VapourWiki — Audion VS Engine preset reference (EN)

Full English reference for all 28 presets across 4 palettes. Starts with a decision tree ("which preset for which job"), then per-preset detail: what it does, what material it suits, key parameters, recommended encoder.

Russian counterpart: VapourWiki_RU.md (this document mirrors it). Per-preset technical docstrings live inside each .vpy file in system_core/presets/<palette>/.

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Decision tree — which preset for which job

Read top-down: the first matching case is your preset.

Material symptom	Preset	Palette
Interlaced legacy (DV, HDV, VHS captures, broadcast TS)	qtgmc_deinterlace	restoration
NTSC 29.97 fps with 3:2 pulldown (telecined film)	tivtc_ivtc	restoration
High-ISO / night noise, must keep detail	mvtools_mcdegrain	restoration
Rainbow / dot crawl on VHS-rip or composite capture	derainbow_decross	restoration
Over-compressed H.264/MPEG (YouTube-rip, WhatsApp, SD broadcast)	deblock_h264_artefacts	restoration
Haze / flat low-contrast — need to "lift" the picture	dehaze_local_contrast	restoration
ML upscale 1080p → ~4K (sharp faces, fabric texture)	vsmlrt_realesrgan_2x	restoration
ML interpolation 24 → 60fps (smoother than Optical Flow)	vsmlrt_rife_60fps	restoration
ML denoise of heavy noise / high-ISO without texture loss	dpir_denoise	restoration
Digital noise in shadows only ("night" digital footage)	shadow_denoise_sota ⭐	precision
Light uniform noise, hardware-agnostic (no CUDA/OpenCL)	mild_denoise	precision
Chroma noise only (dirty blue channel)	chroma_cleanup	precision
Banding in gradients (skies, walls)	deband_safe or deband_fine_grain	precision
One preset for everything filmic	filmic_rebuild ⭐	precision
Prep for color grading in DaVinci	pregrade_prep	precision
Clean archival master without grain	archive_clean	precision
Subtle filmic look, safe default	cinematic	film_looks
Specific 35mm Kodak (250D / 500T / 50D)	film_35mm	film_looks
16mm organic, lifted shadows	film_16mm	film_looks
Super 8, faded 70s, heavy grain	super8	film_looks
High-contrast desaturated (Se7en, Saving Private Ryan)	bleach_bypass	film_looks
Large-format IMAX feel — minimal grain, gate weave	imax_70mm	film_looks
Hollywood cinemascope (horizontal blue lens flares + teal shadows)	anamorphic_scope	film_looks
VHS / CRT aesthetic	vhs_crt	retro
90s amateur camcorder	camcorder_90s	retro
1970s Polaroid SX-70 (candy-bloom, warm cream)	polaroid	retro

Pipeline scenarios (chain multiple presets via apply-profile-batch or manual runs):

Scenario	Steps
Night timelapse → film	shadow_denoise_sota → filmic_rebuild → cinematic
VHS archive → restored master	qtgmc_deinterlace → derainbow_decross → mvtools_mcdegrain → archive_clean
Old YouTube-rip → project-ready	deblock_h264_artefacts → dehaze_local_contrast → pregrade_prep
Telecined NTSC DVD → 24p master	tivtc_ivtc → archive_clean
Modern digital → film look	mild_denoise → film_35mm

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PRECISION palette — technical pipeline (8 presets)

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

Stage 1 — denoise

mild_denoise — soft universal denoiser

DFTTest spectral denoiser. Pure CPU, hardware-agnostic — same behaviour on any CPU. Recommended as the first choice when nothing specific is known about the material: light noise, gentle clean-up without risk.

• Parameters: strength = light (sigma=4.0) / medium (8.0) / strong (14.0)
• Encoder: h264_crf17 or h264_crf14 for archival quality
• What's in NLE: only Temporal NR / generic Noise Reduction; coarser results

shadow_denoise_sota ⭐ — flagship shadow denoiser

BM3D with float32 pipeline + smooth luma-mask "shadows only". Noise is killed only in zones below shadow_threshold; the rest of the picture is untouched. Chroma planes are always denoised (chroma noise is equally ugly everywhere). Optional grain_back re-adds micro-grain so cleaned shadows do not look "plastic".

• Parameters: sigma=2.5 (BM3D luma), use_cuda=0/1, grain_back=0.6, shadow_threshold=0.20, transition=0.10
• On NVIDIA: --use-cuda 1 gives 25–35% wall-time win on 4K
• Encoder: h264_crf17 / prores_lt
• Not in NLE: zone-targeted denoise with smooth blend, no cheap "threshold mask" hack

chroma_cleanup — chroma-only cleanup

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

• Parameters: strength = light / medium / strong
• Encoder: h264_crf17
• Not in NLE: clean chroma-only DFTTest without luma side-effects

Stage 2 — deband

deband_safe — safe debander

neo_f3kdb with light settings, no grain. Removes banding in gradients (skies, walls, night lighting) without softening edges.

• Parameters: range=15, y=64, cb=64, cr=64
• Encoder: h264_crf17 / h265_crf21

deband_fine_grain — deband + fine-grain restore

Same neo_f3kdb + AddGrain. Light monochromatic grain after debanding — avoids the "too clean" look characteristic of cheap compression.

• Parameters: range=15, grain_var=1.5
• Encoder: prores_lt (for downstream grading)

Stage 3 — compositions

filmic_rebuild ⭐ — flagship composition

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

• Parameters: sigma=2.0, use_cuda=0/1, deband_range=14, grain_shadow=1.5, grain_mid=0.9, grain_high=0.4, shadow_threshold=0.30, high_threshold=0.65
• Encoder: prores_lt / h265_crf21

archive_clean — neutral archival master

DFTTest + neo_f3kdb. No grain. Goal — maximally clean, "flat" picture for archiving. Do not use if downstream grading is planned (grading works better on grainy material).

• Parameters: denoise=medium, range=15
• Encoder: prores_422hq / prores_422hq_mxf

pregrade_prep — handoff to DaVinci

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

• Parameters: strength=light
• Encoder: prores_lt_mxf (round-trip with Adobe / Avid)

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FILM_LOOKS palette — film emulations (7 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 a specific stock. Works on any modern digital material.

• Parameters: intensity=1.0 (range 0..2)
• Encoder: prores_lt / h264_crf17

film_35mm — Kodak 35mm with stock variants

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

• Parameters: stock=250D|500T|50D, intensity=1.0
• Encoder: prores_lt / prores_lt_mxf

film_16mm — organic, grainier

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

• Parameters: intensity=1.0
• Encoder: prores_lt

super8 — strongest look

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

• Parameters: intensity=1.0
• Encoder: h264_crf17 (grain is already baked in, aggressive compression OK)

imax_70mm — large-format IMAX feel ⭐

Opposite of Super 8: minimal grain, maximum resolution, very soft halation on highlights, optional 1px gate weave (deterministic, seed=42 → reproducible). The huge frame of real 70mm IMAX → each silver grain is tiny relative to the picture. Suits shots that should feel "epic", not "filmic".

• Parameters: intensity=1.0, gate_weave=1 (on by default)
• Encoder: prores_lt / h265_crf17
• Not in NLE: calibrated micro-grain plus gate weave (NLEs only do flat plate grain)

anamorphic_scope ⭐ — Hollywood cinemascope

Anamorphic optics signature: long horizontal blue lens flares on highlights only (those "horizontal blue streaks across the sky" in Abrams / Nolan / Villeneuve films, made by Panavision / Hawk / ARRI Master Anamorphic). Plus subtle teal-cool shadows for the classic blockbuster look.

In our implementation: highlight-mask (flare_thr) → horizontal low-pass blur of length flare_len → blue tint (R 10% / G 55% / B 100%) → additive merge over the original. Then shadow-masked teal shift (R −10% / G +5% / B +12%). All in 16-bit RGB so streaks don't clip.

• Parameters: intensity=1.0, flare_len=96 (48 subtle / 96 default / 160 dramatic / 256 extreme), flare_thr=0.78 (0.85 highlights-only / 0.78 default / 0.70 aggressive / 0.60 heavy), teal_shadow=0.35 (0.0 off / 0.20 subtle / 0.35 default / 0.60 heavy)
• Encoder: prores_lt (for colorist) or h265_crf14 (final)
• The preset does not crop the frame to 2.39:1 — that's a creative choice; add ffmpeg -vf crop=W:floor(W/2.39):0:Y in post if you need true scope.
• Not in NLE: directional anamorphic streak without expensive paid plugins like Optical Flares; smooth threshold for flare cut-in; full 16-bit math.

bleach_bypass — high-contrast desaturated

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

• Parameters: intensity=1.0
• Encoder: prores_lt

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RETRO palette — analog character (3 presets)

vhs_crt — VHS / CRT

Chroma bleed (horizontal color smear), soft optics, analog noise. Emulation of VHS playback through a CRT TV.

• Parameters: intensity=1.2
• Encoder: h264_crf17

camcorder_90s — amateur camcorder

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

• Parameters: intensity=1.0
• Encoder: h264_crf17

polaroid ⭐ — 1970s Polaroid SX-70

Strong candy-bloom on highlights, lifted blacks (never goes to true black, creamy fade), warm gamma push, mild desaturation, radial edge vignette. Five composited steps — what would take a stack of 5–6 effects to build manually in NLE.

• Parameters: intensity=1.0, vignette=0.55 (range 0..1; 0 = none, 1 = corners to black)
• Encoder: h264_crf17 (filmic material tolerates compression)
• Not in NLE: one-shot Polaroid emulation; radial vignette without geometric distortion or LUT side-effects

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RESTORATION palette — supercannons (10 presets, Phase 18.B + 18.B-ML)

What's missing or weak in Adobe Premiere / DaVinci Resolve.

qtgmc_deinterlace — reference-grade 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.

• Parameters: field_order=tff|bff, qtgmc-preset=Faster|Fast|Medium|Slow|Slower|Placebo, output_fps=single|double
• When to use: DV, HDV, VHS captures, broadcast TS, S-VHS / U-matic digitization
• Encoder: prores_lt (for downstream work) or h264_crf17 (if final master)

tivtc_ivtc — inverse telecine

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

• Parameters: pp=6 (TFM post-processor), cycle=5, rdrop=1 (standard NTSC pattern)
• When to use: NTSC DVDs, broadcast prints, digitized film transfers
• Encoder: prores_422 / prores_422hq_mxf

mvtools_mcdegrain — motion-compensated denoise

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

• Parameters: radius=2 (5-frame window), thsad=200, blksize=16 (HD) / 8 (4K detail)
• When to use: high-ISO night footage, preserving skin / fabric texture
• Encoder: prores_lt / h265_crf17

derainbow_decross — NTSC composite cleanup

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

• Parameters: strength=0.6, blksize=16
• When to use: digitized VHS, color "crawls" on thin lines, mosquito noise on B/W edges
• Encoder: prores_lt / h264_crf17

deblock_h264_artefacts — over-compression 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 smear real detail.

• Parameters: quant1=24, quant2=26, aoffset=1, boffset=1
• When to use: old YouTube rips, WhatsApp/Telegram re-encodes, low-bitrate SD broadcast TS
• Encoder: h264_crf17 (after deblock the material is cleaner; you can re-encode at higher CRF)

dehaze_local_contrast — clarity without halos

Luma-only local contrast via high-pass + zone-weighted MaskedMerge. Zone-mask (parabolic, peak at midtones) prevents blown highlights and crushed shadows. Color does not shift (luma-only). 16-bit math.

• Parameters: strength=1.0, radius=8 (clarity) / 12-16 (haze removal)
• When to use: haze, flat low-contrast material, need to "wake the picture up" without destroying highlights
• Not in NLE: Resolve "Dehaze" blows highlights and shifts color; here, no halos
• Encoder: prores_lt (handoff to colorist) or h264_crf17 (final)

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Encoders — my patterns

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

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

Profile	When to use
h264_crf14 / h265_crf14 ⭐ default	Semi-lossless archive, master for downstream work. Audion default since 2026-04-28.
h264_crf17 / h265_crf17	"Almost invisible" lossy, final master
h264_crf21 / h265_crf21	Web preview / proxy / preview
prores_lt ⭐	Audion default ProRes — no keying, made for grading and round-trip
prores_lt_mxf ⭐	ProRes LT in MXF wrapper — for Adobe Premiere / Avid round-trip
prores_422	If you need slightly more bitrate than LT
prores_422_mxf	ProRes 422 in MXF wrapper for Adobe / Avid handoff
prores_422hq	Only if keying is planned
prores_422hq_mxf	HQ + MXF for broadcast / Avid finishing
dnxhr_lb / _sq / _hq / _hqx	Avid-style DNxHR (LB low / SQ standard / HQ high / HQX 10-bit)
h264_nvenc_q14 / _q17 / _q21	NVENC hardware H.264 on NVIDIA. Removes the libx264 CPU bottleneck — VS filters don't compete with encode. CQ ≈ CRF. 8-bit yuv420p.
h265_nvenc_q14 / _q17 / _q21	NVENC hardware HEVC, 10-bit p010le. Ideal for full pipeline on NVIDIA: VS filtering on CPU/CUDA + encode on NVENC = no CPU bottleneck.
h264_qsv_q14 / _q17 / _q21	Intel QuickSync H.264. Good for Intel iGPU batch/proxy work when CPU should stay free for VapourSynth.
h265_qsv_q14 / _q17 / _q21	Intel QuickSync HEVC, p010le for 10-bit output where supported.
h264_amf_q14 / _q17 / _q21	AMD AMF H.264 via CQP, matching the same visual ladder.
h265_amf_q14 / _q17 / _q21	AMD AMF HEVC, p010le output; useful on Radeon hosts.

Rule: for any non-final pass → prores_lt / prores_lt_mxf or DNxHR if the receiving app 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

Scenario	Encoder
Heavy VS pipeline (filmic_rebuild, mvtools_mcdegrain) on NVIDIA	NVENC — CPU is freed for the VS filter, total wall-time drops 30-50%
Final delivery where maximum bit density matters	libx264/libx265 CRF — software encoder is still slightly more efficient at low CRF
Intel iGPU host / laptop batch	QuickSync — good throughput with low CPU pressure
AMD/Radeon host	AMF — same 14/17/21 CQP ladder, avoids CPU encode bottlenecks
Big batch over hundreds of files	NVENC / QSV / AMF — time savings compound
No working hardware encoder	Software 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 for the same quality, but NVENC is still many times faster.

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Install & service scripts — when to run what

There are many scripts in install/, and not all are obvious. This section is the "when do you call which" map with concrete arguments and examples. Every script comes as a .cmd (thin wrapper, resolves portable PowerShell) + .ps1 (full logic) pair. Usually you launch them via builder_main.cmd (FZF menu), but any can be run directly via double-click or CLI.

Entry point: builder_main.cmd

Main menu of service operations. FZF navigation (if system_core\fzf.exe exists), otherwise CMD fallback with letter hotkeys. Menu map:

#	Item	What it does	Underlying script
[01]	Build portable env CMD builder	initial build of runtime/	Build_Portable_Env_Build.cmd
[02]	Build portable env PS	alt PowerShell-based builder	Build_Portable_Env.ps1
[03]	Install portable offline	offline install from a pre-downloaded wheelhouse	install_portable_offline.cmd
[04]	Verify portable env	orchestrator-Python sanity	verify_portable_env.cmd
[05]	Update FZF	bump fzf.exe to latest	launcher-tools-update_fzf.cmd
[06..08]	Licenses	collect / prune / dedupe license files	system_core\license\Run-*.cmd
[09]	Make release archive	release zip excluding output/, logs/, ._runtime/, install/download/, private MEMORY.md	make_release_archive.cmd
[04]	PowerShell	portable pwsh 7 → system_core\powershell\	Install-Portable-PowerShell.cmd
[10]	VapourSynth	latest VS stable + latest Python 3.12.x embed → system_core\vapoursynth\	Install-Portable-VapourSynth.cmd
[11]	VS plugins	vsrepo plugin set (incl. bm3dcuda and znedi3 by default)	Install-VS-Plugins.cmd
[12]	FFmpeg	Exact-stable Gyan by driver policy; BtbN rolling opt-in → Tools\ffmpeg\bin\	Install-Portable-FFmpeg.cmd
[13] ⭐	VS-MLRT LEAN	fresh-download vs-mlrt TensorRT bundle, clean plugins\vsmlrt, lean-trim to current SM	Install-VS-mlrt.cmd /LEAN
[14]	VS-MLRT FULL	fresh-download same install, no trim — for USB distribution	Install-VS-mlrt.cmd /FULL
[70]	Clean install cache	remove transient install downloads, staging dirs, and bytecode caches while preserving portable payloads	Clean-Install-Cache.cmd
[90..99]	Open / Project	explorer for subfolders / jump to project launcher	—
[00]	Exit	—	—

From-scratch order: [01] -> [03] -> [04] -> [10] -> [11] -> [12] -> (optional) [13] -> [70]. After all install steps, run runtime\python.exe system_core\doctor.py once — it should be all green.

install\Install-Portable-VapourSynth.{cmd,ps1} — latest VS stable + own Python 3.12.x

Resolves the latest stable VapourSynth release and latest Python 3.12.x embed, cleans system_core\vapoursynth\, installs the matching VapourSynth wheel, and drops the portable.vs marker so vsrepo enters portable mode. After the wheel install it explicitly creates and prints the active plugin dir from vapoursynth.get_plugin_dir(); VS R74+ no longer treats legacy vs-plugins\ as the real autoload target. Uses Expand-7zArchive (via Ensure-7zip.ps1) — ~3× faster than Expand-Archive on large archives.

At the end calls Repair-PipShims.cmd — fixes shebangs in Scripts\*.exe immediately after wheel install (a fresh install needs no manual fix).

Flags: /R <rev> (e.g. /R R76 to pin version). /F is accepted for compatibility; current installer already refreshes by default.

install\Install-VS-Plugins.{cmd,ps1} — VapourSynth plugins via vsrepo

Installs:

• v1.0 set: lsmas, ffms2, fmtconv, neo_f3kdb, addgrain, knlmeanscl, bm3dcpu, dfttest
• Restoration set (Phase 18.B): havsfunc, mvsfunc, mvtools, tivtc
• CUDA: bm3dcuda by default (Phase 18.A0). Opt-out via /NO-CUDA (on a clean non-NVIDIA host, to skip a plugin that would fail at load anyway).

Also installs vsutil via pip (imported at the top level of havsfunc.py — without it, Restoration presets crash with ModuleNotFoundError).

Update-safe: vsrepo update refreshes the package database, the installer cleans the active vapoursynth.get_plugin_dir() path while preserving plugins\vsmlrt if present, then vsrepo install installs the requested list again. Safe to re-run after updating the plugin list.

install\Install-Portable-FFmpeg.{cmd,ps1} — BtbN GPL latest, Gyan.dev fallback

Installs a driver-compatible exact-stable Gyan build by default. A BtbN rolling release-branch build remains available only by explicit opt-in. Drops ffmpeg.exe / ffprobe.exe / ffplay.exe into Tools\ffmpeg\bin\. Fast extraction via Expand-7zArchive.

Flags: /V <variant> (gpl default / lgpl / gpl-shared), /F (force).

install\Install-VS-mlrt.{cmd,ps1} — ML stack (Phase 18.B-ML)

Only for those who want the ML presets (vsmlrt_realesrgan_2x, vsmlrt_rife_60fps, dpir_denoise). Installs the full TensorRT bundle: VSTRT + VSORT + VSOV + VSNCNN + ONNX runtime + TensorRT runtime DLLs + the complete ONNX model collection. After extraction, Audion moves OpenVINO/vsov out of the active autoload folder to system_core\vapoursynth\disabled_plugins\vsmlrt-openvino: TensorRT / TensorRT-RTX / ONNX Runtime remain active, while Windows Bad Image 0xc0e90002 from OpenVINO DLLs cannot break startup.

Working set after install: ~3.5 GB at /LEAN (default), ~10 GB at /FULL. Every run fresh-downloads the selected vs-mlrt assets and cleans only the plugins\vsmlrt subtree before copying runtime DLLs, scripts and models. Extraction via 7zr.exe (needed for BCJ2-filtered streams in TRT runtime DLLs — py7zr cannot decode them).

Full update order: if you run [10] VAPOURSYNTH or [11] VS PLUGINS, run [13] VS-MLRT LEAN again before any Full all-presets smoke. ML presets should never be validated against an older MLRT layer after the base VS runtime/plugins were refreshed.

Flags:

• /LEAN (default via [13]) — trims TensorRT builder resources to the current SM (detected via nvidia-smi --query-gpu=compute_cap), removes unused models (cugan, waifu2x). On non-NVIDIA, falls back to FULL behaviour.
• /FULL (via [14]) — full bundle for USB distribution to another machine.
• /DROP-CACHE — after success, calls the central Clean-Install-Cache policy for transient install downloads, staging dirs, and bytecode caches.
• Default from builder = /LEAN and keeps install cache. Use [70] Clean install cache or /DROP-CACHE explicitly to remove cached downloads.

After install, the backend in ML presets is selected automatically: TRT (if NVIDIA + matching TRT runtime) → ORT_DML (DirectML, any DX12 GPU including Intel Xe / AMF) → ORT_CPU. Cross-vendor stable (via audion_lib.vsmlrt_backend_chain() — on non-NVIDIA we don't even attempt to compile a TRT engine, saving 30–120 s).

Annoyance: Windows Defender blocks the unsigned openvino_intel_npu_plugin.dll. The script removes it automatically after extract (not needed on NVIDIA / DirectML setups).

install\Clean-Install-Cache.{cmd,ps1} — disk reclaim

Removes transient install downloads (.7z, .zip, .tar.*, .msi, .exe), exact installer staging dirs, and Python bytecode caches outside payload/user-data zones. Preserve list inside install\download\ (always kept):

• .gitkeep
• get-pip.py (re-used on every fresh build)
• 7z*-extra.7z (Ensure-7zip bootstrap helper, ~2 MB)

When you need it: after a successful [13] VS-MLRT LEAN or [14] VS-MLRT FULL (~3.5 GB compressed archives), periodically after Install-Portable-* (fresh FFmpeg build / new VS R75+).

Philosophy: storage > bandwidth. Re-download = ~1.5 minutes on gigabit; 3.5 GB on disk sit there forever. Working set after lean+cleanup: ~3.5 GB instead of 10.

install\Repair-PipShims.{cmd,ps1} — fix Scripts\*.exe after a move

Symptom: after moving the project to a different drive letter / path / machine, vspipe.exe and other Scripts\*.exe silently exit 1 with no output. doctor.py shows [FAIL] vspipe runs while python.exe -c "import vapoursynth" works fine.

Cause: pip embeds an absolute shebang (#!"<full python.exe path>") inside each Scripts\*.exe. After the move, that path no longer exists.

What to do: run install\Repair-PipShims.cmd. It rewrites the shebang in every Scripts\*.exe to the current system_core\vapoursynth\python.exe. The launcher stub and trailing zip are left intact.

Flags:

• /WHATIF or /N — dry-run preview without writing.

In normal operation not needed: system_core\engine\selfheal.py is hooked into the start of main.py and doctor.py — it reads the first 16 KB of vspipe.exe on startup, parses the embedded shebang, and on mismatch silently calls Repair-PipShims.cmd. Idempotent via AUDION_SELFHEAL_DONE=1. Manual repair is needed only if you hit vspipe outside main.py/doctor.py (e.g. a direct CLI bench script that doesn't go through self-heal).

install\Bench-CUDA.{cmd,ps1} — pure-pipeline CPU vs CUDA on BM3D

What it benches: two BM3D-heavy presets (shadow_denoise_sota and filmic_rebuild), each run twice — on CPU and on CUDA. Pipeline vspipe → ffmpeg -f null (no encoding). No-encode is needed so libx264 doesn't eat all wall-time on a fast multi-core CPU and hide the CUDA win.

How to use:

copy:: Drag-n-drop a file onto Bench-CUDA.cmd, or:
install\Bench-CUDA.cmd "C:\clips\test.mov"
install\Bench-CUDA.cmd "C:\clips\test.mov" 2.5    :: second arg = sigma (default 2.5)

Output: 4 timing lines + a summary table CPU/CUDA + Δ %. Nothing is written to disk.

How to read it:

• On the reference DCI 4K ProRes 25-second clip (RTX 5070 / Ryzen 9 5900X): shadow_denoise_sota = −35%, filmic_rebuild = −24%.
• On clips shorter than ~5 s the CUDA setup cost is not amortized → result can be noise or even slightly slower than CPU.
• Task Manager lies: even on a working CUDA path it often shows 5–10% GPU. BM3D is bandwidth-bound and runs in bursts; surrounding fmtc bit-depth conversions and frame-prop tags happen on the CPU. The authoritative "CUDA is alive" signal is the wall-time delta and [OK] bm3dcuda runtime — live BM3D CUDA invocation succeeded in doctor.py.

install\Bench-AllPresets.{cmd,ps1} ⭐ — smoke across all 28 presets

Walker over system_core\presets\<palette>\*.vpy. Every preset is run through vspipe -c y4m --end <Frames-1> | ffmpeg -f null — pure pipeline, no disk writes. Smoke goal: confirm that (a) the preset parses, (b) every plugin namespace it needs resolves, (c) frames make it to ffmpeg without exceptions.

How to use:

copy:: Drag-n-drop, or:
install\Bench-AllPresets.cmd "C:\clips\test.mp4"
install\Bench-AllPresets.cmd "C:\clips\test.mp4" 30 sweep auto

Current local references:

• Portable CPU/ORT fallback: 28/28 PASS with Frames=1, Cuda=off, MlBackend=ort_cpu (2026-05-16).
• RTX 5070 validation: 36/36 PASS with Frames=1, Cuda=sweep, MlBackend=auto (2026-05-27). The 36 rows are 28 presets plus the extra CPU/CUDA Precision sweep.

Arguments:

1. Video path (required)
2. Frames per preset (default 30)
3. Cuda mode: off / on / sweep (default off)

• off — every preset on CPU
• on — every Precision preset with AUDION_VS_USE_CUDA=1
• sweep — Precision runs twice (CPU and CUDA), other palettes once

1. ML backend: auto / trt / ort_dml / ort_cpu / sweep (default auto)

• auto — vs-mlrt picks TRT → ORT_DML → ORT_CPU itself
• sweep — ML presets run twice (auto and ort_cpu) for GPU vs CPU baseline comparison

How many rows you get:

• off auto — one row per preset (28 total)
• sweep auto — Precision×2 + others×1 = 8×2 + 7 + 3 + 10 = 36 rows
• sweep sweep — Precision×2 + ML restoration×2 + others×1 = 16 + 7 + 3 + 6 + 4×2 = 40 rows

At the end — Summary Total / PASS / FAIL; for -Cuda sweep a CPU vs CUDA Δ % table over Precision presets, plus a JSON report at logs\bench_all_presets_<TS>.json.

When to run it:

• After Install-VS-Plugins or Install-VS-mlrt — confirm every preset is alive (PASS == Total).
• After moving the project (post-Repair-PipShims).
• After an NVIDIA driver upgrade — to confirm TRT engines rebuild without errors.
• When adding a new preset — make sure it didn't break neighbour imports.

Hidden-but-important details:

• Per-preset env overrides ($presetOverrides table in Bench-AllPresets.ps1) — without them AUDION_VS_STRENGTH=medium (a Precision tag) breaks Restoration presets (dehaze, derainbow) that parse STRENGTH as float. And AUDION_VS_MODEL differs across ESRGAN / RIFE / DPIR.
• Separate stderr temp files for vspipe and ffmpeg (a single cmd.exe pipe cannot 2>file.log from both processes — ERROR_SHARING_VIOLATION).
• Local row vars are not named $cuda — that would clobber the script param $Cuda (PowerShell variables are case-insensitive → ValidateSet breaks on assignment).

install\Ensure-7zip.ps1 — dot-source helper for 7-Zip

Not run directly — other *.ps1 files dot-source it:

copy. "$PSScriptRoot\Ensure-7zip.ps1"
$exe = Ensure-7zr -ProjectRoot $ProjectRoot
Expand-7zArchive -Archive $zip -Destination $dst -ProjectRoot $ProjectRoot

Build env steps [01]/[02] explicitly install 7zr.exe (~1.5 MB, pure 7z extractor with BCJ2 support) and 7za.exe (~1.7 MB, universal — zip / 7z / tar / gz / bz2 / xz) into system_core\7zip\ before Python setup. Fetched once, then travels with the project.

Why we need it:

• Expand-Archive (.NET ZipArchive) chokes on ZIPs > 2 GB (BtbN FFmpeg, VS portable) and is memory-hungry.
• py7zr cannot decode BCJ2-filtered streams (vs-mlrt TensorRT runtime DLLs).
• 7za is format-stable and portable.

Quick "when do I call what" map

Scenario	Scripts in order
Fresh install from scratch	builder_main → [01] → [10] → [11] → [12] → [13] → opt. [14] → [16] → doctor.py
Moved the project to another drive / machine	doctor.py (selfheal calls Repair-PipShims itself) — or manually install\Repair-PipShims.cmd
Need/update the ML stack	builder_main → [13] VS-MLRT LEAN after [10] / [11] / [12], then Bench-AllPresets with -MlBackend sweep
Want to confirm CUDA is actually alive	install\Bench-CUDA.cmd <video> — measures real wall-time delta
Want to confirm all 28 presets work locally without NVIDIA	system_core\powershell\pwsh.exe -NoLogo -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File install\Bench-AllPresets.ps1 -ProjectRoot . -InputFile <video> -Frames 1 -Cuda off -MlBackend ort_cpu
RTX / TensorRT validation	system_core\powershell\pwsh.exe -NoLogo -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File install\Bench-AllPresets.ps1 -ProjectRoot . -InputFile <video> -Frames 1 -Cuda sweep -MlBackend auto
Disk is tight	builder_main → [16] CLEAN INSTALL CACHE — frees ~3.5 GB compressed archives
Updated NVIDIA driver / swapped GPU	doctor.py (live bm3dcuda smoke) → Bench-CUDA → Bench-AllPresets (TRT engines rebuild on first ML preset)
Added a new preset	Bench-AllPresets for smoke + register in engine/presets.py + add a launcher entry + update this wiki
Preparing release archive	builder_main → [09] Make release archive — output excludes output/, logs/, ._runtime/, install/download/, release/, API keys, and private MEMORY.md; MEMORY.example.md stays public

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Additional — full reference

• English docstring per preset: at the top of each system_core/presets/<palette>/<preset>.vpy
• CLI flags: runtime\python.exe system_core\main.py run --help
• Profiles (cross-palette combinations): runtime\python.exe system_core\main.py list-profiles
• Recursive batch with mirror folder structure: apply-profile-batch --recursive
• Stack health: runtime\python.exe system_core\doctor.py
• AI / ML stack install and scenarios: see Install & service scripts section above → Install-VS-mlrt.cmd

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AI / ML (Phase 18.B-ML) — vs-mlrt stack

These presets use vs-mlrt (ONNX inference inside VapourSynth). Backend is auto-selected: trt (TensorRT, NVIDIA, fastest) → ort_dml (DirectML, any DX12 GPU including Intel Xe / AMF) → ort_cpu (CPU fallback). Install via builder_main.cmd → [13] VS-MLRT LEAN (~3.5 GB download, ~6 GB extracted).

vsmlrt_realesrgan_2x ⭐ — ML 2x upscale

Real-ESRGAN — the de-facto reference for ML video super-resolution. On 1080p input it produces ~3840×2160 with face/fabric sharpness that's unreachable via Lanczos / Spline36 / Resolve SuperScale.

• Parameters: model (general-x4v3 default / animevideov3 / general-wdn-x4v3 / animejanaiV2-L1/L2/L3), tile=384, tile_pad=16, backend=auto
• Encoder: prores_lt (for downstream work) or h265_crf14 (final)
• Not in NLE: real ML upscale (NLE plugins are usually paid add-ons)
• First TensorRT pass compiles an engine in 30-120s (cached after that)

soft_hd_rebuild_2x — cleanup + ML reconstruction for soft HD

For formally-HD footage whose real detail is closer to 480-720p because of soft optics, binning, aggressive OLPF, old codecs, or archive-generation loss. It cleans the frame first, runs Real-ESRGAN 2x, then applies a conservative luma detail pass.

• Parameters: rebuild=conservative|balanced|aggressive, cleanup=light|medium|strong, plus Real-ESRGAN model, tile, tile_pad, backend
• Encoder: prores_lt for grading/handoff or h265_crf14 for final delivery
• When to use: soft 1080p, archive HD with low real frequency content, under-sampled consumer footage

vsmlrt_rife_60fps ⭐ — ML frame interpolation

RIFE 4.x — modern ML model for frame interpolation. Understands content (not just pixel motion) → handles occlusion, transparent objects, fades correctly. Visibly smoother than Resolve Optical Flow on complex motion.

• Parameters: fps_mul=2.5 (24→60 default; alternatives 2/3/4), model=rife_v4.6 (default; v4.4 / v4.9), backend=auto
• Encoder: h264_crf17 or prores_lt
• When to use: 24fps film material → 60Hz target, or slow-mo from regular 24/30/60fps footage

dpir_denoise — ML denoise for heavy noise

DPIR — a deep network for denoise that preserves skin and fabric texture where BM3D / DFTTest start to smear. Use it when BM3D "kills" detail on high-ISO material.

• Parameters: strength=10 (sigma 1-50; 5 light / 10 medium / 15 heavy / 25 very heavy / 50 extreme), model=drunet_color (default; gray for B/W; deblocking_color for JPEG/MPEG block artefacts), tile=384, backend=auto
• Encoder: prores_lt (handoff to colorist) or h264_crf14 (final)
• When to use: ISO 6400+, low-light phone, broken-sensor archive

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Last updated: 2026-05-27 — 28 presets across 4 palettes, Soft HD Rebuild 2X in Restoration; local CPU/ORT smoke 28/28 PASS (Frames=1, Cuda=off, MlBackend=ort_cpu); RTX 5070 CUDA/auto smoke 36/36 PASS (Frames=1, Cuda=sweep, MlBackend=auto).