Open Source Vulkan/DX12/GL/GLES/Metal Rendering Framework from Intel Employees
GitHub - DiligentGraphics/DiligentEngine: A modern cross-platform low-level graphics library and rendering framework
Diligent Engine 
A Modern Cross-Platform Low-Level 3D Graphics Library and Rendering Framework

Diligent Engine is a lightweight cross-platform graphics
API abstraction library and rendering framework. It is designed to take full advantage of Direct3D12, Vulkan,
Metal and WebGPU, while supporting older platforms via Direct3D11, OpenGL, OpenGLES and WebGL. Diligent Engine
exposes common front-end  API and uses HLSL as universal shading language on all platforms and rendering back-ends.
Platform-specific shader representations (GLSL, MSL, DX bytecode or SPIRV) can be used with corresponding back-ends.
The engine is intended to be used as graphics subsystem in a game engine or any other 3D application.
It is distributed under Apache 2.0 license and is free to use.



Supported Platforms and Low-Level Graphics APIs



Platform
D3D11
D3D12
OpenGL/GLES
Vulkan
Metal
WebGPU
Build Status




 Windows
✔️
✔️
✔️
✔️
-
✔️ 3



 Universal Windows
✔️
✔️
-
-
-
-



 Linux
-
-
✔️
✔️
-
✔️ 3



 Android
-
-
✔️
✔️
-
-



 MacOS
-
-
✔️
✔️ 1
✔️ 2
✔️ 3



 iOS
-
-
✔️
✔️ 1
✔️ 2
-



 tvOS
-
-
-
✔️ 1
✔️ 2
-



 Emscripten
-
-
✔️
-
-
✔️




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 10.0.17763.0
Vulkan 1.0
Metal 1.0

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
Emscripten
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 10.0.17763.0 or later (10.0.19041.0 is required for mesh shaders)
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"

⚠️ 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).
⚠️ 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:

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

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


cmake

sudo apt-get install cmake


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:

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 14 or later
Vulkan SDK 1.3.290.0 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/1.3.290.0 and you want to use MoltenVK):
export VULKAN_SDK=/Users/MyName/VulkanSDK/1.3.290.0/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.
⚠️ 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: 1.3.290.0.
⚠️ There are known issues with later versions of the SDK, so it is recommended to use the latest tested version.

iOS
Prerequisites:

Xcode 14 or later
Vulkan SDK 1.3.290.0 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"
⚠️ 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/1.3.290.0):
cmake -DCMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME=iOS -DVULKAN_SDK=/Users/MyName/VulkanSDK/1.3.290.0 -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: 1.3.290.0.
⚠️ There are known issues with later versions of the SDK, so it is recommended to use the latest tested version.

Emscripten
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
⚠️ 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 emscripten 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:

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:

Click the Advanced button and then select Proceed to localhost (unsafe).
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:



Option
Default value
Description




DILIGENT_NO_DIRECT3D11
No
Do not build Direct3D11 backend


DILIGENT_NO_DIRECT3D12
No
Do not build Direct3D12 backend


DILIGENT_NO_OPENGL
No
Do not build OpenGL backend


DILIGENT_NO_VULKAN
No
Do not build Vulkan backend


DILIGENT_NO_METAL
No
Do not build Metal backend


DILIGENT_NO_WEBGPU
No
Do not build WebGPU backend


DILIGENT_NO_ARCHIVER
No
Do not build Archiver


DILIGENT_NO_RENDER_STATE_PACKAGER
No
Do not build Render State Packager tool


DILIGENT_ENABLE_DRACO
No
Enable Draco compression support in GLTF loader


DILIGENT_USE_RAPIDJSON
No
Use rapidjson parser in GLTF loader


DILIGENT_BUILD_TOOLS
Yes
Build Tools module


DILIGENT_BUILD_FX
Yes
Build FX module


DILIGENT_BUILD_SAMPLES
Yes
Build Samples module


DILIGENT_BUILD_SAMPLE_BASE_ONLY
No
Build only SampleBase project and no other samples/tutorials


DILIGENT_BUILD_TESTS
No
Build Unit Tests


DILIGENT_NO_GLSLANG
No
Do not build GLSLang and SPRIV-Tools


DILIGENT_NO_HLSL
No
Disable HLSL support in non-Direct3D backends


DILIGENT_NO_FORMAT_VALIDATION
Yes
Disable source code formatting validation


DILIGENT_LOAD_PIX_EVENT_RUNTIME
No
Enable PIX event support


DILIGENT_NVAPI_PATH

Path to NVAPI SDK


DILIGENT_INSTALL_CORE
Yes
Install core module


DILIGENT_INSTALL_TOOLS
Yes
Install tools module


DILIGENT_INSTALL_FX
Yes
Install FX module


DILIGENT_INSTALL_SAMPLES
Yes
Install Samples module


DILIGENT_INSTALL_PDB
No
Install program debug database


DILIGENT_DEAR_IMGUI_PATH

Optional path to a user-provided dear imgui project


DILIGENT_ARGS_DIR

Optional path to a user-provided args project


DILIGENT_NUKLEAR_DIR

Optional path to a user-provided nuklear project


DILIGENT_MSVC_COMPILE_OPTIONS

Additional MSVC compile options for all configurations


DILIGENT_MSVC_DEBUG_COMPILE_OPTIONS

Additional MSVC compile options for debug configuration


DILIGENT_MSVC_RELEASE_COMPILE_OPTIONS
/GL /arch:AVX2
Additional MSVC compile options for release configurations


DILIGENT_CLANG_COMPILE_OPTIONS

Additional Clang compile options for all configurations


DILIGENT_CLANG_DEBUG_COMPILE_OPTIONS

Additional Clang compile options for debug configuration


DILIGENT_CLANG_RELEASE_COMPILE_OPTIONS
-mavx2
Additional Clang compile options for release configurations


DILIGENT_USD_PATH

Path to USD installation folder



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 ▶️ Run

This tutorial shows how to render simple triangle using Diligent Engine API.


02 - Cube ▶️ 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 ▶️ 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 ▶️ 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 ▶️ Run

This tutorial demonstrates how to combine instancing with texture arrays to use unique texture for every instance.


06 - Multithreading ▶️ 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 ▶️ Run

This tutorial shows how to render multiple 2D quads, frequently switching textures and blend modes.


10 - Data Streaming ▶️ 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 ▶️ 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 ▶️ 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 ▶️ Run

This tutorial demonstrates how to render basic shadows using a shadow map.


14 - Compute Shader ▶️ 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 ▶️ 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  ▶️ Run

This tutorial demonstrates how to use multisample anti-aliasing (MSAA) to make geometrical edges look smoother and more temporarily stable.


18 - Queries ▶️ 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 ▶️ 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 ▶️ 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 ▶️ Run

This tutorial demonstrates how to use post-processing effects from the DiligentFX module.




Samples



Sample
Screenshot
Description




Atmosphere Sample ▶️ 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 ▶️ 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 ▶️ Run

This sample demonstrates how to use the Shadowing component to render high-quality shadows.


Dear ImGui Demo ▶️ 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


Godus: An award-winning sandbox game by 22cans



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




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
Coding Guidelines
Performance Best Practices
Code Formatting

Release History
See Release History

diligentgraphics.com


