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OpenFX (software)

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OpenFX
Original author(s)Dr. Stuart Ferguson
Initial releaseJanuary 15, 2001; 23 years ago (2001-01-15)
Stable release
2.4 / July 25, 2021; 3 years ago (2021-07-25)
Written inC
Operating systemWindows
LicenseGNU General Public License
Websitewww.openfx.org

OpenFX is an open-source, free modeling and animation studio, distributed under the GNU General Public License, created by Dr. Stuart Ferguson. He made the decision to release the source code to the public in the middle of 1999 and released a stable version a year and a half later. The product, formerly named SoftF/X, was renamed to OpenFX.

The OpenFX featureset includes a full renderer and raytracing engine, NURBS support, kinematics-based animation, morphing, and an extensive plugin API. Plugin capabilities include image post processor effects such as lens flare, fog and depth of field. Animation effects such as explosions, waves and dissolves add to the flexibility of the program. Version 2.0 also features support for modern graphics cards with hardware GPU acceleration.

OpenFX supports the Win32 platform, including Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7 and 8. It can run under Unix-based platforms by using the Wine compatibility layer.

Release history

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Version Release Date Changes
Beta January 15, 2001 First Public Beta
1.0 February 9, 2001 Initial Release
1.1 July 22, 2004 Stereo hardware support
Stand Alone Model Viewer (OFXVIEW.EXE)
A Stereo Movie Viewer (GGPLAY.EXE)
A fullscreen .flc and .avi player (DDPLAY.EXE)
1.5 September 22, 2005 Better Wave Simulation Plugin
Cubic Environment Support
Removed vertex cap
Bug fixes
1.7 November 3, 2006 Fixed anti-aliasing problems
2.0 September 15, 2007 Hardware rendering support
2.1 October 4, 2010 New features in the designer module and a revised more efficient ray-tracer module
2.2 June 4, 2012 New Bones and Weights systems for character animation and an improved mapping coordinate painting system. There are also additional imaging effects.
2.3 October 12, 2012 OpenF/X is compatible with Windows 8
2.4 October 24, 2013 The main change is the ability to render stereoscopic images and movies. The Renderer control dialog contains a new tick box to render stereo ouptut to either JPS or Left over Right AVI files. The Camera settings in the Animator specifies the eye separation and the parallax depth.
Major bug fix in the animator to the Robot Editor windows that caused a crash if the tool was started twice by an accelerator key.
Plug-in
Video software, such as GenArts Sapphire or RE
Vison Effects which adds a wider variety of effects to a host application.
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