Scripting

[GreatAttractor]

ImPPG should be scriptable. This will especially help with trying out slightly different settings for large groups of files. E.g., “process this 500-file sequence with L-R sigma = 1.3, save in output1, then with sigma = 1.4, save in output2, then run FFMPEG on both to create videos for a side-by-side comparison”.

• all processing settings shall be exposed through an API, as well as image loading/saving, XML settings file loading/saving, image sequence alignment
• recommend to embed a Lua interpreter

[ftclausen]

One possible, low-tech starting option would be to add command-line arguments to imppg for these use cases. Then people can build shell, batch, etc. scripts around ImPPG as a start. It won't replace a more sophisticated API of course (and will not be as fast). E.g. something like this could be crafted using example above:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

find input/ -type f | while read -r file; do
  imppg --input="$file" --lr-sigma=1.3 --output "output1/$file"
  imppg --input="$file" --lr-sigma=1.4 --output "output2/$file"
  # Run ffmpeg commands here to make videos from files in output1 and output2
done

The above is just a rough idea.

[GreatAttractor]

I've considered this approach, and might yet still add it as a secondary option, but I'm already well into the embedded Lua implementation (see the scripting branch). The main reason is that there would be quite a time overhead on ImPPG startup if we want to use the OpenGL back end (initializing GLEW extensions, creating the context). Now multiply it by a few hundred/one thousand images to process (as, e.g., I tend to have for some time lapses)...

Also, with Lua I'll be able to test more easily some new functionality - processing RGB images and allowing multiple blended layers of unsharp mask with different parameters. That would be quite a proliferation of command-line options for all that :)

[ftclausen]

Ah indeed, yes, it'll be much slower re-launching all the ImPPG processes. Great to hear you are into the embedded Lua implementation. I will check it out.

[GreatAttractor]

Implemented in v1.9.0-beta (documentation). Image alignment is not yet exposed in the API.

[GreatAttractor]

Image alignment is now exposed in the API. Any new processing capabilities will be as well, as they're added.