# knightcrawler25/GLSL-PathTracer

A toy physically based GPU path tracer (C++/OpenGL/GLSL)

Repository: https://github.com/knightcrawler25/GLSL-PathTracer
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/glsl-pathtracer
Language: C++
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: glsl, pathtracer, raytracer, opengl, path-tracing, ray-tracing, bvh, gpu, tracer, path-tracer, windows, linux, disney, bsdf, path, pathtracing, ray, tracing
Last push: 2024-02-09T17:38:14+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 23/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2854, "days_push": 936, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2056, forks 198 (observed 2026-08-28T04:06:09.845411+00:00)

## What it is
A toy physically based GPU path tracer written in C++ that runs its rendering loop in GLSL fragment shaders via OpenGL. It supports features like Disney BSDF, two-level BVH instancing, image-based lighting, multiple importance sampling, and OpenImageDenoise.

## Use cases
- render physically based images on the gpu
- learn how a path tracer works
- experiment with disney bsdf materials
- render gltf scenes with global illumination
- study bvh construction and instancing
- prototype shader-based ray tracing techniques

## When to choose
- you want a small, readable codebase to learn GPU path tracing
- you need a lightweight renderer for gltf/magicaVoxel-style scenes
- you want to experiment with shader-based rendering techniques

## When to avoid
- you need a production-grade renderer with a full feature set
- you require CPU rendering or multi-threaded offline rendering
- you need extensive format support or a polished artist workflow

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: maintenance
- function: graphics, simulation, image-processing
- domain: graphics, computer-vision, developer-tools
- platform: windows, cpp
- tags: path-tracing, glsl, opengl, ray-tracing, bvh, disney-bsdf, gltf, rendering, physically-based-rendering, linux, gpu

## Member repositories
- knightcrawler25/GLSL-PathTracer (main) score 23

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:09.845411+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T02:57:14.725928+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/knightcrawler25/GLSL-PathTracer (fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:09.845411+00:00, sha 1379657cc268)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.