Software Renderer

This is a shader-based software renderer written from scratch in C89 with minimal dependencies, available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Features

• Cross platform
• Minimal dependencies
• Shader based
• Homogeneous clipping
• Back-face culling
• Perspective correct interpolation
• Depth testing
• Alpha testing
• Alpha blending
• Cubemapped skybox
• Skeletal animation
• Tangent space normal mapping
• Shadow mapping
• ACES tone mapping
• Blinn–Phong reflection model
• Physically based rendering (PBR)
• Metallic-roughness workflow
• Specular-glossiness workflow
• Image-based lighting (IBL)
• Orbital camera controls
• PBR material inspector

Download

Pre-built binaries for Windows, macOS, and Linux are available for download from the Releases page.

Build

To build the software renderer from source, a C89 compiler and development files for your window system are required.

Windows

Install Visual Studio with C++ support and run build_win32.bat.

macOS

Install Command Line Tools for Xcode with the command below and run build_macos.sh.

xcode-select --install

Linux

Install GCC and Xlib with the following commands and run build_linux.sh.

Ubuntu / Debian

sudo apt install gcc libx11-dev

Fedora / RHEL

sudo dnf install gcc libX11-devel

openSUSE / SUSE

sudo zypper install gcc libX11-devel

Bonus

A CMakeLists.txt file is provided for generating project files using CMake (see examples below).

Visual Studio

mkdir build
cd build
cmake -G "Visual Studio 16 2019" ..
start Renderer.sln

Xcode

mkdir build
cd build
cmake -G Xcode ..
open Renderer.xcodeproj

Makefile

mkdir build
cd build
cmake -G "Unix Makefiles" -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ..
make

Usage

Launch

If the software renderer is launched without arguments, one of the available scenes will be chosen randomly. To display a specific scene (see below), additional arguments should be supplied. The command line syntax is:

Viewer [test_name [scene_name]]

Controls

• Orbit: left mouse button
• Pan: right mouse button
• Zoom: mouse wheel
• Rotate lighting: A D S W
• Reset everything: Space

Inspector

For PBR scenes, a material inspector that is very similar to the layers view of Marmoset Viewer is provided. Double click to bring it up.

Screenshots

Scene	Command
	Viewer blinn azura
	Viewer blinn centaur
	Viewer blinn craftsman
	Viewer blinn elfgirl
	Viewer blinn kgirl
	Viewer blinn lighthouse
	Viewer blinn mccree
	Viewer blinn nier2b
	Viewer blinn phoenix
	Viewer blinn vivi
	Viewer blinn whip
	Viewer blinn witch
	Viewer pbr assassin
	Viewer pbr buster
	Viewer pbr crab
	Viewer pbr dieselpunk
	Viewer pbr drone
	Viewer pbr helmet
	Viewer pbr horse
	Viewer pbr junkrat
	Viewer pbr ornitier
	Viewer pbr ponycar
	Viewer pbr robot
	Viewer pbr sphere
	Viewer pbr spheres

References

Rendering pipeline

• Tiny Renderer
• OpenGL ES 2.0 Specification

Physically based rendering

• glTF 2.0 Sample Viewer
• SIGGRAPH 2013 Shading Course
• Physically Based Rendering in Filament

File formats

• Truevision TGA
• Radiance HDR
• Wavefront OBJ
• Khronos glTF

Miscellaneous

• Homogeneous clipping
• Barycentric coordinates
• Perspective correct interpolation
• Skeletal animation
• Tangent space normal mapping
• Ambient occlusion
• ACES tone mapping
• Orbital camera controls
• Xlib programming guide
• Type-safe dynamic array

License

MIT License