Lucas Digital Releases OpenEXR Format

frankie writes "Although George Lucas may have gone over to the dark side, at least some of his staff prefer Freedom and light. ILM has released OpenEXR, a graphics file format and related utilities, under a BSD-style license. Among other things, it supports the same 16 bit format used by Nvidia CG and the Geforce FX. OpenEXR runs on Linux, Jaguar, and Irix; other platforms are likely to work with a little help from the community."

So they would like you to write tools for them

[jj_johny]

Get it folks. They designed a format and have some tools but have decided that they want to tap into the great pool of OSS talent. Who says this is not a dark side ploy?

If all goes as planned all the great OSS software will be written to output this format in no time.

Re:So they would like you to write tools for them

[BFaucet]

Who cares?

This means everyone (including you, me, and yes ILM) can benefit from this.

The thing I'd be suspisious (sp?) of is them releasing this format so everyone will start using it, then releasing their tools (for gobs of cash) that'll be better than most other software using the format.

Re:So they would like you to write tools for them

[JanneM]

Um, to me that sounds like a good plan for everyone. It's one of the points of open source that while you release your stuff, you can make money on your own extensive knowledge of said stuff. After all, since the format and basic tools are open you do not need to use their (hypothetical) proprietary versions if you do not want to.

Umm this means nothing.

[Anonymous Coward]

The submitter doesn't even understand what ILS is offering, 'uses the same 16 bit format as...', no, it uses a special datatype that CG has, and FX will natively support (pssst CG is dead too, thanks to both MS and the OpenGL consortium endrunning them by implementing their own high level shader language)

the only thing I see this library even offers is the 'capability to store' HDR' (High Definition Rendering) information, which offers better lighting techniques and edge detection.. *free* code to do the exact same thing is available at ATI, nVidia, SIGGRAPH, Usenet, any number of graphic books, etc.

This story is useless. This code is useless. HDR relies on the rendering technique, not the 'file format'.

The fine print, BIG IN ALL CAPS

[Sloppy]

What this shows, is that you don't need to print something in nanopoint type to ensure that most people won't notice it. YELLING is also an effective way to make sure that no one hears you too, because it activates their mental this-is-worthless-crap filters.

"Your honor, my client did not consent to the terms, for he was nor informed of them. After all, the terms were clearly shouted right in his face, in bold, underlined, and blinking. There's no way he could have seen that."

Re:Great, another format to be ignored

[raytracer]

PNG has been accepted as far as browser support, but is relatively (in comparison to JPG and GIF) unused. Unless this image format has vastly improved abilities over the conventional method, this is a non-starter.

Don't hold back, tell us what you really think.

This might come as a shock to some, but the entire world isn't the same as you. They have different needs and different desires. In this case, ILM has a need for an image format which allows for high dynamic range and lossy compression. PNG doesn't supply that. TIFF doesn't supply that. JPG doesn't supply that. So they invented their own, and released it for all to use.

They really don't care very much about whether your browser supports it (although a nice plugin would be a cool idea, and golly, it is possible because they were kind enough to release the source). They are busy making movies. If you aren't making movies or interested in high dynamic range photography, you probably don't care. But then, they never said you had to care, did they?

Re:So they would like you to write tools for them

[NanoGator]

"Get it folks. They designed a format and have some tools but have decided that they want to tap into the great pool of OSS talent. Who says this is not a dark side ploy?

If all goes as planned all the great OSS software will be written to output this format in no time. "

Geez I didn't realize Dale Gribble frequented Slashdot.

There's a very simple reason why Lucas would release this format to the world: So it'll get included in other commercial packages. If Gimp, FilmGimp, and eventually Photoshop start supporting this format, then it's a win for everybody. This "They're doing it for greed!" paranoia is ignorant. Of course they're doing it for their benefit, they're paying for it by making it benefit everybody else. Damn them!

Whatever. I'm a little tired of this attitude that every time a giant takes a step, he kills innocent children, then he laughs like Beavis.

Good C++ style

[captaineo]

I've been reading over the code - anyone who wants to study good C++ style should definitely check this out, even if you aren't interested in graphics! The ILM libraries make good use of templates, exceptions, operator overloading, and iostreams - in ways that are clear and easy to understand (as opposed to many other C++ libraries I've seen...). You'll have to look hard to find a more appropriate application of C++ features.