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QuoteKhronos Releases AV1 Decode in Vulkan Video with SDK Support for H.264/H.265 Encode

The Vulkan Working Group at Khronos has developed a set of video format decode and encode extensions, collectively referred to as "Vulkan Video." Today, with the release of Vulkan 1.3.277, the Working Group is proud to announce the new Decode AV1 video extension. Similar to the Vulkan project in its goals, AV1 is a royalty-free open standard for video compression developed by the Alliance for Open Media (AOM) delivering industry-leading performance and quality. The result of broad industry collaboration and support, the Decode AV1 extension is a major milestone that builds on the foundation of Vulkan Video to bring cross-platform portable and performant AV1 decode to engines and applications everywhere.

The figure below shows the released Vulkan Video extensions and some of the extensions under development.




Details about the new Decode AV1 functionality can be found in the extension proposal document and specification.

Vulkan drivers supporting both Decode AV1 and the recently released Encode H.264/H.265 extensions are already available, including:

- NVIDIA: Windows and Linux beta drivers support Decode AV1 today, with an imminent  production driver that will add Decode AV1 to already shipping H.264/H.265 Encode support.

- AMD: Windows beta driver for Encode H.264/H.265 and Decode AV1.

- Intel: Windows driver coming soon.

There is strong open-source community adoption of Vulkan Video, including decode and encode support in the GStreamer and FFmpeg multimedia frameworks, as well as the RADV/ANVs open-source Vulkan driver for Intel and AMD GPUs.

NVIDIA's open source Vulkan Video sample is also being updated to illustrate the use of the Encode H.264/H.265 and the Decode AV1 extensions.

The open-source community has been deeply involved in the development of the Vulkan Video Decode AV1 extension, starting with the initial Mesa extension proposal from Dave Airlie and Lynne Iribarren, and including key contributions from Igalia for conformance test development, and detailed feedback from Collabora on the extension design. The experienced support and guidance from RasterGrid for specification and validation layer development was also essential. The Vulkan Video Decode AV1 extension is a true testament to the strong industry collaboration fostered by Khronos, and the Vulkan Working Group is grateful for all its members' hard work and contributions to reach this important milestone for the Vulkan Video ecosystem!