1.6.1
New versions of OpenEXR and CTL are now available. This release
fixes a buffer overrun in OpenEXR and a Windows build problem in
CTL, and it removes a few unnecessary files from the .tar.gz
packages.
1.6.0
* Reduced generational loss in B44- and B44A-compressed images.
* Added B44A compression. This is a variation of B44, but with
a better compression ratio for images with large uniform areas,
such as in an alpha channel.
* Bug fixes.
1.5.0
* OpenEXR supports a new image compression method, called B44.
It has a fixed compression rate of 2.28:1, or 4.57:1 if used
in combination with luminance/chroma encoding. B44-compressed
images can be uncompressed fast enough to support real-time
playback of image sequences.
* The new playexr program plays back moving image sequences.
Playexr is multi-threaded and utilizes the threading capabilities
of the IlmImf library that were introduced in OpenEXR 1.3.0.
The program plays back B44-compressed images with fairly
high-resolution in real time on commodity hardware.
* The playexr program and a new version of the existing exrdisplay
image viewer both support color rendering via color transforms
written in the new Color Transformation Language or CTL. CTL
is not part of OpenEXR; it will be released separately. CTL
support in playexr and exrdisplay is optional; the programs
can be built and will run without CTL.
* In preparation for the release of CTL, OpenEXR has been split
into three separate packages:
o IlmBase 0.9.0 includes the Half, Iex, Imath and IlmThread
libraries
o OpenEXR 1.5.0 includes the IlmImf library, programming
examples and utility programs such as exrheader or
exrenvmap
o OpenEXRViewers 0.9.0 includes the playexr and exrdisplay
programs
* The "Technical Introduction to OpenEXR" document now includes
a recommendation for storing CIE XYZ pixel data in OpenEXR
files.
* A new "OpenEXR Image Viewing Software" document describes
the playexr and exrdisplay programs. It briefly explains
real-time playback and color rendering, and includes recommendations
for testing if other image viewing software displays OpenEXR
images correctly.
* The OpenEXR sample image set now includes B44-compressed
files and files with CIE XYZ pixel data.
* Fixed the ReleaseDLL targets for Visual Studio 2003.
Changes 1.4.0:
* Production release.
* Bug Fix: calling setFrameBuffer() for every scan line
while reading a tiled file through the scan line API
returns bad pixel data.
- New build system for Windows; support for DLLs.
- Imath: Removed TMatrix<T> classes; these classes are still
under development and are too difficult to keep in sync
with OpenEXR CVS.
- IlmImf: support for image layers in ChannelList.
- IlmImf: added isComplete() method to file classes to check
whether a file is complete.
- IlmImf: exposed staticInitialize() in ImfHeader.h in
order to allow thread-safe library initialization in
multithreaded applications.
- IlmImf: New "time code" standard attribute.
- exrdisplay: support for displaying wrap-around texture map
images.
- exrmaketiled: can now specify wrap mode.
- IlmImf: New "wrapmodes" standard attribute to indicate
extrapolation mode for mipmaps and ripmaps.
- IlmImf: New "key code" standard attribute to identify motion
picture film frames.
Industrial Light & Magic for use in computer imaging applications.
OpenEXR is used by ILM on all motion pictures currently in production.
The first movies to employ OpenEXR were Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone,
Men in Black II, Gangs of New York, and Signs. Since then, OpenEXR has become
ILM's main image file format.
OpenEXR's features include:
* Higher dynamic range and color precision than existing 8- and 10-bit image
file formats.
* Support for 16-bit floating-point, 32-bit floating-point, and 32-bit integer
pixels. The 16-bit floating-point format, called "half", is compatible with
the half data type in NVIDIA's Cg graphics language and is supported
natively on their new GeForce FX and Quadro FX 3D graphics solutions.
* Multiple lossless image compression algorithms. Some of the included codecs
can achieve 2:1 lossless compression ratios on images with film grain.
* Extensibility. New compression codecs and image types can easily be added by
extending the C++ classes included in the OpenEXR software distribution.
New image attributes (strings, vectors, integers, etc.) can be added to
OpenEXR image headers without affecting backward compatibility with existing
OpenEXR applications.
