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Path Tracer

tools/path-tracer·v1.3.0

IN:1 OUT:1

SUMMARY

Path Tracer is a GPU-accelerated physically-based renderer using the new ray query extension from TouchDesigner to compute ray-geometry intersections. This operator implements Monte Carlo path tracing with the Disney principled BRDF material model, enabling realistic lighting and material simulation. Path Tracer is currently available on Windows only.

Path Tracer supports both Realtime and Offline rendering modes. Realtime mode includes motion blur and a choice of Custom SVGF or NVIDIA OptiX denoising. Offline mode supports progressive sample refinement for clean convergence. Camera effects include depth of field with focal length and aperture controls, and tone mapping for HDR output. Materials are assigned by connecting a POPX Material operator before the Path Tracer. All lighting, environment maps, and direct lights are controlled via the POPX Light operator.

PARAMETERS

PAGEPath Tracer

[+]Render Mode	Rendermode	Selects between realtime and offline rendering modes.
Refine Samples	Refinesamples	Enables progressive sample refinement in offline mode.
Max Refine Samples	Maxrefinesamples	Maximum number of refinement samples to accumulate in offline mode.
Done	Done	Read-only indicator showing refinement completion status.
Render TOP	Rendertop	Reference to Render TOP providing camera and viewport settings that the path tracer will render to.
Reset	Reset	Pulse to reset progressive accumulation and restart rendering.
Lock Input	Lockinput	Freeze input geometry to prevent updates during progressive rendering.
Rays per Pixel	Raysperpixel	Number of rays cast per pixel per frame.
Max Bounces	Maxbounces	Maximum ray bounce depth for global illumination.
Render Emissives	Renderemissives	Enables rendering of emissive materials as light sources.
Enable Microfacet Refraction	Microfacetrefraction	Enables microfacet-based refraction model for rough transmissive materials.
Enable Firefly Clamp	Enablefireflyclamp	Clamps extremely bright samples to reduce firefly artifacts.
Firefly Clamp	Fireflyclamp	Maximum brightness value for firefly clamping.
Focal Length	Focallength	Distance from camera where objects are in sharp focus.
Aperture	Aperture	Camera aperture size for depth of field.
Show Focal Plane	Showfocalplane	Displays the focal plane in the viewport for visualization.
Focal Plane Size	Focalplanesize	Size of the focal plane visualization.
Enable Motion Blur	Enablemotionblur	Enables motion blur effect in realtime mode.
Strength	Blurstrength	Motion blur intensity.
Samples	Blursamples	Number of samples for motion blur quality.
Enable Tone Map	Enabletonemap	Apply tone mapping to convert HDR output to display range.
Exposure	Exposure	Exposure multiplier for tone mapping.
Gamma	Gamma	Gamma correction value for tone mapping output.

PAGEDenoiser

[+]Denoiser	Denoiser	Selects the denoising method.
Use Motion Vectors	Usemotionvectors	Uses motion vectors for temporal reprojection accuracy.
Normal Reject	Normalreject	Threshold for rejecting temporal samples based on surface normal differences.
Depth Reject	Depthreject	Threshold for rejecting temporal samples based on depth differences.
Albedo Reject	Albedoreject	Threshold for rejecting temporal samples based on albedo differences.
Diffuse History Blend	Diffusehistoryblend	Temporal blend factor for diffuse lobe history accumulation.
Diffuse Variance Blend	Diffusevarianceblend	Temporal blend factor for diffuse variance estimation.
Specular History Blend	Specularhistoryblend	Temporal blend factor for specular lobe history accumulation.
Specular Variance Blend	Specularvarianceblend	Temporal blend factor for specular variance estimation.
Diffuse Atrous Passes	Diffpasses	Number of a-trous wavelet filter passes for diffuse spatial denoising.
Diffuse Color Sensitivity	Diffcolor	Sensitivity to color differences in diffuse spatial filtering.
Diffuse Normal Sensitivity	Diffnormal	Sensitivity to surface normal differences in diffuse spatial filtering.
Diffuse Depth Sensitivity	Diffdepth	Sensitivity to depth differences in diffuse spatial filtering.
Specular Blur Passes	Specpasses	Number of a-trous wavelet filter passes for specular spatial denoising.
Specular Color Sensitivity	Speccolor	Sensitivity to color differences in specular spatial filtering.
Specular Normal Sensitivity	Specnormal	Sensitivity to surface normal differences in specular spatial filtering.
Specular Depth Sensitivity	Specdepth	Sensitivity to depth differences in specular spatial filtering.
Smooth Reflections	Smoothreflections	Amount of specular reflection smoothing based on roughness.
Plugin Path	Optixplugin	File path to the NVIDIA OptiX denoiser plugin.
Re-Init	Optixreinitpulse	Re-initializes the OptiX denoiser.
History Blend	Optixhistoryblend	Temporal history blend factor for OptiX denoiser.

Normal Reject	Optixnormalreject	Threshold for rejecting temporal samples based on surface normal differences for OptiX denoiser.
Depth Reject	Optixdepthreject	Threshold for rejecting temporal samples based on depth differences for OptiX denoiser.
Albedo Reject	Optixalbedoreject	Threshold for rejecting temporal samples based on albedo differences for OptiX denoiser.
Plugin Path	Dlssplugin	File path to the NVIDIA DLSS denoiser plugin.
Re-Init	Dlssreinitpulse	Re-initializes the DLSS denoiser.

PAGEDenoiser

[+]DLSS Quality

Quality

Quality preset for the DLSS denoiser.

PAGECommon

Free Extra GPU Memory

Freeextragpumem

Free memory that has accumulated when output memory has grown and shrunk.

INPUTS

Input 0 POP – Geometry

OUTPUTS

Output 0 POP – POPX_out1