# zeux/niagara

A Vulkan renderer written from scratch on stream

Repository: https://github.com/zeux/niagara
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/niagara
Language: C++
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: vulkan
Last push: 2026-07-31T21:08:08+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 75/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 95, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2966, "days_push": 33, "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 1760, forks 93 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:32.611865+00:00)

## What it is
A Vulkan renderer written from scratch in C++ during live-streamed development sessions, experimenting with modern Vulkan rendering techniques. It implements GPU culling, cone culling, automatic occlusion culling, and task/mesh shading without Vulkan-specific third-party code.

## Use cases
- learn modern Vulkan rendering techniques from a from-scratch renderer
- study GPU-driven culling and scene submission implementations
- see task and mesh shading pipelines in practice
- explore automatic occlusion culling with depth pyramids
- benchmark mesh shading pipeline performance
- follow along with a streamed renderer development series

## When to choose
- you want a real-world reference implementation of GPU culling and mesh shading in Vulkan
- you are learning Vulkan graphics programming and want streamed, incremental lessons
- you need example code for occlusion culling or draw call compaction

## When to avoid
- you need a production-ready, general-purpose rendering engine
- you require cross-platform support beyond Windows and Linux desktops
- you need a renderer with a high-level API or extensive documentation

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: active
- function: graphics, simulation, developer-tools
- domain: graphics, developer-tools, tutorials
- platform: windows, cpp
- tags: vulkan, renderer, mesh-shading, gpu-culling, occlusion-culling, streamed-development, learning-resource, game-development, linux, gpu

## Member repositories
- zeux/niagara (main) score 75

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:32.611865+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 2026-08-30T03:27:15.459266+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/zeux/niagara (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:32.611865+00:00, sha f10c9cbc6afe)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.