Here be dragons

Hic sunt dracones.

This repository contains multiple implementations of the same 3D scene, using different APIs and frameworks on various platforms. The goal is to provide a comparison between multiple rendering methods. This is inherently biased due to the variety of algorithms used and available CPU/GPU configurations, but can hopefully still provide interesting insights on 3D rendering. You can check a video of most versions runnning here (Youtube)

The following versions are currently available:

• OpenGL
• WebGL
• Vulkan
• WebGPU
• Metal
• SceneKit
• Godot
• Unity
• Unreal
• Blender Cycles
• Ptah (a custom real-time renderer, see the Github page)
• Nintendo DS
• Nintendo Game Boy Advance
• PlayStation 2
• PICO-8
• Vectrex
• Glide
• DX9
• DX11
• DX12

The following versions are (tentatively) planned:

• OpenGL ES
• other console hardwares
• other engines
• another raytracing approach

In the directory of each version, you can find the source code, the corresponding resources (as each method has its own format/quality constraints), along with a readme describing the method and a few examples.

Resources

The scene is composed of four main elements:

• a plane representing the ground, with a pavement texture.
• a dragon (the Stanford dragon).
• a monkey head ('Suzanne') rotating around its vertical axis.
• a skybox surrounding the scene, textured with a cloudy sky.

Additionally, the sun is simulated by using a directional light, and the camera should be able to rotate around the scene. Note that some versions might provide additional effects, such as soft shadow maps, parallax mapping or screen space ambient occlusion. The initial 3D models and textures are contained in the opengl/resources directory.

Other implementations

Here you can find implementations using some of the above APIs combined with other programming languages, submitted by awesome people!

• An OpenGL + Python version, by cprogrammer1994: herebedragons-python. (see #11)
• A Vulkan version, by vazgriz: vk_dragons.