Edge-preserving alternatives to Bilateral Filters

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I'm glad that I asked that question! There are a lot more interesting aspects to anisotropic diffusion than just filtering. Almost looks like a segmentation algorithm, from some of the images that I've seen. Have you compared the built-in bilateral filter with the ximgproc anisotropic diffusion filter? Any notable improvements?

PS: I would compare the filters myself, but I need to find out if I can build the ximgproc library separately. I had a tough time building the C++ version of OpenCV, and I don't want to risk messing up that build on my dev machine. That's probably a question best posed in a separate thread. For now, any comments on the anisotropic filter are welcome.

you can also try some implementations found by google. see here or here. Give attention to how often you apply the filtering

Very good. I had searched, but didn't find those particular links.