Just wanted to share some recent updates here for anyone who doesn’t closely track the Cinder GitHub repo. We’re working on a long overdue dot release (0.9.3) in the coming weeks as well.
CanvasUi Implementation - A new CanvasUi class that brings CameraUi-style interaction to 2D canvas manipulation. Like its 3D counterpart, it provides intuitive mouse and keyboard controls for panning and zooming with support for bounded canvases (with auto-fit functionality) and unbounded infinite canvases. Includes samples demonstrating core features and minimap integration.
Capture Refactor - Complete overhaul of the video capture system introducing a new Capture::Mode API that enables explicit enumeration and selection of resolution, pixel format, and codec across all platforms. Highlights include a new GStreamer-based Linux implementation with automatic format negotiation and decoder pipeline selection for compressed formats (MJPEG, H264, HEVC); enhanced AVFoundation support with hot-unplug detection; and a rewritten DirectShow implementation that removes the videoInput dependency in favor of native COM.
Direct3D 11 Renderer (Proof of Concept) - A working D3D11 renderer implementation demonstrating that Cinder’s Renderer abstraction isn’t OpenGL-specific and can support alternative graphics APIs. Includes “Hello Triangle” and simplified ImageFileBasic samples to validate the architecture.
Image Format Enhancements
WIC Dynamic Codecs - Windows image I/O now dynamically queries available WIC codecs rather than using a hard-coded list. On Windows 11, this automatically adds support for WebP, HEIF/HEVC/AV1 formats (heic, heif, avif), JPEG XL, 34 raw camera formats (CR3, NEF, ARW, DNG, etc.), and numerous other formats—all without any changes to your application code.
QOI Image Format - Added support for the QOI (Quite OK Image) format, a lossless format offering 20-50x faster encoding and 3-4x faster decoding compared to PNG while maintaining comparable compression ratios and alpha channel support.
UI & Tooling Updates
Dear ImGui v1.92.3 and ImGui Power Parameter Fix - Updated to latest ImGui with necessary API compatibility fixes.
ImageFileBasic: ImGui and CanvasUi Integration - The ImageFileBasic sample now demonstrates both ImGui and CanvasUi integration.
Dear ImGui Modal Fixes (Windows) - Fixed modal dialog behavior on Windows.
AntTweakBar Removal - Removed the deprecated AntTweakBar UI library.
Platform & Build System
CMake 3.16 - Updated minimum CMake version requirement to 3.16.
CMake C++17 Enforcement and CMake Standard Fix - Modernized C++17 standard enforcement and improved platform parity, now requiring Visual Studio 2019 or later.
CMake MSVC Runtime Policy - Adopted CMake policy CMP0091 for cleaner MSVC runtime library selection.
macOS Deployment Target 10.13 - Updated minimum macOS deployment target.
Cairo Support (Linux + macOS) - Restored Cairo rendering support on Linux and macOS platforms.
Clang-Format Config - Added initial clang-format configuration for consistent code formatting.
Bug Fixes & Maintenance
Windows File Dialog Bugs, MSW Wide Path Fixes, and Linux File Dialog Path Fix - Various file dialog and path handling fixes across platforms.
GStreamer Video Playback Fix (Ubuntu ≥ 22.04) - Fixed video playback compatibility with GStreamer 1.20+.
Update TinyEXR to 1.0.12 and Update zlib to 1.3.1 - Dependency updates.
Mac Sample Cleanup and Ubuntu Workflow Dependency Fix - Sample and CI improvements.