor and denoiser operate at interactive rates to achieve significantly improved image quality and temporal stability compared with conventional adaptive sampling techniques.