Software Renderer in C/C++

A basic software rasterizer written in C that renders simple 2D graphics and exports a raw pixel buffer to a .data file. This file can be viewed using tools like GIMP or ImageMagick by interpreting it as raw image data.

🎯 Project Goals

The primary objectives of this project are to:

1. Implement Core Rendering Algorithms: Develop and optimize key 2D graphics algorithms, such as line drawing, circle drawing, and polygon filling, which are fundamental to rendering in computer graphics.

2. Explore Efficient Rendering Techniques: Optimize and implement algorithms for better performance and visual quality, including anti-aliasing and handling different line thicknesses.

3. Learn Computer Graphics Theory: Gain a deeper understanding of geometric transformations, coordinate systems, clipping algorithms, and rasterization techniques.

4. Generate Visual Outputs: Produce visual outputs that can be viewed in image editors (GIMP, ImageMagick) by exporting raw pixel data.

5. Expand the Algorithm Library: Gradually add more graphics algorithms, such as texture mapping, shading models, and 3D object rendering, to create a comprehensive library of algorithms.

📚 Topics

• Line drawing
  • Mathematical Equation
  • Incremental Line Algorithm
  • DDA Algorithm
  • Midpoint Line Algorithm
  • Bresenham Algorithm
  • Different Thickness
  • Antialiasing (Xiaolin Wu)
• Circle drawing & filling
  • Mathematical Equations
  • Midpoint Circle Algorithm
  • Bresenham Approach
  • Circle Filling
• Polygon drawing & filling
  • Connecting Vertices
  • Scan Line
  • Flood Fill
• Text rendering
  • Naive Rendering
  • Pre-Converting
• Line and Polygon Clipping
  • Cohen-Sutherland Algorithm
  • Cyrus-Beck-Liang-Barsky Algorithm

More coming soon

Usage

✅ Prerequisites

• A C compiler (e.g., gcc , clang, MSVC)
• CMake
• GIMP, ImageMagick, or any image viewer that supports loading.ppm

Build & Run

mkdir build
cd build
cmake ../
make
./renderer

This will generate a file called pixmap.data in the current directory.

🖼️ Viewing the output (e.g. GIMP)

1. Open Gimp.
2. Go to File > Open.
3. Choose pixmap.oom.
4. Open file.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. Feel free to use, modify, and distribute it as you wish.