diff -urp xvidcore.orig/src/plugins/plugin_lumimasking.c xvidcore/src/plugins/plugin_lumimasking.c
--- xvidcore.orig/src/plugins/plugin_lumimasking.c	2006-05-06 06:37:15 +0200
+++ xvidcore/src/plugins/plugin_lumimasking.c	2010-04-08 03:08:30 +0200
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
  ****************************************************************************/
 
 #include <stdlib.h>
+#include <math.h>
 
 #include "../xvid.h"
 #include "../global.h"
@@ -160,24 +161,25 @@ static int normalize_quantizer_field(flo
 static int
 lumi_plg_frame(lumi_data_t *handle, xvid_plg_data_t *data)
 {
-	int i, j;
-
-	float global = 0.0f;
+	//Don't apply variance-masking to B-frames.
+	if (data->type == XVID_TYPE_BVOP) return 0;
 
-	const float DarkAmpl = 14 / 4;
-	const float BrightAmpl = 10 / 3;
-	float DarkThres = 90;
-	float BrightThres = 200;
+	int i, j;
 
-	const float GlobalDarkThres = 60;
-	const float GlobalBrightThres = 170;
+	/* Arbitrary centerpoint for variance-based AQ.  Roughly the same as used in x264. */
+	float center = 14000;
 
-	if (data->type == XVID_TYPE_BVOP) return 0;
+	/* Arbitrary strength for variance-based AQ. */
+	float strength = 0.2;
 
 	/* Do this for all macroblocks individually  */
-	for (j = 0; j < data->mb_height; j++) {
-		for (i = 0; i < data->mb_width; i++) {
-			int k, l, sum = 0;
+	for (j = 0; j < data->mb_height; j++)
+	{
+		for (i = 0; i < data->mb_width; i++)
+		{
+			int k, l;
+            unsigned int sum = 0;
+            unsigned int sum_of_squares = 0;
 			unsigned char *ptr;
 
 			/* Initialize the current quant value to the frame quant */
@@ -189,37 +191,30 @@ lumi_plg_frame(lumi_data_t *handle, xvid
 			ptr  = data->current.plane[0];
 			ptr += 16*j*data->current.stride[0] + 16*i;
 
-			/* Accumulate luminance */
+			/* Accumulate sum and sum of squares over the MB */
 			for (k = 0; k < 16; k++)
 				for (l = 0; l < 16; l++)
-					 sum += ptr[k*data->current.stride[0] + l];
+				{
+					int val = ptr[k*data->current.stride[0] + l];
+					sum += val;
+					sum_of_squares += val * val;
+				}
+					 
+			/* Variance = SSD - SAD^2 / (numpixels) */
+			int variance = sum_of_squares - sum * sum / 256;
 			
-			handle->val[j*data->mb_width + i] = (float)sum/256.0f;
-
-			/* Accumulate the global frame luminance */
-			global += (float)sum/256.0f;
+			handle->val[j*data->mb_width + i] = variance;
 		}
 	}
-
-	/* Normalize the global luminance accumulator */
-	global /= data->mb_width*data->mb_height;
-
-	DarkThres = DarkThres*global/127.0f;
-	BrightThres = BrightThres*global/127.0f;
-
-
-	/* Apply luminance masking only to frames where the global luminance is
-	 * higher than DarkThreshold and lower than Bright Threshold */
-	 if ((global < GlobalBrightThres) && (global > GlobalDarkThres)) {
-
-		/* Apply the luminance masking formulas to all MBs */
-		for (i = 0; i < data->mb_height; i++) {
-			for (j = 0; j < data->mb_width; j++) {
-				if (handle->val[i*data->mb_width + j] < DarkThres)
-					handle->quant[i*data->mb_width + j] *= 1 + DarkAmpl * (DarkThres - handle->val[i*data->mb_width + j]) / DarkThres;
-				else if (handle->val[i*data->mb_width + j] > BrightThres)
-					handle->quant[i*data->mb_width + j] *= 1 + BrightAmpl * (handle->val[i*data->mb_width + j] - BrightThres) / (255 - BrightThres);
-			}
+    
+	/* Apply the variance masking formula to all MBs */
+	for (i = 0; i < data->mb_height; i++)
+	{
+		for (j = 0; j < data->mb_width; j++)
+		{
+			float value = handle->val[i*data->mb_width + j];
+			float qscale_diff = strength * logf(value / center);
+			handle->quant[i*data->mb_width + j] *= (1.0 + qscale_diff);
 		}
 	}
 
diff -urp xvidcore.orig/src/xvid.c xvidcore/src/xvid.c
--- xvidcore.orig/src/xvid.c	2009-05-25 10:09:23 +0200
+++ xvidcore/src/xvid.c	2010-04-08 03:09:08 +0200
@@ -665,7 +665,7 @@ xvid_gbl_info(xvid_gbl_info_t * info)
 		return XVID_ERR_VERSION;
 
 	info->actual_version = XVID_VERSION;
-	info->build = "xvid-1.2.2";
+	info->build = "xvid-1.2.2-vaq";
 	info->cpu_flags = detect_cpu_flags();
 	info->num_threads = 0;