# lighttransport/nanort

NanoRT, single header only modern ray tracing kernel.

Repository: https://github.com/lighttransport/nanort
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/nanort
Language: C++
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: raytracing, pathtracing, bdpt, bvh, ray
Last push: 2025-10-01T14:02:42+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 52/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 44, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3996, "days_push": 336, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1118, forks 93 (observed 2026-08-28T04:03:39.091570+00:00)

## What it is
NanoRT is a single-header, portable C++ ray tracing kernel providing BVH construction and robust ray/geometry intersection. It serves as an embeddable CPU ray tracing engine suitable for renderers, collision detection, and GPU BVH traversal.

## Use cases
- add ray tracing to a C++ application with a single header
- build a path tracer or light transport algorithm testbed
- do ray casting for collision detection
- build a BVH for GPU ray traversal
- render 3D scenes on systems without a GPU
- scientific visualization with double precision ray tracing

## When to choose
- you need a lightweight, dependency-free ray tracing kernel in C++
- you want portable rendering across desktop, mobile, and embedded platforms like Raspberry Pi
- you need a reference CPU renderer for developing rendering or shader algorithms
- you need a pointer-free BVH structure suitable for GPU traversal

## When to avoid
- you need a full production renderer with materials, lighting, and scene management
- you want GPU-native ray tracing like OptiX, DXR, or Vulkan RT
- you need a high-level scene graph or asset pipeline
- your project is not C/C++

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: graphics, simulation, math
- domain: graphics, simulation
- platform: cross-platform, cpp
- tags: ray-tracing, bvh, path-tracing, single-header, rendering, collision-detection, game-development, gpu

## Member repositories
- lighttransport/nanort (main) score 52

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:39.091570+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 2026-08-30T06:41:48.972446+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/lighttransport/nanort (fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:39.091570+00:00, sha 3028c7932831)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.