SiandClaude Opus 5.5
708b6bdb1b
LICENSE holds the text, the README and About Effector state it, and the Arch package declares it. The version moves to 0.5.2 for the release. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
173 lines
6.6 KiB
Markdown
173 lines
6.6 KiB
Markdown
# Effector
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An image effects app: a GTK4 interface and a headless CLI over a set of
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pluggable effects. Effects are self-contained classes that declare their own
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parameters; the interface builds its widgets and the CLI builds its flags from
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those declarations, so a new effect needs no UI or CLI code.
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## Build
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Requirements: a C++20 compiler (GCC 13+), CMake 3.20+, `gtkmm-4.0` and
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`gdk-pixbuf-2.0` development packages. On Arch: `gcc cmake ninja gtkmm-4.0`.
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```bash
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cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
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cmake --build build
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ctest --test-dir build --output-on-failure
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```
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The binary lands at `build/effector`; `cmake --install build --prefix ~/.local`
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installs it to `~/.local/bin`.
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On Arch, `packaging/arch/PKGBUILD` builds the release tagged `v<version>` from
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this repository and installs it with pacman, desktop entry included:
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```bash
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cd packaging/arch && makepkg -si
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```
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## Run
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```bash
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build/effector # GTK interface
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build/effector --list-effects
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build/effector --help
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build/effector --version
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```
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Headless rendering, no display needed:
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```bash
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build/effector -o out.png -s 1920x1080 \
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--strip-height 8 --jitter 4 --seed 42 photo1.jpg photo2.png
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```
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The canvas is either a size in pixels (`-s 1920x1080`, the Custom entry in the
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interface) or one of the standard formats, which `--help` lists in full:
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```bash
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build/effector -o post.png --format instagram-post -e tiles
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build/effector -o sheet.png --format a4 --dpi 300 -e scanlines
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```
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A web format — the Instagram sizes, Full HD, 4K UHD — is a fixed pixel size. A
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print format — A5, A4, A3, US Letter — is a sheet of paper, and becomes pixels
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at `--dpi` (36–1200, 300 by default), so A4 at 300 dpi is 2480×3508. Picking a
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format in the interface fills the width and height in and greys them out;
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Custom hands them back, keeping whatever the format last worked out to. A
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format is saved with the project, so an A4 project reopens as A4 rather than as
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the pixels it happened to be.
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Any option can also be passed when launching the interface; it becomes the
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starting state (images, canvas size, effect settings, seed).
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Reading a batch of large photographs takes seconds, so it never blocks the
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interface: decoding runs in the background and a progress window shows how many
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files are done, which one is being read, and a Cancel button that stops the
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batch. Small batches finish before the window would be drawn, so it only appears
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if the decode is still going after 250 ms. On a terminal the headless mode keeps
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a single `reading n/total` line updated on stderr; redirected output stays clean.
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## Versions
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Releases are listed in [CHANGELOG.md](CHANGELOG.md) and tagged `vX.Y.Z`
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(`git tag -l 'v*'`). `effector --version` prints the version, and the menu in
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the interface has Changelog and About Effector.
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To cut a release: bump the `project()` version in `CMakeLists.txt`, move the
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changes into a new `## [X.Y.Z] - date` entry at the top of `CHANGELOG.md` (the
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core tests fail until the two agree), commit, and tag it:
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`git tag -a vX.Y.Z -m "Effector X.Y.Z"`.
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## Effects
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### scanlines
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Fills the canvas top to bottom with horizontal strips cut at random positions
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from the source images. Strips are taken at native scale, cropped at a random
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horizontal offset, and tiled when the source is narrower than the canvas.
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| Parameter | Flag | Meaning |
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|---|---|---|
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| `strip_height` | `--strip-height` | Height in pixels of each extracted line |
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| `jitter` | `--jitter` | Random ± variation of that height (0 = uniform) |
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| `keep_order` | `--keep-order` | Cycle the images in order instead of picking randomly |
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The seed makes a result reproducible: same sources, settings and seed give the
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same image, on any machine — the generator (`src/core/rng.hpp`) is a hand-rolled
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xoshiro256\*\* rather than `<random>`, whose distributions are not portable.
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**Recreate** draws a new seed.
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## Layout
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```
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src/core/ image buffer and IO, param specs, effect base, registry, rng, thread helper
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src/effects/ one file per effect
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src/cli/ argument parsing (flags generated from the registry)
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src/gui/ gtkmm 4 interface
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tests/ core checks, run by ctest
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python-reference/ the original Python prototype, kept for reference only
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```
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`effector_core` is a GUI-free static library that links only gdk-pixbuf, so
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headless rendering never touches GTK or a display. The GTK front end links on
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top of it.
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## Adding an effect
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1. Create `src/effects/myeffect.{hpp,cpp}` with a subclass of `Effect`:
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```cpp
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class MyEffect : public Effect {
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std::string name() const override { return "myeffect"; }
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std::string title() const override { return "My Effect"; }
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std::string description() const override { return "..."; }
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const std::vector<ParamSpec>& params() const override {
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static const std::vector<ParamSpec> specs = {
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ParamSpec::makeInt("amount", "Amount", 4, 1, 64, "How much."),
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};
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return specs;
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}
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Image render(const std::vector<Image>& sources, int width, int height, Rng& rng,
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const ParamValues& values) const override {
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const long amount = paramInt(values, "amount", 4);
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... // return a width x height RGB image
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}
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};
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```
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2. Add it to `_EFFECT_CLASSES`-style list in `src/core/registry.cpp` and to the
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source list in `CMakeLists.txt`.
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Widgets and flags follow from `params()` automatically. Draw everything random
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from the `Rng` you are handed so results stay reproducible, and use
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`parallelFor` (`src/core/parallel.hpp`) for the pixel work.
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## Performance notes
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The render loop first draws the whole strip plan from the seeded generator, then
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copies the pixels in parallel across the hardware threads; each row is a
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`memcpy`, and horizontal tiling doubles the filled span per pass. Source images
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are decoded in parallel too, which is what dominates a headless run.
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A 7680×4320 canvas at `--strip-height 2` from three multi-megapixel JPEGs renders
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in ~35 ms, against ~73 ms for the Python prototype; the interface reports the
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render time of the current preview in its status line.
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Decoding threads take the next file from a shared cursor rather than a fixed
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slice of the list, so one very large file cannot stall the files queued behind
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it and progress advances at a steady rate.
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## License
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Copyright © 2026 Si.
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Effector is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
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terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
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Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later
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version. It is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
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WARRANTY; see `LICENSE` for the full text. Images you render with it are yours
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and are not covered by the license.
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