AMD makes tools for game developers open source

AMD has announced the GPUOpen initiative, with which the company will release the SDK and libraries for its GPUs under an open source license. AMD wants to better compete with Nvidia’s GameWorks. There is also more information about the driver plans for Linux.

AMD is going to put the source code of Radeon SDKs and libraries under an MIT license on GitHub. These include the effects TressFX, GeometryFX and ShadowFX, the SDKs LiquidVR, Firerender and Rapidfire and tools such as Tootle and CodeXL. Developers will be able to access its code from January through a single portal. Blog posts and other documentation should further make its use attractive to game developers. AMD hopes that releasing the source code will allow the tools and SDKs to be further developed and end up in third-party projects.

This should increase its use and strengthen AMD’s position relative to competitor Nvidia. Nvidia is promoting the use of its tools through the GameWorks program and has been successful in doing so. The closed tools and SDKs of this program ensure that certain physics calculations, such as those for hair movements and shadows, are handled more efficiently by Nvidia GPUs. However, game developers are reluctant to optimize their games for multiple platforms, so AMD tries to make it as attractive as possible for them with GPUOpen.

AMD also announced more about its plans with the Linux Driver Stack at the same time as the announcement of GPUOpen. That stack will consist of a kernel that is completely open source, and drivers that are part closed and part open source. Among other things, opening drivers should ensure that they can be used in combination with more Linux distributions. The closed drivers will include OpenGl and OpenCL, among others.