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v0.5.6: smoother, cleaner, faster low-quality exports

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@froggeric froggeric released this 11 Aug 19:19
· 100 commits to main since this release
v0.5.6
3c5b67b

v0.5.6 consolidates the documentation for the temporal-smoothing quality work shipped across v0.5.2 through v0.5.5. The code is unchanged from v0.5.5 and the binary is identical. This note summarizes what that arc delivered for anyone upgrading from v0.5.1.

Low-sample exports no longer flicker. Draft, Standard, and High quality exports are now smooth from the first frame (no grainy ramp-in, no lag) and visibly cleaner than before. A Standard export reaches roughly genome-default cleanliness at about 33x the render speed, and Draft exports are over 2x faster (the temporal-samples default was wasteful at low samples-per-pixel).

What changed, in plain terms:

  • Smoothing from frame 1. A centered box window replaced the original causal filter, so smoothing applies immediately with no startup ramp and no motion lag.
  • Cleaner quality tiers. Draft, Standard, and High were under-sampled (they inherited the realtime preview's sample counts). They are now tuned (samples-per-pixel 8, 30, 100), with temporal smoothing layered on as free supersampling.
  • Faster, smarter defaults. The named tiers no longer inherit the genome's high temporal-samples, which added up to +136% render time at low spp for motion blur that is invisible on slow ambient loops. Choosing a quality tier now auto-sets the appropriate temporal-samples (Draft single-pass, Standard 4, High 16; Genome-default keeps the full genome value).
  • Genome-default is untouched. It remains the byte-exact mastering path, identical to emberweft animate.

Nothing about the renderer math, determinism, or the animate/export mastering path changed. If you only export at genome-default, your output is byte-identical to v0.5.1.

Install
Download and unzip. The binary is unsigned, so clear quarantine before running:
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine emberweft emberweft_FlameRenderer.bundle
Run the GUI from the folder that holds the resource bundles:
./emberweft-gui
Or the CLI:
./emberweft --help
Requires macOS 26 on Apple Silicon.

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