Academy Software Foundation adopts OpenPGL
A still from Zootopia 2, rendered in Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Hyperion renderer. The OpenPGL path guiding library used in Hyperion has just become an official ASWF project.
Open-source rendering library OpenPGL (Open Path Guiding Library) has become the latest project to be hosted by movie industry standards body the Academy Software Foundation.
Adoption as an ASWF Sandbox project gives OpenPGL – used in Blender, V-Ray, and Disney’s Hyperion renderer – a second life after original developer Intel stopped work on it last year.
A library of path guiding algorithms used in key production renderers
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.
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.
OpenPGL was quickly adopted in key production renderers, including Blender’s Cycles render engine, Chaos’s V-Ray, and Houdini’s Karma renderer.
The library is also used in Hyperion, Walt Disney Animation Studios’ production renderer, used on movies like Zootopia 2, where it powers the second-generation path guiding system.
Aiming to become the ‘Embree of path guiding’
However, despite its relatively widespread adoption, the future of OpenPGL was in doubt.
The last major release was in 2024, and according to the project proposal to the ASWF, Intel had stopped development by late 2025, due to “restructuring and shifting priorities”.
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’s Embree library is to ray tracing.
Now an ASWF Sandbox project, alongside DreamWorks’ MoonRay renderer
OpenPGL becomes ASWF’s latest Sandbox project: its terminology for an open-source project in the early stages of development.
As a Sandbox project, it joins another production rendering technology, MoonRay: DreamWorks Animation’s production renderer, which the studio open-sourced in 2023.
The project will continue to be maintained by former Intel Graphic Software Engineer Sebastian Herholz – soon to move to the Blender Foundation, according to the project proposal.
Read more about ASWF’s adoption of OpenPGL on the Academy Software Foundation website
Have your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we don’t post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.