Blender! it is a reference point in the CGI industry used by both aspiring artists and veterans. Blender is available for different platforms – obviously Windows – but also Mac OS and Linux.
Why this introduction? because after porting Real HDR to Mac OSX we are now thinking if it is worth the effort (economically speaking since the moral is very high in favor of Linux) to port Real HDR to Linux.
The answer may come first from the question “how many people are using Linux to produce VFX?”, secondly from “how many of these users would agree to pay the price of Real HDR?” and lastly “are there other software that can be used to generate HDR images for renders in Linux?”
The first question may find an answer at THIS link of Blender foundation.
This is related to 2005 when Linux was very popular under many different distributions. But what about nowadays? Since this is a reliable statistic we can estimate the amount, according to the growth trends from THIS other article.
In my estimate, they are “many” or at least “a lot”. Although this is not so precise definition, I think it may be worth the attempt considering the possible user base. To the other questions about alternative software, I would say “not so many” (but considering the high tech skill of a Linux VFX user, I think there are many alternative ways). Also, the pricing option is not in our favor, since Linux is an environment where a great pleasure arrives from “doing the impossible by your own” and not by purchasing workarounds… at least this is my perception about it. I share a lot with this philosophy but at the same time, running my company on software R&D in function of sales, I need to have a reliable ROI and. Linux is a source of income considering my video games/VR apps, running on Android, but this is another story…
So, although Linux doesn’t seem to be a proper direction of investment, considering such a small software like Real HDR, I am going to try and I will update this post later in a year or so. Wish me good luck!
CALL TO LINUX USERS: if you have any words to say about this topic, I’d like to start a discussion here below.
I will be the first one to rise a hand for Linux support! Seams that the big studios in VFX use Linux machines for the reliability of the platform. We’ve switched our machine production on Linux to use Blender and we’re so far very happy about it. We have the tools we need (Blender / Modo / Unreal Engine / Unity / Davinci Resolve), super-fast startup time and a system prof to crash.