ISO/IEC 23090-21:2024

Overview

ISO/IEC 23090-21:2024 provides accompanying reference software for Geometry-based Point Cloud Compression (G-PCC), as specified in ISO/IEC 23090-9. The package includes both encoder and decoder implementations intended to aid study, testing and implementation of the G-PCC coding standard. Source code is published at the official ISO standards site (https://standards.iso.org/iso-iec/23090/-21/ed-1/en/).

Note: use of the reference software is optional. Requirements in ISO/IEC 23090-9 take precedence over the behavior of the reference software.

Key Topics

• Reference software purpose: Demonstrates encoder and decoder processes conforming to the G-PCC specification and serves as an educational and testbed resource.
• Included package: The release contains the mpeg-pcc-tmc13 software with support for the Simple, Predictive, Dense, and Main profiles.
• Conformance guidance: The reference decoder can detect many bitstream conformance violations and produce identical decoded sample values for conforming decoders that support the used profile and level.
• Limitations and disclaimers: The reference software does not guarantee encoder quality levels and may not detect every possible conformance violation. ISO/IEC disclaims warranties and limits liability for use of the software.

Applications

The reference software is practical for multiple real-world uses:

• Conformance testing: Generate and decode bitstreams to verify compliance with ISO/IEC 23090-9 bitstream constraints and decoder behavior.
• Interoperability validation: Use the reference decoder as a baseline to confirm consistent decoded point ordering and sample values across implementations.
• Implementation bootstrap: Serve as a starting codebase for developing production encoders or decoders that target G-PCC compliance.
• Quality evaluation and demonstrations: Produce example bitstreams to evaluate achievable visual or compression results from encoder configurations, while noting that conformance does not define minimum or maximum quality.
• Educational resource: Study the encoding/decoding workflows and sample implementations to learn G-PCC concepts and profiles.

Related Standards

• ISO/IEC 23090-9:2021 - Geometry-based Point Cloud Compression (G-PCC): normative reference specifying the coding syntax and constraints that the reference software implements or illustrates.
• Other parts of the ISO/IEC 23090 series provide complementary definitions and formats for coded representation of immersive media.

The reference package and documentation are intended to accelerate adoption, facilitate conformance testing and improve interoperability for applications using G-PCC, point cloud compression, and encoder/decoder development under the ISO/IEC 23090 family.