[Openexr-devel] OpenEXR 1.5.0, OpenEXR-Images 1.5.0 released

[Florian Kainz]

December 15, 2006 - a new development version of OpenEXR is now available.
We have tested the code in this version internally at ILM, but we would
like to get feedback from others before we release a production version.
You can download the source code and sample images from here:

http://download.savannah.gnu.org/releases/openexr

The new version includes several significant changes:

* 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:

     - IlmBase 0.9.0 includes the Half, Iex, Imath and IlmThread libraries

     - OpenEXR 1.5.0 includes the IlmImf library, programming examples
       and utility programs such as exrheader or exrenvmap

     - 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.