AMD Quad Buffer API now available

• AMD Quad Buffer API now available

On the 4th August 2011, AMD announced that the AMD Quad Buffer API is now available at the AMD Developer Central . It was announced in a blog post by Shane Parfitt. The post is available below:-

In keeping with AMD’s ‘Open Approach’ to stereo 3D, today we are releasing our quad buffer API on AMD Developer Central. You’re probably wondering what a quad buffer is and why we’re telling you about its public release. In a nutshell, our quad buffer is a piece of technology used by our middleware partners DDD and iZ3D to enable immersive stereo 3D gaming experiences on active shutter 3D displays supporting industry standards such as HDMI 1.4a, DisplayPort 3D and 3D displays that require frame sequential/page flipped or frame packed input format.

With our AMD HD3D technology, we’ve brought support for stereo 3D to our current generations of graphics solutions; ATI Radeon™ HD 5000, AMD Radeon™ HD 6000 Series and A-Series APUs. The quad buffer not only enables stereo 3D video playback, but can be used to add native support for stereo 3D in video games and supports DirectX ®9, 10 and 11. Eidos-Montreal has recently announced their implementation of native HD3D using this same quad buffer API, and now this is open to all developers so anyone can download on AMD Developer Central.

AMD’s approach to the stereo 3D ecosystem is simple; build the stereo 3D experience you want to have. We don’t limit, hinder or block; we leverage multiple interoperable hardware and software partners to give you choice, flexibility and affordability. Even with all of these choices, setting up HD3D is a lot easier than you think. Take a look at these two videos on How to Set up HD3D in 60 seconds for stereo 3D gaming and Blu-ray 3D playback. As we continue to see the PC and entertainment industries embrace stereo 3D as a technology, there are more and more opportunities to experience this technology in the home, and with this public release we hope to add to this momentum.

Shane Parfitt is a Product Manager at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.


Overview of AMD Quad Buffer API

This SDK allows developers to access AMD’s Quad-Buffer API to support stereoscopic 3D displays that require frame sequential or frame packed format input using custom DirectX 9,10, and 11 extensions.

Examples of these displays are listed here: http://www.amd.com/us/products/technologies/amd-hd3d/pages/supported-hardware.aspx

The API outlined in this SDK can be used for showing DirectX games in stereoscopic 3D, video playback applications and viewing 3D pictures. This API also abstracts the underlying display interface technology. This means the developer doesn’t have to code differently for DisplayPort, HDMI, DVI, or VGA 3D displays since the transport mechanism of the stereo image pairs is transparent to the application.


Notes

• This API is supported by the following GPUs - AMD Radeon® HD 5000 series, AMD Radeon® HD 6000 series.
• DirectX 9, 10 and 11 are all supported.
• Support for HDMI 1.4a 3D displays is included in the latest AMD Catalyst : http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/Pages/downloads.aspx
• Support for HDMI 1.4a, DisplayPort and DVI 3D displays is included in:http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/Catalyst118DriverPreview.aspx
• The application is required to generate the Left and Right eye images, which will then be written onto the Quad-Buffer.
• Some monitors may require a special method to indicate frame polarity – please communicate with the display vendor for more information.

More information and download for the AMD Quad Buffer API can be obtained at http://goo.gl/Ma2ll Share this post on AMD Quad Buffer API now available