Release notes from Native_SDK

R25.1-v5.14: PowerVR Graphics SDK v5.14 Release.

2025-06-02T12:28:19Z

SDK 25.1(v5.14) release.

Native SDK:

Added new Vulkan example: YCbCrTextureSampling.
Added new OpenCL example: PrefixSum.
Fixed Vulkan HelloAPI for Wayland, had missing calls to wl_display_roundtrip and wl_surface_commit.
Fixed Vulkan AmbientOcclusion segfault.
Fixed Vulkan Bumpmap, wrongly placed beginQueueDebugLabel.
Fixed Vulkan TimelineSemaphores, segfault on Linux Arm64 and validation warning.
Fixed Open GLES ImageBasedLighting ASTC support test.
Updated PVRVFrame libraries (@8d3918c4d7).
Updated Validation error policy, not anymore early application exit.

PVRVFrame:

Use sized internal formats when emulating GL_LUMINANCE8_ALPHA8_OES and GL_LUMINANCE4_ALPHA4_OES.
Fix validation for textures with the internal format GL_BGRA8_EXT.

The documentation from this repository has been moved to https://docs.imgtec.com/

Refer to our release notes for more details about the changes: https://developer.imaginationtech.com/downloads/latest-release-notes/

R24.2-v5.13: PowerVR Graphics SDK v5.13 Release.

2024-09-25T11:46:26Z

SDK 24.2(v5.13) release.

Native SDK:

Updated PVRScopeDeveloper libraries (@04bfc7e).
Updated PVRVFrame libraries (@cbf695b).
Updated Vulkan Android validation layers to v1.2.189.2 Taken from https://github.com/KhronosGroup/Vulkan-ValidationLayers/releases/tag/sdk-1.2.189.2
Added new GLES automotive example: Surround View.
Added extra Vulkan debug marker API calls to all Vulkan samples.
Android builds gradle version update 3.5.3 -> 4.0.1 & NDK version update 20.0.5594570 -> 26.2.11394342
Fixed: VulkanAntiAliasing wrong API utilization.
Fixed wrong render pass extents in PVRShell being set for events setting width & height to (0, 0).
Fixed: VulkanHelloRayTracing incorrect VkAccelerationStructureGeometryTrianglesDataKHR::maxVertex value.
Fixed: VulkanHelloRayTracing incorrect image layout transitions for offscreen image used to render to.
Fixed: VulkanHelloRayTracing had redundant call to set the acceleration structure buffer already provided.
Fixed: Framework incorrect VkAccelerationStructureGeometryTrianglesDataKHR::maxVertex value.
Fixed: removed unused extension VK_KHR_ray_query from VulkanHybridRefractions.

PVRScope:

Implement PVRScopeStats: add EPVRScopeEvent count enum value.

PVRVFrame:

Add support for GL_EXT_blend_func_extended on platforms that support OpenGL 3.2 or later.
Fix GLSL ES to GLSL conversion for pre-3.0 shaders that define texture, textureLod, and textureProjLod as functions.

The documentation from this repository has been moved to https://docs.imgtec.com/

Refer to our release notes for more details about the changes: https://developer.imaginationtech.com/downloads/latest-release-notes/

R24.1-v5.12: PowerVR Graphics SDK v5.12 Release.

2024-03-22T11:27:29Z

SDK 24.1(v5.12) release.

Native SDK:

Changes in CMake to speed up Android builds. Downgraded CMake to v3.10 and Gradle to v3.5.3. NDK 20.0.5594570 is a valid version when cross compiling for Android from Windows / Linux.
Added new Vulkan example: Antialiasing (MSAA, FXAA, TAA).
Fixed VulkanTimelineSemaphores example crashing on early exit when the extension is not supported.
Fixed VulkanSubgroups example no ouput on BXM-8-256: Workgroup width was being set to zero during setup.
Fixed OpenGLESPostProcessing and VulkanPostProcessing small artifacts on the edge of the mesh when no post processing method is being applied.
Fix: Making several SDK demos time deterministic when using the -forceframetime parameter (OpenGLESDeferredShading, OpenGLESGameOfLife, OpenGLESParticleSystem, VulkanDeferredShading, VulkanDeferredShadingPFX, VulkanGameOfLife, VulkanGnomeHorde, ParticleSystemGPU).
Fixed VulkanHelloRayTracing various buffers being built with not optimal memory properties.
Fixed PVRVk getCacheMaxDataSize(), initializing dataSize parameter handed to vkGetPipelineCacheData to identify cases where pipeline cached data has size 0.
Fixed over 170 compilation warnings.

PVRVFrame:

Fix the OpenGL ES 2+ implementation of 'glBlendEquation' to correctly handle the advanced blend equation modes.
Fix libGLESv2.so dynamic loading error symbol lookup error: undefined symbol which prevented successful loading of libGLESv2.so in some code paths.
Add support for GL_EXT_sparse_texture on platforms that support GL_ARB_sparse_texture.
Add support for GL_EXT_clip_control on platforms that support GL_ARB_clip_control or OpenGL 4.5.
Fix glAttachShader so it returns GL_INVALID_OPERATION if a shader is passed in of a type that is already attached to the target program.
Fix glReadPixels reading from framebuffers that make use of glFramebufferTexture2DMultisampleEXT|IMG.

The documentation from this repository has been moved to https://docs.imgtec.com/

Refer to our release notes for more details about the changes: https://developer.imaginationtech.com/tools/release-notes/

R23.2.1-v5.11.1: PowerVR Graphics SDK v5.11.1 Release.

2023-11-30T12:57:46Z

Native SDK:
Fix: OpenGLESAntiAliasing now exits when requested by user.
Fix: VulkanExampleUI was crashing on Doma devices (Rogue) with DDK 1.11.
Fix: VulkanHybridTransparency resource not missing due to incorrect case on Linux systems.
Fix: VulkanHybridRefractions maxRecursionDepth correctly defined.
Fix: VulkanPostProcessing crash.
Fix: VulkanSPHFluidSimulation exits with no issue.
Fix: VulkanSubgroups had a wrong output.
Fix: Framework has a different implementation in Time::getElapsedNanoSecs() fixing issues observed on Linux systems (both x86_64 and arm64).
Fix: Various documentation links.
Temporally removing Safety Critical demos for improve performance and general look.

R23.2-v5.11: PowerVR Graphics SDK v5.11 Release.

2023-09-22T22:00:57Z

PowerVR Graphics SDK v5.11 Release.

SDK 23.2(v5.11) release.

Native SDK:

Astc as preferred format over PVRTC.
Fixing validation errors in four SDK examples (HybridHardShadows, HybridReflections, HybridSoftShadows, RayTracingDenoising).
Updated toolchains for QNX (armv7, armv8, gcc-x86_32, gcc-x86_64).
Framework & SDK: Extend max swapchain number in all Vulkan demos, making swapchain images completely dynamic for any swapchain number.
Framework: Added new module for GL ES Safety Critical applications on Automotive.
Subgroups Demo validation: Verification subgroup size is greater than zero.
Fix in HelloRayTracing Vulkan Demo removing unneded memory properties for buffer allocations.
Fix in PipelineCache Vulkan Demo to return correct piepline cache size.
PVRScope libraries update to PVRTune Developer 23.1.
Added new GL ES Safety Critical Example: Automotive Surround View.
Added new GL ES Example: Shader Based Anti Aliasing Demo.
Added new Vulkan Example: GPU-controlled rendering.
Added new Vulkan Example: SPH Fluid simulation.
Added new Vulkan Example: Timeline semaphores.

The documentation from this repository has been moved to https://docs.imgtec.com/

Refer to our release notes for more details about the changes: https://developer.imaginationtech.com/tools/release-notes/2023-r2/

R23.1-v5.10: PowerVR Graphics SDK v5.10 Release.

2023-03-31T10:13:22Z

SDK 23.1(v5.10) release.

Native SDK:

PVRUtils: Improved feedback on Vulkan for no compatible memory types found. Fixed incorrect mappability, now only HOST_VISIBLE_BIT is taken into account.
PVRVk: Added missing success check for vkDeviceWaitIdle. Fixed construction of pvrvk::DescriptorPool when using descriptors of types VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_INLINE_UNIFORM_BLOCK_EXT, VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_ACCELERATION_STRUCTURE_KHR, VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_ACCELERATION_STRUCTURE_NV.
PVRScope: Fixed SDK Make error when looking for libPVRScopeDeveloper.a library for Linux_armv8_64.
PVRShell: Migrated from wl_shell to the newer xdg_shell provided by wayland-protocols. Fixed Wayland surface-related errors.
Framework: Added get supported depth stencil format overload without display attributes.
Ray tracing examples fixes: Allowed packing of transformation matrices for shaders when VkPhysicalDeviceLimits::minUniformBufferOffsetAlignment has value different from 64, fixed validation errors.
OpenGLES PostProcessing demo: Changed default buffer mapping behaviour to be non-coherent. Added manual flushing for mapped buffers and -coherent flag option to enable coherent buffer mapping.
Vulkan HelloRayTracing demo: Removed serialisation on renderImage, avoiding potential performance bottleneck.

The documentation from this repository has been moved to https://powervr-graphics.github.io/

Refer to our release notes for more details about the changes: https://developer.imaginationtech.com/tools/release-notes/2023-r1/

R22.1-v5.9: PowerVR Graphics SDK v5.9 Release.

2022-06-29T16:11:50Z

SDK 22.1(v5.9) release.

Native SDK:

Changed Instance creation methodology to ensure that applications target a specific version of Vulkan instead of targeting the Vulkan loader version on the device.
Allowed users to initialise UI Renderer with a custom font, given an image view.
Allowed users to set the flags required for the debug call back messenger to log during the instance creation and destruction. Defaults to only errors and warnings.
Allowed users to specify validation warnings to disable by passing a vector of IDs
Updated CMake to 3.18
Updated Gradle build tools to 4.1.2
Added new Vulkan Raytracing Example: Hybrid transparency.
Added new Vulkan Example: Subgroups.
Added new GL ES and Vulkan Examples: Shadows.
Added new Vulkan Raytracing Example: Denoising.
Explicitly set the targeted instance version. Previous examples would set the instance version to the highest one supported on the device.
Simplified the Vk device extension feature loading, especially in the RT examples.
Set the Vulkan raytracing demos to Vulkan version 1.1.

PVRVFrame:

Fixed ASTC glTexStorage emulation on Intel GPUs.
Fixed a bug in glFramebufferTextureLayer that could cause an invalid operation error or the wrong texture to be attached.
Worked around Intel link program error “Varying ‘gl_PerVertex;_IN’ has different block does not match across different shaders.” that could occur when using geometry shaders.

The documentation from this repository has been moved to https://powervr-graphics.github.io/

Refer to our release notes for more details about the changes: https://developer.imaginationtech.com/tools/release-notes/2022-r1/

R21.2-v5.8: PowerVR Graphics SDK v5.8 Release.

2021-11-24T17:52:41Z

SDK 21.2(v5.8) release.

Native SDK:

Removed documentation from the SDK to reduce the size of the repo.
Remove VK_LAYER_ARM_mali_perf_doc from framework, as validation layer features has same functionality, Keep IMG_PERF_DOC for img specific best practices validation.
New Assets : Saloon POD scene and textures
Fixed OpenGL ES Image Based Lighting shader compile error on retail PowerVR devices.
New Vulkan Raytracing Example: Hybrid ray traced refractions.
Replace VK_LAYER_ARM_mali_perf_doc with VK_VALIDATION_FEATURE_ENABLE_BEST_PRACTICES_EXT in VulkanHelloAPI, VulkanIntroducingPVRShell and VulkanIntroducingPVRVK.
Fix DTEC-2216: PVRScope: pplWaitForConnection() needs to take an array of pointers.
New Vulkan Raytracing Example : Fully RayTraced Hard Shadows
New Vulkan Example: Ambient Occlusion
New Vulkan Raytracing Example: Hybrid Soft Shadows.

PVRVFrame:

When converting glsl es shaders to glsl we now strip out "#extension GL_EXT_texture_buffer" directives.
glPopGroupMarker will no longer error if there isn't something to pop.
Fixed GL_EXT_buffer_storage emulation so it no longer exposes glNamedBufferStorageEXT. This function should only be exposed if GL_EXT_direct_state_access is supported (which it isn't).
Fixed the GL_SHADING_LANGUAGE_VERSION string so it has a space between the version and the vendor specific information.
Fixed a bug in glIsVertexArray where it could return GL_TRUE if the name is 0.
Fixed a crash on Linux that would occur if GLX_EXT_framebuffer_sRGB was not supported.
Fixed a bug where glGetTexParameter would incorrectly return invalid enum if the target was GL_TEXTURE_CUBE_MAP_ARRAY.
Fixed the EGL_VERSION string so it fits the format described in the egl spec.
eglQueryString now works with EGL_NO_DISPLAY and EGL_VERSION to return the client version.
glBindSampler now returns GL_INVALID_VALUE if the texture unit index is greater than the current profile's GL_MAX_COMBINED_TEXTURE_IMAGE_UNITS value.
The host profile's GL_MAX_COMBINED_TEXTURE_IMAGE_UNITS is no longer capped at 32.
GL_OES_vertex_array_object is now only added to the extension string if it can be emulated.
Fixed a bug where calling glGetFramebufferAttachmentParameteriv on an attachment created with glFramebufferTexture2DMultisample* could return invalid enum.

The documentation from this repository has been moved to a new repository covering exclusively documentation, the URL will be specified once it is released.

Refer to our release notes for more details about the changes:
https://developer.imaginationtech.com/tools/release-notes/

R21.1-v5.7

2021-05-12T14:22:24Z

R21.1(v5.7)

R20.2-v5.6

2020-12-11T12:30:14Z

R20.2(v5.6)