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A still from Zootopia 2, rendered in Walt Disney Animation Studios\u2019 Hyperion renderer. The OpenPGL path guiding library used in Hyperion has just become an official ASWF project.<\/p>\n
Open-source rendering library OpenPGL<\/a> (Open Path Guiding Library) has become the latest project to be hosted by movie industry standards body the Academy Software Foundation<\/a>.<\/p>\n Adoption as an ASWF Sandbox project gives OpenPGL \u2013 used in Blender, V-Ray, and Disney\u2019s Hyperion renderer \u2013 a second life after original developer Intel stopped work on it last year.<\/p>\n A library of path guiding algorithms used in key production renderers The sampling algorithms prioritize light paths that interact with surfaces in the scene, helping a render to resolve to an acceptably low level of noise more quickly.<\/p>\n OpenPGL was quickly adopted in key production renderers, including Blender\u2019s Cycles render engine<\/a>, Chaos\u2019s V-Ray<\/a>, and Houdini\u2019s Karma renderer.<\/p>\n The library is also used in Hyperion, Walt Disney Animation Studios\u2019 production renderer, used on movies like Zootopia 2, where it powers the second-generation path guiding system<\/a>.<\/p>\n Aiming to become the \u2018Embree of path guiding\u2019 The last major release was in 2024, and according to the project proposal<\/a> to the ASWF, Intel had stopped development by late 2025, due to \u201crestructuring and shifting priorities\u201d.<\/p>\n Adoption by the ASWF gives the project a new lease of life: according to the proposal, the goal is to become for path guiding what Intel\u2019s Embree<\/a> library is to ray tracing.<\/p>\n Now an ASWF Sandbox project, alongside DreamWorks\u2019 MoonRay renderer As a Sandbox project, it joins another production rendering technology, MoonRay: DreamWorks Animation\u2019s production renderer, which the studio open-sourced in 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n The project will continue to be maintained by former Intel Graphic Software Engineer Sebastian Herholz \u2013 soon to move to the Blender Foundation, according to the project proposal.<\/p>\n Read more about ASWF\u2019s adoption of OpenPGL on the Academy Software Foundation website<\/a><\/p>\n Have your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook<\/a>, Instagram<\/a> and X (formerly Twitter)<\/a>. As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we don\u2019t post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.<\/p>\n \t\t\t
Originally released in 2022, OpenPGL is a library of path guiding algorithms that can be integrated into any path tracing renderer, either for interactive or final-quality rendering.<\/p>\n
However, despite its relatively widespread adoption, the future of OpenPGL was in doubt.<\/p>\n
OpenPGL becomes ASWF\u2019s latest Sandbox project<\/a>: its terminology for an open-source project in the early stages of development<\/a>.<\/p>\n