An experimental software renderer for learning and research.
SoftRenderer uses MiniFB for its desktop
window, framebuffer presentation, keyboard, and mouse support. The renderer
and all software shaders are statically linked into the desktop executable;
there are no runtime renderer/shader DLL or .swsl plugin files. The UWP/Xbox
build uses the same statically linked renderer core behind a XAML/D3D12 host.
DirectX and DirectInput are not required by the desktop build.
All platforms require CMake 3.20 or newer. On macOS, install the Xcode Command
Line Tools. On Windows, use Visual Studio with the Desktop development with C++ workload.
On Linux/Wayland, MiniFB additionally needs a C/C++ toolchain, pkg-config, and
the Wayland client, cursor, and xkbcommon development packages. On Debian/Ubuntu:
sudo apt install build-essential cmake pkg-config libwayland-dev libxkbcommon-devRun buildrun.sh from the repository root:
./buildrun.shOn macOS the script configures out/macos; on Linux it configures
out/linux-wayland with MiniFB's Wayland backend. It then builds SoftRenderer
and launches bin/SoftRenderer.
On Windows, run buildrun.bat from a Visual Studio-capable command prompt.
To build without launching the application:
./buildrun.sh --build-onlyConfigure and build a macOS Release target with:
cmake -S . -B out/macos -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build out/macos --parallelFor Linux/Wayland:
cmake -S . -B out/linux-wayland -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DSR_LINUX_WAYLAND=ON
cmake --build out/linux-wayland --parallelSet SR_LINUX_WAYLAND=OFF to use MiniFB's X11/OpenGL backend instead. On
Windows, buildrun.bat --build-only configures and builds the x64 Release target.
The runtime locates its assets relative to the executable, so it can be started from any working directory:
./bin/SoftRendererBuild outputs are written directly to the repository's bin/ directory:
bin/
├── SoftRenderer
└── media/ # tracked runtime assets
The build does not copy runtime assets. The application uses the existing
tracked bin/media/ directory.
The UWP target is a single SoftRendererUwp.exe AppX binary: the CPU
rasterizer, core, shaders, UWP input adapter, and D3D12 frame presenter are all
compiled together. It does not load desktop renderer or shader plugins.
Requirements: Visual Studio with the UWP workload, a Windows SDK containing
fxc.exe, CMake, and the Microsoft.Windows.CppWinRT NuGet restore package.
cmake --preset xbox-release
cmake --build --preset xbox-release --parallel 4The MSIX package is produced below:
out/build/xbox-release/AppPackages/SoftRendererUwp/SoftRendererUwp_1.0.0.0_x64_Test/
Use uwp/scripts/Deploy-Xbox.ps1 to sign and upload a built package through
Xbox Device Portal. windows-release uses the same UWP binary and package
layout for local Windows testing.
The following screenshots show the Sponza scene before and after the renderer optimization. The optimized view includes the tile-binning statistics together with the CPU model and worker information.
| Before | After |
|---|---|
 |
 |
Build and run the deterministic tile layout/binning tests with:
cmake --build out/macos --target SoftRendererTests
ctest --test-dir out/macos --output-on-failureThe legacy backend remains available as an A/B reference. Use --tile for the
tile-binning renderer and --legacy for the legacy renderer. The default tile
size is 24×24 and can be overridden at runtime.
--tile | --legacy
--workers=N
--tile-size=N
--width=N --height=N
--scene=sponza|model
--headless --frames=N
--no-jitaa --no-ssao --relaxed-ssao
--hash-output=results.csv
--relaxed-ssao removes the global barrier between rasterization and full
G-buffer SSAO shading. It is memory-safe but schedule-dependent and may differ
visually from the exact default mode.
--hash-output writes per-frame color, depth, G-buffer, and winner hashes,
stage timings, tile/bin counts, worker statistics, and load-balance metrics.
Tile size and worker count can also be set with SR_TILE_SIZE and
SR_WORKER_COUNT.