New High Quality GPU Compression Codec Going Open-Source In The Coming Days

Compression experts Rich Geldreich and Stephanie Hurlburt with their Binomial consulting firm are about to release a high-quality open-source compression codec for GPUs.

Hurlburt began teasing this new open-source project over the weekend. She tweeted out that a high quality open-source codec will be opened up in the coming days for "high quality GPU performant images" and "we're sending you literally 15+ years ahead in time." While it may seem like a marketing gimmick and building up hype, we have continued to be amazed at the work done by Geldreich in terms of compression codecs and other software work over the years, so we are genuinely excited and eager to learn more.

High quality codec goes open source in about a week and let me just tell you, it's looking GOOD. Web programmer friends who want super high quality GPU-performant images, buckle your seatbeats, we're sending you literally 15+ years ahead in time

— Stephanie Hurlburt (@sehurlburt) March 8, 2020

Stephanie went on to note that Google employees are getting access to a preview of it imminently (Binomial has an open-source partnership with Google and has done other work with them). In response to comments she said it's a combination of BC7 and ASTC technology with an aim on cross-platform support and transcoding support for allowing broad GPU support.

Binomial to date has been known for their Basis image/texture compression technology while also contributing to Khronos' glTF and other efforts. Basis is open-source and has seen broad industry interest and support, so it will be interesting to see their new codec taking things to the next level. Stay tuned!