Luca Deriu Blog

Since today was the exam day in SPD – and I had plenty of time to spend in class patroling in the attempt to avoid that my students would copy from each other – I took with me my project to work on the file association for Real HDR and Windows OS. I have never done it before but looks like a key has to be written by the installer in Window’s Registry, and precisely:

Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.rhd [where .rhd is the file format of Real HDR]

. rhd file association

This is the only step to do to associate the file to the program. Now opening a file will invoke the software and this looks cool.

However, it is not possible at the moment to parse automatically the content and open the file directly. I need to find a way to get the OS path were the file got open by the user, store it in the cache and, once the user is logged in, perform the loading. This feature sounds intriguing but I have other priorities for now.

The post File association appeared first on Real HDR.

Article from software development blog – Real HDR (https://www.real-hdr.com)

The previous version of Real HDR was saving the file to the desktop, appending a unique extra string on each file to prevent accidental overwriting. I added now a proper file browser window that starts from the desktop path but that can keep in memory the last used path. This way the user does not need to manually move the files every time.

The post File browser appeared first on Real HDR.

Article from software development blog – Real HDR (https://www.real-hdr.com)

One of the best parts of working on Real HDR is the customer’s requests. My colleagues and I receive daily feedbacks and, by time to time, requests as well.

A user asked how it is possible to resume the work after saving the EXR file. The answer was quite simple: “you can’t”…yet. So we started thinking how to collect every single information of each SpriteLight and DarkMark in the editor since the values are privately stored in each of them. We ended up with a couple of solutions and we created a sort of batch exporter that stores the data in our own custom .RHD file.

The post How to Save and Open a file appeared first on Real HDR.

Article from software development blog – Real HDR (https://www.real-hdr.com)

I recorded some video tutorials about the usage of Real HDR. Unfortunately, this process takes too much time and I prefer to remain focused on the development of the tool (plus I have 20 hours of CGI lectures every week, so I really can’t invest more time in education). if you are interested in sharing your knowledge and recorded a tutorial regarding Real HDR, I will be happy to share it here and on other PlaySys’s channels.

The post Video tutorials appeared first on Real HDR.

Article from software development blog – Real HDR (https://www.real-hdr.com)

How sweet is the new equirectangular projection! Here is how the “windows” stencils look…in pink! We manage to create a real batman generator by the end of the day!

The post Batman generator appeared first on Real HDR.

Article from software development blog – Real HDR (https://www.real-hdr.com)

Equirectangular distortion and polar coordinates were quite hard to implement in Real HDR 1.0 since the editor and the renderer were sharing the same level.

With the help of Elena Kartseva (and Tissot’s indicatrices) we created a new formula capable to get x/y coordinates, convert them in a latitude/longitude format and finally return x/y/z values for the light sources. This way, from the next update, Real HDR 1.1 will feature equirectangular perfection and beauty.

The post Equirectangular Distortion appeared first on Real HDR.

Article from software development blog – Real HDR (https://www.real-hdr.com)

Finally, we can present Real HDR 1.0 release!

Here is the full list of features:

• 32-bit .exr file exporter
• individual portable license
• double UI environment (cube or cardinal directions)
• seamless horizon line
• “surprise me” button, as used on Real IES
• “Start Here” icebreaker
• unlimited lights amount (SpriteLights)
• linear colors, no gamma correction
• negative light subtractor (DarkMarks)
• selector highlights
• negative light subtractor fades on poles
• custom stencils for SpriteLights and DarkMarks
• optional time-stamp on the filename
• RGB and HSV color sliders
• HEX converter with a copy to clipboard option
• file compression possibility
• software updater
  

The post Real HDR 1.0 released today appeared first on Real HDR.

Article from software development blog – Real HDR (https://www.real-hdr.com)

This is the (backdated) first post to inaugurate Real HDR’s blog.

Version 1.0 is out since 25 June 2018.

During the first launch of the product, a forum entry attracted our attention. It was related to our development of Real HDR, opening the door to the question “will it endure or will it be discontinued after a few weeks?”. Well, the question is legit; as software users ourselves we are quite excited and worried when a new actor appears on the market… long ago we were a strong supporter of Nevercenter Silo (now discontinued) and we are a strong supporter of Unigine (now better than ever). So, yeah, the question was legit and I and my colleagues are proud to start this new blog to keep a more verbose conversation of our development plans for Real HDR, and the other software we are working on.

The post Now or never appeared first on Real HDR.

Article from software development blog – Real HDR (https://www.real-hdr.com)

It was quite easy to add some color conversions that receives normalized data from the sliders, converts it in a more usual 8-bit range and then to HSV and HEX. I also added a button functionality to copy this data in the clipboard. This may be useful if one wants to quickly transfer color to another application such as Photoshop.

The post Color conversions appeared first on Real HDR.

Article from software development blog – Real HDR (https://www.real-hdr.com)

Real HDR now features some exporting options with proper 2:1 proportion.

I finished the color editor that features 3 sliders with float value for RGB channels, and a proper way to generate these values in a 32-bit range. The main challenge was to create the “selector” pins that are sitting on another layer and are at the moment the sole containers of the parameters. This means that there is no “main2 parameter container, but each set is fully independent for the maximum modularity. I took this idea from another project of mine (Real Zombie Game) that is totally different but manages data containers in the same way.

There is now a login feature on start-up that manages the licensing system. As a difference from Real IES, real HDR will use an online authentication system similar to Adobe Creative Cloud (similar to the one I developed for Render Academy’s Classroom). This way we can avoid the annoying activation done via Request, Activation and Authorization codes we use in Real IES… I’ll update that one later.

The login section is also responsible to compare the actual installed version with the latest one I will release in the future. I think this is a good way to keep users updated instead of sending lot of annoying emails. There is a hidden button in the UI that will appear only if the server has a newer version. This way the user can go directly to the download page, without having to Google for it.

The post Early stage development appeared first on Real HDR.

Article from software development blog – Real HDR (https://www.real-hdr.com)