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VapourWiki — Audion VS Engine preset reference (EN)

USER_GUIDE_EN.md

VapourWiki — Audion VS Engine preset reference (EN)

Contents

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.

Before you start: install the engine

The build ships without VapourSynth and its plugins — some seventy modules, each under its own licence. The program installs them itself, from their authors.

Until that is done, not one of the presets described below will run.

Run builder_main.cmd and pick, in order: VAPOURSYNTH (10), VS PLUGINS (11). The order matters: plugins need the engine already in place.

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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