C++/OpenGL rendering engine

Originated from the famous Learnopengl.com tutorial.

Now it's a playground for my simple graphical experiments - more concerned about rendering algorithms and scientific papers, less concerned about maximizing performance (though within realtime)

Features:

• shader code generation (#include, #define)
• hot-reloading engine dynamic library, without stopping the application
• hot-reloading OpenGL shaders, without stopping the application
• the project is split into:
  • engine - contains the main loop, window management, rendering wrappers and utilities
  • application - instantiates an engine, provides window callbacks, provides the rendering callback, instantiates and uses engine utilities

Installing prerequisites:

The project was developed and tested on Ubuntu 20.04 (Wayland).

First of all you need GNU Make (tested version 4.2.1)

Try to run make -version in console. If it's not already installed, run

sudo apt update
sudo apt install make

Now you can choose to install prerequisites automatically, or manually

• Automatically: it will execute sudo commands, so make sure you trust us :)

  Run in console

  make init_repo

• Manually:

  • clang compiler (tested with version 10.0.0-4ubuntu1). Example installation:

    sudo apt install clang

  • Linux display libraries. Example installation:

    sudo apt install libwayland-dev libxkbcommon-dev xorg-dev

  • CMake (tested version 3.29.3). Example installation:

    sudo apt install cmake

  • (Optional) Bear tool (tested version 3.1.5) Needed if you prefer to use clangd as development tool. bear simply dumps clang build commands into compile_commands.json file required by clangd.

    # to install
    sudo apt install bear
    # to run bear on this project
    make intellisense

Internal dependencies (you don't need to do anything to install):

• OpenGL 4.3
• imgui v1.91.2 for user interface
• GLFW v3.4 for cross-platform window interaction
• GLM v1.0.1 for math utilities
• GLAD v2.0.7 for fetching OpenGL function pointers
• spdlog v1.14.1 for logging
• STB image v2.30 for decoding images
• concurrentqueue v1.0.4 for multi-threaded message queue
• cr.h for simple hot reloading of dynamic libraries
• ccache v4.8.3 for faster compilation

Build:

1. Clone the repository

   git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/laralex/RenderingExperiments.git

2. Run this to build everything (-j16 for faster multi-threaded build)

   make -j16

   NOTE: you can tweak build options in the Makefile. You can disable an option by commenting it out with #

   Changing of the options (except for DEBUG) would require a clean build (remove build/debug or build/release directory)

   # For lot of logs, and debugger support (unoptimized code!)
   DEBUG?=1
   
   # Start the application right after successful build
   RUN_AFTER_BUILD?=1
   
   # Allows to recompile and update behavior of a running application. Builds the application code as a dynamic library.
   USE_HOT_RELOADING?=1
   
   # For incremental compilation. Dumps GPU Make dependencies of all source files on header files
   USE_DEP_FILES?=1
   
   # For faster re-compilation. Enables precompiled headers
   USE_PCH?=1
   
   # For faster re-compilation. Enables caching of compiled files
   USE_CCACHE?=1
   
   # For code completion (aka intellisense) in IDE. Uses Bear tool to generate `compile_commands.json` file
   USE_CLANGD?=1
   
   # For maximum log (slow and a LOT of messages)
   USE_VERBOSE_LOG?=1
   
   # For compiling and running to check memory allocations and valid usage 
   USE_SANITIZER?=1
   
   # if ON,  link engine code dynamically into the application
   # if OFF, link engine code statically into the application
   USE_DYNLIB_ENGINE?=1
   
   # For debugging. Dumps more logs from compiler
   USE_COMPILER_DUMP?=1

3. If the application hasn't started yet, run it

   make run

   Controls:

   • W/S - move forward / backwards
   • A/D - move left / right
   • LEFT SHIFT + W/S - move up/down
   • ESC - exit
   • P - wireframe mode
   • Q - remember camera location, this location is used for culling, press Q again to teleport to remembered location

   NOTE: if some controls don't seem to work (especially ESC/SHIFT/ALT/CTRL/etc, make sure to start the application when current keyboard layout is English, any other won't work)

4. If the application is running, and you want to recompile it without stopping the application, you can use

   make hot -j16

   After compilation completes, the application will apply the newly compiled code automatically. It has limitations though, some code changes might crash the program, because of incompatible binary data (e.g. if you change the definitions of class/struct fields)

Installing the application

Everything needed to run the application is stored in the installation folder (typically ./build/release/install).

You can copy the whole folder somewhere else, and then to run the application you need:

cd <where_you_copied_install_directory>
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=. ./app