DiligentGraphics/DiligentEngine

Diligent Engine

A Modern Cross-Platform Low-Level 3D Graphics Library and Rendering Framework

Diligent Engine is a lightweight, high-performance graphics API abstraction layer and rendering framework for cross-platform development. It leverages the power of modern graphics APIs such as Direct3D12, Vulkan, Metal, and WebGPU, while also maintaining robust support for legacy platforms through Direct3D11, OpenGL, OpenGLES, and WebGL. Providing a consistent front-end API, Diligent Engine uses HLSL as its universal shading language and also supports platform-specific shader formats (GLSL, MSL, DirectX bytecode, SPIR-V) for optimized performance. Ideal for game engines, interactive simulations, and 3D visualization applications, Diligent Engine is open-source and distributed under the permissive Apache 2.0 license.

Supported Platforms and Low-Level Graphics APIs

Platform	D3D11	D3D12	OpenGL/GLES	Vulkan	Metal	WebGPU	Build Status
Windows	:heavy_check_mark:	:heavy_check_mark:	:heavy_check_mark:	:heavy_check_mark:	-	:heavy_check_mark: 3
Universal Windows	:heavy_check_mark:	:heavy_check_mark:	-	-	-	-
Linux	-	-	:heavy_check_mark:	:heavy_check_mark:	-	:heavy_check_mark: 3
Android	-	-	:heavy_check_mark:	:heavy_check_mark:	-	-
macOS	-	-	:heavy_check_mark:	:heavy_check_mark: 1	:heavy_check_mark: 2	:heavy_check_mark: 3
iOS	-	-	:heavy_check_mark:	:heavy_check_mark: 1	:heavy_check_mark: 2	-
tvOS	-	-	-	:heavy_check_mark: 1	:heavy_check_mark: 2	-
visionOS	-	-	-	-	:heavy_check_mark: 2	-
Web	-	-	:heavy_check_mark:	-	-	:heavy_check_mark:

¹ Vulkan API is not natively supported on macOS, iOS and tvOS platforms and requires a Vulkan portability implementation such as MoltenVK or gfx-portability.

² Available under commercial license - please contact us for details.

³ Requires a native implementation of WebGPU, Dawn is recommended.

Features

• Cross-platform
  • Exact same client code for all supported platforms and rendering backends
    • No #if defined(_WIN32) ... #elif defined(LINUX) ... #elif defined(ANDROID) ...
    • No #if defined(D3D11) ... #elif defined(D3D12) ... #elif defined(OPENGL) ...
  • Exact same HLSL shaders (VS, PS, GS, HS, DS, CS) run on all platforms and all back-ends
• High performance
• Modular design
  • Components are clearly separated logically and physically and can be used as needed
  • Only take what you need for your project
• Clear and concise API
  • C/C++/C#
  • Object-based
  • Stateless
• Key graphics features:
  • Automatic shader resource binding designed to leverage next-generation graphics APIs
  • Multithreaded command buffer generation
  • Multithreaded resource creation
  • Automatic or explicit control over resource state transitions
  • Descriptor and memory management
  • Shader resource reflection
  • Async compute and multiple command queues
  • Ray-tracing, mesh shaders, tile shaders, bindless resources, variable rate shading, sparse resources, wave operations, and other state-of-the-art capabilities
• JSON-based render state description language and state packaging tool
• Extensive validation and error reporting
• Modern c++ features to make the code fast and reliable
• Consistent high quality is ensured by continuous integration
  • Automated builds and unit testing
  • Source code formatting validation
  • Static analysis

Minimum supported low-level API versions:

• OpenGL 4.1
• OpenGLES 3.0
• WebGL 2.0
• Direct3D11.1
• Direct3D12 with SDK version 10.0.19041.0
• Vulkan 1.0
• Metal 1.0

Documentation

High-level Rendering components

• Screen-Space Reflections
• Screen-Space Ambient Occlusion
• Depth of Field
• Bloom
• Temporal Anti-Aliasing
• Atmospheric light scattering post-effect
• Tone mapping utilities
• PBR renderer
• Hydrogent, an implementation of the Hydra rendering API in Diligent Engine.
• Shadows
• Integration with Dear Imgui and Nuklear

Table of Contents

• Cloning the Repository
  • Repository Structure
• Build and Run Instructions
  • Win32
  • Universal Windows Platform
  • Linux
  • Android
  • macOS
  • iOS
  • Web
  • Integrating Diligent Engine with Existing Build System
  • Build Options
  • Customizing Build
• Getting started with the API
• Render State Notation
• Tutorials
• Samples
• High-Level Rendering Components
• Products Using Diligent Engine
• License
• Contributing
• References
• Release History

Cloning the Repository

This is the master repository that contains four submodules. To get the repository and all submodules, use the following command:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/DiligentGraphics/DiligentEngine.git

When updating existing repository, don't forget to update all submodules:

git pull
git submodule update --recursive

It is also a good idea to re-run CMake and perform clean rebuild after getting the latest version.

Repository Structure

Master repository includes the following submodules:

• Core submodule implements Direct3D11, Direct3D12, OpenGL/GLES, and Vulkan back-ends. The module is self-contained and can be built by its own.
• Tools submodule contains texture loading library, asset loading library, dear imgui implementation, native application implementation, Diligent render state notation parser and offline render state packaging tool.
• DiligentFX is a high-level rendering framework that implements various rendering components. The module depends on Core and Tools modules.
• Samples submodule contains tutorials and sample applications intended to demonstrate the usage of the Diligent Engine API. The module depends on Core, Tools and DiligentFX modules.

Build and Run Instructions

Diligent Engine uses CMake as a cross-platform build tool. To start using cmake, download the latest release (3.20 or later is required). Another build prerequisite is Python interpreter (3.0 or later is required). If after following the instructions below you have build/run issues, please take a look at troubleshooting.

Win32

Build prerequisites:

• Windows SDK 10.0.19041.0 or later
• C++ build tools
• Visual C++ ATL Support

.NET support requires .NET SDK 6.0 or later.

Use either CMake GUI or command line tool to generate build files. For example, to generate Visual Studio 2022 64-bit solution and project files in build/Win64 folder, navigate to the engine's root folder and run the following command:

cmake -S . -B ./build/Win64 -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64

You can generate Win32 solution that targets Win8.1 SDK using the following command:

cmake -D CMAKE_SYSTEM_VERSION=8.1 -S . -B ./build/Win64_8.1 -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64

If you use MinGW, you can generate the make files using the command below (note however that the functionality will be limited and that MinGW is not a recommended way to build the engine):

cmake -S . -B ./build/MinGW -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -G "MinGW Makefiles"

:warning: In current implementation, full path to cmake build folder must not contain white spaces.

To enable Vulkan validation layers, you will need to download the Vulkan SDK and add environment variable VK_LAYER_PATH that contains the path to the Bin directory in VulkanSDK installation folder.

Open DiligentEngine.sln file in build/Win64 folder, select configuration and build the engine. Set the desired project as startup project (by default, GLTF Viewer will be selected) and run it.

By default, sample and tutorial applications will show rendering backend selection dialog box. Use the following command line options to force D3D11, D3D12, OpenGL, or Vulkan mode: --mode d3d11, --mode d3d12, --mode gl, or --mode vk. If you want to run an application outside of Visual Studio environment, the application's assets folder must be set as working directory. (For Visual Studio, this is automatically configured by CMake). Alternatively, you can navigate to the build target or install folder and run the executable from there.

Universal Windows Platform

To generate build files for Universal Windows platform, you need to define the following two cmake variables:

• CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME=WindowsStore
• CMAKE_SYSTEM_VERSION=< Windows Version >

For example, to generate Visual Studio 2022 64-bit solution and project files in build/UWP64 folder, run the following command from the engine's root folder:

cmake -D CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME=WindowsStore -D CMAKE_SYSTEM_VERSION=10.0 -S . -B ./build/UWP64 -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64

Set the desired project as startup project (by default, GLTF Viewer will be selected) and run it.

By default, applications will run in D3D12 mode. You can select D3D11 or D3D12 using the following command line options: --mode d3d11, --mode d3d12.

Note: it is possible to generate solution that targets Windows 8.1 by defining CMAKE_SYSTEM_VERSION=8.1 cmake variable, but it will fail to build as it will use Visual Studio 2013 (v120) toolset that lacks proper c++14 support.

Linux

Your Linux environment needs to be set up for c++ development. If it already is, make sure your c++ tools are up to date as Diligent Engine uses modern c++ features (clang 10 or later is recommended).

:warning: gcc 9 and above seemingly produces invalid binary code with O2 and O3 optimization levels. To avoid crashes, optimization level is downgraded to O1 in release configurations. It is recommended to use clang or gcc 7 or 8.

You may need to install the following packages:

1. gcc, clang, make and other essential c/c++ tools:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install build-essential

2. cmake

sudo apt-get install cmake

3. Other required packages:

sudo apt-get install libx11-dev
sudo apt-get install mesa-common-dev
sudo apt-get install mesa-utils
sudo apt-get install libgl-dev
sudo apt-get install python3-distutils
sudo apt-get install libgl1-mesa-dev
sudo apt-get install libxrandr-dev
sudo apt-get install libxinerama-dev
sudo apt-get install libxcursor-dev
sudo apt-get install libxi-dev

To configure Vulkan you will also need to:

• Install latest Vulkan drivers and libraries for your GPU
• Install Vulkan SDK
  • To make sure that you system is properly configured you can try to build and run samples from the SDK

To generate make files for debug configuration, run the following CMake command from the engine's root folder:

cmake -S . -B ./build -G "Unix Makefiles" -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE="Debug"

To build the engine, run the following command:

cmake --build ./build

On Ubuntu 23 and newer, it may crash if you don't have libtinfo5 installed, you'll need to add it.

The engine's root folder contains Visual Studio Code settings files that configure the IDE to build the engine. You can run applications directly from the IDE. To run an application from the command line, the app's assets folder must be current directory.

Android

Please make sure that your machine is set up for Android development. Download Android Studio, install and configure the NDK and CMake and other required tools. NDK r24 or later is required. If you are not using CMake version bundled with Android Studio, make sure your build files are properly configured. To verify that your environment is properly set up, try building the teapots sample as well as Vulkan Android tutorials.

Open DiligentSamples/Android folder with Android Studio to build and run tutorials and samples on Android.

By default, applications will run in Vulkan mode. To run them in Vulkan mode, add the following launch flags: --es mode gles (in Android Studio, go to Run->Edit Configurations menu)

macOS

Prerequisites:

• Xcode 16 or later
• Vulkan SDK 1.4.335.1 or later to enable Vulkan

After you clone the repo, run the following command from the engine's root folder to generate Xcode project:

cmake -S . -B ./build/MacOS -G "Xcode"

The project will be located in build/MacOS folder.

Note that if CMake fails to find the compiler, you may need to run the following command:

sudo xcode-select --reset

Configuring Vulkan Build Environment

By default there is no Vulkan implementation on macOS. Diligent Engine loads Vulkan dynamically and can use a Vulkan Portability implementation such as MoltenVK or gfx-portability. Install VulkanSDK and make sure that your system is properly configured as described here. In particular, you may need to define the following environment variables (assuming that Vulkan SDK is installed at /Users/MyName/VulkanSDK/1.4.335.1 and you want to use MoltenVK):

export VULKAN_SDK=/Users/MyName/VulkanSDK/1.4.335.1/macOS
export PATH=$VULKAN_SDK/bin:$PATH
export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=$VULKAN_SDK/lib:$DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH
export VK_ADD_LAYER_PATH=$VULKAN_SDK/share/vulkan/explicit_layer.d
export VK_ICD_FILENAMES=$VULKAN_SDK/share/vulkan/icd.d/MoltenVK_icd.json
export VK_DRIVER_FILES=$VULKAN_SDK/share/vulkan/icd.d/MoltenVK_icd.json

Note that environment variables set in the shell are not seen by the applications launched from Launchpad or other desktop GUI. Thus to make sure that an application finds Vulkan libraries, it needs to be started from the command line. Due to the same reason, the xcode project file should also be opened from the shell using open command. With Xcode versions 7 and later, this behavior may need to be enabled first using the following command:

defaults write com.apple.dt.Xcode UseSanitizedBuildSystemEnvironment -bool NO

Please refer to this page for more details.

:warning: DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variables are ignored on macOS unless System Integrity Protection is disabled (which generally is not recommended). In order for executables to find the Vulkan library, it must be in rpath. If VULKAN_SDK environment variable is set and points to correct location, Diligent Engine will configure the rpath for all applications automatically.

Latest tested Vulkan SDK version: 1.4.335.1.

:warning: There are known issues with later versions of the SDK, so it is recommended to use the latest tested version.

iOS

Prerequisites:

• Xcode 16 or later
• Vulkan SDK 1.4.335.1 or later to enable Vulkan

Run the command below from the engine's root folder to generate Xcode project configured for iOS build:

cmake -S . -B ./build/iOS -DCMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME=iOS -G "Xcode"

If needed, you can provide iOS deployment target (13.0 or later is required) as well as other parameters, e.g.:

cmake -S . -B ./build/iOS -DCMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME=iOS -DCMAKE_OSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=13.0 -G "Xcode"

:warning: To build for iPhone simulator, use the iphonesimulator system root. You may also use the CMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES variable to specify target architecture, for example:

cmake -S . -B ./build/iOSSim -DCMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME=iOS -DCMAKE_OSX_SYSROOT=iphonesimulator -DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=arm64 -G "Xcode"

Open Xcode project file in build/IOS folder and build the engine. To run the applications on an iOS device, you will need to set appropriate development team in the project settings.

Configuring Vulkan Build Environment

To enable Vulkan on iOS, download and install the VulkanSDK. There is no Vulkan loader on iOS, and Diligent Engine links directly with MoltenVK XCFramework (see MoltenVk install guide) that implements Vulkan on Metal. To enable Vulkan in Diligent Engine on iOS, specify the path to Vulkan SDK when running CMake, for example (assuming that Vulkan SDK is installed at /Users/MyName/VulkanSDK/1.4.335.1):

cmake -DCMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME=iOS -DVULKAN_SDK=/Users/MyName/VulkanSDK/1.4.335.1 -S . -B ./build/iOS -G "Xcode"

By default, the engine links with MoltenVK XCFramework located in Vulkan SDK. If this is not desired or an application wants to use a specific library, it can provide the full path to the library via MOLTENVK_LIBRARY CMake variable.

Refer to MoltenVK user guide for more information about MoltenVK installation and usage.

Latest tested Vulkan SDK version: 1.4.335.1.

:warning: There are known issues with later versions of the SDK, so it is recommended to use the latest tested version.

Web

Build prerequisites:

• Emscripten SDK 3.1.65
• Ninja 1.10.2

To activate PATH and other environment variables in the current terminal

source ${PATH_TO_EMSDK}/emsdk/emsdk_env.sh

:warning: On Windows, run ${PATH_TO_EMSDK}/emsdk/emsdk_env.bat instead of source ${PATH_TO_EMSDK}/emsdk/emsdk_env.sh

To generate project, run the following CMake command from the engine's root folder:

emcmake cmake -S . -B ./build/Emscripten -G "Ninja"

To build the engine, run the following command:

cmake --build ./build/Emscripten

To test Web applications, run a basic web server

cd ./build/Emscripten
python https_server.py

Open a browser and navigate to http://localhost

For example, the Hello Triangle tutorial will be available at

http://localhost/DiligentSamples/Tutorials/Tutorial01_HelloTriangle/Tutorial01_HelloTriangle.html

To access the server from another computer on the local network, use the HTTPS server. To enable this, first install the cryptography module. You can do so by running the following command:

pip install cryptography

To start the HTTPS server, use the following command:

python https_server.py --mode=https

Use the HTTPS protocol to open the pages. For example:

https://localhost/DiligentSamples/Tutorials/Tutorial01_HelloTriangle/Tutorial01_HelloTriangle.html

When using the HTTPS server, unlike with the HTTP server, you may encounter the following error when loading the page: net::ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID.

There are two ways to resolve this issue:

1. Click the Advanced button and then select Proceed to localhost (unsafe).
2. Alternatively, start the terminal as administrator and run the following command:

python https_server.py --mode=https --register

We use the default ports for HTTP/HTTPS protocols, 80 and 443 respectively. If you already have a server running on those ports, you may specify a different port number using the --port argument and include the corresponding port number in the URL after the IP address. For example:

http://localhost:${YOUR_PORT}/DiligentSamples/Tutorials/Tutorial01_HelloTriangle/Tutorial01_HelloTriangle.html

Integrating Diligent Engine with Existing Build System

Diligent has modular structure, so for your project you can only use those submodules that implement the required functionality. The diagram below shows the dependencies between modules.

  Core
   |
   +------>Tools----------.
   |        |             |
   |        V             |
   +------->FX---------.  |
   |                   |  |
   |                   V  V
   '----------------->Samples

Don't forget to recursively initialize submodules if you are adding Diligent repos as submodules to your project.

Your Project Uses Cmake

If your project uses CMake, adding Diligent Engine requires just few lines of code. Suppose that the directory structure looks like this:

|
+-DiligentCore
+-HelloDiligent.cpp

Then the following steps need to be done:

• Call add_subdirectory(DiligentCore)
• Add dependencies on the targets implementing required rendering backends

Below is an example of a CMake file:

cmake_minimum_required (VERSION 3.6)

project(HelloDiligent CXX)

add_subdirectory(DiligentCore)

add_executable(HelloDiligent WIN32 HelloDiligent.cpp)
target_compile_options(HelloDiligent PRIVATE -DUNICODE)

target_link_libraries(HelloDiligent
PRIVATE
    Diligent-GraphicsEngineD3D11-shared
    Diligent-GraphicsEngineOpenGL-shared
    Diligent-GraphicsEngineD3D12-shared
    Diligent-GraphicsEngineVk-shared
)
copy_required_dlls(HelloDiligent)

copy_required_dlls() is a convenience function that copies shared libraries next to the executable so that the system can find and load them. Please also take a look at getting started tutorials for Windows and Linux.

Static vs Dynamic Linking

On most platforms, core engine libraries are built in both static and dynamic versions (for example, Diligent-GraphicsEngineD3D12-static and Diligent-GraphicsEngineD3D12-shared). You can choose which version to link with by changing the target name in target_link_libraries() CMake command. When linking with dynamic libraries, the ENGINE_DLL macro will be defined, and the libraries will need to be loaded at runtime. For example, for Direct3D12 backend:

#if ENGINE_DLL
// Load the dll and import GetEngineFactoryD3D12() function
auto GetEngineFactoryD3D12 = LoadGraphicsEngineD3D12();
#endif
auto* pFactoryD3D12 = GetEngineFactoryD3D12();

When using static linking, the ENGINE_DLL macro will not be defined, and the GetEngineFactoryD3D12 function will be statically linked with the executable.

SampleApp.cpp file provides an example of how to initialize the engine on different platforms using static or dynamic linking.

Using FetchContent

You can use FetchContent to download Diligent Engine modules. The only caveat is that you need to specify the source directory for each module to be the same as the module name, so that header files can be found. Below is an example of a CMake file that uses FetchContent:

cmake_minimum_required (VERSION 3.6)

project(HelloDiligent CXX)

include(FetchContent)
FetchContent_Declare(
    DiligentCore
    GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/DiligentGraphics/DiligentCore.git
    SOURCE_DIR _deps/DiligentCore
)
FetchContent_Declare(
    DiligentTools
    GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/DiligentGraphics/DiligentTools.git
    SOURCE_DIR _deps/DiligentTools
)
FetchContent_Declare(
    DiligentFX
    GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/DiligentGraphics/DiligentFX.git
    SOURCE_DIR _deps/DiligentFX
)
FetchContent_MakeAvailable(DiligentCore DiligentTools DiligentFX)

add_executable(HelloDiligent WIN32 HelloDiligent.cpp)
target_include_directories(HelloDiligent
PRIVATE
    ${diligentcore_SOURCE_DIR}
    ${diligenttools_SOURCE_DIR}
    ${diligentfx_SOURCE_DIR}
)

target_compile_definitions(HelloDiligent PRIVATE UNICODE)

target_link_libraries(HelloDiligent
PRIVATE
    Diligent-BuildSettings
    Diligent-GraphicsEngineD3D11-shared
    Diligent-GraphicsEngineD3D12-shared
    Diligent-GraphicsEngineOpenGL-shared
    Diligent-GraphicsEngineVk-shared
    DiligentFX
)
copy_required_dlls(HelloDiligent)

Your Project Does Not Use Cmake

If your project doesn't use CMake, it is recommended to build libraries with CMake and add them to your build system. You can download the latest build artifacts from GitHub.

Global CMake installation directory is controlled by CMAKE_INTALL_PREFIX variable. Note that it defaults to /usr/local on UNIX and c:/Program Files/${PROJECT_NAME} on Windows, which may not be what you want. Use -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=install to use local install folder instead:

cmake -S . -B ./build/Win64 -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=install -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64

To install libraries and header files, run the following CMake command from the build folder:

cmake --build . --target install

DiligentCore installation directory will contain everything required to integrate the engine:

• include subdirectory will contain all required header files. Add this directory to your include search directories.
• lib subdirectory will contain static libraries.
• bin subdirectory will contain dynamic libraries.

An easier way is to link with dynamic libraries. When linking statically, you will need to list DiligentCore as well as all third-party libraries used by the engine. Besides that, you will also need to specify platform-specific system libraries. For example, for Windows platform, the list of libraries your project will need to link against may look like this:

DiligentCore.lib glslang.lib HLSL.lib OGLCompiler.lib OSDependent.lib spirv-cross-core.lib SPIRV.lib SPIRV-Tools-opt.lib SPIRV-Tools.lib glew-static.lib GenericCodeGen.lib MachineIndependent.lib dxgi.lib d3d11.lib d3d12.lib d3dcompiler.lib opengl32.lib

Diligent Engine headers require one of the following platform macros to be defined as 1: PLATFORM_WIN32, PLATFORM_UNIVERSAL_WINDOWS, PLATFORM_ANDROID, PLATFORM_LINUX, PLATFORM_MACOS, PLATFORM_IOS.

You can control which components of the engine you want to install using the following CMake options: DILIGENT_INSTALL_CORE, DILIGENT_INSTALL_FX, DILIGENT_INSTALL_SAMPLES, and DILIGENT_INSTALL_TOOLS.

Another way to integrate the engine is to generate build files (such as Visual Studio projects) and add them to your build system. Build customization described below can help tweak the settings for your specific needs.

Build Options

Available CMake options are summarized in the table below:

By default, all back-ends available on the current platform are built. To disable specific back-ends, use the following options: DILIGENT_NO_DIRECT3D11, DILIGENT_NO_DIRECT3D12, DILIGENT_NO_OPENGL, DILIGENT_NO_VULKAN, DILIGENT_NO_METAL, DILIGENT_NO_WEBGPU. WebGPU backend is enabled by default when building for the Web. To enable it on other platforms, use DILIGENT_NO_WEBGPU=OFF. The options can be set through cmake UI or from the command line as in the example below:

cmake -D DILIGENT_NO_DIRECT3D11=TRUE -S . -B ./build/Win64 -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64

Additionally, individual engine components can be enabled or disabled using the following options: DILIGENT_BUILD_TOOLS, DILIGENT_BUILD_FX, DILIGENT_BUILD_SAMPLES. If you only want to build SampleBase project, you can use DILIGENT_BUILD_SAMPLE_BASE_ONLY option.

By default Vulkan back-end is linked with glslang that enables compiling HLSL and GLSL shaders to SPIRV at run time. If run-time compilation is not required, glslang can be disabled with DILIGENT_NO_GLSLANG cmake option. Additionally, HLSL support in non-Direct3D backends can be disabled with DILIGENT_NO_HLSL option. Enabling the options significantly reduces the size of Vulkan and OpenGL back-end binaries, which may be especially important for mobile applications.

Diligent Engine uses clang-format to ensure consistent formatting throughout the code base. The validation can be disabled using DILIGENT_NO_FORMAT_VALIDATION CMake option. Note that any pull request will fail if formatting issues are found.

Diligent Engine uses extensive validation that is always enabled in Debug build. Some of the checks may be enabled in release configurations by setting DILIGENT_DEVELOPMENT CMake option.

To enable PIX events support, set DILIGENT_LOAD_PIX_EVENT_RUNTIME CMake flag.

To enable some advanced features on NVidia GPUs (such as native multi draw indirect support in Direct3D11), download NVAPI and set the DILIGENT_NVAPI_PATH CMake variable.

Diligent Engine uses multiple third-party libraries. If an application's CMake file defines any of those libraries, Diligent will use existing targets. The application will need to make sure that build settings are compatible with Diligent.

Customizing Build

Diligent Engine allows clients to customize build settings by providing configuration script file that defines the following optional cmake functions:

• custom_configure_build() - defines global build properties such as build configurations, c/c++ compile flags, link flags etc.
• custom_pre_configure_target() - defines custom settings for every target in the build and is called before the engine's build system starts configuring the target.
• custom_post_configure_target() - called after the engine's build system has configured the target to let the client override properties set by the engine.

The path to the configuration script should be provided through BUILD_CONFIGURATION_FILE variable when running cmake and must be relative to the cmake root folder, for example:

cmake -D BUILD_CONFIGURATION_FILE=BuildConfig.cmake -S . -B ./build/Win64 -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64

Customizing global build settings with custom_configure_build() function

If defined, custom_configure_build() function is called before any build target is added. By default, cmake defines the following four configurations: Debug, Release, RelWithDebInfo, MinSizeRel. If you want, you can define your own build configurations by setting CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES variable. For instance, if you want to have only two configuration: Debug and ReleaseMT, add the following line to the custom_configure_build() function:

set(CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES Debug ReleaseMT CACHE STRING "Configuration types: Debug, ReleaseMT" FORCE)

The build system needs to know the list of debug and release (optimized) configurations, so the following two variables must also be set when CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES variable is defined:

set(DEBUG_CONFIGURATIONS DEBUG CACHE INTERNAL "" FORCE)
set(RELEASE_CONFIGURATIONS RELEASEMT CACHE INTERNAL "" FORCE)

Note that due to cmake specifics, configuration names listed in DEBUG_CONFIGURATIONS and RELEASE_CONFIGURATIONS must be capitalized.

If you define any configuration other than four standard cmake ones, you also need to set the following variables, for every new configuration:

• CMAKE_C_FLAGS_<Config> - c compile flags
• CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_<Config> - c++ compile flags
• CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS_<Config> - executable link flags
• CMAKE_SHARED_LINKER_FLAGS_<Config> - shared library link flags

For instance:

set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS_RELEASEMT "/MT" CACHE INTERNAL "" FORCE)
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_RELEASEMT "/MT" CACHE INTERNAL "" FORCE)
set(CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS_RELEASEMT "/OPT:REF" CACHE INTERNAL "" FORCE)
set(CMAKE_SHARED_LINKER_FLAGS_RELEASEMT "/OPT:REF" CACHE INTERNAL "" FORCE)

Below is an example of custom_configure_build() function:

function(custom_configure_build)
    if(CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES)
        # Debug configurations
        set(DEBUG_CONFIGURATIONS DEBUG CACHE INTERNAL "" FORCE)
        # Release (optimized) configurations
        set(RELEASE_CONFIGURATIONS RELEASEMT CACHE INTERNAL "" FORCE)
        # CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES variable defines build configurations generated by cmake
        set(CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES Debug ReleaseMT CACHE STRING "Configuration types: Debug, ReleaseMT" FORCE)

        set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_RELEASEMT "/MT" CACHE INTERNAL "" FORCE)
        set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS_RELEASEMT "/MT" CACHE INTERNAL "" FORCE)
        set(CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS_RELEASEMT "/OPT:REF" CACHE INTERNAL "" FORCE)
        set(CMAKE_SHARED_LINKER_FLAGS_RELEASEMT "/OPT:REF" CACHE INTERNAL "" FORCE)
    endif()
endfunction()

Customizing individual target build settings with custom_pre_configure_target() and custom_post_configure_target() functions

If defined, custom_pre_configure_target() is called for every target created by the build system and allows configuring target-specific properties.

By default, the build system sets some target properties. If custom_pre_configure_target() sets all required properties, it can tell the build system that no further processing is required by setting TARGET_CONFIGURATION_COMPLETE parent scope variable to TRUE:

set(TARGET_CONFIGURATION_COMPLETE TRUE PARENT_SCOPE)

The following is an example of custom_pre_configure_target() function:

function(custom_pre_configure_target TARGET)
    set_target_properties(${TARGET} PROPERTIES
        STATIC_LIBRARY_FLAGS_RELEASEMT /LTCG
    )
    set(TARGET_CONFIGURATION_COMPLETE TRUE PARENT_SCOPE)   
endfunction()

If the client only needs to override some settings, it may define custom_post_configure_target() function that is called after the engine has completed configuring the target, for example:

function(custom_post_configure_target TARGET)
    set_target_properties(${TARGET} PROPERTIES
        CXX_STANDARD 17
    )
endfunction()

Getting started with the API

Please refer to this page. Also, tutorials and samples listed below is a good place to start.

Render State Notation

Diligent Render State Notation is a JSON-based language that describes shaders, pipeline states, resource signatures and other objects in a convenient form, e.g.:

{
    "Shaders": [
        {
            "Desc": {
                "Name": "My Vertex shader",
                "ShaderType": "VERTEX"
            },
            "SourceLanguage": "HLSL",
            "FilePath": "cube.vsh"
        },
        {
            "Desc": {
                "Name": "My Pixel shader",
                "ShaderType": "PIXEL"
            },
            "SourceLanguage": "HLSL",
            "FilePath": "cube.psh",
        }
    ],
    "Pipeleines": [
        {
            "GraphicsPipeline": {
                "DepthStencilDesc": {
                    "DepthEnable": true
                },
                "RTVFormats": {
                    "0": "RGBA8_UNORM_SRGB"
                },
                "RasterizerDesc": {
                    "CullMode": "FRONT"
                },
                "BlendDesc": {
                    "RenderTargets": {
                        "0": {
                            "BlendEnable": true
                        }
                    }
                }
            },
            "PSODesc": {
                "Name": "My Pipeline State",
                "PipelineType": "GRAPHICS"
            },
            "pVS": "My Vertex shader",
            "pPS": "My Pixel shader"
        }
    ]
}

JSON files can be parsed dynamically at run time. Alternatively, an application can use the packager tool to preprocess pipeline descriptions (compile shaders for target platforms, define internal resource layouts, etc.) into a binary archive optimized for run-time loading performance.

Tutorials

Tutorial	Screenshot	Description
01 - Hello Triangle :arrow_forward: Run		This tutorial shows how to render simple triangle using Diligent Engine API.
02 - Cube :arrow_forward: Run		This tutorial demonstrates how to render an actual 3D object, a cube. It shows how to load shaders from files, create and use vertex, index and uniform buffers.
03 - Texturing :arrow_forward: Run		This tutorial demonstrates how to apply a texture to a 3D object. It shows how to load a texture from file, create shader resource binding object and how to sample a texture in the shader.
03 - Texturing-C		This tutorial is identical to Tutorial03, but is implemented using C API.
03 - Texturing-DotNet		This tutorial demonstrates how to use the Diligent Engine API in .NET applications.
04 - Instancing :arrow_forward: Run		This tutorial demonstrates how to use instancing to render multiple copies of one object using unique transformation matrix for every copy.
05 - Texture Array :arrow_forward: Run		This tutorial demonstrates how to combine instancing with texture arrays to use unique texture for every instance.
06 - Multithreading :arrow_forward: Run		This tutorial shows how to generate command lists in parallel from multiple threads.
07 - Geometry Shader		This tutorial shows how to use geometry shader to render smooth wireframe.
08 - Tessellation		This tutorial shows how to use hardware tessellation to implement simple adaptive terrain rendering algorithm.
09 - Quads :arrow_forward: Run		This tutorial shows how to render multiple 2D quads, frequently switching textures and blend modes.
10 - Data Streaming :arrow_forward: Run		This tutorial shows dynamic buffer mapping strategy using MAP_FLAG_DISCARD and MAP_FLAG_DO_NOT_SYNCHRONIZE flags to efficiently stream varying amounts of data to GPU.
11 - Resource Updates :arrow_forward: Run		This tutorial demonstrates different ways to update buffers and textures in Diligent Engine and explains important internal details and performance implications related to each method.
12 - Render Target :arrow_forward: Run		This tutorial demonstrates how to render a 3d cube into an offscreen render target and do a simple post-processing effect.
13 - Shadow Map :arrow_forward: Run		This tutorial demonstrates how to render basic shadows using a shadow map.
14 - Compute Shader :arrow_forward: Run		This tutorial shows how to implement a simple particle simulation system using compute shaders.
15 - Multiple Windows		This tutorial demonstrates how to use Diligent Engine to render to multiple windows.
16 - Bindless Resources :arrow_forward: Run		This tutorial shows how to implement bindless resources, a technique that leverages dynamic shader resource indexing feature enabled by the next-gen APIs to significantly improve rendering performance.
17 - MSAA :arrow_forward: Run		This tutorial demonstrates how to use multisample anti-aliasing (MSAA) to make geometrical edges look smoother and more temporarily stable.
18 - Queries :arrow_forward: Run		This tutorial demonstrates how to use queries to retrieve various information about the GPU operation, such as the number of primitives rendered, command processing duration, etc.
19 - Render Passes :arrow_forward: Run		This tutorial demonstrates how to use the render passes API to implement simple deferred shading.
20 - Mesh Shader		This tutorial demonstrates how to use amplification and mesh shaders, the new programmable stages, to implement view frustum culling and object LOD calculation on the GPU.
21 - Ray Tracing		This tutorial demonstrates the basics of using ray tracing API in Diligent Engine.
22 - Hybrid Rendering		This tutorial demonstrates how to implement a simple hybrid renderer that combines rasterization with ray tracing.
23 - Command Queues		This tutorial demonstrates how to use multiple command queues to perform rendering in parallel with copy and compute operations.
24 - Variable Rate Shading		This tutorial demonstrates how to use variable rate shading to reduce the pixel shading load.
25 - Render State Packager		This tutorial shows how to create and archive pipeline states with the render state packager off-line tool on the example of a simple path tracer.
26 - Render State Cache :arrow_forward: Run		This tutorial expands the path tracing technique implemented in previous tutorial and demonstrates how to use the render state cache to save pipeline states created at run time and load them when the application starts.
27 - Post-Processing :arrow_forward: Run		This tutorial demonstrates how to use post-processing effects from the DiligentFX module.
28 - OpenXR		This tutorial demonstrates how to use Diligent Engine with OpenXR API to render a simple scene in a VR headset.
29 - OIT :arrow_forward: Run		This tutorial demonstrates how to implement order-independent transparency (OIT) methods to render transparent objects without sorting.
30 - visionOS		This tutorial demonstrates how to run Diligent Engine on Apple visionOS.

Samples

Sample	Screenshot	Description
Atmosphere Sample :arrow_forward: Run		This sample demonstrates how to integrate Epipolar Light Scattering post-processing effect into an application to render physically-based atmosphere.
GLFW Demo		This maze mini-game demonstrates how to use GLFW to create window and handle keyboard and mouse input.
GLTF Viewer :arrow_forward: Run		This sample demonstrates how to use the Asset Loader and PBR Renderer to load and render GLTF models.
USD Viewer		This sample demonstrates how to render USD files using Hydrogent, an implementation of the Hydra rendering API in Diligent Engine.
Shadows :arrow_forward: Run		This sample demonstrates how to use the Shadowing component to render high-quality shadows.
Dear ImGui Demo :arrow_forward: Run		This sample demonstrates the integration of the engine with dear imgui UI library.
Nuklear Demo		This sample demonstrates the integration of the engine with nuklear UI library.
Hello AR		This sample demonstrates how to use Diligent Engine in a basic Android AR application.
Asteroids		This sampple is a performance benchmark that renders 50,000 unique textured asteroids and allows comparing performance of different rendering modes.
Unity Integration Demo		This project demonstrates integration of Diligent Engine with Unity.

High-Level Rendering Components

High-level rendering functionality is implemented by DiligentFX module. The following components are now available:

• GLTF2.0 Loader and Physically-based renderer with image-based lighting.

• Hydrogent, an implementation of the Hydra rendering API in Diligent Engine.
  

  

• Shadows
  

  

Post-processing effects

• Screen-Space Reflections
  

  

• Screen-Space Ambient Occlusion
  

  

• Depth of Field
  

  

• Bloom
  

  

• Epipolar light scattering
  

  

• Temporal Anti-Aliasing

• Tone mapping shader utilities

Products using Diligent Engine

We would appreciate it if you could send us a link in case your product uses Diligent Engine.

• Large-scale terrain visualization system for pilot training simulators by Elbit Systems
  

• LumenRT: A Visualization and Reality Modeling Software by Bentley Systems

• Vrmac Graphics: A cross-platform graphics library for .NET
  

• Prisma Engine: A modern engine that shows rendering techniques like hardware raytracing and clustered shading
  

Disclaimer

Diligent Engine is an open project that may be freely used by everyone. We started it to empower the community and help people achieve their goals. Sadly enough, not everyone's goals are worthy. Please don't associate us with suspicious projects you may find on the Web that appear to be using Diligent Engine. We neither can possibly track all such uses nor can we really do anything about them because our permissive license does not give us a lot of leverage.

License

See Apache 2.0 license.

Each module has some third-party dependencies, each of which may have independent licensing:

• Core module
• Tools module
• Samples module

Contributing

To contribute your code, submit a Pull Request to this repository. Diligent Engine is licensed under the Apache 2.0 license that guarantees that content in the DiligentEngine repository is free of Intellectual Property encumbrances. In submitting any content to this repository, you license that content under the same terms, and you agree that the content is free of any Intellectual Property claims and you have the right to license it under those terms.

Diligent Engine uses clang-format to ensure consistent source code style throughout the code base. The format is validated by CI for each commit and pull request, and the build will fail if any code formatting issue is found. Please refer to this page for instructions on how to set up clang-format and automatic code formatting.

References

Documentation

Coding Guidelines

Performance Best Practices

Code Formatting

Release History

See Release History

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