Adobe Pixel Bender, previously codenamed Hydra, is a

programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language. The description of a programming ...

created by

Adobe Systems Adobe Inc. ( ), originally called Adobe Systems Incorporated, is an American multinational computer software company incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in San Jose, California. It has historically specialized in software for the crea ...

for the description of

image processing An image is a visual representation of something. It can be two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or somehow otherwise feed into the visual system to convey information. An image can be an artifact, such as a photograph or other two-dimensiona ...

algorithms. The syntax is based on

GLSL OpenGL Shading Language (GLSL) is a high-level shading language with a syntax based on the C programming language. It was created by the OpenGL ARB (OpenGL Architecture Review Board) to give developers more direct control of the graphics pipeli ...

, and a Pixel Bender program is analogous to an

OpenGL OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a cross-language, cross-platform application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics. The API is typically used to interact with a graphics processing unit (GPU), to achieve hardwa ...

fragment shader In computer graphics, a shader is a computer program that calculates the appropriate levels of light, darkness, and color during the rendering of a 3D scene - a process known as ''shading''. Shaders have evolved to perform a variety of speci ...

, and is intended to be a loosely typed version of

C++ C++ (pronounced "C plus plus") is a high-level general-purpose programming language created by Danish computer scientist Bjarne Stroustrup as an extension of the C programming language, or "C with Classes". The language has expanded significan ...

. Adobe Systems' Adobe Pixel Bender Toolkit is the IDE for scripting with Pixel Bender. Pixel Bender programs are intended to be used in a number of Adobe products, and was supported by

After Effects Adobe After Effects is a digital visual effects, motion graphics, and compositing application developed by Adobe Inc., and used in the post-production process of film making, video games and television production. Among other things, After Eff ...

(through CS5) and

Flash Player Adobe Flash Player (known in Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Google Chrome as Shockwave Flash) is computer software for viewing multimedia contents, executing rich Internet applications, and streaming audio and video content created on the ...

. The Pixel Bender Toolkit was bundled with Adobe's Creative Suite, and allowed programs to be created and tested. It is available as a free standalone from Adobe's website. In addition to its primary purpose of image processing, Pixel Bender can also be used for general mathematical operations which would benefit from the hardware acceleration that it provides. An example of this is audio processing.

References

Pixel Bender Adobe Pixel Bender, previously codenamed Hydra, is a programming language created by Adobe Systems for the description of image processing algorithms. The syntax is based on GLSL, and a Pixel Bender program is analogous to an OpenGL fragment ...

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See also

References