Howler 2021.3 Released

#1

Hi Jim.

We have released Howler 2021.3 (build 87)
This build focuses on reimplementing our entire set of blur tools on the GPU. Several other features have also been added or improved. New Blur by Alpha and Vignette Blur tools have been added.

We will be adding new videos as they become available


Website
http://www.pdhowler.com/WhatsNew.htm

  • We got more performance out of the blur tools by utilizing the GPU texture sampling hardware, and reorganizing the memory to work better with the cache on the GPU. It also means render quality is higher than before.

  • The Gaussian blur filter is rewritten. More speed for both approximate mode and precise mode. Precise mode is moved onto the GPU and now works in real-time too. Hybrid mode is now thus removed. Gaussian blurs levels can go much higher because people are working on larger images these days

  • There’s a new Blur by Alpha filter that works in Realtime, replacing the old “alpha aware blur” tool. Blur by alpha also has a bias setting that interprets the alpha channel non-linearly.

  • Bokeh blur now works in real-time. Settings have been rethought and simplified. The Bloom effect in the tool now only needs one slider. Some of the more esoteric settings were removed for simplicity.

  • (bokeh blur produces those hexagonal/octagonal lens flares/blooms you see in shallow depth of field photographs.

  • Motion blur is faster and higher quality, and the setting can be driven higher.

  • Zoom blur is faster and higher quality

  • Mystic vision is faster and higher quality. It gets several new combine modes, including min/max/screen/multiply.

  • Radial blur is now on the GPU and is faster and higher quality. There’s also a correction for aspect ratio, which we previously lacked.

  • The smoothing setting in the lighting tool is reimplemented for better quality.

  • The value noise filter is reimplemented for better quality. We don’t have to rely on bit manipulation trickery like we used to. The value noise filter produces more statistically accurate noise and doesn’t alter the overall brightness of the image.

  • Visible Grid and Artist Guides can now have their own user defined colors.

  • Reimplemented “Selection/Gaussian blur selection” to be consistent with the new Gaussian blur tool, meaning more speed and quality.

  • The halftone filter now defaults to color mode

  • The water drops filter got a huge speed boost