[madshi]

Reduce compression artifacts:

Originally Posted by ABDO

5) as @Neo-XP notice, With the "don't reduce texture details" option checked, there are some compression artifacts left in the image that are not processed.

Yes, I've seen the same thing here. However, your example is a really extreme case and I found that adding some RRN seemed to fix the issue with this specific image.

Originally Posted by ABDO

it seem (don't reduce texture detail ) option save some texture detail in normal life content, and it give good result to the whole picture.

Yes, it sometimes helps preserving some texture detail.

Originally Posted by Neo-XP

Yes, it already removes a lot of compression artifacts at strength 1 for me without the "don't reduce texture details" option checked. With the "don't reduce texture details" option checked, it does not do much.
At 2 it is too strong, it removes a little more compression artifacts, but smoothen the entire image, even with the "don't reduce texture details" option checked.

Yes, I double checked and the results are the same with the same image or others.

Ok, of course we can't let Mila Kunis be uglified by compression artifacts!

Originally Posted by Werewolfy

4) I find 1 pretty good actually. It removes a lot of compression artifacts without damaging the picture when "don't reduce texture detail" is unchecked. It's my new default setting for SD videos so please keep it.

5) I really don't like this new option. There's more compression artifacts and the details are not more well preserved.
Between strength 1 on and off, I prefer when it's off for the reasons mentioned above.
Between strength 1 without this option and 2 with it, I definitelty prefer 1 without it. The picture is less blurry.

K, thanks.

Originally Posted by leeperry

Yes please keep the current RCA@1 and you can enforce "don't reduce texture detail" if you like because who would want to do that on purpose anyway?

The "don't reduce texture detail" option might not be properly named. That's what the option *tries* to do, but it also results in some compression artifacts not being reduced. So it has advantages and disadvantages.

Originally Posted by ryrynz

Love the don't reduce texture detail option, this with RCA at around 1 or 2 is an absolute must for most low res content. WIN!

Originally Posted by ryrynz

Switch away IMO.

I don't understand this one. First you seem to love the "don't reduce texture detail" option, then you say "switch away IMO". That seems to contradict each other?

Originally Posted by ryrynz

Does anything think RCA 11 and 12 are actually worthwhile? It's like taking a fresh print and pouring water over it. Could those settings actually ever improve anything?

Try on these crazy images:

blockyMoon.png, blockyVma.png

Ok, so it's probably unlikely that whole videos are as blocky as that. So maybe RCA 11 + 12 will only be useful for VapourSynth/AviSynth guys to "fix" just a couple of frames.

Originally Posted by ryrynz

I like 1, please keep.

Ok.

Originally Posted by asmo42

My conclusion is that I generally prefer the old way i.e. the box unchecked. I don't see a huge difference in detail with it on or off. However it seems to get a lot less effective at removing artifacts. Honestly to me this option seem to almost work like a better less destructive version of RRN. So I find it useful and would be sad to see it go.

K, thanks.

Originally Posted by Anima123

While applying RCA with strength 1 on a good 720p source, I found that 'don't reduce texture detail' off is doing a better job than on. It seems that this option might be good for cartoon materials, but not good for real-life videos.

Conclusions:

Once again thanks for the helpful feedback!

My impression is that strength 1 should stay, but pretty much everyone wants to use strength 1 with the option "don't reduce texture detail" *un*checked. That's fine.

At higher strengths, it seems some people like the "don't reduce texture detail" option, and some don't. That's really bad, though.

I'm sorry to say, but the option "don't reduce texture detail" is *not* going to stay, because it's not just a simple flag somewhere in the algorithm. It's basically a completely different algorithm. Same with all the various "strength" settings! And I don't have the resources to keep both algorithms available, at all the different strength settings, and then add a new quality/speed selector, as well.

So we need to come to a decision whether to have "don't reduce texture detail" enabled or disabled. *However*, I'm willing to compromise by turning "don't reduce texture detail" on or off, depending on the selected strength. So e.g. we could have it off for strength 1-3, and have it on for strengths 4-12, or something like that.

What do you guys think?

(As indicated above, strengths 11-12 might not be useful for madVR, but it will be useful for VapourSynth/AviSynth in the future, so I want to keep it.)