September 29, 2010

Adobe® Pixel Bender® Toolkit 2.5 ReadMe

Overview

The Pixel Bender Toolkit includes:  The Pixel Bender kernel language, a high-performance graphics programming language intended for image processing.  The Pixel Bender graph language, an XML-based language for combining individual pixel- processing operations (kernels) into more complex filters.  The Pixel Bender Toolkit IDE, an interactive development environment in which to create, compile and preview Pixel Bender kernels and graphs.  The Pixel Bender Utility, a command-line utility that converts a Pixel Bender kernel (PBK) file into a -code (PBJ) file that can be used in Flash® Player 10 or later.  Sample filters, sample images, and documentation. The Pixel Bender Toolkit IDE allows you to edit and execute programs that use the Pixel Bender image- processing engine. The Pixel Bender run-time engine is integrated into a number of Adobe applications, allowing you to add your Pixel Bender filters and effects to those already offered in those applications.

What’s New in Version 2.5

• The Pixel Bender Toolkit now includes both a text-based Graph Editor, which works in the same way as the Kernel Editor and allows you to edit the code directly, and a new visual Graph Editor that shows and allows you to manipulate the graph structure.

• This update to the Pixel Bender Toolkit addresses many bug fixes especially in the areas of user interface, Flash preview, and Pixel Bender kernel and graph processing and rendering.

System Requirements

The minimum system requirements for the Pixel Bender Toolkit IDE and the Pixel Bender Utility are: Windows: • Pentium 4 or greater Processor • 512 MB of Memory • 50 MB of Disk Space • Windows XP SP2 or greater Mac OS: • G4/G5/Intel Processor • 512 MB of Memory • 80 MB of Disk Space • OS X 10.4.10 or greater

Adobe Systems Incorporated 1 of 4 September 29, 2010

Video cards that support processing of Pixel Bender filters

The following table lists the video cards supported by the Pixel Bender Toolkit IDE. The IDE supports filter execution on the GPU and the CPU. For correct GPU processing, check the or ATI website for the latest graphics card drivers.

NOTE: You may experience problems launching the Pixel Bender Toolkit application on some Windows XP systems without a supported GPU.

Manufacturer Series Model Numbers AMD/ATI HD 5000 HD 5970, HD 5870, HD 5850, HD 5770, HD 5750, Series HD 5670, HD 5570, HD 5450 Radeon HD 4000 HD 4890, HD 4870 X2, HD 4870, HD 4850, HD Series 4830, HD 4770, HD 4670, HD 4650, HD 4550, HD 4350, HD 4200 Radeon HD 3000 HD 3870 X2, HD 3870, HD 3850, HD 3650, HD Series 3470, HD 3450 Radeon HD 2000 HD 2900 XT, HD 2900, HD 2600 X2, HD 2600 Series XT, HD 2600 PRO, HD 2600, HD 2400 XT, HD 2400 PRO, HD 2400 Radeon X1000 X1950, X1900, X1800, X1650, X1600, X1300, Series "All In Wonder" X1900 (X1900 GPU), "All In Wonder" 2006 PCI Express cards (Based on X1300 GPU) FireGL Series Avivo PCI Express, V8650, V8600, V7700, V7600, V7350, V7300, V7200, V5600, V5200, V3600, V3300, V3400 FirePro Series V8750, V8700, V7750, V5700, V3750, V3700 NVIDIA FX 5000 FX 5800, FX 5600, FX 5500 SDI, FX 4500 SDI, Series FX 5600, FX 5500

Quadro FX 4000 FX 4800, FX 4600, FX 4500 X2, FX 4500, FX Series 4000 SDI

Quadro FX 3000 FX 3800, FX3700, FX 3500, FX 3450 Series Quadro FX 1000 FX 1800, FX 1700, FX 1500, FX GO 1400, FX Series 1400, FX 1300 Quadro FX 500 FX 580, FX 570, FX 560, FX 550, FX 540 Quadro FX 300 FX 380, FX 380 LP, FX 370, FX 370 LP, FX 350

Adobe Systems Incorporated 2 of 4 September 29, 2010

Series

GeForce 300 GT 340, GT 330, GT 320, GT 315, 310 Series GeForce 200 GTX 295, GTX 285, GTX 280, GTX 275, GTX Series 260, GTS 250, 240 (All models), GT 220, 210, 205 GeForce 100 GTS 150, GT 130, GT 120, G100 Series GeForce 9 Series 9800 (All Models), 9600 (All Models), 9500 GT, 9400 GT, 9400M, 9300 GeForce 8 Series 8800 (All Models), 8600 (All Models), 8500 GT, 8400 GS GeForce 7 Series 7950 GT/GS, 7900, 7800, 7600, 7300, 7200 GS, 7100 GeForce 6 Series 6800 Ultra, 6800 GT, 6800 GS, 6800, 6800 XT, 6600, 6500, 6200, 6200 Turbo Cache, 6200 LE, 6100, 6150

Getting Started

1. Download and install the Pixel Bender Toolkit from the Pixel Bender Technology Center: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/pixelbender/

2. Launch the Pixel Bender Toolkit IDE:  In Windows: Launch from the Start menu > Adobe > Adobe Pixel Bender Toolkit 2.  In Mac OS: Launch from the Applications Folder: /Applications/Utilities/Adobe Utilities - CS5/Pixel Bender Toolkit 2/

3. To load a Pixel Bender file into the Pixel Bender Toolkit IDE, choose File > Open Filter, or press Ctrl-O.

4. To try the filter, click Build and Run, in the bottom right corner of the Pixel Bender Toolkit IDE, beneath the code editor window.

5. If the filter requires an image for processing, you will be prompted to open an image file. If the filter has parameters, you will see editing controls in the panel on the right edge of the application.

Known Issues

• You may experience problems launching the Pixel Bender Toolkit application on some Windows XP systems without a supported GPU. • In the Pixel Bender Toolkit 2.1 release, the behavior of the Flash Preview when running filters using two inputs has changed. Previously, the Pixel Bender kernel was applied as an ActionScript BlendShader. For this release, it works instead as a FilterShader where the second input is set directly.

Adobe Systems Incorporated 3 of 4 September 29, 2010

This change was made because it matches the more typical use case for Flash Pixel Bender developers and the behavior in the toolkit when previewing filters on the CPU or GPU. After making this change, an issue with Flash was discovered when using images of different sizes with a Filter with two inputs. In this case, the data is clamped when sampling off the image instead of providing the background color. This behavior was kept to accurately show how the kernel will run in Flash. • When a kernel is running, if a channel mismatch error dialog is shown, it is recommended that users enable the "Attempt to fix input image channel mismatch" preference to prevent further errors. • On a Mac system with certain NVIDIA cards, you cannot generate texture output in the IDE when the region size is less than 8x32. Workaround: Use the CPU to generate the desired texture output. • When pixel aspect ratio (PAR) is set to a ratio other than 1:1, the image saved from the IDE does not reflect the PAR setting. Workaround: None.

• .exr files cannot be loaded in the Toolkit. Workaround: None. This issue will be addressed in a subsequent release.

Third Party Legal Notices

Notices, Terms and Conditions pertaining to third party software are located at http://www.adobe.com/go/thirdparty.

Adobe Systems Incorporated 4 of 4