Open-source alternatives to GlslViewer

This project is a GPU-accelerated fluid renderer and interactive WebGL visualizer. It functions as a fluid dynamics sandbox for experimenting with the real-time movement and behavior of liquids. The simulation calculates density, pressure, and vorticity using GPU shaders to maintain high performance. It includes atmospheric visual effects such as bloom and sunrays, alongside tools for capturing the simulation state as static images. The underlying architecture utilizes fragment-shader rendering and ping-pong texture buffering to manage fluid physics. Multi-pass post-processing is used to app

ShaderForge is a web-based GPU tool and visual GLSL shader editor. It serves as a node-based shader designer that allows users to construct programs for the graphics processor by connecting logic blocks in a directed acyclic graph rather than writing manual code. The tool functions as a technical art workflow bridge for creating game assets and surface materials. It provides a browser-based environment for real-time authoring, featuring instant GLSL compilation and live hot-reloading of GPU programs. The system converts visual graph connections into GLSL source code using abstract syntax tre

SHADERed is a cross-platform shader development environment and debugger used for authoring vertex, pixel, and compute shaders. It functions as an integrated editor for writing and compiling shader code while providing live visual previews and the ability to configure render pipeline states. The tool features a GLSL shader debugger that enables line-by-line execution with breakpoints and variable watches to resolve visual logic errors. It includes a shader asset manager for importing 3D models and textures as data inputs and supports an extensible plugin system to integrate new languages and

Nannou is a creative coding framework for Rust designed for building interactive visual and audio sketches. It provides a loop-based API with hardware-accelerated 2D and 3D rendering, serving as a toolkit for generative art production and multimedia installation design. The framework is distinguished by its comprehensive hardware communication interface, which bridges software with physical devices via MIDI, OSC, DMX, serial, and laser DAC protocols. It also includes specialized projection mapping tools for warping visual output to fit non-standard physical surfaces and a dedicated GPU shader

This project is an open-source 3D game engine designed for building high-fidelity games, simulations, and cinematic environments. It functions as a robotics simulation platform with native integration for ROS 2 to model robot controllers and sensors. The engine features a multi-threaded Forward+ physically based renderer that supports hardware-accelerated ray tracing and global illumination. The system is built on a modular extension architecture using Gems to add or replace features without modifying core binaries. It includes a native SDK for AWS cloud integration, enabling IAM authenticati

bgfx is a cross-platform, graphics rendering abstraction layer designed for high-performance applications. It provides a unified interface that maps high-level rendering commands to native graphics APIs, allowing developers to maintain a single codebase that executes consistently across diverse operating systems and hardware architectures. The library distinguishes itself through a multi-threaded command submission model that decouples rendering logic from the main application thread, effectively minimizing CPU bottlenecks. It utilizes a backend-agnostic command buffer and a deferred resource

This project is a browser-based graphics editor and image processing library that performs visual transformations directly within the web environment. It provides a toolset for loading local image files, applying complex visual effects, and exporting the modified results without requiring server-side data processing. The library utilizes hardware-accelerated fragment shaders to execute pixel-level operations on the graphics processing unit. By maintaining image data as textures within GPU memory and using an immediate-mode rendering pipeline, the system achieves real-time synchronization betw

Panda3D is a cross-platform game engine and 3D graphics rendering system developed for Python and C++. It functions as a comprehensive framework for building interactive 3D applications, providing a real-time physics simulator and a specialized 3D asset pipeline tool. The engine distinguishes itself by combining a high-performance C++ core with interoperable Python language bindings. It utilizes a scene graph architecture to organize 3D objects and provides a pipeline-based asset conversion system to optimize models and textures for runtime loading. Its capability surface includes low-level

mujoco_menagerie is a curated library of physical robot specifications and XML model definitions designed for standardized dynamics and contact simulation. It provides a collection of high-quality robot model files for humanoids, quadrupeds, and manipulators, alongside detailed kinematic and inertial parameters used to reproduce real-world robot behavior in virtual environments. The project serves as a repository of robotics simulation assets and MJCF model definitions optimized for accuracy. It includes standardized model libraries specifically for bipedal, quadrupedal, and humanoid hardware

f3d is a fast 3D model viewer and rendering engine designed for visualizing 3D meshes, CAD files, and point clouds. It operates across multiple deployment profiles, functioning as a lightweight desktop application, a scientific data visualizer for volumetric and scalar datasets, a headless rendering engine for automated image generation, and a WebAssembly-based renderer for web applications. The project distinguishes itself through specialized support for Gaussian Splatting scene reconstructions and the ability to visualize complex scientific formats such as VTK, NetCDF, and HDF. It features

Makie.jl is a high-performance Julia data visualization library and hardware-accelerated plotting engine used to create interactive 2D and 3D visualizations. It functions as a reactive visualization framework where plots update automatically via observables and compute graphs, and as a vector graphics generator for high-resolution academic output. The system is distinguished by its backend-agnostic rendering pipeline, which supports OpenGL, WebGL, and ray-traced scenes. It employs a grammar-of-graphics approach to map variables to aesthetic attributes and utilizes a hierarchical scene graph t

Orillusion is a WebGPU 3D rendering engine designed for high-fidelity scenes and visual effects in the browser. It functions as a GPU compute framework for parallel mathematical operations and a physically-based rendering graphics pipeline for realistic materials and surfaces. The system also includes a web-based 3D animation toolkit for driving skeletal animations and interpolating vertex positions. The engine is distinguished by its use of an entity component system for scene logic and a macro-based shader generation system that creates multiple shader variants. It optimizes performance thr

LibGDX is a Java-based framework designed for cross-platform game development, enabling the creation and deployment of 2D and 3D games across desktop, mobile, and web environments from a single codebase. It functions as a comprehensive library that abstracts hardware-accelerated graphics, audio, input, and file system access, providing a unified interface for developers to manage game logic and application lifecycles. The framework distinguishes itself through a high-performance architecture that prioritizes efficiency and native interoperability. It utilizes a batch-oriented graphics pipelin

ProjectM is a cross-platform music visualization library and pixel shader rendering engine. It functions as an audio signal analysis tool that extracts beat and frequency data from audio streams to drive real-time graphical changes. The engine is built for compatibility with the Milkdrop visualization standard, allowing it to parse and load external preset files to define visual styles. It supports the organization of these presets through playlist-driven management to automate transitions between different visual effects. The system can be integrated into external host applications as a sta

StreamFX-Public is a collection of OBS Studio plugins and software components designed for broadcast enhancement. It provides a suite of visual effects, filters, hardware-accelerated encoders, and professional video encoding tools to expand the capabilities of the host application. The project distinguishes itself through the support of professional mezzanine video codecs, including DNxHR, ProRes, and Cineform, for high-fidelity post-production editing. It also implements hardware-accelerated recording via GPU cores and AMD AMF to reduce CPU overhead during live broadcasts. The toolset cover

Editly is a headless, programmatic video engine and automated assembler. It functions as a declarative video editor that generates MP4 and GIF exports from structured data or code, removing the need for a manual graphical user interface. The system is distinguished by its ability to integrate GLSL fragment shaders as visual layers within a programmatic timeline. It uses a configuration-based model to define clips, layers, and audio tracks, allowing for reproducible video assembly and the generation of custom programmatic graphics. The engine covers a broad range of media production capabilit

This library is a jQuery plugin that provides interactive, hardware-accelerated fluid surface simulations for web-based user interfaces. It renders realistic water ripple animations over existing DOM elements, allowing static backgrounds to respond dynamically to user input. The plugin distinguishes itself by utilizing WebGL fragment shaders to calculate pixel displacement and fluid motion in real time. By mapping background images as textures and injecting coordinate-based disturbances, it creates responsive visual feedback that reacts to mouse movements and clicks without disrupting the und

Vanta is a browser-based engine and library for rendering real-time, interactive 3D animations and stylized visual effects. It initializes and manages WebGL graphics within the HTML5 Canvas element to create animated digital art and dynamic backgrounds for web pages. The engine focuses on interactivity, mapping mouse and touch inputs to real-time visual changes. It provides configuration tools to adjust visual parameters, such as colors and animation properties, to align with specific branding and aesthetic requirements. The system handles the full animation lifecycle, including GPU renderin

This project is a reference library of HLSL shader implementations and source code examples for Unity. It provides a collection of practical samples focused on lighting, coordinate transformations, and rendering passes for 3D graphics. The repository demonstrates the application of 3D rendering mathematics, specifically using vector and matrix calculations to determine light directions and coordinate space transformations. It includes implementations for managing multi-pass rendering pipelines and mapping coordinates between object, world, and view spaces. The material covers foundational gr

Pixel is a 2D game library and graphics engine for the Go programming language. It provides a hardware-accelerated renderer for drawing sprites, geometric shapes, and text, utilizing an optimized system of batching and transformation matrices. The project functions as a comprehensive toolkit for two-dimensional interactive applications, combining a graphics engine with a 2D vector math library for affine transformations and coordinate space projections. It includes a dedicated input manager that tracks keyboard presses and mouse movements using a polling-based system rather than asynchronous

Liquid Glass React is a WebGL-powered component library that renders refractive, liquid-like glass effects on React UI elements. It simulates light bending and chromatic aberration through fragment shaders in real-time, creating interactive visual distortions driven by cursor movement and clicks. The library distinguishes itself through a cursor-driven distortion pipeline that translates pointer coordinates into dynamic displacement, blur, saturation, and frost parameters with elastic easing for a liquid-like visual reaction. It supports chromatic dispersion that separates RGB color channels

Blotter is a WebGL text rendering engine and fragment shader text visualizer. It provides a system for composing and previewing stylized text effects by applying custom GLSL fragment shaders to text elements on a web canvas. The project includes a shader editor for defining and updating custom shader logic and uniforms in real time. This interface allows for the creation of unique visual styles and the modification of rendering variables without reloading the underlying logic. The engine incorporates performance optimizations for WebGL rendering, utilizing texture atlas batching and a single

Cobe is a WebGL globe library designed for interactive 3D geographic data visualization. It functions as a canvas-based map component that renders a world map, allowing for the plotting of latitude and longitude coordinates via markers and connecting arcs. The library distinguishes itself by linking standard HTML elements to 3D coordinates using CSS anchor positioning. This integration enables the attachment of DOM elements, such as labels and tooltips, directly to markers and arcs on the sphere. The system covers geographic data plotting and network connection mapping, utilizing automated r

This project is a custom lighting shader for the Unity Universal Render Pipeline designed to produce a non-photorealistic cartoon visual style. It serves as a technical example for implementing a toon shader and stylized lighting for 3D objects. The implementation achieves a cel-shaded aesthetic by replacing standard physically based rendering with a custom lighting model. It utilizes ramp-based light attenuation to map smooth gradients into discrete color steps. The project covers the development of HLSL shaders within the Universal Render Pipeline, focusing on fragment-stage lighting calcu

GPUImage is a GPU-accelerated image processing framework for iOS designed to apply real-time filters and effects to images and video. It functions as a processing engine and fragment shader library that manages textures and shaders for efficient visual data manipulation. The framework utilizes a chainable filter architecture and a texture-based data pipeline to pass image data between processing stages without expensive memory transfers. It enables the creation of bespoke visual effects through the authoring of custom fragment shaders and provides mechanisms to synchronize texture data with e

webgl-fundamentals is a comprehensive educational resource and graphics tutorial for learning hardware-accelerated 2D and 3D rendering using the WebGL API. It serves as a structured 3D graphics curriculum and GPU programming reference, guiding users through the graphics pipeline from basic geometry to advanced rendering techniques. The project provides detailed guides on GLSL shader development, including the creation of vertex and fragment shaders. It specifically focuses on the implementation of real-time lighting models—such as directional, point, and spot lighting—and the application of s