tlRender is an open source library for building playback and review applications for visual effects, film, and animation.
The library can render and playback timelines with multiple video clips, image sequences, audio clips, and transitions. Examples are provided for integrating the library with Qt and OpenGL applications.
The library is written in C++ and uses the CMake build system.
This screenshot shows an example playback application built with the tlRender user interface library. Two files are being compared with an A/B "wipe", a USD animation and a rendered movie.
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Currently supported:
- Movie files (.mp4, .mov, ...)
- Image file sequences (.cin, .dpx, .exr, .jpg, .png, .tiff, ...)
- Multi-channel audio
- Color management with OpenColorIO
- A/B comparison
- OpenTimelineIO .otioz file bundles
Work in progress:
- USD support
To do:
- Software rendering
- Apple Metal rendering
- Microsoft DirectX rendering
- Effects
- GPU movie decoding
- Nested timelines
- Python bindings
Contents:
Core libraries:
- tlBaseApp - Base application
- tlCore - Core functionality; file paths and I/O, math, images, audio, etc.
- tlGL - OpenGL support
- tlIO - Video, audio, and image I/O
- tlUI - User interface
- tlUIApp - User interface application
Timeline libraries:
- tlDevice - Hardware devices
- tlTimeline - Timelines
- tlTimelineGL - Timeline OpenGL support
- tlTimelineUI - Timeline user interface
Qt integration libraries:
- tlQt - Qt support
- tlQtQuick - Qt Quick support
- tlQtWidget - Qt QWidget support
Application libraries:
- tlBakeApp - tlbake application
- tlPlay - Player application support
- tlPlayApp - tlplay application
- tlPlayQtApp - tlplay-qt application
- tlResourceApp - tlresource application
Required dependencies:
Optional dependencies:
- GLFW
- OpenSSL
- libssh2
- curl
- OpenColorIO
- RtAudio
- libsamplerate
- JPEG
- TIFF
- PNG
- OpenEXR
- FFmpeg
- OpenUSD
- nativefiledialog-extended
- Qt version 5 or 6
A CMake super build script is provided to build all of the dependencies from source except for Qt. Qt needs to be installed separately: https://www.qt.io/
Clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/darbyjohnston/tlRender.git
Run CMake with the super build script:
cmake -S tlRender/etc/SuperBuild -B Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$PWD/Release/install -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=$PWD/Release/install -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
Start the build:
cmake --build Release -j 4 --config Release
Try running the tlplay application:
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$PWD/Release/install/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
./Release/tlRender/src/tlRender-build/bin/tlplay/tlplay tlRender/etc/SampleData/MultipleClips.otio
Add the Qt location to CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH (place double quotes around the list of paths)
and enable TLRENDER_QT6:
cmake -S tlRender/etc/SuperBuild -B Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$PWD/Release/install -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="$PWD/Release/install;$HOME/Qt/6.5.3/gcc_64" -DTLRENDER_QT6=ON -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
Add the Qt location to CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH (place double quotes around the list of paths)
and enable TLRENDER_QT5:
cmake -S tlRender/etc/SuperBuild -B Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$PWD/Release/install -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="$PWD/Release/install;$HOME/Qt/5.15.2/gcc_64" -DTLRENDER_QT5=ON -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
Build with only the minimal required dependencies:
cmake -S tlRender/etc/SuperBuild -B Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$PWD/Release/install -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=$PWD/Release/install -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DTLRENDER_OCIO=OFF -DTLRENDER_AUDIO=OFF -DTLRENDER_JPEG=OFF -DTLRENDER_TIFF=OFF -DTLRENDER_STB=OFF -DTLRENDER_PNG=OFF -DTLRENDER_EXR=OFF -DTLRENDER_FFMPEG=OFF -DTLRENDER_PROGRAMS=OFF -DTLRENDER_EXAMPLES=OFF -DTLRENDER_TESTS=OFF
Example for running gcovr for code coverage:
gcovr -r ../../../../lib --html --object-directory lib --html-details --output gcov.html lib/tlCore lib/tlIO lib/tlTimeline
Clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/darbyjohnston/tlRender.git
Run CMake with the super build script:
cmake -S tlRender/etc/SuperBuild -B Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$PWD/Release/install -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=$PWD/Release/install -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
Start the build:
cmake --build Release -j 4 --config Release
Try running the tlplay application:
./Release/tlRender/src/tlRender-build/bin/tlplay/tlplay tlRender/etc/SampleData/MultipleClips.otio
Add the Qt location to CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH (place double quotes around the list of paths)
and enable TLRENDER_QT6:
cmake -S tlRender/etc/SuperBuild -B Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$PWD/Release/install -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="$PWD/Release/install;$HOME/Qt/6.5.3/macos" -DTLRENDER_QT6=ON -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
Add the Qt location to CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH (place double quotes around the list of paths)
and enable TLRENDER_QT5:
cmake -S tlRender/etc/SuperBuild -B Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$PWD/Release/install -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="$PWD/Release/install;$HOME/Qt/5.15.2/clang_64" -DTLRENDER_QT5=ON -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
The CMake variable CMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES can be used to specify the build
architecture:
-DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=x86_64
-DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=arm64
These aliases are convenient for switching between architectures:
alias arm="env /usr/bin/arch -arm64 /bin/zsh --login"
alias intel="env /usr/bin/arch -x86_64 /bin/zsh --login"
Dependencies:
- Install MSYS2 (https://www.msys2.org) for compiling FFmpeg.
- Install Strawberry Perl (https://strawberryperl.com/) for compiling network support.
- Install Python 3.11 for compiling USD.
Clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/darbyjohnston/tlRender.git
Run CMake with the super build script:
cmake -S tlRender\etc\SuperBuild -B Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=%CD%\Release\install -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=%CD%\Release\install -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
Start the build:
cmake --build Release -j 4 --config Release
Try running the tlplay application:
set PATH=%CD%\Release\install\bin;%PATH%
.\Release\tlRender\src\tlRender-build\bin\tlplay\Release\tlplay tlRender\etc\SampleData\MultipleClips.otio
Add the Qt location to CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH (place double quotes around the list of paths)
and enable TLRENDER_QT6:
cmake -S tlRender\etc\SuperBuild -B Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=%CD%\Release\install -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="%CD%\Release\install;C:\Qt\6.5.3\msvc2019_64" -DTLRENDER_QT6=ON -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
Add the Qt location to CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH (place double quotes around the list of paths)
and enable TLRENDER_QT5:
cmake -S tlRender\etc\SuperBuild -B Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=%CD%\Release\install -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="%CD%\Release\install;C:\Qt\5.15.2\msvc2019_64" -DTLRENDER_QT5=ON -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release