What are the PCoIP Ultra Codec Options and Corresponding Marker Indicators?

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December 22, 2020

Last modified: 08/02/2023, 5:35 am

Knowledge Base Article Tutorial Display HP Anyware

What is PCoIP Ultra

PCoIP Ultra is the latest protocol enhancements from HP Anyware. PCoIP Ultra is optimized for truly lossless support with bit-exact color accuracy and preservation of content detail at the highest frame rates.

 

In technical terms, PCoIP Ultra offers the following capability:

  1. Going beyond constraints of hardware end points
  2. Higher throughput and efficiency
  3. Multiple codecs support

 

PCoIP Ultra contains the following codecs:

  1. PCoIP Gen1 Legacy (TIC1 Legacy)
  2. PCoIP Gen1 New (TIC1 New)
  3. PCoIP Ultra CPU Optimization/Offload  (TIC2)
  4. PCoIP Ultra GPU Optimization/Offload  (NVENC H.264)

 

PCoIP Ultra Hardware Requirements

 

To take advantage of PCoIP Ultra, you need:

  • Host: A PCoIP agent (any type), 20.10 or later
    Client: A PCoIP Software Client (any type), 20.10 or later

PCoIP Ultra is only available through PCoIP Software Clients. PCoIP Tera2 Zero Clients do not support PCoIP Ultra.

  • CPU Optimization/Offload requires CPU support for the AVX2 instruction set on both the agent and client machines.
  • GPU Optimization/Offload requires an NVIDIA graphics card that supports NVENC on the agent machine.

Please always refer to our latest public documentation for more details.

 

How to check if my client or host hardware has AVX2 support?

Linux: you can run the command:
> grep avx2 /proc/cpuinfo
Windows, open device manager, look at processors:
Google search the processor model and search for AVX2.  

 

How to Enable and Configure PCoIP Ultra

To enable PCoIP Ultra features, configure your settings on the PCoIP host to select a mode as desired as the following (Windows, Linux):

  1. CPU Offload
  2. GPU Offload
  3. Automatic Offload

Please note:

  • No configuration is required on the PCoIP Software Client.
  • As long as the CPU of your client computer supports AVX2 and you are using the newer PCoIP Software Client (20.10 and later), PCoIP Ultra will be enabled by default on the PCoIP Software Client to follow the PCoIP Ultra mode configured at the PCoIP host. 
  • All PCoIP Ultra settings take effect on the next PCoIP session.

How to Verify if Your Desired PCoIP Ultra Mode is Enabled

There are two ways you can verify if your PCoIP Session is running in the desired PCoIP Ultra Mode:

  1. Use the built-in PCoIP Ultra Codec Indicator in a supported PCoIP Software Client, or
  2. Look for the log signature in PCoIP server log (with Level 3 Logging enabled).

 

Method-1: PCoIP Ultra Codec Indicator

When PCoIP Ultra is enabled, by default, there will be an onscreen indicator at the bottom left corner of the screen. 

  1. A Dark blue dot: PCoIP Ultra CPU Optimization/Offload Mode.
  2. A Magenta dot: PCoIP Ultra GPU Optimization/Offload Mode.  If you are running PCoIP High-Performance client (with nativeGL), this indicator may not show. 

More details about the PCoIP Ultra Codec Indicator can be found in our latest PCoIP Software Client documentation.

 

To disable the PCoIP Ultra Codec Indicator, please follow the instructions here:

 

Method-2: Look for the Log Signature for PCoIP Ultra Mode

To use the log signature of PCoIP Ultra Mode, you need to first enable Level-3 (L3) logging and collect PCoIP support bundle logs on the host side:

Next, check PCoIP server log, look for something in the following:

  1. "using codec: TIC2 Codec encoder: TIC2 Encoder" for PCoIP Ultra CPU Optimization/Offload
  2. "using codec: H264 Codec encoder: H264 Encoder" for PCoIP Ultra GPU Optimization/Offload