Vulkan 1.2.196 Introduces H.265 Encode Extension

Arriving back in April were the initial Vulkan Video extensions that included support for video decode of H.264 and H.265 while the initial video encode support was limited to H.264. Out today with Vulkan 1.2.196 is the new extension allowing for H.265 encoding with this new industry-standard video API.

Vulkan 1.2.196 introduces the provisional VK_EXT_video_encode_h265 extension. This extension was worked on by AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA but at least under Linux only the NVIDIA proprietary driver currently exposes Vulkan Video encode/decode support. Presumably this morning NVIDIA will be issuing a new Vulkan beta driver providing timely support for this new H.265 encode provisional extension.

VK_EXT_video_encode_h265 allows for compressing a raw video sequence using the H.265/HEVC standard. Unfortunately there is no update to share at this time pertaining to Vulkan Video encode/decode extensions for VP9 or AV1 formats. Hopefully support for AV1 and VP9 surface soon and these provisional extensions mature timely and end up seeing broad industry driver support.

Also new with the Vulkan 1.2.196 specification is the VK_EXT_border_color_swizzle extension. VK_EXT_border_color_swizzle addresses undefined behavior seen in some applications around the existing VK_EXT_custom_border_color extension. Vulkan 1.2.196 also has its usual assortment of maintenance updates and other specification fixes.

The latest specification can be found at Vulkan.org. Happening today and tomorrow is also the Vulkanized Fall 2021 event as a virtual event with various tutorials and presentations on this API.