May 2026: AV1 encoding robustness improvement for vpl-gpu-rt focusing on hardware-aware gating of the use_ref_frame_mvs feature. Fixed: default enabling of use_ref_frame_mvs is now conditioned on platform capability to prevent reporting invalid video parameters. This change enhances reliability across heterogeneous hardware, reduces erroneous encoder states, and aligns the encoding pipeline with platform validation. Repository: intel/vpl-gpu-rt; cross-functional validation performed to ensure no regressions in existing TU1 paths.

In March 2026, focus on AV1 encoding correctness and user intent alignment in intel/vpl-gpu-rt. Key feature delivered: AV1 Encoding: Respect User Settings for Reference Frame Motion Vectors — added early-out guard to honor explicit EnableRefFrameMvs OFF in the TU1 path and clarified enabling conditions; this work included commit notes (f5e30ff1bf6cf8a340982a318e08257be750b226) and follow-up revert (c657f1dea3a4d9acd5e46489a841d592c244e8fc) as part of careful validation. Major bugs fixed: ensured user preferences for reference frame motion vectors are respected, reducing unintended overrides by TU defaults. Overall impact: improved reliability and predictability of AV1 encoding for advanced users; better alignment with user sequence header capabilities and cleaner traceability of changes. Technologies/skills demonstrated: C/C++, AV1 encoding flow, conditional logic, patch management and code-review discipline.