# dotnet/Silk.NET

The high-speed OpenGL, OpenCL, OpenAL, OpenXR, GLFW, SDL, Vulkan, Assimp, WebGPU, and DirectX bindings library your mother warned you about.

Repository: https://github.com/dotnet/Silk.NET
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/silknet
Homepage: https://dotnet.github.io/Silk.NET
Language: C#
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: opengl, csharp, vulkan, openal, opencl, native, graphics, 3d, graphics-library, game-development, scientific-visualization, glfw, silk, haptics, audio, webgpu, wgpu
Last push: 2026-08-25T15:15:37+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 77/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2641, "days_push": 8, "days_rel": 223, "gap_med": 444, "n_releases_24m": 2}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 5173, forks 474 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:11.693568+00:00)

## What it is
Silk.NET is a .NET library providing high-performance bindings to low-level graphics, compute, audio, and multimedia APIs such as OpenGL, Vulkan, OpenCL, OpenAL, OpenXR, GLFW, SDL, WebGPU, and DirectX. It also includes high-level utilities for windowing and input, enabling cross-platform 3D graphics and multimedia applications in C#.

## Use cases
- render 3D graphics with OpenGL or Vulkan from C#
- build a cross-platform game in .NET
- access GPU compute via OpenCL in C#
- play audio with OpenAL in a .NET app
- create VR or AR applications with OpenXR
- handle windowing and input across platforms in .NET
- load 3D models with Assimp bindings
- use WebGPU from C#

## When to choose
- you need low-level, high-performance graphics or compute API access from .NET
- you want a single library covering graphics, audio, input, and windowing
- you need cross-platform desktop and mobile support in C#
- you want bindings kept up to date with upstream specifications

## When to avoid
- you want a full high-level game engine rather than raw API bindings
- you are not developing on a .NET platform
- you need a stable long-term-supported 2.X release and cannot tolerate ad-hoc maintenance during the 3.0 transition

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: graphics, audio-processing, game-engine, sdk
- domain: graphics, cross-platform, developer-tools
- platform: cross-platform, windows, dotnet
- tags: opengl, vulkan, openal, opencl, openxr, glfw, sdl, webgpu, directx, bindings, csharp, multimedia, haptics, windowing, input, game-development, linux, macos, android, ios

## Member repositories
- dotnet/Silk.NET (main) score 77

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:11.693568+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 2026-08-29T18:01:50.761358+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/dotnet/Silk.NET (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:11.693568+00:00, sha 2ed435d19ed4)
  - homepage: https://dotnet.github.io/Silk.NET (fetched 2026-08-29T08:55:47.246923+00:00, sha 8e78a8592ffa)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.