3D Renderer from Scratch in C with SDL2

This project is a custom-built 3D renderer written in C, using SDL2 for the GUI interface and developed from scratch. It utilizes a left-handed coordinate system and is designed with a focus on understanding 3D graphics fundamentals. This project follows along with the Pikuma course, while implementing my own coding style and ideas, as the course encourages.

Features

• SDL2 Initialization: Sets up SDL2 for handling graphics output and allocates necessary memory.
• Projection and Drawing:
  • Projects 3D points onto a 2D plane for rendering.
  • Draws lines, rectangles, and triangles to construct 3D objects on the screen.
• OBJ File Loading: Imports .obj 3D model files to render complex geometries.
• Back-Face Culling: Uses a basic back-face culling algorithm to optimize rendering by skipping faces that are not visible to the camera.
• Triangle Rasterization (done, but currently in tweaking): rasterization to accurately fill in triangles for solid object rendering.

Keyboards inputs (WIP)

• Pressing “1” displays the wireframe and a small red dot for each triangle vertex
• Pressing “2” displays only the wireframe lines
• Pressing “3” displays filled triangles with a solid color
• Pressing “4” displays both filled triangles and wireframe lines
• Pressing “c” we should enable back-face culling
• Pressing “d” we should disable the back-face culling This might be changed later on for better features.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Install SDL2 on your system.

Building the Project

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/your-username/3d-renderer.git

2. Navigate to the project directory and build

   cd 3dRenderer
   make

3. To run the executable:

   make run

4. To clean the build files

   make clean

Loading OBJ Files

To import other .obj files, call the loadObj function in the src/main.c file. Please ensure the model uses triangles as faces for compatibility.

Running the renderer

After building, run the executable: bash ./renderer

Acknowledgments

• Pikuma's course: This project was inspired by and developed following the Pikuma course on 3D graphics, adapted to my own coding style and approaches as encouraged by the course materials.
• SLD: A lightweight, cross-platform library for handling media and graphics, which powers the GUI in this project.

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