# zenustech/zeno

ZEn NOde system - a simulation & rendering engine in nodes

Repository: https://github.com/zenustech/zeno
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/zeno
Homepage: http://zenustech.com
Language: C++
License: MPL-2.0
License Family: copyleft
Topics: node-editor, cpp, vfx, graphics, simulation, dataflow-programming, visualization, 3d, rendering
Last push: 2026-08-21T09:20:47+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 67/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 98, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 1985, "days_push": 12, "days_rel": 699, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 1}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1398, forks 168 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:36.856790+00:00)

## What it is
ZENO is an open-source, node-based 3D simulation and rendering system written in C++. It lets users build complex physics simulations and visualizations by connecting nodes in a dataflow graph, designed for large-scale VFX work.

## Use cases
- simulate cinematic physics effects for VFX shots
- build procedural 3D scenes with a node graph
- visualize large-scale simulation results
- create particle and fluid simulations
- prototype algorithms as reusable node tools
- render 3D scenes from simulation data

## When to choose
- you need a free, open-source node-based alternative to Houdini for simulation work
- your simulations are large-scale and need high performance
- you want to wrap custom C++ algorithms as visual node tools

## When to avoid
- you need a polished turnkey DCC app with extensive vendor support
- you only need simple video editing or 2D compositing
- you require a large ecosystem of third-party plugins and tutorials

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: active
- function: simulation, graphics, gui, data-visualization
- domain: simulation, graphics, computer-vision
- platform: windows, cpp
- tags: node-editor, vfx, dataflow-programming, 3d, rendering, procedural, game-development, linux, desktop

## Member repositories
- zenustech/zeno (main) score 67

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:36.856790+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 2026-08-30T04:39:15.388782+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/zenustech/zeno (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:36.856790+00:00, sha 1f5f8cd689ac)
  - homepage: http://zenustech.com (fetched 2026-08-29T11:53:42.147748+00:00, sha e3e0dfee6337)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.