Add .avif (AV1 Image File Format) support

[EwoutH]

The AV1 Image File Format (AVIF) is a new image format based on the AV1 video codec. It would be great if support for this format could be added.

The AVIF spec can be found here: https://aomediacodec.github.io/av1-avif/
Netflix published a bunch of test images: http://download.opencontent.netflix.com/?prefix=AV1/Chimera/AVIF/

[diemmarkus]

I'll have a look at it - thanks!

[EwoutH]

Great! Here are some more samples if you need them: https://github.com/AOMediaCodec/av1-avif/tree/master/testFiles/Microsoft

Especially the tiled one (Summer_in_Tomsk_720p_5x4_grid.avif) is tricky.

[EwoutH]

libavif tagged a new release, 0.1.3. See Colorist for an example implementation.

[novomesk]

I just installed nomacs and I observed that it opens AVIF and AVIFS files.
I develop a Qt Image Plugin with AVIF support and I think that maybe nomacs loaded the *.AVIF files because it is a QT application.

[diemmarkus]

I develop a Qt Image Plugin with AVIF support and I think that maybe nomacs loaded the *.AVIF files because it is a QT application

for sure - nomacs uses any qt image plugins that are available on the system. is your image plugin open source? if yes, I will add it to the default installer on windows.

[novomesk]

Yes, my plug-in is free.
I am preparing a new improved version but it is not public yet.
So far you can see how the old version of my plug-in looks like, I shared sources here:
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=416941
The old version of my plug-in works with libavif 0.5.7 but doesn't work with 0.6.x (New version will work with 0.6.x).
I can notify you when the new version is ready.
You will need to prepare two libraries: libaom and libavif. cmake is needed in the configuration process. Libaom needs to be not very old, at least v1.0.0-errata1-avif.

[diemmarkus]

I can notify you when the new version is ready.

yes please!

[novomesk]

The new version of my plug-in:
http://188.121.162.14/avif/qt_avif_image_plugin_2020-03-20.zip

I started to host it on github too: https://github.com/novomesk/qt-avif-image-plugin

[diemmarkus]

is it already ready to use? If so, I'll test it on my system...

[novomesk]

Yes, I believe it is ready. It works on Linux, I tried Gentoo and Ubuntu, other people used it on Arch. I haven't tried with Windows yet.
The plug-in itself is simple. Just to build libavif with recently new libaom.

[novomesk]

@diemmarkus
Did you have success to build my plug-in on Windows?
In the past I used only MSYS2,
but today I tried to build libaom and libavif using Visual Studio 2019 and when these 2 libs were ready, Qt Creator built qavif.dll (my plug-in).
I plan to create Windows instructions in the near future anyway.

[diemmarkus]

no : )
-> I stopped when I saw that there are a few additional dependencies. I am currently making things ready for appveyor (#488). I will add avif there if time permits (of course you are very welcome to support me in this process : )

[EwoutH]

@diemmarkus I contributed to the libavif AppVeyor configuration. Please let me know if you need any help building libavif!

[diemmarkus]

@EwoutH I am pretty sure you can help here : )
Since I am new to AppVeyor, I have a few starter questions:
what is the best way for me to make use of compiled libavif packages?

• should I download the latest static lib zip in my appveyor script (and hope compilers did not change)?
• or is there a mechanism that allows me to use your appveyor config?

[novomesk]

Today I tried AppVeyor, I reused some portions of the configuration made by EwoutH.
https://ci.appveyor.com/project/novomesk/qt-avif-image-plugin
Result is qavif.dll
I combined it with your files from nomacs-portable.zip and I was able to open AVIF files.

[novomesk]

Marcus,
can you add something like this into DkSettings.cpp please?
if (qtFormats.contains("avif")) app_p.saveFilters.append("AV1 Image File Format (*.avif)");
so we can save AVIF via nomacs too.

[diemmarkus]

can you add something like this into DkSettings.cpp please?

sure.... if like, you can added & create a pull request (then it's your contribution). does avif save need parameters?

[novomesk]

You can modify AVIF output quality via QImageWriter::setQuality(int quality)
range 0-100
0 - small file
100 - almost lossless
I use default value 52 - slightly above the middle.

[novomesk]

Can I contribute to the DkCompressDialog so user can adjust the quality/compression?
We would need new string to translate:
setWindowTitle(tr("AVIF Settings"));
However these values are not suitable for AVIF compression:

mCompressionCombo->addItem(tr("Best Quality"), 100);
mCompressionCombo->addItem(tr("High Quality"), 97);
mCompressionCombo->addItem(tr("Medium Quality"), 90);
mCompressionCombo->addItem(tr("Low Quality"), 80);
mCompressionCombo->addItem(tr("Bad Quality"), 60);

because at quality==80, AVIF is saved with subjectively high quality.
60 could be called Medium
40 - low
20 -bad
How to solve it? Another QComboBox* mCompressionAVIFCombo?

[diemmarkus]

I set up a branch to add these features. There you can change compression values in DkSaveDialog.cpp#106 and apply them in the init() function (see line 174).

[novomesk]

OK, I started to work on that. I will let you know when I finish.

[diemmarkus]

@novomesk there is one last wish (as always : ): can you attach the appveyor's artifact to the github release? this way I can use the latest stable in nomacs rather than the latest nightly.

[novomesk]

I will do it for future releases.
I would like to do it after next release of libavif. There were some breaking changes/big refactor/important improvements. So I wait for the right time. I hope it is a matter of few more days.

[diemmarkus]

I just realized, that libheif now also supports avif. since I have the feeling, that you guys know much more about the codec than I do: is there any advantage of choosing libavif over libheif for loading? from my point of view: libheif is LGPL, libavif has a license which I don't know (but should do for us).

[novomesk]

libavif and libaom use the BSD 2-Clause License which says, "as is", "no warranty", "no liability" - it is even more free than LGPL.
new libheif (1.7.0) also uses libaom to encode/decode AV1-codec compressed data like libavif.
I started to use libheif recently and I have to say that libavif is best for AVIF so far.
When I tested libheif 1.7.0 I encontered few issues and reported them (you can check what I reported there). Some of them are resolved already. There are still some things to verify and to implement in libheif. I keep following the progress in libheif and to provide feedback there.

[diemmarkus]

thanks for the fast feedback. updating to libheif 1.7.0 just broke everything on my side : )

[novomesk]

I attached DLL to the
https://github.com/novomesk/qt-avif-image-plugin/releases/tag/v0.2.0
Will you merge the 292-save-avif branch later? Just curious.

[novomesk]

I observed that in order to play AVIFS animation, it is enough to do modify DkImageContainer.cpp
Original in DkImageContainer::hasMovie():
return newSuffix.contains(QRegExp("(gif|mng|webp)", Qt::CaseInsensitive)) != 0;
AVIFS added:
return newSuffix.contains(QRegExp("(avifs|gif|mng|webp)", Qt::CaseInsensitive)) != 0;
Can you add it?

[diemmarkus]

Will you merge the 292-save-avif branch later? Just curious.

292-save-avif is on top of appveyor that currently causes troubles with the updated libheif : ) -> I will merge it after appveyor is merged

Can you add it?

sure