Depending on what headset you use and whether you use passthrough - the colors of the model's skin might or might not match the projected passthrough surroundings.
Be it a quest 2 with grey PT image
Or quest 3 with color PT image
Or quest pro with its semi colored PT image
Or some other headset you use.
But as i was to decide and experiment with the colors (prior we hired a colorist) - this was the skin tone i was more or less happy with.
Without those changes the model skin tone would be orange.
Add here a green spill that comes from the green walls that might be altering her real skin color.
And add the camera color shift (i noticed all the shots have that orangy tint and not just passthrough)
Good news is that we now do have a dedicated person (colorist) who has a sharp eye for colors and will be taking care of the colors from now on.
It is still a work in progress and i constantly give my feedback to our colorist regarding colors but hopefully we soon will get to the point where you guys will be happy with the colors.
Will try to make some sort of samples soon for you to compare before and after skin tone adjustments.

in a meanwhile to support my main concert about details i made a little better shot where quality difference is more visible
left - processed
right - raw
which one do you guys think is better in term of details?

downloadables:
RAW
MASTER

A short video clip would be way better for comparison instead of static images especially for HBR vs Downsampled.

    petex67 I second this. Most raw footage looks great in a picture, but then when you watch it in VR it is literally unviewable garbage. Pictures can't capture the quality difference in VR at all.
    (You gotta put on your handy dandy headset to really see)

        petex67 xeddin1
        i get you guys
        but the point was to show the different bw raw and final master
        you wont be able to compare av1 and hevc side by side in headset
        putting together av1 and hevc in one video is not possible
        and if i export raw to mp4 it would be raw anymore 🤷
        but sure, will prepare something
        perhaps raw exported to mp4 with master file at least

              Manny_S

              Yes, I meant different short video clips of the same segment comparing HEVC and AV1.
              You can likely export raw in mkv containers.

                  petex67 eh, i dont think providing a raw file in any form is a good idea for several reasons

                  1. I cant cut a part from raw video without converting it to other format.
                  2. It is not stereo corrected and you wont be able to preview it in headset
                  3. If i to correct stereo it will have to be exported to some format and it looses its sense as raw.
                  4. If i to export raw with stereo correction to some format, in order to preserve the quality closest to raw i would have to use lossless and that is not playable in headset.

                  petex67 .mkv would only work in headset if its av1, h265 or h264 (which you get below but in mp4). but if you will manage to make lossless mkv and it plays in headset - let me know, perhaps also provide a test sample, i would gladly check it in headset

                  with that said
                  i here provide yall hevc + av1 + 8k max res samples from same scene and same 1 minute section so you can either compare it on computer or in headset
                  Master HEVC
                  Master AV1
                  8K_maxres_hevc
                  8K_maxres_av1

                  keep in mind post production can only influence the master file quality
                  the server transcoding quality aka maxres and other resolution are not the part of post production workflow

                        Manny_S

                        I tried out the 8K HEVC and Master HEVC on my Quest 3.

                        As I suspected, even though still images might feel similar when the video is paused, but when it's actually playing, it's a stark difference.

                        The Low Bit Rate 8K HEVC file feels like somebody applied a heavy Motion Blur Post Processing Filter. This is especially noticeable when there is a lot of movement.
                        The Master HEVC is crystal clear on every single movement. It looks "High Res" if that makes sense.
                        It's like watching a movie on YouTube vs watching in IMAX.

                        I tried to play the AV1 files over my Stash -> Stash VR -> Heresphere stack but it refuses to play the original file and resorts to transcoding. I will try playing them directly loaded from the Quest 3's Storage a bit later.

                        On another note, it's a damn fine scene mate! Good Job!

                          Manny_S Hello and thank you for giving us this examples. And this will be some video! Looking forward to see this!

                          Unfortunately I guess I'm not going to see this scene with the high bitrate as you already dont put those one available in the new slr videos (some say its behind a paywall of the paypervideo... i will never pay that much for a video).

                          The difference is noticeable mostly how @petex67 says. When the person starts to move you can notice blurriness and out of focus on the smaller files. While on the larger files is very crispy and image flows a lot better. Its not a question of AV1 or H265, its a question of bitrate. 30 mb is just too old image.

                          But dont get me wrong, 120mb bitrate is very good bu also too much I think. But in the middle term of this I guess it would make everyone happy (or at least most people). But as I said, for me 30mb bitrate is just not good quality to see.

                          Thank you for all your work.

                            Manny_S Very interesting comparison thanks! First of all, our mind is VERY good at playing tricks on us with this kind of comparisons so you really need to do them carefully and find a way to do a blind test and start up a video without knowing which one it is. If you already know which one that you're watching, your mind will most likely play tricks on you. Very important to realize!

                            I only watched it on my AVP, not on my Q3. At first I focused on that skin discoloring on her left rib, it's a spot maybe 4 cm large. You have to watch carefully to even see it so I thought that might be a good test. I was amazed to conclude that there wasn't much difference between the original and the HVEC 8k. However the AV1 8k has a little less detail there, which amazed me too, since this is supposed to be the better compression algo? But I definitely see less detail with the AV1 8k version, while the HVEC 8k version actually seems pretty damn close to the original.

                            So then I tried focusing on a different spot and this time I could see a difference between the HVEC original and the 8k. If you focus on the hair that falls behind her neck when she takes of the shirt in the beginning of the video, you'll see that the 8k version has way more dark/black there and that you can discern more details/colors in the original. There I could easily detect which version I was watching without even knowing which one I started.

                            Still, I'm positively surprised by the quality of the 8K HVEC compression, the difference with the original is not as big as i would have thought. I do believe that camera/lighting/production quality plays a bigger factor than 8k vs original.

                              Manny_S The 8K_maxres_hevc you posted is 28mbit/s but recent SLR vids like Pink me! are only 20mbit/s.
                              I'm not sure if you are the one to ask this but what is going on here? People complain for years about the low bitrate and now SLR lowers the bitrate?

                                I mean, just look at this. The compression artifacts couldn't be clearer on this Pink me! 20mbit/s file. Just look at the background and see the crappy gradients. How can anyone with a straight face pretend that 20mbit/s is enough?

                                just compare this to ar porn that uses 75mbit/s almost 4! times higher (Tender Triangle)

                                  I privately sent @Manny_S two images from the "Pink me!" video with the timecodes to compare with his version and the one on the site we can download. Indeed, like many others, I noticed that the compression was too strong and that it smoothed out the details specifically on this video. I'm not criticizing the difference between H265 and AV1, but this video where the bitrate is very low. The images I received are of better quality, but we did not align ourselves with the same time code, and it is difficult to be categorical without comparing two same images taken at the same time but from two different sources. I think this video and this model deserves to be aligned, at the very least, with other videos at 30 mb/s bitrate. The last video "Legal Cast: Agatha" is at 30mb/s

                                  fenderwq And that example is from a PT scene where the background is mostly the same color (= less bitrate needed). The girls are taking up very small portion of the frame too (= even less bitrate needed). On a non-PT or multi-girl scene the quality loss would be even worse.

                                      fenderwq Yeah wow that's an eye opener, that compression on the walls just looks horrible. I don't think anyone thinks 20 mbit/s is enough nowadays (well SLR themselves maybe). But yours is a good example. That whole scene looks kinda blurry anyway. And it's sad to see SLR is now at 20 mbit while the competition is at 75 mbit.

                                        Have you guys read what people that aren't on the forum but leave comments under the video on the site are saying about the newest scene? Legal Cast: Agatha
                                        Just a couple comments in case you don't read them

                                        Cramming an 8K video that's over an hour long into 14GB is pretty bad. This is turning into a tube site.
                                        FUCK THIS BULLSHIT, POST THE HIGH BITRATE VERSION YOU BASTARDS
                                        I paid for this video on top of my subcription and I don't see the high-bitrate available... I feel super screwed, and not the good kind.
                                        Apart from sharpening edges with that AI sharpening SLR uses, there's hardly any details on her face. No pores, skin texture, nothing.
                                        SLR is going backwards these days after having just solved this earlier.

                                        This comparison was done on a PT scene that already have less need for bitrate. Regular are even worse.
                                        It seems like low bitrate is the problem to me

                                        boudaba where did you take a screenshot from?
                                        next time please make a a snapshot from some editing software or video player with timecode in format 00:00:00:00 (hours/minutes/seconds/frames)
                                        consider the difference in left/right eye images and if you take a screenshot from one eye make sure to let me know which eye.
                                        and attach a full screen snapshot along with the cropped zoomed version
                                        took me some time but i think i found this frame
                                        on my side its 01:01:22:30 right eye.

                                        As i understand what we are discussing here is mainly the quality of the max 8k streaming file which is right now available for download, and not the master file.

                                        i will repeat again just in case

                                        Manny_S Streaming and all the possible resolutions. (that one goes after post production and we dont influence this)

                                        Hopefully some conclusions will be made after this sort of comparison and the team will rethink server transcoding approach.

                                        Now the only thing i can prove here is that the quality of the master files our post-production team produces is on the appropriate, acceptable, watchable level. With preserved as much as possible and enhanced details compared to the RAW footage.

                                        Here is the side by side comparison of the RAW vs Master vs Max8K + your screenshot

                                        a full body side by side

                                        And finally even a 2 minute cut of each video, except for the raw (no re-encoding, pure ffmpeg copy stream)

                                        HEVC master
                                        AV1 master
                                        MAX 8K (downloaded from SLR)