Announcing HD View Beta 3

We are very pleased to announce that a new version of HD View is available on our web site.  There are a lot of great new features:

• Support for 16bit/channel and 32bit/channel images.  In other words, High Dynamic Range (HDR) images can now be efficiently streamed over the web to the HD View plugin.  We offer 3 different ways of interacting with HDR images – no auto-expose, auto-expose via gain only (like a camera), or auto-tone-map. In each ‘auto’ case the parameters are recomputed on the fly depending on what is in view.
• Now fully color managed.  HD View source files can have embedded color profiles, and monitor profiles are respected.  In conjunction with the 16 bit and 32 bit support, this means that wide-gamut images can be effectively delivered over the web.
• A new lens – the Fisheye.  This is accessed via the rightmost button in the toolbar.  See screenshot below for Fisheye in action.
• KML-PhotoOverlay tiled image representations can now be directly loaded.
• XBox controller as an input device.
• 3DConnexion as an input device.
• Easy to use embed code for adding HD View to your blog.
• A bunch of bug fixes (a lot of these based on your feedback – thanks!).  A few of the things we addressed:
  • Firefox3 issues
  • Embedding in PowerPoint presentations
  • Now works with IE Quick Tabs.

The first two bullet items are the most significant.  HD View 3 (and associated tools) represents the first system to efficiently deliver images over the web with no limitations on dimensions (gigapixels and beyond), dynamic range (32bit/channel support), or color gamut (ProPhoto or any other wide-gamut profile support). 

There is a lot to cover here, so over the next few days I’ll dive into several of these bullet points in more detail.  For now please visit the updated HD View site and try it out on some HDR content.  To install, follow this link: http://research.microsoft.com/ivm/hdview/HDInstall.htm and click the install button.  Note: HD View requires Firefox, IE, or Safari on the Windows OS.

After installing, check out the new HDR content:

http://research.microsoft.com/ivm/hdview/HDRExamples.htm

http://research.microsoft.com/ivm/hdview/HDRSurvey.htm

-Matt Uyttendaele

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Fun with Fisheye mode, one of the great new features in HD View 3. (shown here on xRez’s Millennium Park, click images to go to the HD View)

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