Author Archives: Fredrik Mellbin

Everything is moving

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I’ve now switched to using git instead of subversion and the project is now located on github instead of google code. The links to the left for the bug tracker and source have been updated to reflect this.

This website is also going to switch host because dreamhost is slow and ridiculously expensive to use after the first year compared to what you actually get. Because of this the website may be down for a few days until everything is set up again. The domain switch should happen any day now…

Here’s a picture of a snail to illustrate the R19 release process:SAMSUNG CSC

Some Android App/Hardware Ideas

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Here are some free ideas for Android and phones in general.

  • The palm sweat meter (prove that holding hands just isn’t that bad, the scientific way). Should be doable using the humidity sensor in the new Galaxy S4.
  • A game that simulates real physics. It will be dull but someone should make it just so it’s been done.
  • Someone should properly figure out all the mDNIe fields so Samsung’s oversaturated OLED travesty can be somewhat improved. I did figure out most of them on the Galaxy S2 but lacked a colorimeter at the time so I couldn’t write a simple display calibrator. It is possible to mostly fix color temperature and gamma (same curve shared for all RGB). 10K+ color temperature makes me blue.
  • An IR diod/front camera, so the useless Samsung face stay and rotate features can work when it’s not perfect lighting conditions. Like in bed.
  • Or to take the previous one even further. IR camera+laser projected IR pattern. Then we could have kinect style 3D scanning in our phone. Don’t think I’m crazy, if you can stick a projector into a phone this can be done too.
  • Bonus hardware feature: breathalyzer in next gen phones.

As you may have guessed I’ve used Samsung phones the past year.

Slowing Down

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My previous post about looking for work was a lot more successful that I expected so I’ve been busy with work recently. The project isn’t dead though, I intend to continue with the improvements until at least the QTGMC script can run well using only native plugins.

I’ve already started working on some minor scripting changes. The most noticeable one being that python scripts will now be using a singleton pattern for the core (may change some more but from R19 vs.get_core() is the most appropriate way to obtain a core instance).

Oh, and apparently R18 may be one memory leak bug short of beta quality and I’ll try to hunt that one down tomorrow…

R18 – Beta Quality

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I’m back on my release early and often schedule… or at least something resembling it. This is a big bug fix release and officially brings the core of VapourSynth to beta quality. Less memory will be leaked and pressing F2 in VirtualDub is no longer the fastest way to run out of address space and crash.

There are only a few more things to add and change but the goal is getting closer. Report any bug you find no matter how small it is. The focus of the next release will be on performance and I’m interested in all speed comparisons between VapourSynth and Avisynth, especially the single threaded versions.

You should also check out Chikuzen’s GenericFilters which implement almost all missing features from masktools that aren’t already present in the core. This has made it possible to port a few more scripts to be fully native.

If you’re curious about the future direction and changes go check out the bug tracker. I use it as a place to write down most planned enhancements as well and scribble a row or two about it. I have also been commissioned to make an image writer plugin based on ImageMagick so that will most likely show up before R19.

Looking for contract work

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I am currently looking for contract work so now’s the chance for you to hire a good developer. My main skills are C, C++ and x86 assembler. I also have experience writing multithreaded and cross platform applications.

So why should you hire me and not someone else with a similar list?

  • I want to build up a positive reputation and the best way to do so is to have satisfied clients – if I don’t think I can do a job well I will simply turn it down instead of doing it badly
  • Used to working on tight schedules in the corporate world
  • I write clear and maintanable code – check out the vapoursynth source code for an example

Don’t hesitate to contact me at fredrik.mellbin [at] gmail.com if you’re interested.

R17 – A Soft Package

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It took a bit longer than I anticipated to get R17 done but it’s finally done enough. The highlights are:

  • User contributions! – this is the first release where several fixes and parts were contributed by other people
  • The new Expr filter (similar to mt_lutxyz) which can evaluate expressions per pixels during run-time
  • A subtitle filter based on libass (inappropriately named assvapour)
  • Lots of bugfixes, for example AVISource should now be usable with all formats and alpha output
  • Even stricter checks for filters – the ongoing work to detect common coding and API usage errors continues

With this release a few more popular scripts can be implemented using only VapourSynth filters, however the work will continue to recreate the missing common filters from masktools. I would appreciate some help in implementing equivalents to mt_edge, mt_inpand, mt_expand, mt_inflate and mt_deflate. It’s a simple project and good for someone who wants to get started writing filters and help out, I just happen to want to start with the challenging stuff. MVTools. The core part of several of the most powerful Avisynth scripts and a something that could certainly use a rewrite.