In 2026-03, implemented performance-oriented enhancements to the AOM encoding path in libsdl-org/aom, focusing on RD decision reuse for compound types and extended pruning controls, along with a conservative speed-3 extension to prune decisions. Fixed a correctness bug in the reuse of compound RD decisions by backing up rate and distortion and modeling RD for COMPOUND_AVERAGE, enabling accurate pruning of COMPOUND_DIFFWTD when references align. Extended prune_comp_ref_frames to speed 3 conservatively, improving prune correctness for important reference-frame pairs without sacrificing visual quality. Achieved measurable performance gains with minimal quality impact: approximately 0.7% CPU instruction reduction and ~0.02% BD-Rate loss on average across resolutions. Demonstrated strong technical proficiency in RD modeling, performance analysis, and feature flag-driven optimization across codecs.

January 2026 (libsdl-org/aom) focused on performance optimization in motion estimation for high-speed encoding paths. Key feature delivered: Motion Search Performance Enhancement achieved by disabling full_pixel_search_level for speed settings of 4 and above, which reduces candidate evaluations by proximity to reference motion vectors while preserving core functionality. The change includes adjusting the skip_fullpel_search_using_startmv logic to maintain accuracy when the start MV and ref MV are close. This work is encapsulated in a single commit that documents encoder statistics and tradeoffs.