bgfx

What is it?

Cross-platform rendering library.

Supported rendering backends:

• OpenGL 2.1
• OpenGL ES 2
• OpenGL ES 3
• Direct3D 9
• Direct3D 11

Platforms:

• Windows
• Linux
• Android
• Native Client
• JavaScript (via Emscripten)

Dependencies

https://github.com/bkaradzic/bx

Optional:
https://github.com/mendsley/tinystl

Building

Prerequisites

Premake 4.4 beta4
http://industriousone.com/premake/download

GNU make
Windows users download GNU make utility from:
http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/make.htm

Getting source

git clone git://github.com/bkaradzic/bx.git
git clone git://github.com/bkaradzic/bgfx.git
cd bgfx
make

After calling make, .build/projects/* directory will be generated. All intermediate files generated by compiler will be inside .build directory structure. Deleting .build directory at any time is safe.

Building for Linux

sudo apt-get install libgl1-mesa-dev

Building for Windows

When building on Windows, you have to set DXSDK_DIR environment variable to point to DirectX SDK directory.

setx DXSDK_DIR <path to DirectX SDK directory>

If you're building with MinGW/TDM compiler on Windows make DirectX SDK directory link to directory without spaces in the path.

mklink /D <path to DirectX SDK directory> c:\dxsdk
setx DXSDK_DIR c:\dxsdk

Building for Native Client (Pepper 22) on Windows

Download Native Client SDK from:
https://developers.google.com/native-client/sdk/download

setx NACL <path to Native Client SDK directory>\toolchain\win_x86_newlib

Building

Visual Studio 2008:

start .build/projects/vs2008/bgfx.sln

Linux 64-bit:

make -R linux-release64

Other platforms:

make -R <configuration>

Configuration is <platform>-<debug/release><32/64>. For example:

linux-release32, nacl-debug64, android-release32, etc.

Examples

00-helloworld

Initialization and debug text.

01-cubes

Rendering simple static mesh.

02-metaballs

Rendering with transient buffers.

03-raymarch

Updating shader uniforms.

04-mesh

Loading OpenCTM meshes.

05-instancing

Geometry instancing.

06-bump

Loading textures.

Internals

bgfx is using sort-based draw call bucketing. This means that submition order doesn't necessarily matches the rendering order. On the high level this allows submitting draw calls for all passes at one place, but on the low-level they will be sorted and ordered correctly. This sometimes creates undesired results usually for GUI rendering, where draw order should usually match submit order. bgfx provides way to enable sequential rendering for these cases (see bgfx::setViewSeq).

Internally All low-level rendering draw calls are issued inside single function Context::rendererSubmit. This function exist inside each renderer backend implementation.

More detailed description of sort-based draw call bucketing can be found at:
Order your graphics draw calls around!

Customization

By default each platform has sane default values. For example on Windows default renderer is DirectX9, and on Linux it is OpenGL 2.1. On Windows platform all rendering backends are available. For OpenGL ES on desktop you can find more information at:
OpenGL ES 2.0 and EGL on desktop

All configuration settings are located inside src/config.h.

Every BGFX_CONFIG_* setting can be changed by passing defines thru compiler switches. For example setting preprocessor define BGFX_CONFIG_RENDERER_OPENGL=1 on Windows will change backend renderer to OpenGL 2.1. on Windows. Since rendering APIs are platform specific, this obviously won't work nor make sense in all cases. Certain platforms have only single choice, for example the Native Client works only with OpenGL ES 2.0 renderer, using anything other than that will result in build errors.

Tools

Shader Compiler (shaderc)

bgfx cross-platform shader language is based on GLSL syntax. It's uses ANSI C preprocessor to transform GLSL like language syntax into HLSL. This technique has certain drawbacks, but overall it's simple and allows quick authoring of cross-platform shaders.

Texture Compiler (texturec)

Geometry Compiler (geometryc)

Todo

• Multiple render targets.
• BlendFuncSeparate and BlendEquationSeparate.
• Copy from texture to texture.
• Occlusion queries.
• OSX and iOS platforms.
• DX11: MSAA.
• GL: MSAA.
• GL: ARB_vertex_array_object + OES_vertex_array_object.

Notice

This is alpha software, and it lacks documentation and examples. If you're interested to use it in your project, please let me know.

Contact

@bkaradzic
http://www.stuckingeometry.com

Project page
https://github.com/bkaradzic/bgfx

3rd Party Libraries

All required 3rd party libraries are included in bgfx repository in 3rdparty/ directory.

edtaa3 (MIT)

Contour Rendering by Distance Fields

https://github.com/OpenGLInsights/OpenGLInsightsCode/tree/master/Chapter%2012%202D%20Shape%20Rendering%20by%20Distance%20Fields

fcpp (BSD)

Frexx C preprocessor

https://github.com/bagder/fcpp

glsl-optimizer (MIT)

GLSL optimizer based on Mesa's GLSL compiler. Used in Unity for mobile shader optimization.

https://github.com/aras-p/glsl-optimizer

OpenCTM (Zlib)

OpenCTM <20> the Open Compressed Triangle Mesh file format <20> is a file format, a software library and a tool set for compression of 3D triangle meshes.

http://openctm.sourceforge.net/

stb_image (Public Domain)

http://nothings.org/stb_image.c

License (BSD 2-clause)

Copyright 2010-2012 Branimir Karadzic. All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY COPYRIGHT HOLDER ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.