Sony Pictures Imageworks has just released the Alpha version of their OSL, Open Shading Language, to the community. Unlike other shader languages, OSL assumes a system is capable of ray tracing and provides global illuminates and physical accuracy by default, much different from the situation when original shader languages were developed. Built in-house for their own productions, it includes work from Rhythm & Hues and others.
“We’re excited to be sharing OSL with the world,” said Rob Bredow. “Our goal is to follow the model of the most successful open source software by making our development public. This provides the very best opportunities for collaboration and adoption. Even though it's in its early stages, there is a lot of sophisticated groundwork already laid in OSL. We look forward to the response from the computer graphics community”
Go check it out at http://opensource.imageworks.com/ .
