What camera sees.

What is actually rendered.

sdf_raster is a research renderer developed in C++ using the Vulkan API, designed for efficient rendering of SDF data in real-time. It showcases occlusion optimizations and mesh shaders.

The goal of this master degree diploma project is to develop accelerated implicit surface rasterization algorithm on GPU.

• SDF triangulation: Dynamic geometry generation from SDF octrees using Marching Cubes.
• Frutum culling: Culling whole SDF-octree subtrees which are not intersected with frustum.
• Fly-around cam: Simple camera and controls for scene navigation.
• Culling demo: Ability to leave your current frustum and look at the renderered scene from another angle.
• Occlusion culling: Occlusion culling optimization using previous frame H-Zbuffer.
• Mesh shading: Directly feeding rasterizer with geometry (if supported), rather then using per-frame vertex buffers.
• Application state caching: Seemless restoration of previous launch state.

• Language: C++20, Slang
• Graphics API: Vulkan 4.0+
• Build System: CMake
• Windowing System: GLFW
• Third-party Libraries:
  • volk (for Vulkan function loading)
  • spdlog (for logging)
  • LiteMath (for linear algebra)
  • LiteImage (for texture/image loading)
  • nlohmann/json (for configuration/data parsing)
  • dear ImGui (for GUI/interface)

• OS: Linux, macOS. Windows is not supported.
• CMake: version 3.21 or newer.
• C++ Compiler: any
• Git: Required for cloning the repository with submodules.

You need to install development libraries for Vulkan and GLFW.

• GLFW: A windowing system library.

  • On Debian/Ubuntu:

    sudo apt install libglfw3-dev

  • On Arch Linux:

    sudo pacman -S glfw

  • On Fedora:

    sudo dnf install glfw-devel

  • On macOS (using Homebrew):

    brew install glfw

• Vulkan: You must have a Vulkan-compatible GPU and up-to-date drivers.

  1. Minimum Requirements (for Release builds): You need the Vulkan loader and development headers.

  • On Debian/Ubuntu:

    sudo apt install libvulkan-dev vulkan-tools

  • On Arch Linux:

    sudo pacman -S vulkan-icd-loader vulkan-headers

  • On Fedora:

    sudo dnf install vulkan-loader-devel

  • On macOS (using Homebrew):

    brew install vulkan-headers moltenvk

  You can verify the installation by running vulkaninfo.

  2. Full SDK (for Debug builds): For debugging and access to validation layers, it is highly recommended to install the full Vulkan SDK.

  • Download the SDK from the official website: vulkan.lunarg.com.
  • Follow their installation instructions and make sure the VULKAN_SDK environment variable is set correctly.
  • For a quick setup on Debian/Ubuntu, you can use the provided script: ./utils/install_vulkan_sdk_apt.sh.

• Slang Compiler: The project uses slangc for shader compilation.
  • You can use the provided helper script for a quick installation:

    ./utils/install_slang.sh

1. Clone the repository (with submodules):

   git clone --recursive https://github.com/Reefufui/sdf_raster.git cd sdf_raster

2. Configure and Build: You can use the provided helper scripts or build manually.

   • Using Scripts (Recommended):

     • For a Release build: ./utils/rebuild_release.sh
     • For a Debug build: ./utils/rebuild_debug.sh

   • Manual Build:

     • For Linux:

       # For a Release build cmake -B build-release -S . -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release cmake --build build-release -j$(nproc) # For a Debug build (Vulkan SDK is required) cmake -B build-debug -S . -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug cmake --build build-debug -j$(nproc)

     • For macOS:

       # For a Release build cmake -B build-release -S . -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release cmake --build build-release -j$(sysctl -n hw.ncpu) # For a Debug build (Vulkan SDK is required) cmake -B build-debug -S . -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug cmake --build build-debug -j$(sysctl -n hw.ncpu)

Important: The application must be run from the build directory to ensure all resources are loaded correctly.

After building the project, navigate to the build directory and run the executable:

# If you built in release mode cd build-release ./bin/sdf_raster # Or if you built in debug mode cd build-debug ./bin/sdf_raster

• Toggle Camera Mode:
  • click | esc: Exit flying camera mode. (Cursor becomes enabled).
  • right click: Enter flying camera mode. (Cursor becomes disabled).
• Movement (in Camera Mode):
  • w, a, s, d: Move forwards, left, backwards, right.
  • space: Move up.
  • ctrl (control): Move down.
  • mouse: Look around.
  • scroll: Adjust FOV.
• Camera Reset:
  • r: Reset camera position and orientation.
• Toggle GUI:
  • h: Toggle drawing ImGUI stuff.
• Toggle Frustum View:
  • c: Toggle culling visualization (to see which parts are rendered).
• Exit Application:
  • Close the window.

• Application state is saved (/tmp/sdf_raster.json) and restored between sessions.