What future features are planned for libaom?

The open-source libaom library serves as the official reference codec software for AV1 video compression, developed and maintained by the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia). As the AV1 ecosystem reaches a mature, maintenance-focused phase and attention transitions toward the newly finalized AV2 specification, the development roadmap for libaom centers heavily on real-time communication (RTC) optimizations, advanced perceptual tuning integration, and laying the software groundwork for next-generation video architectures.

Perceptual Quality Enhancements and “Tune IQ”

A primary focus for recent and upcoming updates to the libaom repository involves bridging the gap between mathematical metric accuracy and true human visual perception. Historically criticized for dropping fine visual details to chase higher structural similarity scores, libaom has integrated advanced algorithms derived from perceptual forks. Upcoming minor releases will continue refining the AOM_TUNE_IQ mode, which adjusts the encoder’s bit allocation using the SSIMULACRA 2 metric as a target. Future work aims to mature this mode for broader video streaming applications, utilizing variance boosting, adaptive quantization matrices, and smarter block-size distributions to preserve textures like film grain and facial features without inflating bitrates.

Real-Time Communication (RTC) and Speedups

Because hardware deployment of AV1 decoding has become ubiquitous, the software development for libaom is prioritizing the optimization of live encoding pathways. The development pipeline targets high-speed configurations, specifically speeds 7 through 11, which are critical for live video conferencing and interactive cloud gaming. Planned feature updates include:

• Enhanced Screen Content Detection: Smarter algorithms to instantly distinguish between camera footage and synthetic desktop windows, triggering intra block copy tools dynamically.
• Advanced SVC Architecture: Improved logic for Scalable Video Coding (SVC), adding more efficient frame-dropping modes to prevent video stuttering on congested network pipelines.
• Color Artifact Reduction: Ongoing optimization of the Constrained Directional Enhancement Filter (CDEF) to eliminate color bleeding at high speed-presets.

Arm and Architecture-Specific Assembly Code

To improve the power consumption profile of libaom, developers are steadily replacing generic C code with hardware-targeted optimizations. Upcoming releases emphasize deep support for the Arm architecture, adding widespread SVE (Scalable Vector Extension) and SVE2 assembly code. This ongoing work is designed to significantly accelerate high bit-depth (10-bit and 12-bit) encoding paths on modern mobile and server processors.

Transition Towards AV2 and the AOM Video Model (AVM)

With AOMedia officially finalizing the AV2 video standard specification, the nature of core libaom development is shifting. While libaom remains the production standard for AV1, its underlying architectural research is migrating to the AOM Video Model (AVM) repository, effectively a “libaom-av2.” Over the coming cycles, structural maintenance updates to libaom will ensure backward compatibility and security stabilization, while experimental coding tools tested within the libaom codebase will be migrated or adapted for the upcoming generation of AV2 reference implementations.