AMD open-sources TrueAudio Next, Advanced Media Framework

AMD has announced that it has added two new software development kits to the open-source GPUOpen bundle: TrueAudio Next and Advanced Media Framework 1.3.

The first of the new SDKs, TrueAudio Next, is a replacement to the existing TrueAudio hardware in Radeon graphics cards. Designed to work with AMD's LiquidVR SDK, the company claims TrueAudio Next allows for real-time physics-based audio acoustics rendering. Using OpenCL, TrueAudio Next accelerates audio convolution using the CPU or GPU. The result, AMD claims, is the ability to generate more convincing audio in virtual reality applications. The technology builds on AMD's Radeon Rays ray-casting system, and the two can run together.

The second SDK, Advanced Media Framework 1.3, brings open-source support for the Video Coding Engine and Unified Video Decoder hardware found in recent Radeon graphics cards. Together, these hardware units can speed up both encoding and decoding of video using a variety of codecs. Using the code in GPUOpen, developers can add support in open-source applications. Before this release, these hardware units were accessible only through closed-source 'binary blobs.' AMD suggests developers working in fields from wireless display streaming to video editing will find AMF 1.3 useful.

Both SDKs are available with full source code, under the permissive MIT licence. This follows a commitment from AMD to release as much source code as possible under permissive licences. Doing this, the company hopes, will help encourage developers to adopt its hardware platforms. Both SDKs are live now on the company's GPUOpen GitHub repository.