AMD puts open source game development tools online

AMD has launched a website for its GPUOpen initiative. On the website, the company places the SDKs and libraries for its video cards under an open source license. This puts AMD in competition with Nvidia’s GameWorks.

AMD has announced that GPUOpen is divided into two groups. For example, there is the ‘Games & CGI’ section, which contains, among other things, the SDKs and libraries for AMD’s video cards. There is also the ‘Professional Compute’ section. It contains applications, tools and libraries for developers for high-performance GPU computing.

Much of the software that AMD has put online is free to use under the open license. According to the added license files, permission is given to use the software for free. It is also allowed to copy, modify and sell the software. The only condition is that the license information is included in all copies and parts of the software that are published.

AMD had previously announced to start with GPUOpen. The software can be accessed via the website. This concerns, for example, effects such as TressFX and ShadowFX, but also platforms such as LiquidVR for virtual reality development. With the release of the software and source code, AMD hopes that, for example, the tools and SDKs will be further developed and used in third-party projects.

Nvidia has already had success with its GameWorks program, which provides tools for development that allow Nvidia GPUs to better handle certain physics calculations. AMD hopes to have an advantage over Nvidia’s closed GameWorks program with the open source initiative.