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Architecture Overview

Design Philosophy

Renderlib is a framework, not an engine. It provides the foundation for building graphics applications while giving you full control over the rendering pipeline, resource management, and scene structure.

Architecture Layers

Application Layer
    ↓
Framework Layer (Application, RenderContext)
    ↓
Infrastructure Layer (GraphicsDevice, AppState)
    ↓
Core Systems Layer (Camera, Geometry, Mesh)
    ↓
External Dependencies (wgpu, winit, cgmath)

Core Components

Framework

  • Application - Manages the event loop, window, and renderer lifecycle
  • RenderContext - Provides access to GPU resources and application state during rendering

Infrastructure

  • GraphicsDevice - Immutable GPU resources (device, queue, surface, window)
  • AppState - Mutable application state (mesh cache, camera, input, time)

Core Systems

  • Camera - View and projection matrices, transforms
  • Geometry - Vertex types and primitive generators
  • Mesh - Mesh loading and caching
  • Deferred - G-buffer for deferred rendering
  • Input - Input state tracking
  • Player - First-person camera control

Utilities

  • Device Helpers - Buffer, shader, and pipeline creation utilities

Data Flow

Initialization

Event Loop Resumed
    ↓
Window Created
    ↓
GraphicsDevice Initialized (device, queue, surface)
    ↓
AppState Created (mesh cache, camera, input)
    ↓
Renderer Initialized
    ↓
Request Redraw

Render Frame

Redraw Requested
    ↓
Acquire Surface Texture
    ↓
Create RenderContext
    ↓
Renderer::render(RenderContext)
    ↓
Submit Commands
    ↓
Present
    ↓
Request Next Redraw (for animation)

Resize

Window Resized
    ↓
GraphicsDevice::resize()
    ↓
Renderer::resize(RenderContext, new_size)
    ↓
Request Redraw

Rendering Techniques

Forward Rendering

Single-pass rendering: mesh data → vertex shader → fragment shader → framebuffer.

Good for: simple scenes, few light sources.

Deferred Rendering

Two-pass rendering:

  1. Geometry pass: render mesh to G-buffer (position, normal, albedo)
  2. Lighting pass: apply lighting to full-screen quad

Good for: complex scenes, many light sources.

Key Features

  • Hot Reloading - Press 'R' to reload shaders without restarting
  • Thread Safety - GPU resources can be shared across threads
  • Type Safety - Clear separation between mutable and immutable state
  • Minimal Abstraction - Thin wrappers over wgpu with full access to underlying API