To help users identify with our toolsuite we have created 2 icons, which are used to signify either graphical-based applications (such as eqsl and piqsl) or supported file types (such as RIB and SL):

Graphical Applications	Supported File Types

Designed with high-definition displays in mind, these should sit nicely on modern desktops while also providing a clean, consistent, look across all supported platforms.

Eqsl is a fast user interface for the Aqsis toolsuite, giving both new and experienced users another way to utilise our tools.

Features include rendering, shader compiling, framebuffer execution, command history and console logging:

More information on the eqsl can be found here.

Piqsl is an advanced framebuffer/image viewer and now the default framebuffer of Aqsis, supporting the TIFF and (Open)EXR file formats.

Features include non-blocking behavior, network rendering and image management:

More information on the piqsl can be found here.

The old texture-handling code within Aqsis has been rewritten and broken-out into a separate library.

Improvements include faster texturing operations, EWA filtering, correct anisotropic filtering and intelligent mipmap-level interpolation… the latter of which seems a missing functionality even within most commercial renderers (to date):

Aqsis 1.2	Aqsis 1.4	Commercial Renderer

More information on the aqsistex library can be found here.

Smooth shading interpolation has been added, allowing colour to be interpolated between the vertices of a micropolygon rather than the constant method which produces a constant colour for each micropolygon.

This feature can be accessed by using the following RIB statement:

ShadingInterpolation “smooth”

Constant Interpolation	Smooth Interpolation

An Attribute has been introduced to help deal with the common 'Grid Crack' issue, experienced by many Reyes-based renderers. The method works by expanding the micropolygons at the edges of each grid outward by a specified fraction of the micropolygon width.

This feature can be accessed by using the following RIB statement:

Attribute “aqsis” “expandgrids” [0.01]

Normal Result	Expand Grids Result

The RunProgram procedural plugin supplied with Massive on both Linux and Windows platforms is supported by default, with Aqsis automatically checking known locations of the plugin.

Both the official and AIR distributed versions of Darkling Simulation LLC procedural shader plugin are supported by default, with Aqsis automatically checking known locations of the plugin.

More information on using Simbiont(RM) and its related tools can be found here.

Support for the 'Dynamic Blob Op' procedural used within AIR has been improved, with Aqsis automatically checking known locations of the plugin.

Aqsis is distributed using the 'Bundle' (.app) format under OS X platforms, as recommended by Apple for desktop applications.

Executing Aqsis.app will launch eqsl and automatically configure the current/personal environment (PATH), allowing your system to always locate the relevant binaries:

We support OS X 10.4 (Tiger) and above, providing binaries for both PPC and Intel architectures.

Aqsis provides full desktop integration under Linux using the standards defined by freedesktop.org.

Want to render a RIB file or compile a series of shaders? just right-click on the item(s) and select 'Open with Aqsis …', job done!

• Implement vector noise() variations. (#1629458)
• Add support for RiMitchellFilter.
• Various improvements to the bake functionality.
• Add -decodeonly option to miqser to decode a binary file with no additional formatting.
• Reimplemented timer functionality to provide accurate timings at endofframe on all platforms.
• Support “scanlineorder” request to piqsl and framebuffer to support rendering a row of buckets at a time.
• Add support for @ in searchpaths to substitute the default value.
• Implement break/continue support in aqsl. (#1801181)
• Use boost::wave as a preprocessor for aqsl, as the slpp code was a bit opaque. (#1182387)
• Add support for %NAME% style environment substitution in “searchpaths”.
• Support wildcards in aqsl.
• ShaderVM now checks the compiler version used to compile a shader, and reports an error if it doesn't match.
• Improve the handling of surfaces crossing the projection plane, should now deal with eyesplits much better.
• Improve the calculation of surface derivatives, especially for polygons. (#1829764)