Vulkan graphics programming example in Zig with minimal dependencies and as much programmed from scratch as I could tolerate.
- Linux with either X11 or Wayland desktops
- Zig compiler
- libxcb when targetting X11
- libwayland when targetting Wayland
For targetting X11:
zig build -Doptimize=ReleaseFast -Dpresent-backend=xcb
For targetting Wayland:
zig build -Doptimize=ReleaseFast -Dpresent-backend=wayland
The program executable will be found at "zig-out/bin/learn_graphics_zig"
| Name | Keybind |
|---|---|
| Close window | Escape |
| Grab/release mouse | Tab |
| Move forward | W |
| Move backward | S |
| Move left | A |
| Move right | D |
| Move up | Space |
| Move down | Left shift |
| Look up | Up arrow |
| Look down | Down arrow |
| Look left | Left arrow |
| Look right | Right arrow |
| Accelerate | Left Control |
| Decelerate | Left Alt |
| Reset camera | R |
This program was made to use only minimal system dependencies. The following are the only system library dependencies:
- Vulkan graphics API (libvulkan)
- XCB for X11 desktops (libxcb)
- Wayland Client for Wayland desktops (libwayland-client)
- System dynamic linker
The following is a list of most features which were implemented from scratch and can referenced for those wanting to learn Zig or graphics programming:
- Novice-level Vulkan graphics API usage
- Windowing/input abstraction
- Asynchronous graphics rendering without multithreading
- Asynchronous and batched resource loading
- Vulkan memory heap implementation to manually manage device memory
- Perfect linear and non-linear delta-time calculation for camera movement
- Custom Zig build runner steps to compile resources as part of the build process
- GLSL to SPIR-V shader compilation using
glslc - Compile-time Targa (.tga) image parsing
- Compile-time PLY mesh parsing
- Embedding of resources statically to avoid dynamic memory allocations and File I/O
- Debug safety checks and logging which get stripped from the binary in Release builds for maximum performance
- Linear mathematics optimized with Zig Vector types
This project originally started as me trying to learn Vulkan graphics programming. I wanted to try Rust, but unsatisfied with some of the abstractions provided by Rust, plus my new-found love for Zig, I decided to use Zig instead with minimal dependencies. I'm quite new to graphics programming, which is why the graphics are very basic with crude lighting. The main point of this project was to learn all the back-end programming and API usage while also understanding and solving problems such as asynchronous resource loading and rendering. This project has been sitting on my computer for a couple months, mostly abandoned. Recently I thought it would be valuable to post this project publically due to my disatisfaction with Zig's lack of online documentation and discussion, so hopefully new Zig programmers could pick up what I've learned more quickly. This project can also be a general sample for how I approached many problems in graphics programming and used as an example for new programmers of all languages.