> For clean Markdown of any page, append .md to the page URL.
> For a complete documentation index, see https://docs.stereolabs.com/llms.txt.
> For AI client integration (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.), connect to the MCP server at https://docs.stereolabs.com/_mcp/server.

# ZED SDK 2.1

> **Note**
>
> Release notes of the ZED SDK 2.1 series. Patch releases are listed newest first. Download links and the full changelog, including ZED Tools and integrations, are available on the [ZED SDK 2.1 release page](https://www.stereolabs.com/developers/release/2.1).

## What's New

The ZED SDK 2.1 release includes an update of the Depth Sensing API, Spatial Mapping API and Unity plugin, along with removal of OpenCV dependency for all platforms.

## 2.1.0

### New Features

#### Depth Sensing API update

* New depth stabilization mode is introduced in 2.1. It brings significant improvement to depth sensing accuracy and stability, and is now enabled by default.
* Different depth resolutions can now be selected, speeding up applications that need lower resolution depth maps.
* Normal maps can now be retrieved along with depth and point cloud.
* Depth map, point cloud and normal maps are now available for the right eye. This will allow for stereo mixed-reality in future updates.

#### Spatial Mapping API update

* Introduced Mesh Chunks for spatial mapping. Spatial mapping now divides the world in fixed-size blocks called chunks. Instead of storing and accessing a single mesh with a million+ vertices, this allows to store and access multiple local sub-meshes with a much lower number of vertices.
* Chunks within a certain distance of the camera can be accessed through Visibility and Surrounding lists. See `sl::Mesh` API documentation for more information.
* Additional optimization techniques based on chunks will be introduced in later updates.

### Dependencies

* Removed OpenCV as a dependency. This simplifies the integration of ZED SDK with applications already using OpenCV.

### SDK

#### Updated Depth API

* Added width and height parameters in `retrieveMeasure()` function to allow retrieval of smaller depth resolutions.
* Added `InitParameters::depth_stabilization` to enable depth stabilization. Enabled by default in 2.1.
* Added `MEASURE_NORMALS` as a new `MEASURE` to extract the normal map of the scene. The output is an `sl::Mat` with 4 channels `(x,y,z,empty)` of 32-bit float.
* Added `InitParameters::enable_right_side_measure` to extract any type of measure `MEASURE_XXX_RIGHT` mapped on the right image.
* Fixed bug in the confidence map for `PERFORMANCE` mode.

#### Updated Positional Tracking API

* Added `getEulerAngles()` to retrieve camera rotations in degrees or radians.
* Renamed `getRotation()` into `getRotationMatrix()`.
* Updated Positional Tracking sample.

#### Updated Spatial Mapping API

* Added vector of `sl::Chunk` to allow access to smaller parts of a mesh ("chunks").
* Added `Mesh::getVisibilityList()` to get the list of chunks visible by the ZED.
* Added `Mesh::getSurroundingList()` to get the list of chunks located within a specific distance of the ZED.