Disney Releases 3D Texture Mapper Source Code

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Disney Releases 3D Texture Mapper Source Code

Posted by timothy on Wednesday January 20, 2010 @07:52AM from the nice-of-them dept.

dsavi writes "Ptex, Walt Disney Animation Studio's cutting-edge 3D texture mapping library which was first used on nearly every surface in the 2008 animated feature Bolt, was released under the BSD license on Friday. Quoting the announcement on monophyl.com: 'We expect to follow Ptex with other open source projects that we hope the community will find beneficial. We will soon be launching a new Walt Disney Animation Studios Technology page under disneyanimation.com. It will include links to our open source projects as will as a library of recent publications.' This looks good for open source 3D graphics."

83 comments

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Didn't see that one coming.... by santax · 2010-01-20 07:55 · Score: 3, Insightful

Chapeau Walt Disney! This is just plain cool and I would have never expected Disney to open up anything! Hope they will set and continue this trend!
1. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by jimbolauski · 2010-01-20 07:58 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Get it while you can they open the vault for a limited time.
  
  --
  Knowledge = Power
  P= W/t
  t=Money
  Money = Work/Knowledge so the less you know the more you make
2. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by ceoyoyo · 2010-01-20 08:03 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Remember that Pixar bought Disney for minus a jillion dollars a while ago.
3. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by santax · 2010-01-20 08:06 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah but since Steve Jobs owns 50.6% of shares I am very confused... Didn't he had anything to say in this? Steve would probably charge you money if you were willing to take over his mother in law!
4. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-01-20 08:07 · Score: 1, Interesting
  
  Remember that Pixar bought Disney for minus a jillion dollars a while ago.
  
  That's probably the most accurate (and honest) way of looking at the Disney/Pixar deal.
5. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by orangesquid · 2010-01-20 08:08 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  Yeah... this might be some sort of miscommunication. Mickey Mouse's lawyers might not have really understood the implications of a BSD license. I wouldn't be surprised if the Ptex site disappears, nothing further ever arrives along the lines of open-source code, and Disney's lawyers attempt to find loopholes to get mirrors of the Ptex source taken down.
  Disney has always held tight controls over their IP, and while the BSD license gives them a lot of control over what *they* do with Ptex, it gives the community a lot of control over what the *community* does with Ptex, provided any forking coders properly acknowledge the original authors and abide by the set (albeit minimal) of constraints provided by the BSD license.
  [Obligatory IANAL, so any groklaw aficianados, feel free to correct, clarify, or serve me with a court-order comprising one Clue Stick (TM).]
  
  --
  --TheOrangeSquid Is it any wonder things seem so awry? We swim in a sea of confusion and don't have to think to survive
6. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-01-20 08:12 · Score: 0
  
  Yeah but since Steve Jobs owns 50.6% of shares I am very confused... Didn't he had anything to say in this? Steve would probably charge you money if you were willing to take over his mother in law!
  Steve Jobs' Pixar shares are gone now, since Pixar is no longer a separate company. His shares were converted to Disney shares, of which there are many more; hence he now owns far less than 50%.
  And its not like Apple doesn't run a dozen open-source projects (CUPS, WebKit, CalDAV...)
7. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by robinstar1574 · 2010-01-20 08:17 · Score: 0
  
  Apple geek owns the movie making geek group? Oh No!
8. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by santax · 2010-01-20 08:19 · Score: 1
  
  Ai, you are right and I stand corrected. Always good to learn something new. He owns 7% of disney shares, but he still is the largest shareholder.
9. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by bored_engineer · 2010-01-20 08:28 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  This isn't a new sort of thing for Disney. Disney were (are?) the main developers behind the Panda3d game engine.
10. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by ceoyoyo · 2010-01-20 08:28 · Score: 1
  
  He's also CEO of Apple, who never ever contribute any open source such as Darwin or WebKit.
11. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by AntiRush · 2010-01-20 08:31 · Score: 1
  
  Disney released and has been continuously updating a great 3D game engine: www.panda3d.org
12. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-01-20 08:34 · Score: 0
  
  Didn't Disney also open up some contributions and tools they made using the Bullet physics toolkit?
13. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by santax · 2010-01-20 08:35 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Oh come on, be fair here. Apple doesn't really love the open-source community. That they gave away a little to gain a lot of it. If you disagree, try installing your own software on your Iphone without jailbreaking it first.
14. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by FatdogHaiku · 2010-01-20 08:38 · Score: 1
  
  Get it while you can they open the vault for a limited time .
  I always thought that phrase was a, umm, euphemism... ya know?
  
  --
  You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
15. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-01-20 08:44 · Score: 0
  
  Steve Jobs has a way of infiltrating companies buy being bought out...
16. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by thzinc · 2010-01-20 08:46 · Score: 1
  
  Offtopic, but your sig is wrong. Money would be equal to Work multiplied by Knowledge.
  Knowledge = Power
  Time = Money
  Power = Work / Time
  -OR-
  Power = Work / Money
  -OR-
  Knowledge = Work / Money
  Solve for Money:
  Knowledge = Work / Money
  # Multiply both sides by Work
  Work * Knowledge = Work / Money * Work
  # Work / Money * Work = Money, so:
  Work * Knowledge = Money
  -OR-
  Money = Work * Knowledge
17. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by iluvcapra · 2010-01-20 08:48 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  That they gave away a little to gain a lot of it.
  
  Wasn't that how it was supposed to work? Maybe Bruce Perens can back me up on this, but I thought Open Source was supposed to be good for profits and business.
  
  --
  Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
18. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by santax · 2010-01-20 08:50 · Score: 1
  
  Yes but open source was primary supposed to be good for the end-user. If I can not install my app on my phone without breaking the law we have serious problem implementing this open-source thingie ;)
19. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by suso · 2010-01-20 08:52 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  Disney has always held tight controls over their IP,
  This is a major understatement. Disney is the reason why Copyright has been extended for so long. I mean its nicknamed the Mickey Mouse Copyright act for a reason.
20. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by santax · 2010-01-20 08:53 · Score: 1
  
  Thanks for that link! I didn't knew that!
21. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by serbanp · 2010-01-20 08:55 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Knowledge = Work / Money
  Solve for Money:
  Knowledge = Work / Money
  # Multiply both sides by Work
  Work * Knowledge = Work / Money * Work
  # Work / Money * Work = Money, so:
  Work * Knowledge = Money
  -OR-
  Money = Work * Knowledge
  don't you wish slashdot had a "remove my comment" feature? now you're stuck with this very embarrassing post (brain fart or lack of caffeine?) :-)
22. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by alexhs · 2010-01-20 09:05 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  That's the way you recognize smart entrepreneurs.
  Steve Jobs of NeXT bought Apple for -429 million dollars in 1996.
  Steve Jobs of Pixar bought Disney for -7.4 billion dollars in 2004.
  Talk about Reality Distortion Field !
  
  --
  I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of killer sig, which this margin is too narrow to contain.
23. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by RyuuzakiTetsuya · 2010-01-20 09:05 · Score: 1
  
  If OSX 10.6 stopped letting me install my own apps and disabled X Code and locked out Terminal.app or kept me from tinkering with the kernel(trufax, Atom support for OSX got rebuilt into it through kernel hacks from Darwin source) to the point where I can run OSX on top of unsupported hardware...
  I'll buy that fucking theory. If any hardware vendor shipped a linux distro on board that's as slick as OSX, i'd probably switch. No such distro exists, no such hardware vendor exists.
  
  --
  Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
24. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by thzinc · 2010-01-20 09:12 · Score: 1
  
  Yep... Pretty big brain fart there, now permanently stuck in the interwebs for all perpetuity.
  Indeed, Money = Work / Knowledge
25. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by ceoyoyo · 2010-01-20 09:23 · Score: 1
  
  Do you not think there might be some possibility they might gain from releasing this code?
  PS: I'm an Iphone developer so I have no problem installing whatever I want on my iPhone without jailbreaking it. There is some open source software in the app store as well, that anyone can install.
26. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by twmcneil · 2010-01-20 09:24 · Score: 1
  
  They open sourced Panda 3D (used to build Toontown and Pirates of the Caribbean On-Line) in 2002. It currently has a BSD license.
  
  --
  "The ferrets, they're every where I tell you!"
27. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by cheesybagel · 2010-01-20 09:45 · Score: 1
  
  WebKit is based on KHTML. Since KHTML was GPL licensed they could not, like, not release the source even if they did not want to. CUPS same thing. Dunno about the other one.
  While it is nice that Apple contributes development resources for these projects, they also required less development resources by adopting a FLOSS solution to begin with.
28. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-01-20 09:52 · Score: 0
  
  To update your iPhone OS, or use free apps, you need to have an Apple Store account. Try getting an Apple Store account without a credit card number... Convoluted? Yes. Even better. Google "iPhone applications no longer work".
29. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by santax · 2010-01-20 09:54 · Score: 1
  
  Yes, you develop for the iphone. I assume you own a mac, cause running osx (where the develop platform only works on) on a 'regular' intel, would bring you in a world of legal pain. So, I have to buy a mac to develop for the iphone. Yeah, they really love open source and freedom. off-course everybody gains from open source if it is done in the good way. In the mac world, it is just apple that is gaining. That is not open source. If you embrace open source, you don't close your phone and you let everyone write for it. It's really that simple.
30. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-01-20 10:11 · Score: 0
  
  Ok, virgin.
31. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by amRadioHed · 2010-01-20 10:29 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  You'll note that the iPhone was not given as an example of an Apple open-source project.
  
  --
  We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
32. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-01-20 10:52 · Score: 0
  
  Fucking, sex, intercourse? I understand you are not very used to this vocabulary FatdogHaiku, but trust me, for most people, they are part of everyday life.
33. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by mdwh2 · 2010-01-20 11:42 · Score: 1
  
  Indeed. An even more worrying issue is that (which, IIRC, has happened at least once): someone could port your open source software to the Iphone, with or without your permission, and get it on the Apple Store. But if you then decide to port it yourself, Apple won't allow it on their store - thus no one will be able to run your version (except a few who have hacked their phones).
  One obvious issue is that they're now making money from your free work. Whilst open source has always allowed commercial use, a key point is that anyone, including you, could compete on a level playing field with anyone trying to make money - so in practice they have to add value, otherwise people could just download it for free. But here, Apple have granted a monopoly to another developer, for them alone to make money over your work.
  Even if you don't care about the money, what about sharing control? They alone now have a monopoly right over the Iphone version of your software, even if you later decide you want to release it for Iphone, and do things differently.
  Thanks Apple.
  I don't know if there are any plans to update open source licences to deal with this problem, e.g., by not allowing others to take away control and have a monopoly on the product for a particular platform.
34. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by AlastairLynn · 2010-01-20 12:01 · Score: 1
  
  They're both LGPL.
35. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by ivucica · 2010-01-20 12:16 · Score: 1
  
  Work/Money*Work = (Work/Money)*Work. Not Work/(Money*Work). Therefore, Work/Money*Work = Work*Work/Money = Work^2/Money. Jeez.
36. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by iluvcapra · 2010-01-20 13:58 · Score: 1
  
  Yes but open source was primary supposed to be good for the end-user.
  It's worth refining our terms here... Because Apple was able to use BSD code, they were able to field a very competitve OS to Windows in a short time period, and they benefit from all of the work getting done on BSD and the GCC toolchain. This has significantly expanded the options of OSs available to home users... it has not made computer OSs magically free, and it has not given power users maximal liberty, but the first isn't going to happen in a world where people want and need support and have money to spend, and the second was never needed in a world with Linux.
  I guess you could make some sort of argument that Apple "owes" the OSS community something, but when did anyone in the OSS community make their demands? They certainly didn't in their licenses, in which they commended their intellectual property unto the public good with the hope that it would be useful, and from which anyone that could use it could derive benefit.
  It just turns out that the people that can derive the most real benefit from open-source code are people that can read code. Open source code is "supposed to be good" for the developer-user, not the end-user. Open-source licenses entail nothing on pure end-users, only people that use the code.
  
  --
  Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
37. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by santax · 2010-01-20 14:10 · Score: 1
  
  I am very sorry, but you do not understand the history of open source. Please feel free to as Theo.
38. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by santax · 2010-01-20 14:11 · Score: 1
  
  as = ask / ass. :)
39. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by iluvcapra · 2010-01-20 14:20 · Score: 1
  
  Theo didn't invent Open Source, and he ain't the arbiter of what it is or what it's for.
  Leaving the teleology aside, BSD or GPL licenses do not create or entail greater end-user liberty -- that's just a fact of history at this point. A lot of hairy people made a lot of crazy prognostications in the early 80s, and even by their own standards it's unclear what their intentions were with regard to non-developer end-users. Is my mom in the cathedral or the bazaar? The answer is she's in neither.
  Now leave me alone, I'm watching Search for Spock again. I have a feeling it'll be good this time.
  
  --
  Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
40. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by poopdeville · 2010-01-20 14:24 · Score: 1
  
  Apple owns CUPS... Apple bought out the guy/company who worked on CUPS, and pays him to develop the platform.
  While it is nice that Apple contributes development resources for these projects, they also required less development resources by adopting a FLOSS solution to begin with.
  Yup. So what? That's what FLOSS is there for. So that anybody who is willing to play by the FLOSS rules can pick up a piece of code and use it...
  
  --
  After all, I am strangely colored.
41. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by ceoyoyo · 2010-01-20 15:08 · Score: 1
  
  Only Apple is gaining? A lot of people use WebKit. you're probably a Google fan? Maybe Palm? You've heard of Android, Chrome and the Pre, right? Perhaps you use KDE and Konquerer?
  You've obviously got an axe to grind. The iPhone isn't particularly open, but you might have noticed that's only one of Apple's products. Saying they're the only ones to have gained from their open source contributions is just stupid.
42. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by lpq · 2010-01-20 16:21 · Score: 1
  
  They can open up this but not Mickey Mouse? What does that say about this software? :-)
43. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-01-20 16:28 · Score: 0
  
  Make me wonder what patents are infringed on by this software and who owns them. Disney doesn't give anything away.
44. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by spitzak · 2010-01-20 16:32 · Score: 1
  
  Knowledge = Work / Money
  # Multiply both sides by Work
  Work * Knowledge = Work / Money * Work
  #Simplify:
  Work * Knowledge = Money
  Based on that statement of your algebra knowledge, I think you must make a LOT of money!
45. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by JAlexoi · 2010-01-20 21:32 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah, hope next is that damn rodent from 1920's
46. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by Nazlfrag · 2010-01-21 01:11 · Score: 1
  
  On top of that is their aggressive appropriation of endless folk tales from all cultures. They don't just lock up their ideas for eternity, they want to lock up public domain works as well.
47. Re:Didn't see that one coming.... by Beezlebub33 · 2010-01-21 03:47 · Score: 1
  
  That it's not their bread and butter. They gain more by releasing it (increased use of compatible formats and tools) than they lose by releasing it. This is a purely business decision, and that fact that it (might) be good for the OS community is secondary to their decision process.
  
  Disney knows that the make their money by carefully controlling the IP associated with their characters and their representations. You know, people seem to love Google because it releases lots of really neat stuff (and I like it too), but just try to elbow into their bread and butter (advertising) and you will be in a world of hurt.
  
  --
  The more people I meet, the better I like my dog.
Could it be? by KneelBeforeZod · 2010-01-20 07:59 · Score: 1

Maybe they're looking for new talent and now applicants know where to send their resumes (their new website)
I can has Panda? by Anonymous Coward · 2010-01-20 07:59 · Score: 0

Port to Panda3D plz?
"This looks good for open source 3D graphics" by tacarat · 2010-01-20 08:04 · Score: 2, Interesting

Since it's the BSD license, how good does this look for closed source graphics? Just curious. I'm not familiar with what was available from other sources before this.

--
"Common sense will be the death of us all"
1. Re:"This looks good for open source 3D graphics" by Anonymous Coward · 2010-01-21 01:26 · Score: 0
  
  Well, you'll be able to tell as BSD requires attribution.
great news by mr_exit · 2010-01-20 08:04 · Score: 2, Interesting

This is great, a similar thing happened with Open EXR which is an image file format for high end film production. ILM open sourced it and it was quickly picked up by other studios, which lead to the software companies implementing it.
It seems like it's a good route for the VFX companies to take. Open source tools that are useful, then they get implemented in the main software packages which reduces your costs of maintaining plugins and a lot of custom code.

--

-------
Drink Coffee - Do Stupid Things Faster And With More Energy!
1. Re:great news by spitzak · 2010-01-20 16:47 · Score: 1
  
  Besides ILM and Disney, Sony has also been releasing a lot of code recently, though I don't know how good it is. OSL (open shading language) is probably the big one there.
  The purpose of this is so that other software will read/write these formats. Effects houses use lots of commercial software and free software. They also have to cooperate with *other* effects houses so limiting their own software will not help (look at the credits on the end of any big-budget movie and you will see six or more effects companies listed!). The overhead of converting data between the formats these programs accept as input or output is considerable: there is disk space (and sometimes the formats are *terrible* at that), there is the time to run the converter programs, and (most importantly) there is the TD and software engineer time taken up by writing and executing these programs. In addition often considerable useful data is lost when converting because one or the other file does not support it.
  Releasing data formats like these is entirely in the companies interest. Generally if it going to work, the format and the sample code have to be pretty high quality so that others that look at it don't immediately reject it as being far worse than what they are using. Ideally the new format is even better than what they have.
Rare open-source graphics! by Funk_dat69 · 2010-01-20 08:12 · Score: 1

Kudos to Disney for this! Very cool.
One of the reason this is so rare, though, is that patents and IP in graphics are in a bit of a mucky muck. Companies just cross-license and forget about it, but usually that means nothing gets opened up because it's too much work to determine if they can, legally, or it's too risky, legally.
I hope they keep this up.And some lawyer doesn't come and ruin it, which I guess is inevitable, but I hope it's not right away.

--
FUNK!
Look the other way by girlintraining · 2010-01-20 08:14 · Score: 2, Insightful

Pointing this out, of course, will get me modnuked, but what the hell: Yes Disney, after extending copyrights, being instrumental in the oppression and exploitation of dozens of countries, forcing our community to defend itself with complex legal language, placing the culture of going on three generations' childhoods behind a pay wall -- we'll forgive you because you released the source code for a texture mapper. Why? Because This. Is. Slashdoooooot! And as long as you contribute source code, we'll overlook all your other sins. :\

--
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
1. Re:Look the other way by ChienAndalu · 2010-01-20 08:24 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Even if it's fun to imagine that, a company isn't a monolithic entity and certainly not a person like you are trying to picture.
2. Re:Look the other way by kaizendojo · 2010-01-20 08:40 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  Of course you can say whatever you like, but without any substantive proof of your claims we'll just write you off as another looney who believes in urban legends.
  
  Why? Because This. Is. Slashdoooooot! And as long as you make us laugh or give us a target, we'll overlook all your other sins. :>
3. Re:Look the other way by girlintraining · 2010-01-20 08:49 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Why? Because This. Is. Slashdoooooot! And as long as you make us laugh or give us a target, we'll overlook all your other sins. :>
  
  I think you meant overrate all my other sins. Or at least, that's what usually happens around here. :\
  
  --
  #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
4. Re:Look the other way by Steauengeglase · 2010-01-20 08:55 · Score: 1
  
  You never bite the hand that feeds, while it's feeding.
5. Re:Look the other way by Anonymous Coward · 2010-01-20 09:05 · Score: 0
  
  You never bite the hand that feeds, while it's feeding.
  Unless the hand has opened the cage door and you've got a clear shot at the throat or belly.
6. Re:Look the other way by girlintraining · 2010-01-20 09:24 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Even if it's fun to imagine that, a company isn't a monolithic entity and certainly not a person like you are trying to picture.
  If we're going to give personhood to corporations, and extend them the same rights we have, then I fully intend to judge them on that basis as well.
  
  --
  #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
7. Re:Look the other way by Chris+Burke · 2010-01-20 10:16 · Score: 1
  
  Uh what gave you the impression that Disney is now forgiven for their copyright antics?
  We're praising them for doing something good. That's all.
  If everytime an asshole does something good you tell them to fuck off then they'll never change, except into a bigger asshole. Could this be the tiniest of indications that Disney is heading towards a more open culture, with the result that they would start to allow culture to be open? LOL, I doubt it. It's still a good and exciting thing, though, even if it's the last good thing they ever do.
  I find that most of these "ZOMG we hate $entity last week and this week we love them!" thing tends to indicate very binary thinking, that someone/thing can only be good or bad and acknowledging when that is not the case is somehow hypocritical. More like rational. Nuance exists. Embrace it. :)
  
  --
  
  The enemies of Democracy are
8. Re:Look the other way by drinkypoo · 2010-01-20 12:26 · Score: 1
  
  You deserve to be modnuked for your trollish attention whoring. I hope you are eventually discovered to be a male in disguise so people stop modding you up for having "girl" in your handle.
  
  --
  "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
9. Re:Look the other way by Scrameustache · 2010-01-20 15:28 · Score: 1
  
  we'll forgive you because you released the source code for a texture mapper. Why?
  Because unfolding UVs is a fucking pain. It's time consuming, and if this shader lets you skip that step, then I'll love you for giving it to me free of charge. It's like giving me back days of my future life. DAYS!
  
  --
  You can't take the sky from me...
Build failures and fixes by Seriman · 2010-01-20 08:35 · Score: 2, Informative

You might need to include limits.h in PtexCache.cpp and various combinations of stdio.h, stdlib.h, and string.h in the tests for it to build.
1. Re:Build failures and fixes by Seriman · 2010-01-20 08:36 · Score: 1
  
  In linux that is.
2. Re:Build failures and fixes by JesseMcDonald · 2010-01-20 10:03 · Score: 1
  
  In any standards-compliant environment, actually. Part of standards-compliance is not defining identifiers when the corresponding headers haven't been included, to prevent namespace collisions.
  
  --
  "The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else." - Bastiat
3. Re:Build failures and fixes by spitzak · 2010-01-20 16:38 · Score: 1
  
  This is correct.
  In fact it was not too long ago that people (including posters here!) complained about errors in the glib headers that caused them to include too many other files, thus making the programs not port to other systems (inclusion of stdlib.h and assert.h were the most common). This has been fixed, folks. So now you can show your ignorance by ranting about the reverse problem so you can still blame Linux.
Thank new CTO at Disney, Greg Brandeau by Thagg · 2010-01-20 08:36 · Score: 5, Interesting

Greg Brandeau, the new CTO at Disney, is a powerful advocate of open source. He worked very hard (within the bounds of antitrust law) to help various visual effects and animation studios with Linux, addressing common issues to everybody's benefit. It's good to see projects like this, that studios have put huge amounts of effort into, released into the open source community.
Of course, I have to put my money where my mouth is now :)

--
I love Mondays. On a Monday, anything is possible.
1. Re:Thank new CTO at Disney, Greg Brandeau by argStyopa · 2010-01-20 11:58 · Score: 1
  
  Resisting videotape....resisting DVD....DiVX (the ridiculous original one, not the codec today)...and then releasing a cutting-edge 3d library to the world for free?
  Cognitive dissonance on Disney is tearing me apart. Do we hate them or love them?
  
  --
  -Styopa
2. Re:Thank new CTO at Disney, Greg Brandeau by PCM2 · 2010-01-20 12:29 · Score: 0, Flamebait
  
  Greg Brandeau, the new CTO at Disney, is a powerful advocate of open source. He worked very hard (within the bounds of antitrust law) to help various visual effects and animation studios with Linux, addressing common issues to everybody's benefit.
  I think that's the real point here. Does anyone seriously believe having access to Disney's software will have them churning out Disney-quality movies in a few weeks? The investment required to produce one of the Pixar movies we all like is incredible. Having good software makes a digital film studio more efficient, but it's not really differentiating. That is, every digital film studio is going to rely on software of some kind, and it's all going to be designed to do more or less the same thing. So why shouldn't Disney's IT department be working with other studios to improve the tools? That's exactly the kind of thing that should be open source, and that competing companies can collaborate on. A studio's real business advantage is going to be tied to the quality of the people operating the software, the quality of the creative folks developing the films, and the effectiveness of the studio's marketing. Meanwhile, the same indy filmmakers who start using Disney's software today might be people Brandeau will want to hire tomorrow.
  
  --
  Breakfast served all day!
3. Re:Thank new CTO at Disney, Greg Brandeau by Anonymous Coward · 2010-01-21 01:37 · Score: 0
  
  Well sure, to them the cost of the tools is less than a blip on the radar, but I do think that the Greg actually believes that open source development is simply better, and we should expect to see much more.
4. Re:Thank new CTO at Disney, Greg Brandeau by Anonymous Coward · 2010-01-21 03:25 · Score: 0
  
  Not to push the point, but Pixar != Walt Disney Animation Studios. They are based in different locations (SF Bay Area vs. LA), use different software (proprietary vs. off-the-shelf), and work on different projects (one winning half of the animated feature Oscars, the other winning none).
  The ptex software is contributed by WDAS and as far as I know has not been used in recent Pixar releases. So even if ptex had the ability to magically give you Disney-quality movies, it would be movies like Bolt, not WALL-E. :P
5. Re:Thank new CTO at Disney, Greg Brandeau by elrous0 · 2010-01-21 03:31 · Score: 1
  
  Oh just great, you mentioned DiVX. Now I have to spit on my brand new carpet. Thanks buddy.
  
  --
  SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
6. Re:Thank new CTO at Disney, Greg Brandeau by b4dc0d3r · 2010-01-21 06:18 · Score: 1
  
  We hate them, they pushed for effectively infinite copyright protections because some Air Pirates drew pictures of Mickey Mouse doing things almost everyone has done at some point in their lives.
Video of the system in use by yakumo.unr · 2010-01-20 08:42 · Score: 3, Interesting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxNlAlOuQQQ
That's a really nice system, I hope it can be adopted into other packages as a plugin or something as it stays under the BSD license.
Could they just be abandoning it? by Anonymous Coward · 2010-01-20 09:16 · Score: 0

It seems reasonable that Disney's new Pixar overlords might have brought in their own libraries, so that Ptex would no longer be used by Disney. Does anybody know if Pixar uses Ptex?
1. Re:Could they just be abandoning it? by levork · 2010-01-20 09:35 · Score: 1
  
  Yes - Pixar's RenderMan supports it already.
Interesting possibilities by John+Pfeiffer · 2010-01-20 09:24 · Score: 1

I wonder if it'd be possible to integrate this with ARtoolkit. I was just about to put some money into a couple good webcams and a consumer HMD so I could really play around with doing cool stuff in AR.

--

Friend: "The NIC is misconfigured..." Me: "No prob, I'll just telnet in and fix it." *Silence*
They know by Crayola · 2010-01-20 10:05 · Score: 1

Trust me, anything like this has been carefully been gone over by quite a few lawyers. Disney uses software that comes under a variety of licenses and looks at each one carefully, and they're even more careful when it comes to releasing something.
In this case, they want the ptex file format to be used and support to become wider among apps. Releasing the libraries (especially under BSD) will make it easier for 3rd party applications to incorporate it.
Get it quick! by sixsixtysix · 2010-01-20 17:24 · Score: 1

Download the code a.s.a.p. before it goes back in the vault!

--
...
Included in 3D-Coat by philnolan3d · 2010-01-29 22:40 · Score: 1

I'm really happy that this is being built into 3D-Coat. It was originally suggested that it might be a plugin, but now it loooks liek it's just being built into the program. Here's an early test: http://www.3d-coat.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=4834&view=findpost&p=36791