hhy5277 / renderer

A shader-based software renderer written from scratch in C89

Software Renderer

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

Features

• Cross-platform (Windows, macOS, and Linux)
• Minimal dependencies
• Shader-based
• Blinn–Phong reflection model
• Physically based rendering (PBR)
• Metalness workflow
• Specular workflow
• Image-based lighting (IBL)
• Tangent space normal mapping
• Shadow mapping
• Cubemapped skybox
• Skeletal animation
• Orbit camera control
• Back-face culling
• Homogeneous clipping
• Perspective-correct interpolation
• Depth testing
• Alpha testing
• Alpha blending
• Platform abstraction layer (window, event, and timer)
• Math library (vector, matrix, and quaternion)
• Mesh loading (obj, gltf)
• Image loading (tga, hdr)

Download

Binaries for Windows, macOS, and Linux are available.

Build

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

Windows

Install Visual Studio and run build_win32.bat.

macOS

Install Xcode and run build_macos.sh.

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

Usage

Launch

If the 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 click and drag
• Pan: right click and drag
• Zoom: scroll up or down
• Rotate lighting: A D S W
• Reset everything: Space

Screenshots

Scene	Command
	Viewer blinn azura
	Viewer blinn centaur
	Viewer blinn craftsman
	Viewer blinn elfgirl
	Viewer blinn kgirl
	Viewer blinn mccree
	Viewer blinn nier2b
	Viewer blinn phoenix
	Viewer blinn witch
	Viewer pbr assassin
	Viewer pbr crab
	Viewer pbr dieselpunk
	Viewer pbr drone
	Viewer pbr helmet
	Viewer pbr junkrat
	Viewer pbr ornitier
	Viewer pbr ponycar
	Viewer pbr sphere

References

Rendering pipeline

• Tiny Renderer
• OpenGL ES 2.0 Specification

Physically based rendering

• glTF 2.0 Sample Viewer
• SIGGRAPH 2013 Course

License

MIT