8

MPEG Files 671
Note:
The plug-in does not a llow for the direct
import of audio f rom a QuickTime file.
Inter face
When y ou create a new QuickTime file or choose
Setup for an existing one, you see a dialog that
is typically titled Compression Settings. This
dialog is provided by the QuickTime
codec (page
3–1015)
installedwithyoursystem,andcan
changedependingontheversionofQuickTime
you ’ve installed.
MPEG Files
The MPEG format is a standard for movie fi les.
MPEG stands for Moving Picture Experts Group.
MPEG files can have a .
mpg or . mpeg file name
extension.
MPEG is supported only as an input file format.
You c an use M PEG files as texture maps.
OpenE XR Fi les
3ds Max can both read (page 3–675) and write
(page 3–672)
image files i n the OpenEXR format.
OpenEXR is both an image file format and a
general open-source API for reading and wr it ing
such files.
The best place to look for information on
OpenEXR itself is t
he official Website.The
following is taken directly from the OpenEXR
home page:
OpenEXR is a high dynamic-range
(HDR) image file format developed
by Industrial Light & Magic for use in
computer imaging applications.
OpenEXR has already been used by ILM
on 4 major motion pictures -- Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Men in
Black II, Gangs of New York, and Signs --
and is also b eing used on several other
movies cur rently in production.
OpenEXR’s features include:
• Hig her dynamic range and color
precision than existing 8- and 10-bit
image file formats.
• Support for 16-bit floating-point
pixels. The pixel format, called "half,"
is compatible with the half data type
in NVIDIA’s Cg graphics language
and is supported natively on their
new GeForce FX and Quadro FX 3D
graphics s olutions.
• Multiple lossless image compression
algorithms. Some of the included
codecs can achieve 2:1 lossless
compressionratiosonimageswith
film grain.
• Extensibility. New compression
codecs and image ty pes can easily
be added by extending the C++
classes included in the OpenEXR
software distribution. New image
attributes (st rings, vectors, integers,
etc.) can be added to OpenEXR image
headers without affecting backward
compatibility with existing OpenEXR
applications.
The OpenEXR Bitmap I/O software goes beyond
the “standard” OpenEXR format, ta k ing advantage
of the flexibility of the f ormat itself. I t can write
channels and attributes as well as general RGBA
data in formats that many OpenEXR file importers
cannot understand, due to implementation limits
as well as limits to the current set of standards.
The full-latitude 32-bit floating point RGBA files
that the output function can write is one example.
While the OpenEXR API itself fully supports this
capability, and these files are written using the
standard set of OpenEXR libraries, most sof tware