I think I might have conquered the noise in my images... (also, Chapter 3.3 sneak peek)
Added 2021-05-25 16:45:07 +0000 UTC
As you can see in this image, no noise.
Alright, how do I put it...I think I might have 500+ images in my game with insane amounts of noise for no reason at all.
Let me explain...
Back when I was rendering using my CPU, noise was a problem I couldn't avoid. I checked the denoising options in DAZ studio thousands of times, and they did not work (for some reason). Even after hours of rendering, I'd still have some noise in it I couldn't take care of. When I got my hands on the GTX 1660 I'm using now, something strange started to happen...
Some images activated some type of "auto denoising", but some didn't. Naturally, since I checked the denoising options lots of times I never bothered to check it again. So imagine my surprise when I was fiddling with lighting in my free time yesterday and...boom!
I tick the option and the (what I thought was) magic random denoise activates.
What happened is that some environment assets I use come with a script that activates that option when I load it into a scene. It was not my hardware's fault. In the end, it was my own unfiltered stupidity.
So now, I have 1900+ renders in my game and more than half of them are tainted with noise. I thought about doing a remaster after I finished the first part of the game but ONE THOUSAND IMAGES.
I could barely sleep last night.
But well, that's great news! Although I can't really hope to render the old images again, especially in Chapter 0 (which I don't have the scene files), there won't be images with noise from now on. Let's just hope I'm right with this conclusion and that same option doesn't stop working again.