# nmwsharp/polyscope

A C++ & Python viewer for 3D data like meshes and point clouds

Repository: https://github.com/nmwsharp/polyscope
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/polyscope
Homepage: https://polyscope.run
Language: C++
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2026-05-20T05:55:33+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 74/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 83, release rhythm 48, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3207, "days_push": 105, "days_rel": 188, "gap_med": 138, "n_releases_24m": 4}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2199, forks 240 (observed 2026-08-28T04:06:25.536225+00:00)

## What it is
Polyscope is a lightweight C++/Python library and interactive viewer for 3D data such as surface meshes and point clouds. It lets you register structures and per-element quantities to get an interactive 3D scene with color-mapping, picking, screenshots, and headless rendering with minimal code.

## Use cases
- visualize a 3d mesh from c++ code
- debug point cloud data interactively
- render scalar or vector fields on a surface mesh
- take headless screenshots of 3d geometry on a server
- quickly inspect geometry processing algorithm output
- make figures of meshes for papers

## When to choose
- you want one-line visual inspection of meshes or point clouds from C++ or Python
- you need a lightweight viewer that integrates into an existing codebase
- you need headless rendering on Linux clusters

## When to avoid
- you need a full 3D modeling or animation tool like Blender
- you need browser or Jupyter-embedded 3D viewing
- you need rendering backends beyond OpenGL

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: data-visualization, gui, graphics, image-processing
- domain: graphics, data-visualization, developer-tools, simulation
- platform: cpp, python, cross-platform, windows
- tags: 3d-visualization, mesh-viewer, point-cloud, geometry-processing, opengl, headless-rendering, debugging-visualizer, imgui, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- nmwsharp/polyscope (main) score 74

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:25.536225+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 2026-08-30T02:47:07.833628+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/nmwsharp/polyscope (fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:25.536225+00:00, sha e2cd74f1d7f3)
  - homepage: https://polyscope.run (fetched 2026-08-29T10:27:23.538916+00:00, sha 4dc844c08108)
  - site_page: https://polyscope.run/about/release_notes (fetched 2026-08-29T10:27:23.548149+00:00, sha d2e695af8008)
  - site_page: https://polyscope.run/about/license (fetched 2026-08-29T10:27:23.549994+00:00, sha fd418eefcac2)
  - site_page: https://polyscope.run/about/dependencies (fetched 2026-08-29T10:27:23.551598+00:00, sha 1913957a8819)
  - site_page: https://polyscope.run/about/contributing (fetched 2026-08-29T10:27:23.553218+00:00, sha b53c3b475c6b)
  - site_page: https://polyscope.run/features/screenshots (fetched 2026-08-29T10:27:23.556573+00:00, sha 7efdadc3c961)
  - site_page: https://polyscope.run/features/headless_rendering (fetched 2026-08-29T10:27:23.558136+00:00, sha e159317e2381)
  - site_page: https://polyscope.run/features/messages (fetched 2026-08-29T10:27:23.559883+00:00, sha 09660bac6d25)
  - site_page: https://polyscope.run/FAQ (fetched 2026-08-29T10:27:23.555025+00:00, sha 3f170af3c321)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.