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Old 31st March 2008, 02:24   #1  |  Link
Dark Shikari
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VAQ 2.0 Alpha Testing

VAQ 1 is official, so as I promised, I am releasing VAQ 2.0 for initial alpha testing. Thanks to Alex W for the basic concept behind VAQ 2.0!

How to use (change from normal VAQ):

--aq-metric presents four options for the AQ metric to use. Each is progressively slower than the last; option 0 is equivalent to VAQ1.

Since the VAQ committed to official x264 has 1.0 strength as default (equivalent to 0.5 with unofficial AQ, since all values were doubled for simplicity's sake), 1.0 is default here also.

Try playing with the different AQ metrics and strengths and testing the results.

Download patched build (based on r777).
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Old 31st March 2008, 03:44   #2  |  Link
IgorC
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--aq-mode?
Should it be by default fot this time of testing?


Is r777 with VAQ 2.0 multhitreaded? It uses only one core of my e2160 while r798.modified (VAQ 0.48) use 2 cores.

Code:
x264_AQ2.exe --threads 3 --pass 3 --progress --stats "x264_stat.log" --qcomp 0.75 --bframes 3 --no-b-adapt --bime --weightb --subme 7 --keyint 300 --ref 8 --trellis 2 --mixed-refs --8x8dct --partitions all --b-rdo --direct auto --b-pyramid --bitrate 2500 --no-fast-pskip --me umh --merange 16 --aq-metric 3 --deblock -1:-1 -o 2xVAQ2_3_Balance2_777.h264 1.avs

Last edited by IgorC; 31st March 2008 at 04:08.
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Old 31st March 2008, 04:33   #3  |  Link
LoRd_MuldeR
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Quote:
Originally Posted by IgorC View Post
--aq-mode?
Code:
--aq-mode <integer>     How AQ distributes bits
    - 0: Disabled
    - 1: Avoid moving bits between frames
    - 2: Move bits between frame
I'd guess that "--aq-mode 2" is the default, while "--aq-mode 1" equals "aq-sensitivity 0" in VAQ v0.48
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Last edited by LoRd_MuldeR; 31st March 2008 at 04:35.
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Old 31st March 2008, 04:35   #4  |  Link
IgorC
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I know. The question is what to do with it. Leave it or test it?
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Old 31st March 2008, 04:54   #5  |  Link
LoRd_MuldeR
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Quote:
Originally Posted by IgorC View Post
I know. The question is what to do with it. Leave it or test it?
Well, unless I have missed something, "--aq-mode 1" (aka "aq-sensitivity 0") is not recommended and "--aq-mode 0" will turn off all AQ.
So I'd go with "--aq-mode 2" unless there is a good to do otherwise...
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Old 31st March 2008, 05:24   #6  |  Link
Dark Shikari
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LoRd_MuldeR View Post
Well, unless I have missed something, "--aq-mode 1" (aka "aq-sensitivity 0") is not recommended and "--aq-mode 0" will turn off all AQ.
So I'd go with "--aq-mode 2" unless there is a good to do otherwise...
Correct
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Old 31st March 2008, 06:05   #7  |  Link
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@Dark Shikari

Could you release the diff file of VAQ 2.0? Thanks a lot~
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Old 31st March 2008, 07:05   #8  |  Link
Dark Shikari
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MythCreator View Post
@Dark Shikari

Could you release the diff file of VAQ 2.0? Thanks a lot~
The code is extremely ugly and the diff won't work on any recent revision of x264. Anyone who publicly distributes builds of this with any intent other than to experiment is crazy.

diff
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Old 31st March 2008, 08:04   #9  |  Link
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two side questions:
1. What in the value range allowed for --aq-strength?
2. Does --aq-strength 0.0 also disable adaptive quantization?

Cu Selur

Ps.: there's a 'new-line' missing before '--nr' (after metric options) when calling --long-help
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Old 31st March 2008, 08:07   #10  |  Link
Dark Shikari
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Selur View Post
two side questions:
1. What in the value range allowed for --aq-strength?
2. Does --aq-strength 0.0 also disable adaptive quantization?
AQ strength = 0 to infinity (though values above 2.0 may get stupid).

AQ strength = 0 = disabled.

Exactly the same as the AQ in the official x264.
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Old 31st March 2008, 09:10   #11  |  Link
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Thanks for the Info.

Cu Selur
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Old 31st March 2008, 18:02   #12  |  Link
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For those who are interested here is diff which can be applied on the current git version (r808). Also I fix bug in x264_autosense_aq (incorrect use of h->mb.i_mb_x and h->mb.i_mb_y instead of mb_x and mb_y)
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Old 31st March 2008, 18:27   #13  |  Link
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Warning: ALPHA BUILD, ONLY USE FOR TESTING VAQ2!

x264.808.vaq2.modified.exe (gcc 3.4.6 fprofiled)

General thread:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=130364

x264_vaq2_alpha.01.r808.diff
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.ph...23#post1120023
x264.gaussian.cplxblur.01.diff
Dark Shikari: - gaussian cplxblur: gives a tiny improvement in 2pass ratecontrol
x264_me-prepass_DeathTheSheep.01.diff
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1093523
x264_2pass_vbv.6.diff
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.v...093/focus=3550
x264_hrd_pulldown.04_interlace.diff
- HRD and pulldown for HD compatibility, updated patch for interlacing
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.ph...19#post1047919

Link to x264 patches collected: http://files.x264.nl/x264_patches/

Warning: ALPHA BUILD, ONLY USE FOR TESTING VAQ2!
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Old 2nd April 2008, 22:19   #14  |  Link
Sagittaire
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bob0r View Post
Warning: ALPHA BUILD, ONLY USE FOR TESTING VAQ2!

x264.808.vaq2.modified.exe (gcc 3.4.6 fprofiled)

General thread:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=130364

x264_vaq2_alpha.01.r808.diff
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.ph...23#post1120023
x264.gaussian.cplxblur.01.diff
Dark Shikari: - gaussian cplxblur: gives a tiny improvement in 2pass ratecontrol
x264_me-prepass_DeathTheSheep.01.diff
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1093523
x264_2pass_vbv.6.diff
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.v...093/focus=3550
x264_hrd_pulldown.04_interlace.diff
- HRD and pulldown for HD compatibility, updated patch for interlacing
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.ph...19#post1047919

Link to x264 patches collected: http://files.x264.nl/x264_patches/

Warning: ALPHA BUILD, ONLY USE FOR TESTING VAQ2!
build completely buggy ... produce very bad quality and completely different result if I compare with Dark Shikary build.
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Old 2nd April 2008, 22:34   #15  |  Link
Avenger007
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sagittaire View Post
build completely buggy ... produce very bad quality and completely different result if I compare with Dark Shikary build.
Do you mind giving some figures to elaborate on "very bad quality and completely different result"?

I used the alpha build for the results I posted.
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Old 2nd April 2008, 23:49   #16  |  Link
Poopoo
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Didn't Dark Shikari say that higher SSIM values don't really guaranty a better encoding ?

Last edited by Poopoo; 2nd April 2008 at 23:51.
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Old 31st March 2008, 19:03   #17  |  Link
Umamio
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Here is a collection of tests I did on a couple of 4 second football clips. They are slightly worthless for comparison purposes because they are mostly different framesizes and different bitrates and CQ / 2pass / 3pass whatever.

The only thing they have in common is they all use VAQ2 (using patched build based on r777)! Unless specified.

So if you want a collection of slightly useless (for comparative purposes) encodes of football on a rainy imperfect pitch you can get them here.


Better comparisons in here

Last edited by Umamio; 2nd April 2008 at 00:00.
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Old 31st March 2008, 22:31   #18  |  Link
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Excellent job, MasterNobody. Thou art truly the master o'er bugs, o BugMaster.

I will certainly give this a test soon. How is the speed on BugMaster's mod? Does it do the same thing as the original on 777?
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Old 1st April 2008, 04:07   #19  |  Link
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The answer appears to be yes on both fronts.

I made a test on my quintessential anime clip.
0.46 yields 0.9741681 SSIM 4537KB
2.0a yields 0.9710652 SSIM 4557KB (--aq-strength 2 --aq-metric 3)
2.0a yields 0.9724646 SSIM 4546KB (--aq-strength .3 --aq-metric 3)

Baseline profile, defaults, no fast pskip.
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Last edited by DeathTheSheep; 1st April 2008 at 04:25.
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Old 1st April 2008, 04:16   #20  |  Link
Razorholt
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DeathTheSheep View Post
The answer appears to be yes on both fronts.

I made a test on my quintessential anime clip.
0.46 yields 0.9741681 SSIM 4537KB
2.0a yields 0.9710652 SSIM 4557KB (--aq-strength 2 --aq-metric 3)

Ah. Baseline profile, defaults, no fast pskip,
What's your --aq settings with 0.46?
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