Khronos royalty-free open standards for 3D graphics, Virtual and Augmented Reality, Parallel Computing, Machine Learning, and Vision Processing

The XR_EXT_local_floor extension recently made its way into the core specification with the release of OpenXR 1.1. This blog post, delves into the technical aspects of the LOCAL_FLOOR[1] reference space. While STAGE space is still available to developers for defining playspace bounds, we will show how LOCAL_FLOOR offers a convenient alternative for obtaining a recenterable floor space that does not require user calibration. Additionally, we explore how this extension includes an estimated floor height, adding further convenience to XR development workflows.

The Khronos Group announces the immediate availability of the OpenXR 1.1 specification. This release evolves the widely adopted OpenXR open API standard for high-performance, cross-platform access to VR, AR, and mixed reality (MR) — collectively known as XR—platforms and devices. OpenXR 1.1 consolidates widely used API extensions into the core specification to reduce fragmentation and adds new functionality to streamline the development of more powerful and efficient XR applications. Along with five extensions being incorporated in the core specification, feature enhancements include interaction profile enhancements, universal fundamental tools for building enhanced XR experiences, new error codes, and specification refinement.

Intel’s OpenCL Intercept Layer 3.0.4 is now available to assist in OpenCL debugging and performance profiling across Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, and FreeBSD. The release has overhead reduction work to yield better performance during tracing and profiling, many general improvements to tracing and logging, kernel capture and replay support, more support for Chrome tracing, and a variety of other new abilities. Those developing with OpenCL and wishing to check out Intel’s intercept layer for debugging and performance profiling can find the Intel’s OpenCL Intercept Layer available on GitHub.

Magic Leap is fully embracing OpenXR, the industry standard API, for Magic Leap 2 development. This includes support for the standard Unity OpenXR Plugin. This change should make it easier for developers building AR apps across multiple headsets.

The results of LunarG’s 2024 Vulkan Ecosystem & SDK Survey have been released! LunarG has summarized the results and created a report that shares the key findings and suggested actions. The information you provided will be used to help guide Vulkan Ecosystem investments in 2024 and beyond. The results have also been shared with key partners and contributors in the hope that they will also use the information to guide their investments.

Thanks to those of you who completed the annual survey!

The OpenCL Working Group has released v3.0.16 of the OpenCL specifications, the sixteenth OpenCL 3.0 maintenance update. This is a significant update that integrates the standard Khronos KHR extension specifications into the core specification, making it easier for users and implementers to understand how extensions interact with core OpenCL functionality.

In addition, this update added the provisional cl_khr_kernel_clock extension, which adds new built-in functions to profile a kernel executing on an OpenCL device. It also includes final versions of the cl_khr_semaphore, cl_khr_external_semaphore, and cl_khr_external memory extensions, enabling efficient interoperability with other APIs.

The latest specifications can be found on the Khronos OpenCL registry: https://registry.khronos.org/OpenCL/