Disney Releases 3D Texture Mapper Source Code

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."

Didn't see that one coming....

[santax]

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!

Re:Didn't see that one coming....

[jimbolauski]

Get it while you can they open the vault for a limited time.

Re:

[orangesquid]

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 comm

Re:

[suso]

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.

Re:

[Nazlfrag]

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.

They know

[Crayola]

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.

Re:

[FatdogHaiku]

Get it while you can they open the vault for a limited time .

I always thought that phrase was a, umm, euphemism... ya know?

Re:

[thzinc]

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

Re:

[serbanp]

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?) :-)

Re:

[thzinc]

Yep... Pretty big brain fart there, now permanently stuck in the interwebs for all perpetuity.

Indeed, Money = Work / Knowledge

Re:

[ivucica]

Work/Money*Work = (Work/Money)*Work. Not Work/(Money*Work). Therefore, Work/Money*Work = Work*Work/Money = Work^2/Money. Jeez.

Re:

[spitzak]

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!

Re:Didn't see that one coming....

[ceoyoyo]

Remember that Pixar bought Disney for minus a jillion dollars a while ago.

Re:

[santax]

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!

Re:

[santax]

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.

Re:

[cheesybagel]

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.

Re:

[AlastairLynn]

They're both LGPL.

Re:

[poopdeville]

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...

Re:

[ceoyoyo]

He's also CEO of Apple, who never ever contribute any open source such as Darwin or WebKit.

Re:

[santax]

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.

Re:Didn't see that one coming....

[iluvcapra]

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.

Re:

[santax]

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 ;)

Re:

[amRadioHed]

You'll note that the iPhone was not given as an example of an Apple open-source project.

Re:

[iluvcapra]

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

Re:

[santax]

I am very sorry, but you do not understand the history of open source. Please feel free to as Theo.

Re:

[santax]

as = ask / ass. :)

Re:

[iluvcapra]

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

Re:

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

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.

Re:

[ceoyoyo]

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.

Re:

[santax]

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 w

Re:

[ceoyoyo]

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.

Re:

[mdwh2]

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 ke

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:

[alexhs]

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 !

Re:

[bored_engineer]

This isn't a new sort of thing for Disney. [panda3d.org] Disney were (are?) the main developers behind the Panda3d game engine.

Re:

[santax]

Thanks for that link! I didn't knew that!

Re:

[AntiRush]

Disney released and has been continuously updating a great 3D game engine: www.panda3d.org [panda3d.org]

Re:

[twmcneil]

They open sourced Panda 3D (used to build Toontown and Pirates of the Caribbean On-Line) in 2002. It currently has a BSD license.

Re:

[lpq]

They can open up this but not Mickey Mouse? What does that say about this software? :-)

Re:

[Beezlebub33]

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 li

Re:

[JAlexoi]

Yeah, hope next is that damn rodent from 1920's

Could it be?

[KneelBeforeZod]

Maybe they're looking for new talent and now applicants know where to send their resumes (their new website)

"This looks good for open source 3D graphics"

[tacarat]

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.

great news

[mr_exit]

This is great, a similar thing happened with Open EXR [openexr.com] 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.

Re:

[spitzak]

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 comp

Rare open-source graphics!

[Funk_dat69]

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.

Look the other way

[girlintraining]

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

Re:Look the other way

[ChienAndalu]

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.

Re:

[girlintraining]

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.

Re:

[kaizendojo]

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. :>

Re:

[girlintraining]

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. :\

Re:

[Steauengeglase]

You never bite the hand that feeds, while it's feeding.

Re:

[Chris Burke]

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 t

Re:

[drinkypoo]

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.

Re:

[Scrameustache]

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!

Build failures and fixes

[Seriman]

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.

Re:

[Seriman]

In linux that is.

Re:

[JesseMcDonald]

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.

Re:

[spitzak]

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

[Thagg]

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 :)

Re:

[argStyopa]

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?

Re:

[elrous0]

Oh just great, you mentioned DiVX. Now I have to spit on my brand new carpet. Thanks buddy.

Re:

[b4dc0d3r]

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.

Re:

[PCM2]

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 sho

Video of the system in use

[yakumo.unr]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxNlAlOuQQQ [youtube.com]

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.

Re:

[levork]

Yes - Pixar's RenderMan supports it already.

Interesting possibilities

[John Pfeiffer]

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.

Get it quick!

[sixsixtysix]

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

Included in 3D-Coat

[philnolan3d]

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 [3d-coat.com]