tlRender

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. Timeline support is provided by OpenTimelineIO, color management by OpenColorIO, and file I/O by FFmpeg, OpenEXR, and other open source libraries.

The tlRender source code is provided under a BSD style open source license.

Supported:

• Movie files (H264, MP4, etc.)
• Image file sequences (Cineon, DPX, JPEG, OpenEXR, PNG, PPM, TIFF)
• Multi-channel audio
• Color management
• A/B comparison

To do:

• Software rendering
• Apple Metal rendering
• Microsoft DirectX rendering
• Effects
• GPU movie decoding
• Nested timelines
• Python bindings

Libraries

tlCore, tlIO, tlTimeline

The core libraries providing timeline rendering, playback, and I/O.

Dependencies:

• OpenTimelineIO
• OpenColorIO
• FreeType
• nlohmann_json
• FSeq
• ZLIB

Optional dependencies:

• FFmpeg
• JPEG
• OpenEXR
• PNG
• TIFF

tlRenderGL

Library for rendering timelines with OpenGL.

tlQt, tlQtWidget, tlQtQuick

Libraries for integrating with Qt based applications.

Dependencies:

• Qt

Applications

tlplay

Play timelines, movies, and image sequences.

tlbake

Render a timeline to a movie or image sequence.

Building

Dependencies

A CMake super build script is provided to build the dependencies from source.

Note however that Qt is not included in the super build, you must install it separately.

CMake Build Options

• TLRENDER_ENABLE_MMAP - Enable memory-mapped file I/O
• TLRENDER_ENABLE_COVERAGE - Enable code coverage
• TLRENDER_ENABLE_PYTHON - Enable Python support (for OTIO Python adapters)
• TLRENDER_BUILD_GL - Build OpenGL support
• TLRENDER_BUILD_QT6 - Build Qt6 support
• TLRENDER_BUILD_QT5 - Build Qt5 support
• TLRENDER_BUILD_PROGRAMS - Build applications
• TLRENDER_BUILD_EXAMPLES - Build examples
• TLRENDER_BUILD_TESTS - Build tests
• TLRENDER_BUILD_FFmpeg - Build FFmpeg support (Linux and macOS only)
• TLRENDER_BUILD_JPEG - Build JPEG support
• TLRENDER_BUILD_PNG - Build PNG support
• TLRENDER_BUILD_OpenEXR - Build OpenEXR support
• TLRENDER_BUILD_TIFF - Build TIFF support

Building on Linux

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/darbyjohnston/tlRender.git
cd tlRender

Create a build directory:

mkdir build
cd build

Run CMake with the super build script:

cmake ../etc/SuperBuild -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$PWD/install -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=$PWD/install -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug

Start the build:

cmake --build . -j 4 --config Debug

Try running the "play-glfw" example:

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$PWD/install/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
./tlRender/src/tlRender-build/examples/play-glfw/play-glfw ../etc/SampleData/MultipleClips.otio

Building on Linux with Qt

When running CMake with the super build script, add the Qt location to "CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH" (make sure to use quotes), and enable "TLRENDER_BUILD_QT5":

cmake ../etc/SuperBuild -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$PWD/install -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="$PWD/install;$HOME/Qt/5.15.2/gcc_64" -DTLRENDER_BUILD_QT5=ON -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug

Notes for building on Linux

When working on the tlRender codebase you can skip the dependencies in subsequent builds:

cmake --build tlRender/src/tlRender-build -j 4 --config Debug

Example for running gcovr for viewing code coverage:

gcovr -r ../../../../lib --html --object-directory lib --html-details --output gcov.html lib/tlCore lib/tlIO lib/tlTimeline

Building on macOS

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/darbyjohnston/tlRender.git
cd tlRender

Create a build directory:

mkdir build
cd build

Run CMake with the super build script:

cmake ../etc/SuperBuild -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$PWD/install -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=$PWD/install -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug

Start the build:

cmake --build . -j 4 --config Debug

Try running the "play-glfw" example:

./tlRender/src/tlRender-build/examples/play-glfw/play-glfw ../etc/SampleData/MultipleClips.otio

Building on macOS with Qt

When running CMake with the super build script, add the Qt location to "CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH" (make sure to use quotes), and enable "TLRENDER_BUILD_QT5":

cmake ../etc/SuperBuild -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$PWD/install -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="$PWD/install;$HOME/Qt/5.15.2/clang_64" -DTLRENDER_BUILD_QT5=ON -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug

Notes for building on macOS

The CMake variable "CMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES" can be used to specify the build architecture:

-DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=x86_64

-DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=arm64

When working on the tlRender codebase you can skip the dependencies in subsequent builds:

cmake --build tlRender/src/tlRender-build -j 4 --config Debug

Building FFmpeg on Windows

Most of the third party software that tlRender depends upon is built as part of the CMake super build, except for FFmpeg on Windows. Instead the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is used to compile FFmpeg as a separate step before the CMake super build.

Enable the Windows Subsystem for Linux:

• Open the Windows control panel and click on "Programs and Features"
• Click on "Turn Windows features on or off" on the left side of the "Programs and Features" window
• Check the "Windows Subsystem for Linux" item in the "Windows Features" window
• Restart your computer

Install Ubuntu from the Windows app store, then open a shell and install necessary software:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install mingw-w64 yasm make unzip

Build FFmpeg, replacing $SOURCE_DIR and $BUILD_DIR with the same directories used in the "Building on Windows" section:

$SOURCE_DIR/etc/Windows/build_ffmpeg_wsl.sh $BUILD_DIR/install

Building on Windows

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/darbyjohnston/tlRender.git
cd tlRender

Create a build directory:

mkdir build
cd build

Run CMake with the super build script:

cmake ..\etc\SuperBuild -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=%CD%\install -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=%CD%\install -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug

Start the build:

cmake --build . -j 4 --config Debug

Try running the "play-glfw" example:

set PATH=%CD%\install\bin;%PATH%
.\tlRender\src\tlRender-build\examples\play-glfw\Debug\play-glfw ..\etc\SampleData\MultipleClips.otio

Building on Windows with Qt

When running CMake with the super build script, add the Qt location to "CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH" (make sure to use quotes), and enable "TLRENDER_BUILD_QT5":

cmake ..\etc\SuperBuild -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=%CD%\install -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="%CD%\install;C:\Qt\5.15.2\msvc2019_64" -DTLRENDER_BUILD_QT5=ON -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug

Notes for building on Windows

When working on the tlRender codebase you can skip the dependencies in subsequent builds:

cmake --build tlRender\src\tlRender-build -j 4 --config Debug