Chaos releases Chaos Player Update 1
Originally posted on 18 January 2022. Scroll down for news of Chaos Player Update 1.
Chaos has released Chaos Player, a new image sequence player for VFX and visualisation work, described as a successor to Asynthetic’s Pdplayer, which Chaos used to distribute.
New features in the software, which is developed in-house by Chaos, include A/B wipes, MP4 export and OCIO 2 support. Sales of Pdplayer itself have now been discontinued.
A high-performance image sequence viewer and on-set compositing and grading tool
Chaos describes Chaos Player as the successor to Pdplayer, Asynthetic’s image sequence viewer, which Chaos and its resellers began distributing for the developer on its release in 2008.
Although the software was initially updated steadily, releases slowed over time, and finally ceased in 2017.
Chaos Player is a new counterpart to Pdplayer, but is being developed in-house by Chaos.
Like its predecessor, it is a high-performance viewer for visual effects and visualization work, capable of playing back high-resolution 64-bit image sequences smoothly, in mono or stereoscopic views.
It can play back image sequences in multiple layers, making technical checks easier; and includes basic video editing, compositing, keying and color grading toolsets aimed at on-set prototyping work.
Chaos Player supports a range of standard image and video file formats, including OpenEXR, HDR and DPX, and can export compositions in the native project formats of Nuke and After Effects.
Unlike its predecessor, it doesn’t appear to support RED R3D files.
New in Chaos Player: A/B wipes, MP4 export and OpenColorIO 2 support
In addition, the first public release of Chaos Player – it’s officially version 2.0 – introduces several features not present in Pdplayer itself.
They include the option to compare up to four inputs via A/B wipes, to export videos in MP4 format, and support for OpenColorIO 2 (OCIO 2), the latest version of the open colour-management standard.
The new app also supports floating-point compositing, with users now able to layer 32-bit image sequences.
In addition, the UI has been overhauled, and should now scale better to HiDPI displays; support for workspace UI layouts has been added; and caching and overall performance have been improved.
Updated 1 November 2022: Chaos has released Chaos Player Update 1.
The update – in the release notes, it’s officially Chaos Player 2.1 – adds a new Contact Sheet system, which makes it possible to view variants of a shot side by side, or arranged in a grid.
It can also be used to view the individual render elements within a shot, as shown in the video above.
Workflow improvements include support for standard J/K/L hotkeys for shot playback, and the option to customise the colour mapping for the file types supported.
Pricing and system requirements
Chaos Player is available for Windows 10+, CentOS 7+ Linux and macOS 10.15+.
Unlike Pdplayer, which used to cost $350 for a perpetual licence, the software is rental-only, with subscriptions costing $99/year. It is also available as part of Chaos’s V-Ray Collection subscriptions.
Read a full list of new features in Chaos Player 2.1 in the online release notes