Native DirectX 12 video encoding API is coming to Windows 11
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Key notes
- You will surely be thrilled by this latest news coming out from Microsoft.
- The tech giant just introduced DX12 video encoding API for Windows 11.
- DX12 video encoder API for Windows 11 supports H264/HEVC formats.
- Check out our list and find out what hardware platforms support the codecs.
It’s safe to say that we can all agree on the fact that, as a set of multimedia solutions for the Windows OS, DirectX 12 is quite successful in the field of games and video.
Before this even existed, the Redmond-based tech giant used to provide an API for GPU-accelerated video decoding processing and motion estimation.
However, through a DirectX developer blog post created yesterday, Microsoft detailed the newly introduced DirectX 12 video encoding API for Windows 11.
Windows 11 is getting native DirectX 12 video encoding API
Basically, the Video Encode API actually allows video engines to make use of the GPU in order to perform video encoding in line with the standards set by DirectX 12.
Thus, third-party developers can now use this feature in their applications as well. Also, keep in mind that Vulkan already includes APIs for video encoding and decoding for H264 and H265 codecs.
Even though the current DX12 video encoder API on the Windows 11 platform only supports the H264/HEVC format, Microsoft has some recommendations.
To be more specific, the tech giant stated that developers should understand the corresponding codecs and driver tool support in advance.
In addition to the video encoding API included in Windows 11 by default, interested developers can also obtain it through the DX12 Agility Software Development Kit (SDK version number 1.70.10-preview or higher).
The detailed API interfaces and structures definition can be found here. For finding more design details and detailed documentation for the API, please refer to this document.
Video Encode API supported platforms
The Video Encode API is included as part of Windows 11 and can also be found in the DirectX 12 Agility SDK (version 1.700.10-preview or newer).
The list below contains the hardware platforms that currently have support for Video Encode for both H264 and HEVC codecs and their minimum driver version requirements.
| Vendor | Supported platforms | Minimum video driver version |
| AMD | Radeon RX 5000 series or greater than Ryzen 2xxxx series or greater | In development – ETA Q2 ‘2022 |
| Intel | Tiger LakeIce LakeAlder Lake (from early 2022) | v30.0.100.9955 |
| NVIDIA | GeForce GTX 10xx and above GeForce RTX 20xx and above Quadro RTXNVIDIA RTX | v471.41 |
Excited about the new addition coming to Windows 11? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.
