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VapourWiki — Audion VS Engine preset reference (EN)

VapourWiki_EN.md

VapourWiki — Audion VS Engine preset reference (EN)

Full English reference for all 22 presets across 4 palettes. Starts with a decision tree ("which preset for which task"). Followed by detailed per-preset description: what it does, on what footage, key parameters, recommended encoder.

Per-preset docstrings live inside each .vpy file in system_core/presets/<palette>/. This document is the navigation-friendly companion.

Decision tree — which preset for which task

Read top to bottom: the first matching case is your preset.

Footage symptomPresetPalette
Interlaced legacy (DV, HDV, VHS digitization, broadcast TS)qtgmc_deinterlacerestoration
NTSC 29.97 fps with 3:2 pulldown (telecine, film → video)tivtc_ivtcrestoration
High-ISO noise, low-light digital, want to keep detailmvtools_mcdegrainrestoration
Rainbow / dot crawl on VHS-rip / composite capturederainbow_decrossrestoration
Over-compressed H.264/MPEG (YouTube-rip, WhatsApp, SD broadcast)deblock_h264_artefactsrestoration
Haze / low contrast / want to "lift" the imagedehaze_local_contrastrestoration
Digital noise only in shadows ("low-light" digital footage)shadow_denoise_sota ⭐precision
Mild uniform noise, hardware-agnostic (no CUDA/OpenCL)mild_denoiseprecision
Chroma noise only (dirty blue channel)chroma_cleanupprecision
Banding in gradients (sky, walls)deband_safe or deband_fine_grainprecision
Want one preset "everything" for filmic materialfilmic_rebuild ⭐precision
Pre-grade prep for DaVincipregrade_prepprecision
Clean archival master, no grainarchive_cleanprecision
Subtle filmic, safe defaultcinematicfilm_looks
Specific Kodak 35mm stock (250D / 500T / 50D)film_35mmfilm_looks
16mm organic, lifted blacksfilm_16mmfilm_looks
Super 8, faded 70s, heavy grainsuper8film_looks
High contrast desaturated (Se7en, Saving Private Ryan)bleach_bypassfilm_looks
VHS / CRT aestheticvhs_crtretro
90s amateur camcordercamcorder_90sretro

Pipeline scenarios (multiple presets chained via apply-profile-batch or manually):

ScenarioSteps
Night timelapse → filmshadow_denoise_sota → filmic_rebuild → cinematic
VHS archive → restored masterqtgmc_deinterlace → derainbow_decross → mvtools_mcdegrain → archive_clean
Old YouTube-rip → project-usabledeblock_h264_artefacts → dehaze_local_contrast → pregrade_prep
Telecined NTSC DVD → 24p mastertivtc_ivtc → archive_clean
Modern digital → film lookmild_denoise → film_35mm

PRECISION palette — technical pipeline (8 presets)

Menu order = pipeline order: Stage 1 (denoise) → Stage 2 (deband) → Stage 3 (compositions).

Stage 1 — denoise

mild_denoise — gentle universal denoise

DFTTest spectral denoiser. Pure CPU, hardware-agnostic — works the same on any processor. Recommended as a first pick when you don't know much about the footage: light noise, small touch-up, low risk.

shadow_denoise_sota ⭐ — flagship shadow denoiser

BM3D with float32 pipeline + smooth luma-mask "shadows only". Noise is suppressed only in zones below shadow_threshold, the rest of the image is untouched. Chroma planes are always denoised (chroma noise is ugly everywhere). Optional micro-grain return via grain_back so shadows don't look "plastic".

chroma_cleanup — chroma-only cleanup

DFTTest on planes=[1,2]. Luma untouched. Use when "blue channel is dirty" (typical issue of old compact cameras, low-bitrate AVCHD).

Stage 2 — deband

deband_safe — safe deband

neo_f3kdb with light settings, no grain. Removes banding in gradients (sky, walls, night lighting) without losing sharpness.

deband_fine_grain — deband + fine grain restore

Same neo_f3kdb + AddGrain. After debanding a thin monotonic grain is added — prevents the "too clean" look (signature of cheap compression).

Stage 3 — compositions

filmic_rebuild ⭐ — flagship composition

Full chain: BM3D denoise → neo_f3kdb deband → 3-zone luma grain (shadows / midtones / highlights). Grain is zoned — heavier in shadows (like real film), lighter in highlights. Recommended as a "one preset for everything" on filmic material.

archive_clean — neutral archival master

DFTTest + neo_f3kdb. No grain. Goal — maximally clean "flat" picture for archival. Don't use if grading is planned (grading works better on grainy material).

pregrade_prep — DaVinci handoff

Minimum touch: only light DFTTest. No deband, no grain. Goal — give Resolve the cleanest source so the colorist doesn't grade on top of compression artefacts.

FILM_LOOKS palette — film emulations (5 presets)

Each look uses the shared audion_lib library (MTF softening, halation bloom, zone grain, gamma curve, black-lift, desaturation).

cinematic — universal subtle filmic

Safe default. Light MTF softening + halation + micro-grain. Not tied to any specific stock. Works on any modern digital footage.

film_35mm — Kodak 35mm with stock variants

Emulates real Kodak stocks: 250D (daylight), 500T (tungsten), 50D (fine grain). Each stock has its own gamma curve, balance, grain density.

film_16mm — organic, more grainy

Lifted blacks, more pronounced grain, softer than 35mm. Suits documentary / arthouse aesthetic.

super8 — strongest look

Heaviest grain, softest optics, faded 70s. For music video / stylized inserts.

bleach_bypass — high contrast desaturated

"Se7en" / "Saving Private Ryan" look. High contrast, silver greys, hot highlights. Strong stylistic choice.

RETRO palette — analog character (2 presets)

vhs_crt — VHS / CRT

Chroma bleed (horizontal color spread), soft optics, analog noise. Emulates VHS tape playback on a CRT TV.

camcorder_90s — amateur camcorder

Softer than VHS, slight overexposure, minimal chroma bleed. 90s home video aesthetic.

RESTORATION palette — heavy guns (7 presets, Phase 18.B + NNEDI3 2x)

The set that is missing or poorly implemented in Adobe Premiere / DaVinci Resolve.

qtgmc_deinterlace — reference deinterlace

havsfunc.QTGMC (NNEDI3 + MVTools motion estimation). Reconstructs progressive frames from interlaced source via neural-network upscaling of each field + motion-compensated temporal smoothing. Better than any NLE out-of-the-box.

tivtc_ivtc — inverse telecine

TIVTC.TFM (field matching) + TIVTC.TDecimate (drop duplicate). Reference-quality 3:2 pulldown removal: NTSC 29.97i → 23.976p. Restores the original 24p film master from a telecined source.

mvtools_mcdegrain — motion-compensated denoise

MVTools motion estimation → MDeGrain temporal averaging along motion vectors. Removes noise WITHOUT detail loss — what Topaz Video Enhance AI and Neat Video do internally. DaVinci Temporal NR is a coarse implementation of the same; this is reference-grade.

derainbow_decross — NTSC composite cleanup

MVTools-based motion-compensated chroma-only smoothing. Removes rainbow / dot crawl / cross-color on composite-captured footage (VHS-rip, U-matic, BetaSP, S-Video → SDI). Luma untouched.

deblock_h264_artefacts — over-compressed rescue

havsfunc.Deblock_QED — edge-aware deblocker for H.264 / MPEG-2 / MPEG-4. Smooths 8x8 block boundaries, ringing around edges, mosquito noise. Edge-aware — does not touch real detail.

dehaze_local_contrast — clarity without halos

Luma-only local contrast via high-pass + zone-weighted MaskedMerge. Zone-mask (parabolic, peaks in midtones) prevents highlight burnout and crushed shadows. No color shift (luma-only). 16-bit math.

nnedi3_upscale_2x — deterministic non-ML 2x upscale

ZNEDI3/NNEDI3-based enlargement through nnedi3_resample. This is the Lite answer for clean, predictable upscaling without MLRT or ONNX models.

Smoke / bench status

install\Bench-AllPresets.{cmd,ps1} walks every .vpy preset through vspipe -c y4m --end <Frames-1> | ffmpeg -f null without writing output files. It checks preset parsing, plugin namespaces, frame delivery, and the CPU/CUDA BM3D path when requested.

Current local references for Lite:

system_core\powershell\pwsh.exe -NoLogo -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File install\Bench-AllPresets.ps1 -ProjectRoot . -InputFile <video> -Frames 1 -Cuda sweep

Encoders — my patterns

(Audion default workflow per discussion 2026-04-28)

Quality ladder (same 14 / 17 / 21 tiers across software, NVENC, QuickSync, and AMF): 14 → 17 → 21, three distinguishable steps without overlap.

ProfileWhen to use
h264_crf14 / h265_crf14 ⭐ defaultSemi-lossless archive, master for downstream work. Default Audion since 2026-04-28.
h264_crf17 / h265_crf17"Almost-invisible" lossy, final master
h264_crf21 / h265_crf21Web preview / proxy
prores_lt ⭐Audion default ProRes — no keying, for grading and round-trip
prores_lt_mxf ⭐ProRes LT in MXF wrapper — for Adobe Premiere / Avid round-trip
prores_422When you need a bit more bitrate than LT
prores_422_mxfProRes 422 in MXF wrapper for Adobe / Avid handoff
prores_422hqOnly if keying is planned
prores_422hq_mxfHQ + MXF for broadcast / Avid finishing
dnxhr_lb / _sq / _hq / _hqxAvid-style DNxHR (LB low / SQ standard / HQ high / HQX 10-bit)
h264_nvenc_q14 / _q17 / _q21NVENC hardware H.264 on NVIDIA. Removes CPU bottleneck from libx264 — VS filtering doesn't fight encode. CQ — analog of CRF. 8-bit yuv420p.
h265_nvenc_q14 / _q17 / _q21NVENC hardware HEVC, 10-bit p010le. Ideal for full pipeline on NVIDIA: VS filtering on CPU/CUDA + encode on NVENC = zero CPU stall.
h264_qsv_q14 / _q17 / _q21Intel QuickSync H.264 for Intel iGPU batch/proxy work.
h265_qsv_q14 / _q17 / _q21Intel QuickSync HEVC, p010le where supported.
h264_amf_q14 / _q17 / _q21AMD AMF H.264 via CQP.
h265_amf_q14 / _q17 / _q21AMD AMF HEVC, p010le output.

Rule: for any non-final processing → prores_lt / prores_lt_mxf or DNxHR if the receiver prefers it. For final delivery → h264_crf14 / h264_crf17 (software, best density per bit) OR the matching hardware ladder for the host (nvenc, qsv, amf) when wall-time matters.

When to use hardware encode vs software

ScenarioEncoder
Heavy VS pipeline (filmic_rebuild, mvtools_mcdegrain) on NVIDIANVENC — CPU is freed for VS filter, total wall-time drops 30-50%
Final delivery where bit density matters mostlibx264/libx265 CRF — software encoder is still slightly more accurate at low CRF
Intel iGPU host / laptop batchQuickSync — good throughput with low CPU pressure
AMD/Radeon hostAMF — same 14/17/21 CQP ladder, avoids CPU encode bottlenecks
Large batch of hundreds of filesNVENC / QSV / AMF — savings accumulate
No working hardware encoderSoftware only (h264_crf* / h265_crf*)

NVENC requires: NVIDIA driver R525+. Quality: NVENC on Ada/Blackwell (RTX 40/50) is comparable to libx264 medium at the same CQ; on older generations (Pascal/Turing) software CRF wins slightly on bitrate efficiency at the same quality, but NVENC is still many times faster.

More — full reference

Last updated: 2026-05-27 (Phase 18.B + NNEDI3 2x — 22 presets across 4 palettes; CPU fallback smoke 22/22 PASS, Frames=1, Cuda=off; RTX 5070 CUDA smoke 30/30 PASS, Frames=1, Cuda=sweep)

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