AMD releases Capsaicin 1.2
AMD has released Capsaicin 1.2, the latest version of its open-source framework for developing real-time rendering technologies.
The update adds support for morph target animation, meshlet-based rendering, ACES tonemapping, and the .dds texture format.
A GPU-agnostic, modular, open-source framework for developing real-time rendering tech
First released publicly in 2023, Capsaicin is a modular open-source framework for prototyping and developing real-time rendering technologies, primarily for games.
It is designed for developing in broad strokes, creating simple, performant abstractions, not low-level hardware implementations, and is not intended for tuning high-performance tools.
The framework is intended for developing Windows applications, but is GPU-agnostic, requiring a card that supports DirectX 12/Direct3D 12 and DXR (DirectX Raytracing) 1.1.
AMD has used it in the development of its own rendering technologies, including an implementation of GI-1.0, its real-time global illumination algorithm.
As well as the GI renderer, the framework includes a reference path tracer.
Other features include readymade components for Temporal Anti-Aliasing (TAA), Screen-Space Global Illumination (SSGI), light sampling, tonemapping, and loading glTF files.
The framework also includes HLSL shader functions for sampling materials and lights, spherical harmonics, and common mathematical operations, including random number generation.
Capsaicin 1.2: blendshape animation, meshlet rendering and ACES tonemapping
To that, Capsaicin 1.2 adds support for rendering morph target (blendshape-based) animations, in addition to its existing support for skinned characters.
The update also adds support for meshlet-based rendering, for streaming and decompressing high-resolution geometry at render time, in a way similar to UE5’s Nanite system.
Other new features include support for the .dds texture file format, used in games including Elden Ring and GTA V, and bloom and lens effects from AMD’s FidelityFX toolkit.
The update also adds a range of new tonemappers: the framework now defaults to ACES tonemapping, with support for Reinhard, Uncharted2, PBR Neutral and AgX, the latter now supported in Blender, Godot and Marmoset Toolbag.
Licensing and system requirements
The Capsaicin source code is available under an open-source MIT license. It can be compiled for Windows 10+ only, and requires a GPU that supports Direct3D 12 and DXR 1.1.
Compiling from source requires Visual Studio 2019+ and CMake 3.10+. Find instructions here.
Read more about the new features in Capsaicin 1.2 on AMD’s blog
Read more about the Capsaicin framework on AMD’s GPU Open website
Have your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we don’t post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.