Microsoft Adds Direct3D 12 Powered AV1 Video Encoding To Mesa

Microsoft's latest contribution to the Mesa 3D graphics driver stack is enhancing their Direct3D 12 driver to support AV1 video encoding with the VA-API interface.

As covered in numerous Phoronix articles, Microsoft has been improving their Mesa D3D12 driver just not for graphics but also video acceleration. This is principally to benefit Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2) users in being able to enjoy hardware-accelerated video content within the Linux confines and using native Linux APIs that ultimately are then mapped into the Direct3D 12 world and executed with the Windows hardware drivers.

The latest D3D12 video acceleration work to land in Mesa 23.2 is now supporting AV1 video encode with VA-API. Should you want to enjoy GPU-accelerated AV1 encode within WSL, it's now possible with Mesa 23.2-devel paired with the DirectX Agility SDK Preview 1.711.3. Those interested can find more details within the merge request.

Mesa 23.2 stable should be out in the August~September timeframe depending upon how the rest of the cycle plays out.